AS HE launches his latest memoir, Hope & Despair, Neil Findlay talks to the Star on a tumultuous period in politics, and in the life of the country since 2017.

He told the Star: “There was a genuine prospect of a socialist government — the first in Britain for a very long time. As we elected Richard Leonard as leader here in Scotland and we had Mark Drakeford in Wales, there was real reason for hope.

“Sadly, within a short period, that hope would be bogged down in Brexit and in a series of crises and scandals.

Neil describes the inability of Parliament to navigate Britain’s exit from the EU as evidence of a “collective nervous breakdown” in the Establishment, an Establishment determined to prevent change.

“I have no doubt that this will make for some uncomfortable reading for some, but in Scotland, Mr Leonard was subject to exactly the same treatment as Jeremy Corbyn from members of his own side trying to bring him down.”

Speaking of the toxic atmosphere in Labour’s Holyrood group, he said: “Through everything that went on, what got me out of bed in the morning was campaigning with inspirational women who stood up to the medical establishment and some of the world’s biggest multinationals to get justice on mesh implants or campaigning to win a pardon for Scotland’s miners criminalised in the great strike.”

Neil is scathing about the state of Scottish politics and despite honest attempts to build a coalition for change across the divide, he said it was clear that “constitutional dog-fights make for bad government.

“For bad governance, we need look no further than during the Covid-19 pandemic when thousands of untested elderly people were sent to care homes throughout Britain, a death sentence for many, and a scandal which you’d be forgiven for thinking passed Scotland and the SNP by.

“We had this call to have a kind of ‘blitz spirit,’ to rally together and not ask too many questions. But I was determined to keep asking them.

“Health Secretary Jeane Freeman sent Covid-positive patients into care homes, allowing the virus to spread like wildfire, but refused to admit the mistake until after she left at the 2021 election — its scandalous.

“It’s my hope that the public enquiry will find justice for those who lost loved ones.

“Even in despair, socialists must hope.”

Hope & Despair is published by Luath, and available at neilfindlaybooks.com