To wish Nicola Sturgeon was Prime Minister.

[NellyJames]

Just listening to her statement to the Scottish Parliament. I don’t want to debate her wider politics or the question of Scottish independence because that’s for the Scots to decide.
I’m just so impressed by her leadership and how clear and concise she is. There’s no waffle, no bluster. She’s just said Scotland is 4wks behind London so the time to act is now before they’re in the same position.

Her manner is just so factual and informative and if I was Scottish or lived in Scotland whether I agreed with her SNP politics or not, I’d be very glad she was my FM. She makes BJ look like an uneducated idiot who is neither responsible nor has the balls to take decisions before the effects are smacking him on the face.

She was just in a pub with no mask on so she can’t be that great- can’t even keep to her own rules!

Just because Boris Johnson is awful and thousands of lives would not have ended had he responded promptly to the pandemic, does not mean Nicola Sturgeon who is not as bad is wonderful.

I have often said that the best argument against an independent Scotland is the SNP.

Sure, if you want to lose women's right to single-sex spaces to anyone who 'self-identifies' as a woman (i.e. anyone who says they are a woman) and who wants to change the legal definition of 'woman' to include people with XY chromosomes and penises.

Sacked because you're pregnant or breastfeeding? Not sexism because men get pregnant too.

If you want the definition of 'hate speech' to become so all-encompassing that it includes anything anyone finds offensive. You know what, I get offended when someone tells me the Christian God is evil and all Christians are stupid. I still believe that someone should be allowed to legally express those views,even though I personally find them offensive.

Sturgeon is terrible on women's rights, terrible on free speech and the sooner Scotland wakes up to this the better.

@GreenlandTheMovie "And since joining the EU requires joining the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (which enhances the ECHR rights), I wonder why the Scottish Government simply doesn't say that."

Probably because Scotland re-joining the EU is SNP policy and it goes without saying that in doing that we would sign up to the ECHR etc.

@Nyx I think it’s really important that policy detail is spelled out tbh. Otherwise we have the leap into the unknown, like Brexit, with vague notions.

@EdgeOfACoin I totally agree with that and won’t vote for her because of it.

All the political parties are awful regarding women’s rights.

NS is no worse than the rest for this.

She would still make a better PM than De Piffel.

@WouldBeGood
From Hansard in March 2019:

hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-03-12/debates/A61D0B42-060A-4599-BD48-DBD0B5A63BBE/EuropeanConventionOnHumanRights

@Sarahandduck18 not so. Look at how she’s treated Joanna Cherry.

@Nyx thanks. I rate Joanna Cherry much more as a politician.

I find the language used interesting. For example the consistent use now of "my husband" who she declares has been used against her. I'd totally get that if her husband was a plumber or a banker or something other than the CEO of the SNP. Clear manipulation of language which is technically correct but a bit disingenuous.

@Sarahandduck18

All the political parties are awful regarding women’s rights.

NS is no worse than the rest for this.

She would still make a better PM than De Piffel.

The Conservatives did at least belatedly realise that there were problems with self-ID and so did not bring it into law.

The problem is, the SNP's hatred of anything the Conservatives do causes them to lose all perspective over such issues. If the Conservatives have stepped back from self-ID and the Tories are evil, then it stands to reason (in SNP-land) that self-ID can only be a good thing.

The Conservatives are - broadly - in favour of free speech. From an SNP perspective the Conservatives are evil, right-wing bigots. Therefore, the only people decrying the new hate crime legislation are evil right wing bigots who don't deserve to have their 'speech' protected.

The SNP are so blinded by their own self-righteousness and desire to be different from the hated Tories that they fail to see the bigger picture.

The fixation on distinguishing Scotland from England at any and all costs makes them more dangerous on these issues than even Labour, in my view.

[quote Nyx]@GreenlandTheMovie "And since joining the EU requires joining the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (which enhances the ECHR rights), I wonder why the Scottish Government simply doesn't say that."

Probably because Scotland re-joining the EU is SNP policy and it goes without saying that in doing that we would sign up to the ECHR etc.[/quote]
No, not "probably" at all, particularly as you have still failed to even take in that there are two international treaties. This myth of "Scotland re-joining the EU" is something that is lazily pedalled about by some SNP supporters to justify independence. There is no desire on the part of the EU to take on additional member states, and Scotland doesn't meet the eligibility criteria anyway. The last enlargement saw the former Eastern European states given considerable assistance by the EU via the accelerated membership scheme and it still took 12 years.

The Scottish Government also keeps passing legislation which breaches the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The new hate crime legislation appears to be in breach of Article 10, the Right of Thought, Conscience and Religion and Article 11 Freedom of Thought and Expression, and Article.

It was the Scottish Government who opposed the extension of FOI rights by the EU, as I detailed above. The UK Government fortunately supported them. Our FOI rights come from Article 41(2)(c), the Right to Good Administration.

The proposed Named Persons Legislation was in breach of Article 33, the Right to Family Life.

The case brought against the Scottish Government by the Scotch Whisky Association, against the minimum alcohol pricing legislation was held by the European Court of Justice Attorney-General to be in breach of EU competition law. The Scottish Government has only got away with ignoring that judgment due to Brexit.

Many other examples of incompatability. Why do SNP supporters keep pedalling lies about this that don't stand up to even the slightest scrutiny? Doesn't the Scottish Government assess its own legislation for potential breaches of human and fundamental rights before it promulgates (passes it into) law?

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:12012P/TXT

The European Convention on Human Rights
www.echr.coe.int/documents/convention_eng.pdf

@Ishbam

Positives...she is eloquent

Someone said she is a positive role model for young girls....

For my daughter, a good role model would be honest, not living a lie, proud of her sexuality and wouldn’t bull shit in order to prevent the truth being known.

You need to ask why does she have a super injunction out so the press can’t report things. What’s she hiding?

indeed

“No waffle, no bluster”

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

No memory of key events, no grasp of detail, no credibility.

There is simply no way she does not know who the complainers are, as she boldly assured the committee. Scottish politics is a very very small world.

@lovelemoncurd

Nah. She belongs in her rightful place in The Crankies!

Oh that's a good one, never heard that joke before.... yawn!

A corrupt power riddled bully

No way. I'm Scottish and can't stand her either personally or politically. Untrustworthy, egocentric, narky, liar, one trick pony and abhorrent. Not my cup of tea and no great leader.

Crooked and incompetent. What a combination.

She's a good speaker but that's about it. She's a little dictator and is absolutely obsessed with independence.

She's a corrupt liar.

There is something to be said for being a good public speaker and communicating through the media effectively.

But it's possible to be too smooth - saying things that sound good but aren't really true, reducing complexity, presenting what is politically expedient as scientific fact, etc. And I'm not convinced her style brings in people who disagree with her and creates a sense of solidarity - probably the opposite to some extent.

As for BJ, my sense is that for people who like him, his style of discourse can actually be part of what they like. I've wondered from time to time if it's partly put on for that reason. And he is funnier than NS. It's not great though that people hear him and are confused about what he means.

Yes, her messaging eg on Covid has been clear. However so is her message on the abandonment of women’s rights. If I lived in Scotland I could never vote for her just on that basis.

@SmokedDuck I agree his style is part of the reason that so many people like Mr Johnson. Does not make his serial killing by neglect any better though.

This week's hearings in the Scottish Parliament have confirmed my view of the SNP as being the best argument against independence.

I really think a lot less of Nicola Sturgeon after her evidence session. She seemed motivated by a very personal level of rancour towards Alex Salmond. They don’t have to be best mates but I’d expect her to be motivated by what’s best at this point for Scotland, which is not the FM and her immediate predecessor taking lumps out of each other.