Leaked extracts of Nicola Sturgeon’s speech suggests she doesn’t care much about Syria

Nicola Sturgeon is to close the SNP annual conference today, and her aides have leaked what she proposes to say about UK military intervention in Syria. I hope there’s time for her to change the text because, as it stands, it’s muddled and rather embarrassing – it suggests that she does not understand the situation at all.

Unilateral air strikes, she is due to say, will merely add to the “already unimaginable human suffering” in the region. She will vaguely urge a diplomatic push at the UN to help bring the four-year civil war to an end (Isis, meet Mr Assad. Now, please shake hands). Of course now that Russia has established a de facto No-Fly Zone over the entire country, which even the Americans are respecting, that it is difficult to believe a parliamentary vote will be held, let alone approved. No matter. Sturgeon sees a good opportunity to underline the SNP’s status, and to draw a dividing line with the UK parties.