Good luck to SNP MP Mhairi Black

[claig]

She is phenomenal - just 20 years old, SNP MP.

"I'm not the one who should be nervous, the people who are responsible for so much poverty and so much struggle in people's lives, they're the ones who should be nervous becase they're the ones who are going to held accountable for all the damage that they do to people"

Thet are going to shake our usual spinners up. They won't know what hit them. The SNP have some great women MPs - saw some of them on TV over the weekendm a real breath of fresh air - they are going to shake things up and not put up with the bowing and doffing of caps crap.

They don't conform to the traditional profile of our useless lot. This is a bit like the movie "Mr Smith Goes to Washington". I can't remember what happens in that movie though.

She is a 20 year old! If there was ever a reason for an age bar on entering Parliament, she is it. She is a crass, heavy drinking, foul-mouthed teen. I teach teenagers and most of those I teach are worth a dozen of her. She will be tabloid fodder when she relaxes her guard and gets pissed on the Terrace on cheap booze.

And, if you listen to her (and the rest of the SNP) they are so "on message" that they just repeat, and repeat and repeat the same hackneyed message. Even St Nicola only has two or three things to say, repeatedly. Not hard to learn a very few lines and keep saying them.

I think in many ways her age will be a disadvantage. The media pressure will be immense, and the oppositions will be lining up to glory in her first faux pas. To balance that, she's bright, she's spunky and she's committed to deliver for her constituents.

My view is that it's more of a disadvantage to be sheltered, private schooled, Oxbridge educated and out of touch with what is reality for the vast number of people who live in the UK. In Scotland, it was definitely a disadvantage to be seen as the complacent and entitled untouchable incumbent MP.

Our parliament was and is too full of millionaires, flipping houses, exploiting the expenses scheme, too adrift from every day life. The new politicians will be a fresh wind blowing through Westminster. I'm delighted Mhairi Black was elected and wish her all the best in her new job.

Guess the SNP and their voters think it is a great idea.... Enough said really.

I also felt she was incredibly patronising to Douglas Alexander, telling him that he did a good job and should remain in politics.

The man has been in Parliament since she was 2.

I'm only a couple of years older than Ms Black and, as much as I can emphasise with families, the elderly etc who are struggling, I would not be arrogant enough to assume I know all the answers to help them.

BlueBrightFuture, every other party had candidates younger than Mhairi Black.

You are aware she said she would "nut any no voters" she met after the indy ref. Great role model

It's a common figure of speech, not a threat!

CMP69, she didn't say that

She made a joke about some local Labour councillors, and she apologised later.

Roseformeplease
"She is a 20 year old! If there was ever a reason for an age bar on entering Parliament, she is it. She is a crass, heavy drinking, foul-mouthed teen. I teach teenagers and most of those I teach are worth a dozen of her. She will be tabloid fodder when she relaxes her guard and gets pissed on the Terrace on cheap booze."

^ This

She was democratically elected by her constituents. They were happy with her age and experience.

Yes she has a ballsy attitude and good on her. But I wouldn't want a 20-year-old as my MP, someone who can take the needs of my local community and argue coherently for us in Parliament, and the person to whom I take my problem when the shit really hits the fan.

Phenomenal is so far from the with I would use for her. Embarrassment might be closer.

And no it's not her age, I can think of many young people I come into contact with through work who are actually phenomenal.

She was democratically elected by her constituents. They were happy with her age and experience

It depends on how people vote though, doesn't it? Do people vote for the person or the party?

Every election there are people wondering why the PM's not on the list. Just because she got in, it doesn't mean it was a huge vote for her, rather a huge swing for the SNP.

I wouldn't want someone representing me who might just down tools and go off on a gap year.

She is absolutely brilliant. Watch her give metropolitan Sadiq Khan, one of Labour's biggest figures and someone who wants to be Mayor of London, a schooling.

She speaks with honesty, courage and passion and says what millions of people think. She doesn't hold back and she will run rings around the metropolitan Labour leadership candidates and the Stella Creasys of Labour because she is direct, forthright, smart and courageous. She is a breath of fresh air.

She says at the end that she was told what she said was "Punch and Judy", but she says it's not "Punch and Judy", it's about people's lives. The metropolitan elite always say that when someone challenges them, it is "Punch and Judy" or that PMQs is too beastly, but it is about time that someone challenged them and said the truth.

"I teach teenagers and most of those I teach are worth a dozen of her."

Well it is a shame they aren't in Parliament too then. We need many more like her and I bet she will do the people of Perth and Renfrewshire proud as she puts some fight, integrity and passion back into politics and stands up for those people against the bland spin of the London Labour elite.

She has done Scotland proud, in my opinion, and I hope she goes on and does the UK proud too.

Frankly I think she's an embarrassment.

The word 'embarrassing' keeps cropping up. What's more embarrassing about her than a political system which significantly and consistently under-represents people like her?

I hope someone takes her - and the other new MPs - under their wing and shows her the ropes properly: how Westminster works, how to be a good constituency MP etc

Sorry Paisley and Renfrewshire, not Perth and Renfrewshire. Shows how much I know about Scotland. But the other great thing about the SNP MPs hitting Parliament in numbers is that people in England are going to learn more about Scotland.

The SNP aren't the usual laboour dummies who are the same as their London crowd - the Jim Murphys (apologies for mentioning him). Now we will see a real difference on our TVs. And if the rest of the SNP MPs are half as direct, spin-free and courageous as Mhairi Black, then people down here are going to start saying why can't we have some MPs half as good as that.

I admire her courage but I think she has no idea whatsoever about what she's let herself in for. She may have passion but she has limited political experience, limited life experience, limited maturity on a public stage and she will seriously need her wits about her and absolutely iron-clad personal belief and strength to battle through the arena she's placed herself in. I wish her all the best though, I would be proud of her if she was my daughter - but also terrified for her.

The #scum re celtic was enough for me. Never mind the glorying in excessive drinking and the threats of violence.

Oh wait. Actually. She will fit right in.

Not really phenomenal. Her battles are just beginning.

Let's judge in 2020

I wouldn't be happy having a 20 yr old as my MP...

I'm told there were 4 other strong potential candidates put forward and she worked really hard and convincingly to win the members' vote to be put forward, but I do wonder how much of it was that she has potential and at the time that would have been considered an un-winnable seat.

I suppose we'll never really know if it was supposed to be a practise run for her seeing as it turned out how it did.