It shouldn’t surprise anyone that John Swinney is prepared to work with Sinn Fein as part of his push for Scottish independence.
But it is hard to imagine a more persuasive case for the argument that nationalism can cause something akin to moral blindness.
True, no one should be naive about politicians of any stripe when it comes to advancing their agenda, whatever it may be.
And politics isn’t for the faint of heart – take a look at the blood-letting and back-stabbing unfolding in Whitehall.
But Mr Swinney cosying up to a party historically regarded as the political wing of the IRA to bolster his referendum crusade is surely a step too far.
That’s how relatives of those slain by Republican terrorists see it, and as we revealed yesterday some of them will stage a protest at Holyrood later this week.
They’re rightly furious that Mr Swinney suggested people should ‘move on’ from the Troubles, putting the slaughter behind them.
Easier for some than for others, you might think, but the First Minister is unrepentant.
It no surprise John Swinney, pictured with First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill, is prepared to work with Sinn Fein, writes Graham Grant
Responding to calls for him to say sorry to victims, he insisted he has ‘no intention’ of apologising.
Asked if his language was simply sloppy, Mr Swinney said: ‘I think the issues that are involved in the peace process have involved people moving on, people have had to move on, that’s exactly what they’ve done, and I’m simply reflecting what’s happened.’
So, far from tempering his position, Mr Swinney has doubled down.
But it’s worth asking what this episode tells us about the SNP – and what the party is prepared to do to further its separatist goal.
Mr Swinney is driven by ideological zealotry, though he acts the part of a usually mild-mannered moderate with a strong sense of personal integrity. If you buy any of this charade, and there can be relatively few who truly do, then how do you explain Mr Swinney aligning the SNP with a party notorious during the Troubles for its links with IRA killers?
Once upon a time, the SNP would not touch Sinn Fein with a barge pole.
In 1980, an invitation was extended by the Irish nationalists to the SNP’s Left-wing 79 Group faction to address its Ard Fheis, or annual conference. It was considered, but rejected.
Leaked minutes showing it had been countenanced at all caused such a scandal that it contributed to the group’s ringleaders, including a young Alex Salmond who argued against attending, being briefly kicked out of the party he would later transform.
By contrast, at the recent Sinn Fein Ard Fheis in Belfast, before the Scottish election, a video message from Mr Swinney was shown to delegates. He claimed the parties were on the cusp of an ‘absolutely seismic moment’ in British politics.
Changed days for the SNP, then, though you might wonder if the same applies to Sinn Fein.
In 2004, six years after the Good Friday Agreement, the Labour UK Government said its view was that both the IRA and Sinn Fein were ‘inextricably linked’.
A 2015 report commissioned by the UK Government on the status of Irish paramilitary groups, written by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and MI5, said the Provisional Army Council – the IRA leadership – still strategically oversaw both the IRA and Sinn Fein.
This was a view reiterated back in 2020 by the PSNI, though Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald, asked if the IRA still exists, even as a political organisation, said: ‘No, it does not, so far as I am aware.’
The IRA is held by many to be, to a considerable extent, responsible for the 30-year-long Troubles in Northern Ireland, which saw 3,700 killed, including 1,000 members of the security forces – both soldiers and police.
Sinn Fein currently helps to form the government – albeit shared with the Unionist community – of Northern Ireland, which remains, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, an integral part of the UK.
But a united Ireland is still Sinn Fein’s main objective, although it says it opposes paramilitary activity and supports the Northern Irish forces of law and order.
It’s against this complicated backdrop that Mr Swinney is determined to launch a ‘pan-Celtic’ political agglomeration, including Plaid Cymru, which ended a century of Labour rule in Wales on May 7.
He insisted before the Scottish election that he would help ‘to change the dynamics of the UK so that we can – I can – secure my objective of winning Scottish independence’.
And he added that, although Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland would mount their own campaigns, he thought ‘the UK would be changed irreversibly if that outcome was to be the case’.
Quite how Mr Swinney sees those campaigns playing out is anyone’s guess, given that there’s no viable legal mechanism that will allow the SNP to order a second referendum without UK Government consent.
In Wales, Plaid Cymru says it’s prioritising delivery over the constitution – we’ll see how that goes – while only 36 per cent of people in Northern Ireland supported reunification with the Republic, according to polling in 2024.
Nonetheless, the ‘pan-Celtic’ axis is part of Mr Swinney’s strategy, such as it is, for tearing Scotland out of the UK. It’s a plan not without its risks – one former senior police officer in Scotland told me: ‘Scottish involvement in Ireland/Northern Ireland has never gone well and my advice would be leave well alone.
‘The roots of Sinn Fein’s disputes with the UK Government are manifestly different to those of the SNP.’
In 2005 the Labour UK Government said its view was that both the IRA and Sinn Fein were ‘inextricably linked’
Yet Mr Swinney’s appetite for building bridges with Sinn Fein shows there’s plainly no level to which he won’t stoop in a bid to realise his party’s dream of dismantling the UK – however morally repugnant it may be to many in Scotland and across the Irish Sea.
He will soil his hands doing business with Sinn Fein but seemingly draws the line at an olive branch for Reform UK, which he shut out of cross-party talks last week.
Mr Swinney can’t stomach the division he believes Reform is intent on fuelling but he and the SNP are in a glass house of enormous proportions.
Grievance is central to the Nationalists’ mission.
Mr Swinney may want us to believe working with Reform is a red line he won’t cross, even if that’s an insult to the nearly 400,000 Scots who voted for the party on May 7.
But let’s face it, he would ditch his supposedly principled stance on refusing to break bread with Reform (or anyone else) in a microsecond if he thought it would help the independence drive.
Mr Swinney, or whoever succeeds him as a First Minister, will do whatever’s required for the cause because it is the only thing that interests them.
Voters will see his stance for what it is – a sickeningly cynical bid to advance the failed separatist cause, regardless of the consequences.