Good luck to SNP MP Mhairi Black

Having said all the above, she could brow into it and be fantastic. Good luck to her. Whatever happens, I don't envy her. (Though I might envy her salary and her pension package a little bit.)

I was politically active as a teen, and reasonably sensible, but I don't think me, or Mhairi, or any other 20-year-old has enough experience to be an MP. It's not her fault, and it doesn't make her a bad person, it's just chronological. I hope that she employs a few people who know Westminster well and can at least carry things for a bit while she completes her degree. (I don't approve of anyone doing other jobs while being an MP, and that includes being a full-time student as well as the Boris's of this world who have other full time jobs, too.)

And I wish people would stop equating "being Scottish" with "being an Authentic Member Of The Working Class". It's patronising and inaccurate bullshit.

i suspect that a lot of people in Scotland voted for the party/Nicola rather than the actual candidate, i.e. I think she was elected despite being 20 rather than because she is 20.

weeburrower1 ... YES they were my words, in the context of Greece and most of the rest of Europe, having experienced a recession, being sucked in by the tricksy words of politicians trying to seize a (hopefully) once in a century event - for their own nationalist ends.

Tell me of the sustainable logic of the core SNP messages.

• Scotland can be financially independent (no matter where the price of oil is).

• The UK can grow our way out of £1,500,000,000,000 (£1.5 trillion) of National Debt (currently) accumulating at a budget deficit £87 billion plus interest a year - by borrowing shed loads more than £87 billion a year, to spend on...on.....what exactly?

• The UK in bringing down the £157 billion budget deficit (in 2010), far larger than any country the rest of Europe, having increased 'real' spending over a decade far larger than the rest of Europe - was "austerity" rather than financial responsibility, with a UK Base Rate at an all time low from the 17th century - so interest charges on all that debt can only go one way, UP.

• Canceling a Trident project costing £100 bil over the next 35-years, will solve all our £1.5 trillion (rising to £2 trillion in 2020 by extra spending?) debt problems.

There is NO logic, they are the populist "magic wand" political donkey messages as a means to an end; an Independent Scotland.

She is hardly a working class heroine. Her Mum is a teacher, her Dad a University Lecturer. She is about as Middle Class as they come. She talks about poverty in soundbites. She knows little of the struggles of real people. FGS - she didn't even leave her home city to go to University somewhere else. Can you imagine how limited her experience is? Where has she travelled? Ibiza? What has she genuinely seen? A few lecture halls and a student march or two?

A 20 year old who has at least travelled somewhere for work / study would at least have some experience to offer.

I've already said, I think her age is an issue, yes young people need representation too, but, it's a big job with an awful lot of responsibility and demands that I'm really not convinced a 20 yr old is up to...I hope for the sake of her constituents and herself that I'm proved wrong.

But, I overheard somebody calling her rough today...that really annoyed me once I thought about it.

From what little I've heard of her speaking she seems eloquent enough, yes she has a strong accent and no she's not particularly groomed - but does that actually make a difference to whether she can be an MP?

Rough just seemed...so judgemental about the trivial things, I mean would she be a better MP with a different accent and better hairstyle?

Wee - her personal habits.

She's no rough diamond. She just lacks polish full stop.

Weebirdie - yes, she only recently joined the SNP, same with another couple of the newly elected MPs. They've all been involved in politics in one way or another for at least the last couple of years, just not necessarily in a party.

What's 'ghastly' about her?

"Mhairi Black could have put forward her favourite pet with a digital recorded message around its neck (on a loop) saying ‘no austerity, no austerity, no austerity……’ – and it would have got elected to Westminster."

Those ARE your words.

I read she had only joined the SNP's after the recent referendum.

And now she's an MP?

She's ghastly.

weeburrower1 ... please concentrate on projecting your own words, rather than trying to put them in my mouth.

If you WANT my words they would be 'Scottish lions led by political donkeys'.

The fact is, after the worst recession in 80 odd years, politicians across Europe are taking advantage of the economic affects TO GAIN POWER, and it is not without president - you might find this whole article not only interesting, but enlightening listening to the SNP's core messages.

”From Glasgow to Barcelona, historian DOMINIC SANDBROOK fears Europe is returning to the crude nationalism that caused such misery”
www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2763047/From-Glasgow-Barcelona-historian-DOMINIC-SANDBROOK-fears-Europe-returning-crude-nationalism-caused-misery.html

“As we have seen throughout history, from Germany and Italy in the 1930s to the war-torn Yugoslavia in the 1990s, nationalism thrives as a panacea, offering glib solutions and easy scapegoats. But it also offers an immensely compelling appeal to people who feel stranded by economic change and abandoned by their privileged political masters.”

"In that sense, strange as it may sound, it is obvious why so many Scottish voters fell for the vision propounded by the demagogues, cranks and zealots so prominent in the separatist campaign."

”They believed that Mr Salmond offered them something better: a magic wand that would transform their fortunes overnight”

"Those sentiments are not going to vanish overnight."

"In many ways, they are the mirror image of the alienation felt by millions of voters in England."

”And in that respect, the rise of Scottish nationalism is not so different from the extraordinary surge in Ukip support south of the border, where Nigel Farage — another cheeky chap peddling simple solutions — plays the part of Mr Salmond.”

And all THAT to Conservative hatred, then the SNP had a Scottish 'win double' that resulted in 56-seats, but now Ms Sturgeon has to deliver but will largely not be able to.

“Ukip and the hard-Left are both blinded by Tory hatred”

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11252159/Ukip-and-the-hard-Left-are-both-blinded-by-Tory-hatred.html

Isitmebut - suggesting the people of her constituency, and half the people of Scotland by extension, are stupid isn't very becoming.

In Greece their nationalist anti austerity Syriza party, full of open neck shirted, leather clad, pony tailed radicals, with REAL austerity fuelled poverty and despair affecting the majority of Greeks, received around 36% of the Greek vote.

May I suggest that for an anti austerity SNP party whipping up so much support with far less poverty than Greece and polling over 50% of the vote, Mhairi Black could have put forward her favourite pet with a digital recorded message around its neck (on a loop) saying ‘no austerity, no austerity, no austerity……’ – and it would have got elected to Westminster.

There is a reason why the Lords upper house have existed for hundreds of years and why Mhairi is the youngest MP for hundreds of years;

Westminster has never enrolled in a government ‘work experience’ scheme, as votes on proposed legislation can often be very tight, and few of us would trust a 20-years old to run OUR own house, never mind the House of Parliament and its laws that affect the whole land.

Its a nonsense folks, but its democratic, but similar to the home of democracy - on a mission impossible to persuade those with the purse strings that 'pipers don't need to pay' back the consequences of too much debt - Ms Black is destined to fail, one way or another.

I think the hardest thing for her will be in her constituency. I have no doubt she will try to be compassionate and helpful, but how many 40 year olds with a problem that they feel can only be dealt with by their MP will be happy to talk to a 20 year old student, possibly about deeply personal issues?

I wonder if any 20 year old with limited life experience could cope with the horror stories she will face.

Oh I've no more knowledge about it than anyone else, it could well be crap, either kind of fits.

That was kind of my point, in some places for some people cunt and crap are interchangeable and cunt is often used instead of body as in, does any cunt have a lighter, or some cunt was in front of me at the post office...and yes it's not polite, but it's not the same as it's used normally.

tabulahrasa - what did she actually say in that one? I'm not aware of it, only one where the media tried to give the impression that she's said cunt when she actually said crap.

I'm glad you pointed out that the word also isn't necessarily actually an insult in the west of Scotland and is used in various contexts.

She didn't call someone a cunt though, did she? It was used in a tweet in that way that some people in Scotland use it where it isn't really regarded as swearing...

I mean it's not a great sign if she didn't realise it wasn't appropriate if it was recently, but if it was before she was a candidate it's not the same.

The lack of knowledge on Mhairi Black and the judgements being made on that basis are embarrassing. She's been involved in grassroots politics for at least the last couple of years, she hasn't been sectarian, her dad isn't a motivational speaker, the tweets which were dragged up were mostly from when she was 17, and her language is and was typical of a young, every day West of Scotland teenager.

As I said, if people are going to criticise her, at least do it from a basis of knowing anything about her.

What counts as 'life experience'? It seems pretty subjective to me. She has immediate, first hand knowledge of the difficulties and struggles facing students for a start, and despite education being devolved those issues are the same UK wide. She has knowledge about what the people who voted for her want. And what about the different perspective offered from the status quo? Isn't parliament supposed to be a reflection of society, of all ages and backgrounds?

It seems to me that plenty are almost willing her to fail. I hope she does well and inspires working class women in the same way her own inspiration, Margo MacDonald, did. The whole point is that she represents her constituency in parliament and she was the only viable candidate to to stand on an anti-austerity, anti-Trident, pro-devo/home rule platform. A majority in that constituency decided that's what they wanted and perhaps it says more that the other main candidate wasn't offering that when once upon a time its exactly what they stood for.

A Murdoch newspaper I suspect.

Also her dads name is Alan and he's a former teacher. I don't know where you're getting all your false information.