On Thursday, April 25, 2024, the coalition government between Scotland’s Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish Greens dissolved.

Guido Fawkes reported (red emphases his):

Humza Yousaf has called an emergency cabinet meeting this morning to scrap his governing deal with the Scottish Greens. The SNP agreed to run the government with the Greens, who have seven seats, in 2021 under the Bute House [the First Minister’s stately residence, Edinburgh] agreement. They will now run a minority government with 63 MSPs…

The SNP scrapped its own target to cut emissions by 75% by 2030 to widespread ridicule as the Greens promised a vote to its members on whether to keep the Bute House deal going. Humza Yousaf said this week that SNP members weren’t to be given a say because they “already had a vote” on it years before. Hilarious…

Scottish Green members would have voted overwhelmingly to ditch the SNP while their politicians were still pretty keen to stay in power. Leaving Yousaf with one option…

That day, Scottish Conservatives brought forward a vote of no confidence in Yousaf’s leadership to be debated this week. Scottish Labour raised a similar vote, one in the SNP government.

Guido added:

UPDATE II: The Scottish Greens have signalled they will support the Tories’ motion of no confidence. The end is in sight…

Ultimately, because the coalition was dissolved, the two top Greens, Lorna Slater (a Canadian) and Patrick Harvie, lost their Scottish government roles.

An STV article published that day explained the reason for the collapse of the coalition (bold in the original, purple emphases mine):

The Scottish Greens have attacked Humza Yousaf as “weak and thoroughly hopeless” after he ended the Bute House Agreement in a surprise move on Thursday morning.

Co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater met with the First Minister at Bute House in Edinburgh where they both lost their jobs as government ministers.

In a furious statement, the Greens said the SNP “can’t be trusted” and accused the party of “betrayal”.

Speaking to journalists in Holyrood, Harvie, who served as minister for decarbonising buildings, tenants’ rights and active travel, suggested the SNP would no longer be in government by Christmas.

Let us remind ourselves via this Daily Mail article of Lorna Slater’s lack of interest in the environment. She preferred being driven around by a chauffeur:

After the 2021 Scottish election, the SNP, then under Nicola Sturgeon’s leadership, did not win enough votes for a majority government, hence the coalition with the Greens:

The Bute House Agreement was signed by Nicola Sturgeon and the Green leaders in 2021 and was continued into Yousaf’s premiership.

It saw the two parties agree on a raft of policies, from climate change to housing and gender reforms.

But the scrapping of the 2030 climate targets and the Scottish Government’s reaction to the Cass Report – which prompted the NHS to pause puberty blockers – put the two parties at odds.

The Greens were due to vote on ending the Bute House Agreement in the next month.

The party accused the SNP of selling out future generations by walking away from the deal.

“This is an act of political cowardice by the SNP, who are selling out future generations to appease the most reactionary forces in the country,” co-leader Lorna Slater said.

“Voters deserve better, Scotland deserves better. Scottish Green voters certainly deserve better.

“They have broken the bonds of trust with members of both parties who have twice chosen the cooperation agreement and climate action over chaos, culture wars and division. They have betrayed the electorate.

“And by ending the agreement in such a weak and thoroughly hopeless way, Humza Yousaf has signalled that when it comes to political cooperation, he can no longer be trusted.”

Harvie accused Yousaf of caving in to:

“backwards forces” in his party.

Scottish Labour are no fans of the SNP government, either:

In response to the end of the powersharing deal, Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie said: “This chaotic and incompetent Government is falling apart before our eyes.

“Humza Yousaf is too weak to hold his own Government together and he is too weak to deliver for Scotland.”

Everything is going down the pan: schools, NHS waiting lists and drug deaths, to name but a few pressing socio-economic issues.

Here is a full list of SNP failures that someone posted online:

Ahh, everything started out so promisingly on Yousaf’s first night in Bute House, March 28, 2023, when he won the leadership contest:

Six months later, Time put him on the cover as one of their ten ‘trailblazers shaping the future’. You can say that again:

It all depends on what way one considers ‘shaping the future’. For better or for worse?

Certainly, Time has made mistakes before, such as with its 1938 cover boy from Weimar Germany. Josef Stalin also adorned the magazine’s cover twice not so many years afterwards.

Returning to Edinburgh, however, the wheels started coming off Yousaf’s government in the way that he came off his scooter during the pandemic at one point. (Nicola Sturgeon was still First Minister at the time.) He took his scooter to navigate the halls of Holyrood because of a leg injury. The Sun covered what happened one day on his way to a debate:

Over the past weekend, nearly everyone thought that he would resign on Monday, April 29, rather than face a vote of no confidence.

That morning, the BBC reported:

He has arrived at Bute House in Edinburgh, the first minister’s official residence, for a press conference at 12:00.

The SNP leader has been under pressure since he ended a power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens last week.

Opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament had tabled two confidence votes – one in the first minister and another in the SNP government …

He had written to Scotland’s opposition parties asking them to find “common ground” ahead of the confidence votes.

The first minister’s decision to end the Bute House Agreement – the power-sharing deal with the Scottish Greens – followed a backlash over the SNP scrapping 2030 climate targets and gender policies.

The article explained the politics behind Yousaf’s attempt to survive as First Minister:

The SNP has 63 MSPs in the 129 seat parliament. If the seven Green MSPs vote against him, he is reliant on support from sole Alba party MSP [formerly an SNP MSP], Ash Regan, to continue in his role.

Ash Regan had run against Yousaf in the 2023 leadership contest.

It sounded as if talks with Alba, led by former Westminster MP and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, took place at the weekend:

Mr Yousaf, the MSP for Glasgow Pollok, has reportedly ruled out cutting a deal with Alba, a pro-independence party formed by former First Minister Alex Salmond after he broke from the SNP.

Alba’s support would lead to a 64:64 tied vote in which case the presiding officer would be expected to vote to maintain the status quo.

The article went on to say:

The motion of no confidence in him personally is not binding, but if he lost he would come under intense pressure to step down.

If he lost the government vote, MSPs would have 28 days to vote for a new first minister or automatically trigger a Scottish Parliament election.

Scottish Labour has said the motion of no-confidence in the Scottish government would remain tabled even if Mr Yousaf resigns.

Douglas Ross, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said Mr Yousaf had “jumped before being pushed” by the no confidence vote which they had tabled …

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton declined an offer of talks with Mr Yousaf over the weekend and called for him to resign.

And, lo, at noon, Humza Yousaf announced his resignation:

Guido has a video clip of Yousaf’s resignation speech:

However, he is not going anywhere until a leadership contest has taken place.

Guido says:

After a whopping 397 days as First Minister Humza Yousaf is resigning. At least he managed to last over a year, just…

Humza said he “underestimated the level of hurt” he would cause by ending the Bute House agreement in the way he did. What exactly did he expect?

Humza spent the weekend realising he couldn’t do a deal with Salmond and someone else had to try to keep the ship going. Salmond says he was still trying at 7:30 a.m. today. He will remain FM rather than passing to his deputy Shona Robinson until a leadership election is completed. Sturgeon’s deputy John Swinney is keeping tight-lipped…

Another BBC report told us more about the proposed votes of no confidence which, as I understand it, must be debated before MSPs vote on them:

Mr Yousaf had been facing two motions of no confidence this week, one tabled by the Scottish Conservatives in his own leadership as first minister and another from Scottish Labour on the government as a whole.

The timing of the votes has not yet been confirmed by parliament and it was unclear whether Mr Yousaf’s announcement will lead to either being pulled.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross told BBC News that Mr Yousaf should have quit with immediate effect and that his party’s motion of no confidence could still go ahead.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said he would wait to see how the week “plays out” but that the “principle” of his party’s no confidence motion in the government “still stands”.

If it passed, government ministers would be obliged to stand down. Only a simple majority would be required, meaning the number of members voting for would have to be greater than those opposed.

The parliament would then have 28 days to choose a nominee for first minister. If it was unable to do so, the parliament would be dissolved for an election.

The SNP currently have 63 MSPs, meaning they could be defeated if all MSPs from other parties voted against them.

However, the Greens are unlikely to vote against Yousaf or the SNP. They consider that his resignation suffices:

… BBC News understands that the Greens, who have seven seats, will not support either of the no-confidence motions following Mr Yousaf’s statement.

In any event, Humza Yousaf will soon be waving goodbye to the opulent Bute House and returning to Dundee, where he and his wife, a local councillor, live with their children.

It will be interesting to see how the leadership contest unfolds, given that there are no candidates worthy of leadership in the Scottish ‘parliament’, or more accurately, a national assembly. Devolved government of the nations outside of England is yet another Tony Blair initiative gone wrong, no matter what way one cuts it.