{"id":494643,"date":"2026-03-25T14:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/494643\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:44:10","slug":"scottish-governments-record-challenged-in-final-fmqs-ahead-of-mays-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/494643\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish government\u2019s record challenged in final FMQs ahead of May\u2019s election"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/core\/website\/assets\/static\/news\/incident-types\/light-mode\/analysis.77b314ef10.svg\" alt=\"Analysis\" height=\"2.5rem\" width=\"9.8125rem\" draggable=\"false\" class=\"ssrcss-h608ny-ContributorImageComponent e2hr5uu0\"\/>Don&#8217;t expect the election campaign to be brimming with hopepublished at 12:33 GMT<\/p>\n<p>12:33 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-qs9kpv-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/5ce04aec-96e8-4443-b51e-5c5f0a8fce9c.png.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Phil Sim<br \/>Scotland political correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Anas Sarwar followed the same blueprint as Russell Findlay,<br \/>\nreeling off a catalogue of complaints about the SNP\u2019s record in government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">John Swinney hit back insisting he has \u201cdelivered on the<br \/>\npriorities of Scotland\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The question is whether voters will agree with Sarwar\u2019s core point<br \/>\n&#8211; that everything has got worse over the last few years, on the SNP\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It\u2019s broadly accepted that an anti-politics mood persists among<br \/>\nvoters. Many people are not in a happy place, in their personal finances or<br \/>\ntheir view of politicians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But does that mean they want to see change at the ballot box, as<br \/>\nopposition leaders hope?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Swinney comes back again and again to the idea that the Scottish<br \/>\ngovernment has one arm tied behind its back by Westminster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That\u2019s why he too can push a more anti-establishment message of<br \/>\nchange, in keeping with the anti-politics mood, by calling for independence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It seems like we are not looking ahead to a particularly hopeful<br \/>\ncampaign &#8211; from these exchanges, it\u2019s all about who can most successfully<br \/>\ndirect the anger of voters against their opponents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don&#8217;t expect the election campaign to be brimming with hopepublished at 12:33 GMT 12:33 GMT Phil SimScotland political&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-494643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}