Liz Truss says "best to ignore" attention-seeking Nicola Sturgeon

[BerylBird]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-62385757

I'm not Scottish and I don't live in Scotland, but this statement by Liz Truss has made me seethe with rage. AIBU?

I know Nicola Sturgeon is not universally popular in Scotland but, by all measures, the SNP have a sizeable majority in Scotland and like it or not, she is the elected leader of the country, chosen by its population.

How can someone who is vying to be PM of the UK make such a comment as this without alienating, by definition, a majority of Scots? It's a terrible footing to start out on.

It just shows the low regard that she / the Tories have for the "other" nations of the UK outside of England / Westminster. If ever there was a great advert for independence for Scotland (or Wales, or reunification of Ireland), surely this is it?

Yanbu, Boris was great for promoti g Scottish independence and looks like Truss would be as well!

Sturgeon doesn't neatly fit into Truss' born -again Leaver narrative so of course she'll want to ignore her. And I'm sure Sturgeon is more than happy there'll be another PM totally indifferent to Scotland.

Coming from such an inveterate attention seeker, with her sound bites, photo ops and pussycat bows, it’s a bit rich.
YANBU.

Truss is saying too much and showing her hand too much and too quickly in my opinion.

Not an independence supporter but Liz Truss saying this is completely disrespectful to a democratically elected leader of a UK parliament. Unsurprisingly appalling behaviour from the current government.

She's a Tory, she's not going to be a fan of SNP is she? Which is weird how much they hate each other when they are very similar... Guess that's just how it works though often.

It's an ignorant and stupid thing to say. And yet it's hardly a surprise — the current iteration of the Conservative party seems to run on this nightmare fuel at the moment.

But remember, she's playing to the cheap seats for now: Tory party members, the vast majority of whom are based in the south-east of England and will hold dim views of Nicola Sturgeon and Scotland generally.

I'm not saying that she's going to handle Sturgeon and the Scottish independence question well if once she gets in. But she's tailoring her messaging to a very English, and very anti-independence, audience right now.

Well, I think it's dereadful politics, but most of my Scottish friends have been saying that for years. Many of those, bizarrely to me, vote SNP but are dead against independence.

It's disrespectful and I just can't imagine a man saying it about a male political opponent.

She’s right about Sturgeon though, plenty of Scots agree.

Sturgeon and the SNP are often bitter and insulting towards the Tories. Plenty agree with Truss and won't feel alienated. Those backing Sturgeon and the SNP won't be moved either way by one comment from Truss. No need for her to self-censor, she said what she really thinks.

I think Liz Truss was right

My jaw dropped when I heard that quote on the news this morning. What a disrespectful way to speak about an elected leader. She was so dismissive and then just hammered the nail home by calling her "an attention seeker". I know lots of politics is about soundbites and maybe it is back to the "any attention is good attention" but I thought it was bang out of order.

Stupid thing to say, even if you loathe Sturgeon and everything she stands for.

I could honestly weep at the thought of this fucking idiot becoming PM.

I think the context of the remark here is that it was in a response to question about the union and Nicola Sturgeon's attempt to engineer a second referendum.

In isolation, yes the remark isn't great as Nicola Sturgeon, like it or not, is a democratically elected head of a devolved government and in the interest of the efficient running of the UK, it is important to have trust and a certain amount of goodwill between the UK government and the devolved parliaments.

But in the context of a another attempt to engineer some tenuous pretext for another "once in a generation" referendum on Scottish independence, when this matter was decisively and quite finally resolved in 2014, hitting the ignore button is the correct response.

@amicissimma I guess i'm in that camp. I support a lot of SNP policies, but have concerns about independence. If we could rejoin EU, that would be good. But, would it be like Brexit x 10?

This who think Truss was right, or entitled to say it (eg @VivaMazVegas @Justcallmebebes) - are you Scottish / do you live in Scotland?

How is it not a slight against ALL Scots, to say their Parliament and their democratic votes are an irrelevance?

In many areas, voting SNP is the only way to keep Tories out of power. You have to do what you have to do, even if that means voting for a pro-independence party. Granted this may not be why your friends vote as they do but it is a common enough voting pattern.

LT is an idiot. Also English and also appalled.

This was supposed to be a reply to @amicissimma

Basically Truss is suggesting ignoring Scotland and Scots if she is ignoring their democratically elected leader.
Truss is dim beyond belief, claims she wants to lead a Unionist Party yet thinks it's a cracking idea to ignore a huge part of The Union.

Hope she wins - it will be great for Scottish Independence. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I’m Irish so perhaps have a different perspective on this, but I thought this comment was very disrespectful and a total ‘no’ diplomatically.

Now I realise that the Conservatives have already given a big FU to the rest of us in the EU, but one of the qualities I always look for in a leader of a country is diplomacy and good manners. We have had many Taoisaigh (Prime Ministers) over the years who I have not agreed with politically, but all of them have been polite and well behaved abroad and about other countries’ democratically elected leaders - whatever their personal
view of those people.

I would, at a minimum, expect someone running for the role of PM to keep their views about a democratically elected leader of a part of their own UK, to something inoffensive and bland.

Of course, the comments will do Nicola no harm and might even add a few % to her vote next time out - do the Conservative party not employ strategists anymore ?

It wasn’t the smartest thing to say however it’s probably one of the lesser damaging things she could have said to sound interesting and assertive.

And to be fair, Nicola Sturgeon is a bit like an annoying, buzzy fly asking to swatted. Her performance is atrocious, she has mismanaged Scottish public services to an unimaginable extent, done a terrible job with taxation and spending. And she’s trying to constantly trying to divert attention away from her shocking record. She is basically populist nationalist. But hey at least, she is allowing primary aged kids in school to change their gender without even their parents being notified. That’s how effective she is at running the show.

Scottish l economy is represents about 8% of UK output. Scotland’s population, the same. The airtime given to Sturgeon is simply disproportionate.