Nicola Sturgeon

[mikey4444]

I have heard Wee Nicky being interviewed by James Naughtie on the Today Program.

To be frank, I thought she gave a very good account of herself and her party, so is it any wonder that the SNP is doing so well north of the border ?

[mrs_overall]

She can certainly talk the talk and walk the walk. I can see why she is popular and the SNP are doing so well.
God help the English if she ever gets anywhere near Westminster. I personally think she is Satan in a frock

[Baldric]

^^^^
Salmond Spawn!

[anotheoldgit]

Already congratulating your potential bed partner are we mikey, can't you wait to break up and destroy the United Kingdom altogether?

[douglas9401]

She ticks along nicely till her pet project comes up. Complete equality for wimmin at the top of business and public life.
Positive discrimination and damn the consequences of under qualified candidates.

[venator]

I bet she's already sitting down with Len McCluskey and Hilary Clinton drawing up Ed's instructions for the next parliament

[jim360]

Frankly AOG, the biggest damage done to the UK has been from the Conservatives who, since some time in the mid 1980s, have been squeezed out of Scotland and subsequently turned their backs on it entirely. Now they are compounding the error by not even trying to take on Sturgeon and the SNP politically but in bigging them up while simultaneously attempting to bully -- there is no other word for this pathetic intimdiating tactic -- to bully the Scottish people against voting for Labour. Where will any such voters go? Certainly not to the Conservative party -- they will rush waiting into the hands of the SNP, who only gain from the Conservative's rotten tactics.

People from (the south of) England and Westminster have seriously misunderstood the situation. In their lack of comprehension the tactics they are adopting are woefully misguided. After managing to totally mishandle things in the run-up to the referendum, they are doing the same now. And will continue to do so until they start trying the novel tactic of actually debating with the SNP rather than ignoring them.

In two weeks' time, fingers in ears will no longer be effective, and Westminster will surely have to listen to the SNP. And, frankly, it will be their own fault as to what follows.

[anneasquith]

och,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, she's only a wee wummin boys n girls. your running about like headless chickens and still a while until voting day. :)

[mrs_overall]

jim, that was a patronising comment...'people from the south of England...'

Do you think people in the North of England wear flat caps, keep whippets and automatically vote for Labour?
If so, you are sadly misguided

[mikey4444]

Jim....one of the ways that the Tories could have have handled this situation with the rise of the SNP is to make their Party more electable in Scotland, but they risk losing their only MP in a few days time !

In 1979, Scotland sent 22 Tory MP's to Westminster. The Party has done nothing whatsoever to address this total collapse in popularity. Even Tebbit is now saying that Scottish Tory supporters should vote Labour and that the Scottish Conservative Party should be disbanded ! If someone told me a few weeks ago, that Tebbit would be telling people to vote Labour, I wouldn't have believed them.

What ever happened to the One Nation Tory Party ?

[anneasquith]

mrs overthewall, has a point . what colour is your whippet mrs o ? :)

[mikey4444]

Anne...my Willy is black and tan, if that helps !

[jim360]

I wasn't sure if I should have put that comment in or not, MrsO. I think it's justified. I don't have a caricatured view of people in "the north", having lived there most of my life. But there's no point denying that there is a north/ south divide in England. Not as stark a one as you seem to think I think there is, but a divide nonetheless. One need only look at a political map to see that this is the case.

Labour's fall in Scotland is recent, and they must work hard to turn it around, but in essence it's been something that has happened only over the less year or so. The Conservatives lost Scotland 30 years ago and apparently can't be bothered even to try. If the UK breaks up, and when finger-pointing goes on, I hope that the Conservative party and its supporters remember this.

[mrs_overall]

jim, I disagree with you.
We have had a Conservative MP for many, many years

[mikey4444]

Mrs O...is this your MP ? Because he is the only Scottish Tory MP left.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Mundell

[jim360]

You can speak of "the North" in more or less precise terms. Something in the region of 35 seats north of a line between Hoylake and Grimsby vote Conservative. Above that same line, over a hundred seats vote Labour. I think it's fair enough comment to talk of "the North" of England as primarily Labour; and the South excluding London as primarily conservative.

Perhaps a more natural dividing line is urban v. rural, but South v. North is what I'm sticking to and I'm entirely justified, in general terms at least, in doing so.

If you like, however, I can retract that comment and revise it to "People in the whole of England, and Westminster in particular, have seriously misunderstood the situation."

[mrs_overall]

This is my MP. Note that at the last election he achieved a swing from Labour of 6.9%

http://www.robertgoodwill.co.uk/about-robert

[mrs_overall]

jim - revised comment noted!

[Pete65]

Sturgeon is a breath of fresh air.
Long may she continue as First Minister.

[mushroom25]

howsoever well she performs and gives good account, the fact remains she's not standing for election at Westminster, and if it comes to pass that the SNP have places at the cabinet table, she will still be unelected and unaccountable.

[mrs_overall]

She might be unelected but by golly I bet she would be pulling all the strings