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The new first minister must address the concerns of workers
The 500 refinery jobs under threat at Grangemouth and underfunding in further education should be at the top of a new Scottish leader’s to-do list, argues RICHARD LEONARD MSP
SNP rosettes on show at the SEC, Glasgow, 2018

IN THE coming days — it may even be as soon as today — John Swinney will become the seventh first minister of Scotland.

I first met him almost four decades ago in the years immediately following the miners’ strike. He was working with the then Labour councillor and socialist economist, George Kerevan, who years later would become an SNP MP. 

Back then, together with Dr Richard Saville and Debra Percival, they were researching and writing a report commissioned by the British Labour Group of MEPs on an alternative to the European Commission’s Plan For Coal. 

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