Like myself, I am sure many Glasgow Times readers are wondering if John Swinney is really the best the SNP have to offer our country.

After shady backroom stitch-ups, firstly to do a deal with Kate Forbes and then to even stop long-term activist Graeme McCormick delay his entry into Bute House, the man who stepped down as SNP leader 20 years ago is back in the hotseat.

It quickly became apparent that the SNP wanted to avoid a re-run of last year’s bitter leadership contest when the aforementioned Forbes lay the boot into Humza Yousaf’s record for all the public to see.

However, is the man who failed 20 years ago at leading them and the man who has his fingerprints all over the SNP’s record of failure, really what the SNP believe Glaswegians and the rest of the country are asking for right now?

The SNP have gone Back to the Future in a desperate bid to shore up the civil war among their party, by appointing the man who was by the side of Nicola Sturgeon every step of the way.

So-called Honest John has been at the heart of this government’s biggest failures and has been an architect of its culture of cover-up.

Despite insisting it was their number one priority, under Swinney’s stewardship of Scottish education, saw us plummeting down international league tables (well, the ones he allowed us to be a part of anyway).

He also presided over the exams scandal at the height of pandemic, in which pupils from our most deprived areas – like the ones I represent – were staring down the barrel of poorer results through no fault of their own.

The latest SNP leader only clung to his job due to support from his friends in the Greens.

Or what about the Covid Recovery version of Swinney who deleted WhatsApp messages on an industrial scale despite knowing this might mean grieving families never get the answers they deserve?

Or the Swinney who backed Sturgeon every step of the way and had to be dragged kicking and screaming – by the threat of another vote of no confidence in him – to hand over relevant legal advice in relation to the Alex Salmond inquiry.

Or the Finance Secretary that decided to hike up taxes on hard-working Scots?

The incumbent of Bute House might have changed, but you are only going to get more of the same old continuity under Swinney.

The real priorities of Glasgow such as our schools, roads, public transport services, housing and the numbers losing their lives to drugs will all be cast aside as Swinney pushes his independence obsession at every turn.

That is where his – and his party’s – focus will be as it is just about the only thing they can agree on these days.

Yousaf had to go, and Douglas Ross deserves every bit of credit for bringing forward a vote of no confidence in him, but by replacing Sturgeon’s protégé, with Sturgeon’s loyal deputy, it is surer than ever that the nationalists are out of ideas.

That is why getting rid of Yousaf was just the start for the Scottish Conservatives. In key seats right across Scotland, we will be urging voters to send Swinney and the SNP a message at the General Election and take the next step of booting out this rotten SNP Government for good.