Nicola Sturgeon’s baffling electoral logic: vote Green to get Labour (and the SNP)

This election is going to be fun. Not because of the talent on display  – this is not the Champion’s League – but because most of the players are so hopeless their flounderings almost become endearing. There’s something wrong with each of them. Pick your favourite cripple.

Nicola Sturgeon is one of the more impressive performers which is why her lecture speech in London is, as always, worth paying attention to. Despite this, it was her remarks about her preferred outcomes that will draw more comment. Because, however unwittingly, the First Minister revealed how this election may yet chump us all. All across the country, you see, voters are confronted with imperfect choices. More noses may be held than ever before. Vote X to Get Y to Thwart Z is a ticklish calculation at the best of times and these are far from the best of times.

So, compiling an order of preference is a fraught business.