Humza Yousaf was the future once. Now he is the SNP’s night watchman

In his first – and possibly last – conference speech as SNP leader, the first minister announced the launch of Scotland’s ‘first-ever bond’. The absence of a one-liner about Sean Connery shows quite how dark things are within the party, says Tom Peck

First minister Humza Yousaf announced a freeze in council tax for Scots next year as he closed the SNP conference in Aberdeen (PA)

More dedicated students of history are free to write in, but to the very best of my knowledge, Humza Yousaf is the first person ever to lead his country as the result of a practical joke.

How else would you describe it? Nicola Sturgeon resigned, knowing that her own front garden would shortly be turned into a scene from Taggart, but not before she had gone about the necessary machinations to smooth the path to power for her chosen successor, Mr Yousaf. Everything that she was resigning to avoid, she knew would instead be coming for him.

All of the questions she’d decided she didn’t really want to answer, about the hundreds of thousands of campaign donations whose whereabouts were not entirely known, while the whereabouts of a luxury camper van that may or may not have been purchased with the money absolutely were known, as it was very clearly parked right outside her mother-in-law’s house? Those questions she decided would be better put to her friend, Humza Yousaf instead, who didn’t actually know anything about them, but he would soon enough.