Grangemouth is a reality check for Scotland’s politicians

Scottish politics can be a very comfortable place. It is certainly an elysian paradise for the soft-of-thinking; a place in which, to borrow from the American humorist Garrison Keillor, “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average”. All shall have prizes, in this, the nicest of all possible worlds.

But the problem with real life is that sometimes unpleasant choices are unavoidable. And the problem with our politics is that many of our politicians prefer to pretend that choices may indeed be avoided wherever and whenever embracing them might prove unpopular or be accompanied by risk.

Just last month Humza Yousaf condemned the British government’s decision to award new licences for oil and gas exploration in