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.

Oops, Darth Krankie

She looks oddly old before her time.

Sorry, wrong thread!

I thought she was magnificent when she won. I love her now. I wish she was my MP.

Good luck Mhari and good luck SNP.

There's a youtube video of Mhairi Black speaking to chunkymark, the Artist Taxi Driver. In it she says the Establishment and Westminster are reeling, you can feel it everywhere, she says she was elected not because of her but because of the popular mood against the system and the Labour Party which have ignored and failed ordinary people and she says it is really a moral thing and she has a duty to carry out the people's wishes.

In that interview, chunkymark doesn't swear as he usually does, so it is safe to watch without getting a shock.

I think MPs like her are not the usual career politicians who need to climb the greasy pole. They didn't join for that, as she says they are here to shake the system up. In that way, they are like UKIP. They are the Tartan Army and we are the People's Army.

I think the tide really turned when Ed said he did not think that Labour overspent during their time in government. That was the curtains moment in my opinion. The possibility Lab/SNP combination does not worry me more than a Lab government tbh..

BlueBrightFuture, you're right it was about the economy, which is the overspending but there was a fear that Miliband might be able to form a coaltion if he joined with the SNP and then we were likely to get 5 years of Ballsian economics etc

The prospect of that terrified some UKIP, LibDem and even some Labour voters and forced them back to the Tory modernisers' fold.

' where just waving a Saltire and crying "freedom" isn't going to cut it.'

That's not what any of them have been doing, why would they suddenly start doing it now?

I would say good luck to Mhairi Black, I hope she can make an impact. But I think the reality of politics is that it is very difficult to achieve much, beyond attending to constituents' problems, as an Opposition backbencher. I think it's actually quite a frustrating role especially given that so many issues the new SNP MPs are interested in are devolved. I was listening to Dr Philippa Whiteford, the breast cancer surgeon. She sounds great but surely shw would be better as an MSP, able to have a say on tbe Scottish NHS?

She is an utter disgrace, with the tweets that she has been sending.

Phenomenal my backside.

Absolutely, Mhairi is brilliant. She's been portrayed as a sectarian thug (as a teenager she tweeted about Celtic in a negative way, and wanted to "put the nut" on someone) but she's managed to laugh it off. Fantastic young woman.

This is sickening. If you are old enough to be an MP you are old enough to know that is vile.

Annunziata, maybe she wasn't old enough to be an MP when she tweeted that stuff.

Because that is an excuse?!

She has not even apologised, she said it should be put in the perspective of Tony Blair starting a war.

She is a disgrace.

I agree annunziata. It shows a worrying lack of insight

I foresee various exclusions from the HofC to be honest

I foresee various exclusions from the HofC to be honest

And who will be blamed, when this happens? Everyone else but her, you can see it coming, because she is fighting for Scotland It will be like the daft group at school who think they're great because they've been excluded for a week.

Is her dad really the motivational speaker Jack Black? I heard a rumour but I wasn't sure.

I find it quite worrying how feted she has been. I can also see her suspended and glorying in it.

What life experience does she have whatsoever? Her crowning achievement to date is being picked for the boy's football team Fantastic.

Her tweets are appalling all round. Everyone does silly things when they are young, but she cannot even apologise for them- that is what I find especially worrying.

She doesn't even look particularly professional. Dress for the job you want, remember?

I only watched the beginning of that video linked above (the one with Sadiq Khan) but it made me cross that she spoke about how she would not have been able to afford to go to university if she was English because she would have to "fork out" £9k in fees, as if that money had to be found upfront. I wasn't sure if this was ignorance of the English student funding system or a deliberate misrepresentation. In either event, it was unfortunate that she seemed to suggest that going to university in England was dependent upon one's ability to find £27k upfront, particularly as this was to an audience of young voters who might have been put off going to university by her words.

She's an utter disgrace? She'll be in good company in HoP then.

I swop my middle aged, white, male MP for her in a heartbeat.

I actually think youthful indiscretions should be able to be set aside when someone stands for parliament, but that rather presumes a gap between the indiscretions and the standing.

I believe we also have to bear in mind that 20 years ago, there was far less opportunity to make an arse of oneself in an indelible way on the internet. Fortunately there were only a few people subject to my more strident views as a younger, my unrequited loves and my dubious hairdos For kids these days, it's unavoidable. We do have to give allowance IMO for people growing up.

That said, I'm unconvinced that she's moved away from being the person with the online indiscretions that are rightly not acceptable coming from an adult. On that basis and her utter lack of experience, I think she has absolutely no business being an MP.

• random shallow question alert -

Her name...they're all pronouncing it like Mairi, is that because that's how she pronounces it?

I have a friend called Mhairi, who pronounces it Varry. Ms Black does seem to pronounce it Marry. Apparently (as I have learned over the last couple of days) it should be Marry if you're talking about her, and Varry if you're talking to her, as Gaelic has a vocative case. I knew this applied to Hamish/Seamus, was not aware of the Mhairi thing but it makes sense.

(If you're wondering, it's Seamus if you're talking about him, Hamish if you're speaking to him.)

I know about the vocative case...that's why I was asking, lol.

Usually in Gaelic the name is Mairi and the h is only there when you talk to someone named Mairi, but people who spell it Mhairi usually pronounce it like that too.

It's entirely trivial, I just wondered if it was because she says Mairi or if it was just being read that way...I assume it must be how she says it, or there'd be a fuss about not pronouncing it right though.

Ah well, you obv know more than me about Gaelic, I've maybe educated some others! But yes, I think she usually pronounces it Marry, because I've never heard her correct anyone. And she's not a shy one.

Standard grade gaelic at school...now so long ago that I know about names, numbers and a couple of insults that the teacher's son taught us when she wasn't around, lol.

Yes I suppose she doesn't seem backwards at coming forwards right enough, she'd correct it if it was wrong.

I'll let it get back to more serious discussion now my random middle of the night nosiness is done.