Nicola Sturgeon has been cleared

[MickDundee]

I think Labour have hurt themselves further over this. They may have made gains if Sturgeon had had to resign, but they've been seen siding with the Tories again. They're finished here imo.

I don't think the SNP will gain an outright majority. But then our voting system is designed to avoid majorities anyway.

Sarwar has been quite diplomatic over it, saying they would be taking no action until the report was published etc, meanwhile Davidson was wanting an immediate vote of no confidence last week.

He does have a lot of work to do given he’s just in the door though.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Sarwar has been quite diplomatic over it, saying they would be taking no action until the report was published etc, meanwhile Davidson was wanting an immediate vote of no confidence last week.

He does have a lot of work to do given he’s just in the door though.

Baillie has been a huge mouthpiece during this. Labour have changed things too late in the day to have any impact on this election I think.

 

[Brew_DD2]

We’ll have to wait and see what happens at the elections. I don’t think Salmond is finished with her yet so that could play a big part, but even though she won a victory today, she is damaged. Celebrating a ‘no evidence’ result when Hamilton’s report was redacted 80 times by the SNP, looks premature. I watched some of the enquiry and I’ve never heard one person say “I can’t remember”, “I don’t recall” or “I can’t be sure” so many times in such a short space of time. In my mind, there’s no doubt she’s a liar, but she is surrounded by her own people (Hamilton being one) who protect her. She looks more like a dictator with each passing day.

I'm certainly no SNP fanboy, indeed I only vote for them as a means to an end, but I can only see Sturgeon's position being strengthened if other parties continue to attack following the independent report finding her to have not broken the ministerial code (rightly or wrongly).

For what it's worth I really don't like how the party has conducted itself in recent months (years?) but to suggest she's like a dictator just simply isn't fair. She consistently polls far better than any other UK politician, and that's without the vast majority of the media behind her.

 

[GhostShip]

I'm certainly no SNP fanboy, indeed I only vote for them as a means to an end, but I can only see Sturgeon's position being strengthened if other parties continue to attack following the independent report finding her to have not broken the ministerial code (rightly or wrongly).

For what it's worth I really don't like how the party has conducted itself in recent months (years?) but to suggest she's like a dictator just simply isn't fair. She consistently polls far better than any other UK politician, and that's without the vast majority of the media behind her.

You seriously think the media are not behind her? I would say much of the media in Scotland are in her pocket - she gets an incredibly easy ride.

 

[MickDundee]

You seriously think the media are not behind her? I would say much of the media in Scotland are in her pocket - she gets an incredibly easy ride.

Actually the SNP are convinced the BBC have it in for them so clearly they aren’t “behind her”.

FWIW I think the sign of the BBC being neutral is the fact that the SNP think they favour Westminster, the Tories think they favour the Labour Party, and Labour think they favour the Tories. If you read the Naga Munchetty thread on here you’d think she and Charlie Stayt are “ultra woke” socialists who want to burn every Union Jack in the country and bow down to Brussels.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Some absolute cliches getting banded about here. And for context, I want Indy but I'm not currently a big fan of Sturgeon but as far as tropes like dictator..... Well she has been voted in under a significantly fairer system than WM FPTP and can quite easily be voted out under the same mechanism. As far as the BBC goes, I could point you to a thread on another forum where people point out the agenda on the BBC. And if you personally cant see the direction of political travel on the BBC then you clearly have your eyes closed. They really arent trying to hide it.

Sturgeon of course has some complicit media in Scotland. I sincerely doubt any of that media makes it's way south of the border, especially not partisan nonsense like the National.

The bottom line is this, other political parties have been so starved of ammo against Sturgeon that they wilfully threw their lot in with the deeply discredited (and previously hated by them) Alex Salmond and acted like a minor breach of the ministerial code was a silver bullet. This is despite repeated flagrant breaches from the Wedrminster kleptocracy.

If anyone is so blinded by irrational dislike of Sturgeon that they could bot look at this case objectively and see that it was nothing, then I pity them. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Still, watching people who last week were saying "SHE BETTER HEED THE REUSLTS OF THE HAMILTON REPORT!!!!" now trying to discredit a QC conducting an independent inquiry is giving me immense schadenfreude type feelings. The other political parties would do well to seek votes based on what they are going to do in power, rather than spending the last 5 years pleading nothing except no indyref.

In short, people need to cool down with the anti Sturgeon rhetoric, especially those who do not live under Scotgov which is a devolved parliament voted for by the people of Scotland, and offer the people of Scotland something that they want to vote for. Put up or shut up.

 

[marshbrewer]

My though are that <redacted> <redacted> <redacted> <redacted> <redacted> which means that <redacted> <redacted> <redacted> <redacted> and <redacted> <redacted> <redacted> thus <redacted> <redacted> <redacted> <redacted>.

 

[Manners]

If anyone is so blinded by irrational dislike of Sturgeon
[/QUOTE]

I would argue that the dislike of her is anything but irrational. She has stirred up divisive feeling with nationalistic rhetoric and waged a battle of oneupmanship against Westminster during a time of national crisis (Covid) in an attempt for political gain.

Whether or not her absentmindedness for alleged accusations relayed to her was a breach of Ministerial Code is one thing. Not choosing to dig deeper and establish the truth of alleged misconduct/possible criminal offenses at the time because the accused was a political ally is entirely another.

Awful woman IMO.

 

[Brewnaldo]

If anyone is so blinded by irrational dislike of Sturgeon

I would argue that the dislike of her is anything but irrational. She has stirred up divisive feeling with nationalistic rhetoric and waged a battle of oneupmanship against Westminster during a time of national crisis (Covid) in an attempt for political gain.

Whether or not her absentmindedness for alleged accusations relayed to her was a breach of Ministerial Code is one thing. Not choosing to dig deeper and establish the truth of alleged misconduct/possible criminal offenses at the time because the accused was a political ally is entirely another.

Awful woman IMO.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, becuase the current UK Giv uave done nothing to score points or undermine devolution in recent times

I'm out tbh. Shouldnt have gotten involved anyway. The Scottish people will be heard loud and clear In May. Anyone welcome to @ me then regardless of the result. I think we all know how that will go though, and anyone interested in democracy can join Scots in calling for a people mandated referendum.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

Brexshit ******** again, why do you care about the EU from our sunlit uplands? And what do you think about the house of lords?

Ah, but they're British you you see.

 

[MickDundee]

Douglas Ross has just heard the news:

 

[MickDundee]

And the Daily Mash:
https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/poli...6B5S2uQiUrbRWPdhE6VnvVaL-4#Echobox=1616488186

 

[thesteve]

I get the feeling that her popularity has taken a bit of a hit over the last few months, more to do with the covid easing rules than anything else. Most people I spoke to before that seemed to be of the view that she had made a much better job of the the whole pandemic than Boris Johnson but latterly IMO people have become a bit frustrated with Sturgeon.

People's views are ultimately defined by what they read in the papers and see on television and the british news bulletins do build her up into this little Hitler type figure whereas if you watch the Scottish news, to me it gives a much more balanced view.

Problem facing us Scots is that most would concede Sturgeon is our best politician but many won't vote for her because they know an independence vote will follow.

 

[An Ankoù]

Never really followed the fish wars (sturgeons v salmonds, a right pair of slippery eels) but anything that upsets the Torys is a great result in my book. Here's to Nicky the Fish!

 

[MickDundee]

Problem facing us Scots is that most would concede Sturgeon is our best politician but many won't vote for her because they know an independence vote will follow.

The problem is a lack of strong leaders in Scottish politics, which has resulted in people like me who are left leaning but wary/on-the-fence/sceptical of independence not having much choice but to vote SNP, and TBF on the political spectrum my views and the SNP’s aren’t a million miles away from each other anyway.

Regardless of what you think of them, there’s no denying that both Sturgeon and Salmond have been strong leaders. Who have Labour and the Lib Dem’s had during the time those 2 have been in power? Gray, Lamont, Dugdale and Leonard for Labour, and Rennie and Scott for the Lib Dem’s. None of them are/were anywhere near FM or even leader of the opposition material.

 

[GhostShip]

I get the feeling that her popularity has taken a bit of a hit over the last few months, more to do with the covid easing rules than anything else. Most people I spoke to before that seemed to be of the view that she had made a much better job of the the whole pandemic than Boris Johnson but latterly IMO people have become a bit frustrated with Sturgeon.
Scots is that most would concede Sturgeon is our best politician but many won't vote for her because they know an independence vote will follow.

I hear that too regarding her handling of the pandemic, yet if you look at the table of death rates from countries with a similar size of population to Scotland, she's done terribly. The care homes issue was an absolute scandal, yet she always seems to get away with it.

 

[MickDundee]

if you look at the table of death rates from countries with a similar size of population to Scotland, she's done terribly.

Define terribly, and there aren’t really many comparable countries - it’s difficult finding countries of 4-8M people where 80% of the population live in one “band” of the country.

This is Scotland compared to the other “smaller” home nations and other countries with similar populations and population density (and I know you are going to come back and quote Finland or something despite their spread of people being much sparser):

Scotland - deaths per 1M people 1,385
Wales - 1,750
NI - 1,117
Ireland - 936
Slovakia - 1,669
Bulgaria - 1,747
Switzerland - 1,194
Austria - 1,023
Czechia - 2,325
Belgium - 1,979

 

[An Ankoù]

Excellent news. Nicky the Fish has won a no-confidence vote by a margin of better than two to one. Good old Nicky. Long live Scotland. Time to draw a dram of 80/- (whatever that may be). I wish the UK as a whole had leaders of Sturgeon's ( and Salmond's for that matter) calibre.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I think they're both floundering and out of their depth I think the tide will turn against nationalism. It's all a can of Tuna.

 

[Rodcx500z]

It could be a red herring or al load of codswallop