Grumbles over presiding officer appointment mask deeper problems

To say that Labour MSPs were unhappy with the result of the presiding officer’s election would be a serious understatement. Most were unwilling to go public because they knew it would seem churlish, but a good number were spitting fire over Tricia Marwick’s victory.

This Labour antagonism was not directed at Ms Marwick herself. She is a well-liked and well-respected MSP – across all sides of the chamber. The anger was directed first at the SNP and secondly (although they wouldn’t like to acknowledge it) at their own impotence. Labour’s anti-SNP grumbles were based around the convention that the presiding officer’s job is shared around between the parties. Labour is the only major party not to have provided a presiding officer – the previous incumbents having been David Steel (who came from the Liberal Democrat benches), George Reid (SNP) and Alex Fergusson (Conservative) – and, on that basis, this was Labour’s turn. There was also the distinct feeling in Labour ranks that it is somehow undemocratic for one party to control the votes so completely as the SNP will now do, and also control the chamber. At the heart of this controversy over the election of the presiding officer is the unstated implication, therefore, that Ms Marwick will favour the SNP in any tricky decisions she has to make. That is certainly debatable. Anybody who has played football with a referee picked from their own side will know that it often works the other way: arbiters are frequently harsher on their own side just to prove they are not prejudiced, and this may be what Ms Marwick ends up doing. What this really does seem to be about, then, is not the fear that Ms Marwick will be biased, but the realisation that, as opposition MSPs, there is nothing Labour – or the Tories, or the Lib Dems – can do about it. If the combined forces of Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green MSPs could do nothing about the election of the presiding officer in what was supposed to be an unwhipped secret ballot, how more powerless will they be when it comes to real pieces of legislation and formal votes? Labour MSPs could huff and puff and mutter about the unfairness of the presiding officer vote, but they couldn’t do anything to change it. They are going to have to get used to that, though, because if they get worked up every time the SNP railroad something through parliament, they’ll have blown their blood pressures before the summer recess. Ms Marwick is a feisty, strong-minded and experienced MSP – this will be her fourth term at Holyrood, having won the Mid Fife and Glenrothes seat with a 4,188 majority and 52.3 per cent of the vote on 5 May. She will certainly bring a different feel to the job than the three men who preceded her. She is not much of a monarchist (she made it clear earlier this year she would not be watching the royal wedding), so will probably adopt a less deferential role when showing the royals round the parliament. Would Labour’s Hugh Henry have done a better job? Possibly, but it’s impossible to say. What about Tavish Scott or Annabel Goldie? Possibly – but, again, that is now hypothetical. What is not hypothetical is that an SNP MSP is now in the chair at Holyrood while her party enjoys a clear majority in the chamber, the first time this has happened. Ms Marwick’s appointment was not really about bias, or prejudice, or democracy. It was a reflection of the SNP’s unchallengeable power at Holyrood – but also of the powerlessness of the opposition. This is a theme which everybody in politics, including the opposition MSPs at Holyrood, will have to get used to – and soon.

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