Yousaf the social progressive goes for the Nationalist G-spot

At least we now know what some of his cabinet colleagues think of the health secretary

<Leadership rivals Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf eyeball each other in last night’s STV debate>

It’s official: Kate Forbes would make the trains run on time. At least that is what she implied in her stinging attack on her colleague Humza Yousaf’s record in office.

“You were a transport minister and the trains were never on time” she declared, “When you were justice secretary the police were stretched to breaking point, and now as health minister, we've got record high waiting times”.  It was the sound bite of the night but not in a good way.

She might have asked for ferry contracts, the Hate Crime Act and the National Care Service to be taken into account on the Humza charge sheet. But that was enough.  At  least we now know that it is not just the Yoon media who are unconvinced by Humza  “Useless”.  The finance secretary herself thinks he’s a three times loser.

However I’m not sure the SNP are ready for this level of candour about the record of one of the most experienced figures in the Scottish Government. Forbes wasn’t just trashing Humza Yousaf, she was attacking the competence of Saint Nicola herself in placing him in these leading roles.

 Yousaf actually took his pasting rather well.  He didn’t get rattled or defensive and rather elegantly turned the accusations round on Forbes.  He has delivered the Queensferry Crossing on budget and had promoted much “socially progressive” legislation on domestic abuse.  He then turned the fire on her for being, well not exactly a wee free bigot, but a right wing conservative "lurching to the right" and "rolling back on progressive values".

We heard a lot about progressive values from Yousaf. It was like Boris Johnson’s “get Brexit done” in the 2019 general election. Keep saying it until it sticks. He drove the message home with an corrosive sound bite against Kate Forbes, his best of the night. “Forget persuading No voters, you can’t even keep Yes voters”.