Nicola Sturgeon to resign as Scotland's first minister

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64647907

by mellosouls • 3 years ago

39 41 3 years ago

bbc.co.uk

mellosouls4• 3 years ago

As an Englishman, I've been impressed with how mature and competent the Scottish leaders have seemed in comparison with their English counterparts; I don't know if it's a systemic or cultural thing (or just my imagination), but as a representative of that tendency I'm sad to see her go.

mamonster• 3 years ago

To be honest, in comparison to the last 5 years of the Tory part, Sturgeon is quite competent.

The only proper scandal I remember is the Salmond case, and then in terms of being incompetent the only thing which is undisputable is how badly she has handled the Scottish drug policy/crisis.

mellosouls4• 3 years ago

Ironically, I was always very impressed with Salmond as well, he seemed to be on a different level, wit and intelligence wise to his English colleagues. It all obviously got a bit grimy with him and Sturgeon at the end, so I didn't mention it.

There has also been the recent trans policy heat (not to say she is on the wrong side, I have no idea) and the finance debacle that Private Eye has been tracking.

So yes, they are hardly pure, but just seem generally more professional and trustworthy.

fidgewidge5• 3 years ago

You don't remember any except the salmond case because the left wing media treat the SNP very softly. There were lots of scandals during her time, e.g. the ferries disaster, the current gender self id / rapist case, the missing 660k, her regular faked inability to recall critical facts when questioned about things, breaking her own mask mandate, threatening to prosecute MSPs if they spoke against Sturgeon, the attempt to take complete power over from the Scottish Parliament via a pandemic law etc.

tjpnz• 3 years ago

I do wonder how much of that could be put down to how fantastically incompetent their English counterparts are.

ZeroGravitas• 3 years ago

My hobby horse is more representative voting systems and the one in place in Scotland encourages people to aim for broad suppport rather than be loved and hated by a minority.

chkaloon• 3 years ago

How does it do that? Some sort of ranked choice?

fidgewidge5• 3 years ago

Sturgeon was competent at enforcing party unity and winning Scottish elections. But in terms of actually achieving things for Scotland, both her and the SNP have failed. It's a one issue party so in terms of independence:

- Support for independence is now lower than when she took the reigns. That by itself must count as failure on the SNP's own terms.

- Lost the "once in a generation" referendum and then refused to accept the result, campaigning for years for a second referendum she had already agreed wouldn't happen.

- Made zero progress on reducing subsidy dependency on England, creating the widespread impression that the SNP doesn't really want Scotland to be independent. Many other specific issues around independence also have been ignored despite the lack of answers being one of the issues causing their referendum loss.

- Done everything possible to piss off the neighbours across the border, like encouraging anti-English rhetoric that would be considered grotesquely racist if there was a skin color difference.

And in non-referendum areas:

- Poverty and poor health are worse in Scotland than England.

- She said she wanted to be judged on closing education gaps, but they didn't close.

- The economy is worse.

- Social policy is totally reactive. Under Sturgeon the SNP just tended to copy whatever England was doing but making it more extreme, without any obvious guiding principles. The gender self-ID fiasco is a good example of that. 2/3rds of voters are against it and Salmond says it's done more damage to the independence campaign than anything else (which says a lot about the strength of that campaign). She didn't think through the consequences and when faced with the reality of what it means in the Isla Bryson case, flailed around and couldn't articulate a coherent response. Total incompetence.

- Scotland has quietly developed a reputation for corruption and weak institutions, with problems you don't see elsewhere in the country.

The nasty Salmond/Sturgeon affair was one example, and her resignation is likely triggered by the police finally starting to investigate where £600,000 of donated money was apparently embezzled to. The way she "can't recall" that her husband lent over £100,000 to the SNP is another symptom of this sort of thing.

ThePowerOfFuet• 3 years ago

- Lost the "once in a generation" referendum and then refused to accept the result, campaigning for years for a second referendum she had already agreed wouldn't happen.

Many voted no to remain in the EU, only to have the rug pulled out from under them anyway. That surely justifies a redo.

sentinalien• 3 years ago

Do you have any examples of the grotesquely racist anti-English rhetoric encouraged by Sturgeon?

gadders• 3 years ago

It seems since she is been in power she's conflated the SNP with the Scottish state.

Gortal278• 3 years ago

It's mostly just good PR. Overall the SNP have pushed Scotland down the rankings in pretty much every measurable metric that matters.

neom• 3 years ago

Last of my "4 Favs" is gone, shame. May, Merkel, Ardern and Sturgeon.

mellosouls4• 3 years ago

I agree that women have seemed relatively impressive at the top when they have stuck compared to their male counterparts; again, I don't know if that is coincidental, or representative of something we should learn from.

dbspin3• 3 years ago

Theresa May is certainly the exception on that list. She's widely regarded (next to Liz Truss) as one of the most ineffectual Prime Ministers of the last fifty years.

heywherelogingo2• 3 years ago

The list makes no sense - revealing your motives.

lucideer5• 3 years ago

I wouldn't include May (see my reply to a sibling comment), but otherwise the only other person that seems slightly odd in that list is Merkel for being a christian conservative, but - even as a leftist - she's still one of the only one leaders I can think of that I would actually respect the integrity of (individual political stances aside). So the list seems relatively sound.

I presume you're seeing gender when you say "motives" & otherwise ignoring any actual substance of these leaderships?

I'm genuinely struggling to think of any male leaders I would add to the list - Hollande is a contender but there's a lot of issues there. Open to any suggestions for the list...

j0ncc• 3 years ago

If the list makes no sense or follow a pattern, how does it reveal a motive?

heywherelogingo2• 3 years ago

Scotland's been losing its way - things can only improve.

0xAFFFF• 3 years ago

How so?

esja• 3 years ago

The prison issue wasn't the only straw but I believe it was the last one.

It wasn't just that her government tried to put a male rapist in a female prison, after ignoring years of warnings that self-id would cause this to happen.

It was that when questioned, she repeatedly demonstrated that she was either unable or unwilling to grasp the logic of the situation and address the mistake with integrity. Instead she continued trying to square the circle.

Nicola Sturgeon to resign as Scotland's first minister

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