Webchat with Nicola Sturgeon - 1pm Tuesday, 5th May

[JustineMumsnet]

We’re pleased to announce that Nicola Sturgeon MSP, the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP, will be joining us for a webchat at 1pm on Tuesday 5 May - just two days before the General Election.

Nicola is the MSP for Glasgow Southside. Before becoming an MSP she worked as a solicitor at the Drumchapel Law Centre. She has the distinction of having been called 'the most dangerous woman in British politics' by the Daily Telegraph (among others).

Whatever your hopes for the outcome of the election, there’s no doubt that the SNP’s surge in Scotland is one of 2015’s biggest stories of this election, with, most likely, big ramifications for UK as a whole.

So we hope you’ll join us and put your questions to Nicola on Tuesday 5 May at 1pm - and if you can’t be there on the day, please post up your questions in advance.

Please remember our webchat guidelines - do be polite/civil, and only one question each please as we reckon this is going to be a busy one!

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Blowin, that's interesting - I don't know anyone who didn't vote. Some refused to say which way they were voting until afterwards, and one has since expressed regret at the choice he made, but everyone voted.

OOAO, I'm sorry to hear that.

[blowinahoolie]

"I took that to mean as opposed to the people who didn't discuss which way they were voting at all..."

Yes, that's what I meant. I did know people who would not disclose which way they voted, and I also know friends who chose not to vote in the referendum too.

Those of us who were open (Yes and No's) are all still on talking terms, as life moves on and we have to come together and get on with it. What else is there??

[OOAOML]

We would have found it out anyway, we just found out in a slightly more heated way I think. We are still together, but I'm not sure we will last. But I think we have been drifting apart for years now - I know I'm not the person I used to be. People change. It happens. I still like him - I just am not sure I see a long-term future with him. And don't really feel 'married' or 'in a partnership' any more.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I am sorry to hear that, OOAOML - that is really sad.

[OOAOML]

I was quite open in the run up to the referendum about voting No, some friends were very open about voting Yes. Some I have no idea how they voted. Generally I could kind of tell who was up for discussing it and who wasn't. People did get a lot more vocal as the date neared.

I unfriended one person on FB after her friends laid into me when I made a very mild factual challenge to some absolute p*sh she was putting out. The real nastiness on FB though was from people I've never met though.

I have hidden one friend from FB just now as I really don't want to have an argument with her and am not sure I can sit on my hands at the moment. But in general things with friends are fine.

Things with my husband are dire, but that's because as someone said upthread the referendum pushed other issues into the spotlight. And I realised that we're not that compatible any more and we don't have the same goals for the future.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Since the referendum, I have seen a lot of very bitter stuff on FB (I don't do twitter, so can't comment on what's there). Things like saying anyone who voted No should be ashamed to sing Flower of Scotland at Murrayfield before a Scotland international rugby match - implications that anyone who voted No cannot be a proud Scot - stuff like that.

And I have been unfriended by one person for two, fairly mild, comments on the stuff she was posting after the referendum - stuff which made me feel very uncomfortable as someone who had voted No.

Though I have other, very good friends - one of whom is on here and asked Nicola a question - where it hasn't affected our friendship at all - we were able to agree to differ.

But before the referendum, I felt very wary about telling people how I was planning to vote, or even which way I was leaning, unless I really knew and trusted them.

[tabulahrasa]

I took that to mean as opposed to the people who didn't discuss which way they were voting at all...

[OnlyLovers]

I still talk to people who openly voted No

openly? What were No voters supposed to do? Deny it? Vote under cover of darkness?

That doesn't do anything to change my view and experience of the Yes campaign as (overall) aggressive and bullish.

[funnyossity]

Gillian I agree that in my case I find Labour hard to vote for (did a shudder when Harriet Harman's name was mentioned earlier!) Nicola seems far more in tune with the electorate and an alternative to Labour would do well in northern England I think.

(If I lived in Rotherham I honestly couldn't vote Labour.)

[Gillianschmillion]

I think she answered some difficult and sometimes downright rude questions and that's to her credit. What I don't understand is ... Why are Scotland bring vilified over our democratic right to vote for who we want? It's the Labour and Tory party that have severely fucked everyone over so that people are having to look for alternatives. Sort yourselves out boys and start proving to the people we can trust you and they'll vote for you again.

[MmeLindor]

Blowing
I'll not comment on Wings, or I'll get banned.

[AgentProvocateur]

I just typed a massive post and lost it Anyway, in summary, I genuinely didn't/don't see No voters as cautious party poopers. They're just friends / family / colleagues who happen to have a different opinion. I agree that Twitter is full of twats - on both sides.

I'm sorry that some of you have been badly affected though.

[OneNight]

tabulahrasa may well be right in suggesting that existing tensions might have been brought into the open by the Referendum and general election but that doesn't make the resulting problems any less real. My own family has been irrevocably riven by the events as have friends and acquaintances and there appears, mostly, to be no desire heal the situation.

[blowinahoolie]

I don't use Twitter so obviously I am not exposed to all that drama Mme. I also don't use Facebook or any other social media. It limits the guff (on both sides) you see online that way....I do hear about it from DH though who will occasionally talk about Wings or equivalent organisations. I choose to distance myself from all of that though and refer to website info only, not comments from randoms.

[MmeLindor]

I don't want to paint the SNP black, and am only talking of my experiences. Perhaps it is more extreme than some others, because I am very active on Twitter. The abuse and nastiness I see there daily show me that it isn't isolated incidents. And of course it isn't one sided - I've seen anti-SNP tweets that are disgusting too, and I'm critical of those too.

[trixymalixy]

The referendum caused massive divisions in my family and between some of my friends. I'm sick of yessers denying my experiences and that of others. It must have been nice in your nice happy yes bubble, but it wasn't the reality for very many no voters.

[MmeLindor]

AgentP
I think that the view is probably different on the Yes side of the fence, tbh. Both during the referendum campaign and afterwards, the Yes had the positive, fun, optimistic campaign, while we were stuck with being sensible, cautious party poopers.

[tabulahrasa]

"Do you really deny that it has caused tension in Scotland?"

Caused them? No, brought existing tensions up into the open, possibly.

I also fell out with no-one, I discussed it with people voting the other way to me, they had their reasons I had mine, we moved on.

Well no I did fall out with one person - but that was about the orange order and their pals in george square the next day and it wasn't a close friend, I'd be a bit shocked if an actual close friend disagreed with me about that as my opinion was that it made Scotland look bad as a whole.

[blowinahoolie]

"I get tired of this being trotted out all the time. It may have caused issues for you but don't say it as if this applied to everyone in Scotland."

I know iggi there's been several on this thread who have made out these statements about the Referendum and SNP momentum taking a sinister turn and causing all sorts of problems in the communities of Scotland. I've yet to see it myself! Stop all the generalising, it's very inaccurate.

I think it's the exception rather than the rule, but any bad press of SNP will get circulated to death in order to maximise the exposure of these incidents (which do happen not just in SNP but other parties too).

Certain posters are wanting to paint the SNP black because they have had today's opportunity to do so.

[blowinahoolie]

"Scratch the surface, as occasionally occurred in the Scottish Leaders' debates, and you'll find a less palatable personality."

Same could be said for any of the other candidates in this (UK) election, please do not go out of your way to scare monger on one particular candidate. It's not working, I'm still voting SNP on Thursday!

[OneNight]

I would disagree about the interpretation of the balance, SDTG.

There were a number of meaty answers at the beginning which had clearly been prepared by staffers, who must have been up late last night, and were so chock full of figures that they would have choked a crocodile. There were many 'humanising' answers later on and nearly all of the really hard questions were either not answered or dodged. You have to remember that the skill of a politician can sometimes be in saying what you want to say in response to a question by, perhaps, seizing on one word and developing that theme. She did that well.

I can appreciate the difficulty of the situation for her in coming to Mumsnet, where the notion of an intelligent and articulate woman is not a shock to the system and people might well ask themselves 'OK - so what's next?' rather than descending into 'small issues'; in having the country's media potentially listening to every single word; in having little time and being exhausted towards the end of an election campaign and so on.

She chose the job though.

[blowinahoolie]

"which set friend against friend and divided families"

Nope, have not found this in my life when the Referendum was happening last year. I still talk to people who openly voted No. We're all friends still! Life moves on and bigger things are at stake, cannot get in a tizz about other people's voting intentions or decisions. Strikes me as a very petty argument when others around me I've noticed have not felt 'divided' as you describe.

[AgentProvocateur]

MmeLindor, you are one of the few people I usually agree with wholeheartedly on here, but I can honestly say that I don't think it caused any unhealthy long-term tension (obviously there was some in the day before and of the referendum) I feel it has invigorated and energised the country. My children's generation (late teens) have become policitised, the way we were at uni during the poll tax. Certainly in Glasgow now, I could go to any pub on any night of the week and talk to people about how to make Scotland better - organised and ad-hoc events.

I think it has brought people living in Scotland (not just Scottish people) working together for a better future, regardless of how they voted.

[Behooven]

X post

[Behooven]

He might not be a member but he has close ties so it's not too much of a stretch to align him to the SNP
Nicola Sturgeon has had the other two numpties who are SNP members suspended so that's a good thing.