Nicola sturgeon

Thursday

Max Hastings

Diary – 10 September 2015

During our annual odyssey around the Scottish Highlands, I read Tears of the Rajas, Ferdinand Mount’s eloquent indictment of imperial expansionism in India. One of Ferdy’s themes is that the British lived in the country without ever attempting to make themselves of it. How far is that true of sporting visitors to Scotland? The SNP’s persecution of landowners gains traction from the fact that guests in shooting and fishing lodges encounter only keepers, gillies, stalkers. We disport ourselves within a social archipelago utterly remote from the mainland of the society in which it lies. In our defence, however, that is what tourists do everywhere in the world, much to the

Monday

Freddy Gray

Is Nicola Sturgeon trying to have her feminist cake and eat it too?

Nicola Sturgeon is fed up that ‘literally every time I’m on camera’ people discuss her appearance. She’s so fed up, in fact, that she’s done a photo-shoot with Vogue to prove how ‘inured’ she has become. Yup, that’s right, Vogue, a magazine that is all about policy and principle; a magazine that has no truck with our image-obsessed age. The endless commentary on her appearance is, she says, ‘hideous and quite cruel’. Is it? Perhaps I have missed something — and no doubt nasty Tweeters have said many horrid things to poor Nicola — but I’ve always been struck by how generous the media has been about Sturgeon’s looks and

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 3 September 2015

Home The Government decided after all to retain the rules preventing ministers and their departments from publishing campaign material, ‘with some exceptions’, in the month before the referendum on membership of the European Union. The Electoral Commission said the planned wording for the referendum, ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union?’ could favour the status quo, and proposed adding the words ‘or leave the European Union?’ The government said it accepted the change, but Parliament must decide. Net migration to the UK had reached the unprecedented level of 330,000 in the year to March, according to the Office for National Statistics. Rebekah Brooks was to return

Steerpike Steerpike

Yvette Cooper responds to Charles Moore over wardrobe comments

Charles Moore recently wrote in his Spectator Notes that a candidate’s looks matter in leadership elections. While discussing the Labour leadership hopefuls, he noted that Liz Kendall ‘looks like a nice person, but not in a distinctive way’ whereas there is ‘something quite appealing’ about Yvette Cooper’s ‘slightly French crop and black and white dresses, especially when she is so boring that one looks rather than listens’. Not everyone was charmed by Moore’s critique, with many defending the ladies’ honour online and Nicola Sturgeon even intervening on Twitter. Now Cooper has responded to Moore in an interview in this week’s issue of The Spectator. Speaking to Mr S’s colleague Isabel Hardman, Cooper says the remarks were ‘the

Thursday

Val Mcdermid

Diary – 27 August 2015

There are many good reasons for being in Edinburgh in August, when the population doubles and nobody looks twice if you walk down the street in a sequinned basque with a man dressed as a leopard on a leash. One of those reasons is a certain kind of lunch — an assortment of natives augmented by visiting actors, writers, journalists and any other good talkers who happen to be passing. And so to the elegant New Town flat of journalist Katherine O’Donnell with campaigner and memoirist Paris Lees, actor Rebecca Root, novelist and journalist Ben McPherson and human geographer Jo Sharp. The first question is, of course, ‘What have you

Monday

Alex Massie

Nicola Sturgeon’s bandwagon rolls on: a new poll puts the SNP on 62%

People like to support successful teams. That’s why there are far more Chelsea fans now than there were 20 years ago. It’s why, in Scotland, Celtic and (until recently) Rangers carved up the country between them. And it helps explain, a little, why the SNP is now polling at 62 percent. You read that correctly: 62 percent. Today’s Herald/TNS poll suggests the SNP could win 78 seats at next year’s Scottish parliament elections. And with the Greens projected to take nine seats, pro-independence parties would hold 87 of Holyrood’s 129 seats. Labour would be reduced to 25 MSPs, the Tories 15 and the Lib Dems to only two. So if this

Thursday

Steerpike

Lynton Crosby offers Nigel Farage some career advice

In an interview with Sky News Australia, David Cameron’s former election strategist Lynton Crosby has today offered his thoughts on the Prime Minister’s rivals. Unsurprisingly, his conclusions are hardly flattering. However, the man who has taken the brunt of Crosby’s ire is Nigel Farage. Crosby claims that Ukip does not have ‘a long-term future’. Furthermore, instead of trying to win a Westminster seat again, Farage would be better advised to look for chat show work in Australia: ‘They are very reliant on the performance of their leader Nigel Farage and even he couldn’t win a seat. Sixth or seventh time he’s tried to win a Westminster seat. I think he might be

Thursday

Rod Liddle

If Corbyn becomes PM, I’m blaming you lot

Imagine, for a moment, the following scenario. In 2016 Britain votes narrowly to remain within the European Union, despite the Prime Minister having achieved little in attempting to renegotiate the terms of our membership. The ‘out’ campaign — which was no longer led by a marginal party, Ukip, but by the majority of the parliamentary Labour party, under its new leader Jeremy Corbyn — came mightily close to securing our withdrawal, and thus, as it is put by proponents, our independence. Subsequently, Labour receives the same sort of bounce in the opinion polls as the SNP enjoyed following the equally close independence referendum in Scotland — helped by a continuing crisis in the

Tuesday

Rod Liddle

Jeremy Corbyn won’t destroy Labour. But he might yet destroy the country

Imagine, for a moment, the following scenario. In 2017 Britain votes narrowly to remain within the European Union, despite the Prime Minister having achieved little in attempting to renegotiate the terms of our membership. The ‘out’ campaign — which after 2016 was no longer led by a marginal party, Ukip, but by the majority of the ­parliamentary Labour party, under its new leader Jeremy Corbyn — came mightily close to securing our withdrawal, and thus, as it is put by proponents, our independence. Subsequently, Labour receives the same sort of bounce in the opinion polls as the SNP enjoyed following the equally close independence referendum in Scotland — helped by

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Is another referendum on Scottish independence actually inevitable?

So here we go again. Alex Salmond, popping up on the Andrew Marr show while Nicola Sturgeon is in China, makes news without saying anything new about the circumstances in which the SNP might – or might not! – press for a second referendum on Scottish independence. David Cameron, also overseas, responds saying there’s no need for any such plebiscite at any point in this parliament. Calm down, Jock. This will, I am sure, be well-received. All of which should surprise precisely no-one. Seventy percent of SNP supporters want another referendum before the end of this parliament; 90 percent want one within ten years. In such circumstances, you can understand why Salmond thinks another

Tuesday

Melissa Kite

The SNP has struck its first blow against English democracy. It won’t be the last

So now we all know what we’re dealing with. This SNP malice against the English and our democracy is no joke. After repeatedly promising that her party would not abuse its newfound power to interfere in matters relating only to England, Nicola Sturgeon has shown her true colours. She means war. She is up for a bit of constitutional wrecking. The SNP statement saying they will oppose the Hunting Act amendments just to remind ‘an arrogant UK government of just how slender their majority is’ is nothing less than chilling. Let’s be clear. This is not about hunting. The SNP can’t say it is and don’t attempt to say it is,

Toby Young Toby Young

An independent Scotland could easily have been the next Greece

I wonder how many Scots who voted ‘Yes’ in last year’s referendum are watching events unfold in Greece and having second thoughts? It’s not quite a ‘there, but for the grace of God’ moment, but it’s not far off. This analogy depends upon two big assumptions, both of which will be disputed by the nationalists. The first is that Scotland would not have automatically been allowed to remain in the EU following a ‘Yes’ vote, but, as a new state, would have had to apply for membership and, as a condition of joining, would have been forced to join the euro. How questionable is this assumption? The Scottish government’s position has

Sebastian Payne

Nicola Sturgeon: SNP is using foxhunting to kick the Tories — and will intervene on English issues again

It has only taken the SNP 68 days to jettison its principles for some good old Tory bashing. On the Today programme, Nicola Sturgeon gave three reasons as to why the SNP will be voting against relaxed foxhunting restrictions in England. Combined with an ‘overwhelming demand from people in England’ and a potential future debate about Scottish foxhunting laws, the First Minister happily admitted that the decision had ‘less to do with foxhunting’ and more to do with giving David Cameron a kicking: ‘Since the election, David Cameron’s government has shown very little respect to the mandate that Scotland MPs have. On the Scotland Bill, reasonable amendments backed by the overwhelming majority of Scottish MPs have been voted down. The English

Thursday

Kate Chisholm

Caught offside

It’s not surprising that politicians have such an on-off relationship with the broadcast media. One slip. One casual comment. One lapse of memory. Even the immaculate, armour-plated Nicola Sturgeon was caught out by Jane Garvey last Wednesday as the Woman’s Hour presenter congratulated her on her latest elevation. It had just been announced that Scotland’s First Minister was top of the Woman’s Hour ‘power list’ of the top ten women for 2015 (beating Angelina Jolie and Caitlyn Jenner) and Sturgeon was doing a live telephone interview on the Radio 4 programme from her office in Edinburgh. Garvey then lobbed a question, oh so casually, but oh so deliberately, like a

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

At this rate Labour won’t even be a debating society in five years time

The phoney war continues. While Labour searches for its next Michael Foot, the party’s stand-in boss, Harriet Harman, seems keen to lose the 2020 election as soon as possible. Some argue Ed Miliband has already performed that task. Either way, defeat is the only thing Labour does efficiently nowadays. Ms Harman attacked the PM’s plan to abolish a policy that many hail as Gordon Brown’s Worst Ever Idea: tax credits. These mean that thousands of Whitehall scribblers deposit cash with workers who then return the money, via thousands more scribblers, to the government which never owned it in the first place. Labour loves the N Korean ambience of this system

Monday

Steerpike

David Starkey defends his comments comparing the SNP to the Nazis

Over the weekend, David Starkey caused outrage in Scotland when he compared the SNP to the Nazis. While the SNP MP Kirsten Oswald was quick to dismiss Starkey as a ‘serial utterer of bile and bilge’, others called for an apology from the historian. So, how did Starkey feel this morning having had time to reflect on his comments? Turns out, he didn’t feel all that different. Answering a question on Sky News about whether he regretted his comments, Starkey said he did not, explaining that he stood by what he had said: Starkey said the SNP were a ‘virulently nationalist party’ and blamed political correctness for the backlash: ‘It’s time we call things

Wednesday

Steerpike

Nicola Sturgeon puts (lung free) haggis on the menu in America

Steerpike has long been a champion of the fight to get America to lift the ban on Scottish haggis being imported into their country. So Mr S was cheered to hear that Nicola Sturgeon has been doing her bit to fly the flag for the national dish on her trip to America. The New York Post reports that Sturgeon’s team made some last minute menu requests ahead of a work lunch at Incognito Italian bistro in New York, following her appearance on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. The Scottish-Italian proprietors Paolo Montana and Adriana Moretti reportedly proposed an all-Italian menu, but Sturgeon’s team asked them to also include Scottish classics ‘like highland haggis and smoked Scottish salmon’. Alas

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 28 May 2015

Home A Bill to enable a referendum on whether voters wanted Britain to ‘remain’ in the European Union figured in the Queen’s Speech. Another Bill prohibited any rise in income tax rates, VAT or national insurance before 2020. Tenants of housing associations would be given the right to buy their homes. Provision for Scottish devolution was promised in fulfilment of the recommendations of the cross-party Smith Commission. A ‘powerhouse’ in the north was to come into being through cities being given powers over housing, transport, planning and policing. Laws on strikes would be tightened. Red tape for business would be reduced, and a new quango set up to invigilate late

Toby Young Toby Young

Sturgeon doth protest too much, me thinks

I couldn’t believe it when Nicola Sturgeon called for the resignation of Alistair Carmichael, the former Scottish Secretary, over his role in the leaked memo affair. As readers will recall, the Daily Telegraph published a confidential document during the election campaign that purported to be an account of a conversation between Sturgeon and Sylvie Bermann, the French ambassador, in which Sturgeon said she’d prefer David Cameron to Ed Miliband as Prime Minister. Carmichael has now owned up to leaking the document, which originated in the Scottish Office, but this isn’t the cause of Sturgeon’s outrage. No, Carmichael’s sin was denying all knowledge of the leak when asked about it at

Damian Mcbride

George Galloway could be London’s Nicola Sturgeon

When you tell people you work in or around politics, and if you can break through the initial contempt or boredom, one type of question tends ‎to surface first: ‘what is so-and-so really like?’ There are three answers to that question, only one of them good: ‘They’re exactly how they come across on telly‘, which — unless you’re the likes of Boris Johnson or William Hague — is usually not a compliment. It tends to mean the individual is the kind of wooden, humourless, unthinking, battery hen politician that makes the public yawn, scream or both; ‘They’re a total (uncomplimentary word)’. That word might refer to their private behaviour towards