@Legend While ir's not ideal (and that's my opinion of the SNP in a nutshell) there are ways to look at this favourably. My first thought is that Swinney is keen to avoid their party's current strife looking like a Tory leadership contest. So far this is proceeding with conversation rather than public, polarised backstabbing. And did Swinney say the literal words Dont Stand Against Me or is that a tabloid interp of what I think his actual message is here: the SNP needs to come together, not factionalise under different candidates.
Cutting membership out isn't great but I'm hoping he's going to address that issue furtjer down the line. He's no Trump.