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.

I worked in a chip shop when I was at school and college but none of my children have worked whilst in further education.

Are we middle class? Well, where we live we're considered to be a 'big family', or so Ive been told, but Im still very much the working class girl I was growing up in Scotland and my husband is still very much the son of illiterate shopkeepers.

I still wouldn't like any of my lot to be as unpolished as Mhairi is.

"Genuine enquiry, tabulahrasa - has he ever had a job?"

No, he has put so much time into actually studying that he hasn't.

DD is 15, she's had little jobs like that, but, she's a very different person...and most of her friends don't work at all.

DS at school for instance, went in for all the study sessions they run in school holidays even though he was predicted As, he spent all his study leave and most of his spare time actually studying. So he has a good work ethic, it's just that he wants his qualifications and is putting it all towards that, I'm quite happy to support that as he does work hard.

DD on the other hand is a do as little work as possible at school and put minimum effort in with homework kind of person, she gets good grades at school, but she's one if those clever and lazy types, so working is good for her.

...I think I had much more in common with your DD, tabula!

As someone said up thread, the SNP could have put up a blind donkey with a speech impediment in some constituencies and they would have been voted in. Such is the level of disillusionment at the Labour party and the level of admiration for Nicola Sturgeon.

My new MP was formally a local councillor - and a pretty ineffectual one at that - but still won a massive majority over a very experienced and hard working incumbent who was, you've guessed it, Labour.

All we can do is wait and see if the new MPs rise to the challenge and learn fast. I am sure Salmond and Sturgeon will keep things under control - one thing the SNP is very good at is staying on message (the SNP gagging clause helps that).

Interesting that everyone thinks Mhairi Black is working class, despite her middle class parents and the fact she's doing a politics degree (sounds a bit similar to Ed Miliband if you ask me?).

Interesting that everyone thinks Mhairi Black is working class,

I dont think she's working class.

I find her not to have any class at all.

If I was in her constituency, I would think the pure fact of selecting a 20 year old student as my candidate showed that they had given up the seat as unwinnable. And wouldn't think much of them for that.

No way should a person of that age (male or female) be voted in. It shows blind loyalty to the party. As others have said, she could have been a cat in a rosette and she still would have won.

I would say that any self-aware 20 year old would have the awareness to recognise that they aren't ready for the job. The fact that she thinks she is implies to me that she has a simplistic view of what it will involve.

Stuart Donaldson www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/politics/westminster/481940/public-health-ministers-son-standing-for-westminster/ 23 year old new mp.

Her reaction to tuition fees in the clip posted above has actually really angered me. She's a graduate on £60,000+ a year yet hasn't paid a penny towards the education that got her there. I'm not saying university fees should go on rising, or that £9,000 is an acceptable amount, but the idea that she shouldn't even contribute towards her higher education (as a graduate, not upfront) is just entitled in my opinion. Under the system we have in England (which is essentially a graduate tax) she would not have been denied university access on the basis of not being able to pay, and her arguement that it is is a sign of her immaturity. Be that because she actually doesnt understand English policy on education or because she deliberately overlooked the reality to legitimise her point is irrelevant.

Rose, she supplements her student income by doing shifts in a chippy. If she was really middle class she'd have no need for a top up student job

And I left my (private) school for the leafy suburbs and worked in a rough pub, washing dishes and stacking shelves. One of my sisters collected carcasses at a chicken farm. I am not sure what your point is. Many students have jobs and only the wealthiest can afford to just study all year. Nearly all my school pupils have part time jobs.

And from Paisley to Glasgow is a commute, not a move. Common or not (and my Scottish school pupils don't have this option because there is no Uni nearby) it still limits her life experience. What has she done? Gone to school, gone to University, earned some beer tokens (or is it vodka?) in a chippy?

"..I think I had much more in common with your DD, tabula!"

Me too, well without the clever bit, lol.

Penguins - I think everybody when she was selected would have thought that seat was a lost cause tbh.

I know a few people who joined the SNP after the referendum and they said at the time of candidate selection that they were hoping to get 20 seats...even when the results were being announced, I had been paying attention to polls (and of course there was that exit poll) and knew it was looking like they were getting more than that, but I was still shocked at that seat and a few others.

I really do suspect that events just overtook them and her, so really at that point all she can do is try to do it successfully.

I wouldn't have voted for her because of her age, but I worry for her, god, clearly I'm too middle aged, lol.

Tabula- Oh I do agree. I suppose I would just feel that you ought to try and find a decent candidate even in the lost seats. And I don't rate a 20 year old (or a 23 year old) as a decent candidate.

I fear for her too. You know the start of Yes Minister where he realises his own impotence? I fear she has a moment like that coming, but which is going to hit a lot, lot harder. I foresee an interview at the next election on why she's quit politics (if not before). And that's if she doesn't mightily cock up before then. If she was my child, I'd be shtting myself for her.

" If she was my child, I'd be shtting myself for her"

Oh yes

I said earlier somewhere that on Friday when I was going about her I was told that she'd won the vote to be the candidate over 4 other people because she'd worked really hard and shown loads of potential, so I suspect that it was supposed to be a practise run towards grooming her for future elections.

I just hope it doesn't go terribly wrong for her, because I think it might as well.

She's not on her own, though, she has 55 colleagues with her, including the very experienced Alex Salmond, who previously mentored Nicola from a similar age.

I know Hirples, but anyone else her age starting a career in politics wouldn't have the pressures of that job straight away and the media scrutiny as well.

True, Nicola had to experience political failures before she reached the dizzy heights, and there was far less media attention. At the same time, Mhairi has grown up in an era of social media and mass communication (though she still has some lessons to learn there), she's a smart cookie and with the right support I think can do well.

We'll all just have to wait and see, I suppose, while wishing her all the best.

Can I ask if the people disparaging Mhairi for her age feel (and say) the same about Malala and her work

Not at all a cult converted, flag flying SNPer but I could cry with pride at seeing Mhairi elected. Hope she does it for all of us who have ideas above our station.

"Can I ask if the people disparaging Mhairi for her age feel (and say) the same about Malala and her work"

I don't think I was disparaging... But I think that's entirely different as Malala's experiences are beyond what many people here would experience in a whole lifetime.

Her father is a wealthy business man who is well educated and used to be a lecturer and her mother is a senior teacher. How does this make her working class? I can't stand pretence at her imagined working class behaviours and false working class claims. What nonsense but as you say she's so young so we all learn.

Since when did being a teacher mean you're not working class?

Mhairi's family absolutely are working class.

Malala is a different situation altogether - first of all, she didn't choose to be in the public eye, but was catapulted there when she was shot in the head. What she's done since is her choice, obviously, but she didn't set out to have a career in politics.

And Malala is a spokeswoman for a movement, not someone who has explicitly applied for the job of representing 63 thousand people, sorting out their troubles with benefits, the council, immigration, all kinds of things. And I hope that Mhaire will have a good team that will handle much of the caseload, but there are still some things in which she will have to take the lead - and she will have to manage her staff, too. The buck will stop with her.

And Malala's job is inspiration as well as organisation. Mhaire's job is includes scrutinising legislation and holding the government to account, on all kinds of issues.

You are comparing apples and spark plugs.

*Mhairi, sorry, not Mhaire

Just a wee aside but she'll also share constituency issues with the MSPs for the area. A lot of people tend to go to councillors or MSPs before going to MPs now, depending on the issue.

Not a hope in hell.

Naive, silly and clearly not terribly bright.

And the idea that 56 of them are somehow going to sock it to 331 experienced, powerful and mature MP's is one of the funniest things I've read in a looooong time!

Being a teacher never used to be regarded as working class. I didn't meet kids of teachers till I went to University.

They've done not bad already in playing their part in raising and highlighting the legal and constitutional issues surrounding devolution and repealing the Human Rights Act.

They might not sock it to anyone but they're not just going sit down and shut up and lets face it, that's what it is that some people have a problem with.