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!

@Jackieharris

Hi Nicola,

I'm aware of and thankful for the Scottish Government's attempts to mitigate some of the worst changes targeted on the vulnerable by the condems, the bedroom tax being the most obvious.

However one of the changes they've made has gone mostly unnoticed by the press and other parties, it seems. That is the £500 charge to take a discrimination case to an employment tribunal. I was previously made redundant whilst on maternity leave after my employer told me they didn't think mothers with pre-school children should go out to work. I raised an action and got a month's pay, which wasn't much, but I didn't have a strong case so was still pleased to get something. 30,000 women each year suffer detrimental pregnancy discrimination at work. It makes a mockery of equalities legislation and political rhetoric if women can't enforce the law because they can't afford £500 up front. How many new mums have that to spare?

So what I'd like to know is why can't the Scottish government mitigate this (reserved) issue by making this £500 available to discriminated against new mums? Could you & John Swinney look into it and include it in next year's Scottish Parliament election manifesto?

TIA

Happy to look into it. SNP MPs will also use our influence to rectify these unfairnesses.

Chocoluvva- probably a reference to wind power (see manifesto)

How can you claim to be at the forefront of anti-austerity when the IFS says you'll spend less on public services than Labour or the LibDems would?

Oh, Fanny. $70 a barrel. What were we promised? We can't base our economy on one industry. It's just as daft as UK economy being too heavily reliant on Financial Services. We need investment in other industries.

I agree with Mme Lindor. Just use my name received a very polite anwer to a rather rude question. Even if you don't agree with her politics, Nicola comes across as very collaborative ( as much as any policitian can without being accused of not standing by their policies and principles )

Many of the personal attacks seem more about misogyny -

Men are ambitious, women are power hungry

Men give clear leadership, women are bullies

Tunnocks caramel wafer just got 100 gazillion new hits on google from desparate journo types...

Nicola - how will you distinguish between those SNP voters who vote for you but do not want another referendum (or don't want another referendum yet), and those who vote SNP and do want another referendum sooner rather than later?

@frankie80

Nicola (sorry, this is long)

2 years ago, no one really cared how I voted. No one asked. Now its the first thing people want to know when you meet them and its always the SNP/Yes voters who want to know. Other voters are simply too scared to declare.

During the 'Yes' campaign, I had your supporters surrounding my car at traffic lights, banging on my window and trying to put leaflets in my wipers. I drove through a red light to get away.

I had a neighbour crossing the road to 'check' I was definitely voting Yes (I wasn't) and my relative residing overseas told she was a 'traitor' for leaving.

This intimidation and nastiness of your supporters continues as just last week, a (now ex) friend of 15 years told my family she was voting SNP "to get the Westminster Jews out"

I don't think your party either now or during the referendum has done enough to curb this behavior or attitudes. I'm sure you will say it happens on both sides. I have seen no evidence of this. I don't want to hear 'oh but they have done this'. I want to hear what YOU will do to stop YOUR party's supporters behaving in such a way.

Your party's attitude to date has been to shrug it off and even your candidates are engaging in nasty comments and intimidation with my local SNP candidate using foul language and insulting hard working previous generations, and another one insulting those over 65.

I deplore behaviour and attitudes like those you describe and will always speak out against it. People had a right to vote however they wanted in the referendum and in this election. We should always treat opponents with respect as we are all part of one country.

MNHQ - I am hoping this would count as my follow-up question, as my original one has pretty much been answered by Nicola in her answer to another poster's question.

OOAOML In my experience our branch office MP didn't listen to us when we asked her to help us regarding school closures. Our SNP councillor did. I fully support your desire for a truly committed representative on local issues...and I also think that the SNP manifesto and current record at Holyrood show more commitment to the things I believe would make Scotland and the rest of the UK a fairer place.

In 2013, we contributed £800 more per person in tax revenue than the UK average

So, people or groups or countries that contribute the most tax should receive the most benefit?

You clearly have much better SNP representation than our council then, we have some shockers who have completely ignored attempts to keep creches and schools open.

Aw, but the biscuit wasn't my question, it was just an aside...can I now only ask follow ups about caramel wafers?

Um, if caramel wafers are the most important biscuit, would you compromise the other biscuits in pursuit of a caramel wafer?...

Hi Nicola, when are you going to make sure that every child in Scotland can access 600 hours of childcare? Thousands of families are missing out, particularly families where both parents work and a private nursery is their only option.

Could you make sure this is delivered before promising to double the hours which will only increase the inequality as working parents still won't be able to use Council provision.

The nursery you visited this morning has 35 children whose parents can't access funding and are losing out.

Please act quickly to stop more working parents losing out.

Mme, all we were promised was an oil fund so that when oil prices were high we could have money built up for when it was low or ran out.

Oil would gave been a bonus to our economy like it is to Norway instead of being squandered.

Dognado No...but not entirely sure why some people in England keep banging on about how they pay for everything. The answer given just shows that they don't.

Gah. Some more connectivity issues this end. Apologies, all.

dognado, I'm imagining Nicola with her plate of tunnocks wafers, and only letting other Scottish mumsnetters take any! After all, she put most ON the plate.

@Behooven

Why did the SNP have a £440million underspend last year and where did that money go?

The Scottish Government has no discretion over most of that money. We did have discretion over £145m of it. It's not unusual to have an underspend of that amount in a £30bn budget - indeed most people would say it is prudent budgeting. It is much lower than the £700m that the last Labour government underspent by in one year! The key point is all of the £145m was carried over and spent on public services in the following year.

But that wasn't the question Maman was it? But you took the opportunity to 'bang on' about 'people in England' anyway. I don't think anyone thinks England pays for 'everything' either? So not sure where that came from. Actually, what was your point?

Nicola

What are you thoughts on childcare policy?

Do you have plans to implement any changes to the current set up if you are elected?

OOAOML No...we're in Glasgow, where the City Council is majority Labour...so we lost the school..our Labour MP refused to stand up for us.

If Tunnocks caramel wafers were representative of the budget Ruperts she would put 8 on the plate, the UK would add another 4, and she would get to keep them all.

Still wishing to know what you do when you (literally) kick off your shoes..

Ruperts, if we're talking biscuits then all bets are off, I want them all .

Also, personal political opinions aside, Nicola, I heard you on Radio 2 earlier and whether I agreed with your points, I thought you came across as calm, articulate and strong, and it's fantastic to have female role models like you.