Swinney’s Prestwick pantomime: Three acts of SNP flip-floppery

JOHN SWINNEY’S LATEST EPISODE, the brief flirtation with banning US military flights from Prestwick Airport, followed by a swift retreat when reality intruded, is a textbook case of nationalist hubris. It is not merely embarrassing; it is dangerous.

In a devolved system where foreign policy and defence remain firmly reserved to Westminster, the First Minister has no business issuing veiled threats over NATO logistics for key allies. Yet he did, only to U-turn when pressed, exposing the SNP administration as one that prioritises performative gestures over the hard interests of ordinary Scots.

Act One: Swinney started off well enough at last week’s First Minister’s Questions as he swatted away Ross Greer and his merry band of eco-zealot wine-bar revolutionaries like the annoying midges they are. They were howling for a total ban on all US military flights landing at Prestwick because, apparently, “America bad”.

Swinney, in a rare moment of adulting, admitted the obvious: defence and foreign policy are reserved to Westminster. Holyrood could not ban a seagull from Prestwick if it tried.

It is peak SNP: loud moral posturing with all the backbone of a soggy paper straw

Act Two: Enter the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on her eponymous programme on Sunday, and suddenly Swinney catches a severe case of virtue-signalling fever. On live television, he starts musing – nay, hinting – that he “might” consider banning those dastardly US planes if they are linked to Middle East strikes on Iran. He was even “seeking clarity” from the UK government about what the planes are up to, while sheepishly admitting Scotland has zero way to find out. It is peak SNP: loud moral posturing with all the backbone of a soggy paper straw.

Of course, his core cheerleaders will lap it up – those hardy souls in the SNP and Green voter bases who regularly voice support for extremist regimes and even proscribed terrorist organisations, all while clutching their oat lattes and tutting at “Western imperialism.” Nothing says “progressive” like cheering for despotic regimes that execute poets and ban alcohol, eh?

Act Three: Reality intrudes. Within days, the UK Ministry of Defence clarified that Prestwick was not being used to launch military strikes at all, undercutting the entire premise of Swinney’s threat and quietly deflating the row. Barely a week into this self-inflicted drama, Swinney retreats faster than a haggis at a vegan barbecue.

The whole sorry saga encapsulates SNP leadership in 2026: weak as watery whisky, cynically opportunistic, and always ready to say whatever gets a whoop from the faithful before scurrying back under the rock when real-world consequences loom.

Shakespeare nailed this sort of empty theatrics in Macbeth: “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. Swinney’s performance was not clever politics; it was pathetic grandstanding that risked torching Scotland’s most vital trading relationship at the worst possible time. He forgot Donald Trump’s habit of slapping retaliatory tariffs on countries that poke the bear. Spain got a taste when they tried something similar – imagine what happens when the bear’s own ally starts grandstanding.

It may be news to Swinney, but the stakes could not be higher for our world-leading industries. Scotch whisky remains Scotland’s flagship export. In 2025 global sales reached £5.36 billion, which equates to roughly 1.34 billion bottles – or about forty-three every second. The United States continues to be our single biggest market, worth £933 million.

Recently, thanks to Labour, we were hit with a 10 per cent tariff in April 2025 (because nothing says “diplomacy” like picking a fight with Trump). Exports tanked: May–December value down 7 per cent and volume down 15 per cent. Full-year figures show a 4 per cent value drop, 9.2 per cent volume decline versus 2024. Industry warnings scream that if tariffs climb to 35 per cent when suspensions end in July 2026, we could lose £200 – £400 million annually in US sales alone. That means distilleries squeezed, thousands of Scottish jobs on the line, fewer lorries through Prestwick, and local communities hurting.

Swinney’s flirting with siding against the US only benefits the despotic Islamic Republic of Iran

But instead of soothing Washington and doing everything he can to protect those billions, Swinney floats disrupting vital US military logistics. Genius move – nothing says “please don’t buy our goods” like threatening to kneecap American defence ops. We all know how Americans would feel about those optics!

And here is the irony, Swinney’s flirting with siding against the US only benefits the despotic Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime so allergic to Scotch whisky they have banned it outright. Imagine: the First Minister potentially jeopardising Scotland’s flagship export to cosy up to a theocracy that would sooner pour our finest single malt down the drain than sip it. Brilliant self-sabotage.

The SNP’s wider record only deepens the gloom. Years of high taxes and suffocating regulation have driven up costs for businesses. Green policies have pushed energy prices higher and deterred investment. Endless talk of independence has created uncertainty that companies hate. Bureaucracy has ballooned while energy-intensive industries suffer and ministers continue to lecture everyone on net zero. The outcome is stagnation hidden behind slogans.

Even their ongoing flirtation with the Scottish Greens, the smug student union revolutionaries who seem hell-bent on destroying every remaining industry in Scotland, adds little beyond crazy gender ideology and no meaningful help for Scottish people desperately trying to pay their bills.

Scotland urgently needs a different approach. It needs politicians who recognise that real prosperity flows from strong trade links, lower burdens on business, and smart, aggressive negotiation with key partners – especially the United States.

Reform UK Scotland, under Malcolm Offord, offers exactly that: align income tax bands with England’s simpler system, cut the basic rate by 3p over five years (starting with £2 billion off), funded by axing wasteful green schemes, binning quangos, and reallocating £9 billion. Cheaper reliable energy; slashed red tape; prioritising Scottish/UK firms in procurement; fighting for zero-tariff access. Build alliances abroad instead of alienating them for cheap applause.

Under that kind of approach, distillers would benefit from serious diplomatic effort to remove or reduce tariffs, rather than vague threats that could make things worse. Prestwick would be treated as an economic asset rather than a stage for political theatre. Jobs in whisky production, logistics, engineering, technology, and manufacturing would stand a much better chance of being protected and expanded. The transatlantic relationship would be nurtured because it is vital: the US accounts for around 17% of Scotland’s international goods exports, with whisky sales to American consumers alone close to £1 billion a year.

Throwing that away over a few days of headlines to appease a hardcore element within nationalist circles is nothing short of economic suicide.

Swinney and the SNP have had their chance. They have had twenty years to sort it out. And they have failed. They have shown they prefer rhetoric to results, posturing to progress, and ideological point-scoring to practical governance. Scottish voters have woken up to the performative politics, the grand promises that evaporate, the leaders treating global trade and geopolitics like props in their UK-breakup bedroom farce, while Scottish businesses struggle, local communities lose out, and vital opportunities slip away.

The choice facing Scotland is clear. The country can continue to live in the perpetual nationalist doom-loop of decline, or it can back a different direction – one that lowers taxes and burdens, cuts unnecessary regulation, secures the best possible trade deals, strengthens ties with major partners, and puts Scottish prosperity first.

In the end, applause does not pay wages. Smart, relentless commerce does. Scotland deserves leaders who understand that difference and who are prepared to deliver it.

Scotland needs Reform – and Reform is coming to Scotland.