Showing posts with label Nicola Sturgeon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nicola Sturgeon. Show all posts
Monday, 12 March 2012
Nicola discovers "the real world"
Brian Taylor of BBC Scotland interviews Deputy FM Nicola Sturgeon.
Wriggling like a good'un, Ms Sturgeon explains why the SNP Government is wonderful and responsible for...well... nothing really....certainly nothing unpopular......it's own entertainments licence legislation, steel for the Forth road bridge purchased furth of Scotland, the collapsed banks, joining the Euro or retaining Sterling gay marriage, the SNP's tendency to call its opponents "anti-Scottish, defence policy. Clarity escapes, responsibility diffuses, problems dissolve, Brigadon is invoked, Denmark exalted, Norway eulogised (Iceland? Ireland? anathema...) magic wands are waved. And blame is placed. Anywhere but Holyrood.
Nicola finds time, inter alia, to criticise other people for saying that "Scotland is too wee and too poor" to survive in "independence" when no-one, except herself, even had a fleeting thought hinting at that position thus confirming my previous observation that it's always the Nats that bring this red herring into any conversation. Freudian transference personified.....
Nicola also finds (18 minutes in) that England would have helped bail out the failed Scottish banks and so saved an "independent" Scotland from bankruptcy. And, did you know, an "independent" Scotland would help the English bail out Barclays if it failed.
Hurrah for England! Hurrah for "interdependence"!
Nicola calls this "the real world".
You can't help thinking that, in the real real world, if "interdependence" is the best solution to the banking and other crises, why would any sane person claim that "independence" is better for the Scottish people? But, y'know what? Nicola didn't give any convincing reasons....
Thursday, 11 February 2010
What Nicola did...but why did she do it?
What exactly does Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister and Secretary of State for Health in the SNP Administration think she is doing?
The BBC reports that she has intervened in a court case to plead that a convicted benefits fraudster be treated with leniency because, she says, she had a "duty" to help her constituency.
But as Tom Harris MP states here, there is no such "duty" on any elected representative. Of course MPs and MSPs must listen to any constituent's case, but there is no obligation to act, and certainly no "duty" to write to courts in the case of convicted fraudsters or any other convicted criminal.
Following on from the "dinnergate" affair where she and Alex Salmond were seen to sell off time with Ministers at Holyrood in return for donations to the SNP, this decision asks serious questions of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP.
The BBC reports that she has intervened in a court case to plead that a convicted benefits fraudster be treated with leniency because, she says, she had a "duty" to help her constituency.
But as Tom Harris MP states here, there is no such "duty" on any elected representative. Of course MPs and MSPs must listen to any constituent's case, but there is no obligation to act, and certainly no "duty" to write to courts in the case of convicted fraudsters or any other convicted criminal.
Following on from the "dinnergate" affair where she and Alex Salmond were seen to sell off time with Ministers at Holyrood in return for donations to the SNP, this decision asks serious questions of Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Record numbers killed by "C-diff". SNP demands immediate public enquiry*
* Warning. Only part of this headline is accurate...
The herald reports here that the C-Difficile hospital acquired infection is killing more Scots than ever before. The figures jumped from 597 in 2007 to 765 in 2008, a rise of a third.
The one thing that is missing is the Nationalist outcry which greeted the C-diff figures before 2007. In 2006 hospital acquired infection was the direct responsibility of Labour ministers in Holyrood ad Westminster, the fault of the UK union and quite possibly a plot by the English to infect innocent Scots in their hospital beds.
Now?
Well... silence actually... Where is the strident voice of Nicola Sturgeon calling for an immediate public investigation and Ministerial resignations? Difficult, isn't it when you are the Minister responsible..? Where are the sirens of the cybernats demanding to identify whose fault is it now...? Who is to blame? And who should resign...?
Actually, it's the same as before.... Ministers can set all the policy targets they want and exhort this action ot that, but it is ultimately down to the people on the ground to take the necessary steps. Sometimes they do, and things work out. Sometimes they do, and things still don't work out. And sometimes they don't........ The point is that things happen, and the Minister, while top of the tree of responsibility is sometimes dependent on the workers at the roots to solve the actual problems
In short, government is difficult. And slogans and campaigns are great for stirring up emotions, but there is no substitute for clear thinking, hard work and perseverence. Even then, sometimes the problems remain stubbornly unresolved. If the lack of outcry from the SNP grass roots on this issue is a sign that, at last, they are beginning to recognise these hard facts, then hallelujah!
Of course it might just be that they never really cared about C-diff as a problem in itself, just a stick to beat the other parties with.... In which case, their silence on the issue now is understandable if, predictably, hypocritical.
The herald reports here that the C-Difficile hospital acquired infection is killing more Scots than ever before. The figures jumped from 597 in 2007 to 765 in 2008, a rise of a third.
The one thing that is missing is the Nationalist outcry which greeted the C-diff figures before 2007. In 2006 hospital acquired infection was the direct responsibility of Labour ministers in Holyrood ad Westminster, the fault of the UK union and quite possibly a plot by the English to infect innocent Scots in their hospital beds.
Now?
Well... silence actually... Where is the strident voice of Nicola Sturgeon calling for an immediate public investigation and Ministerial resignations? Difficult, isn't it when you are the Minister responsible..? Where are the sirens of the cybernats demanding to identify whose fault is it now...? Who is to blame? And who should resign...?
Actually, it's the same as before.... Ministers can set all the policy targets they want and exhort this action ot that, but it is ultimately down to the people on the ground to take the necessary steps. Sometimes they do, and things work out. Sometimes they do, and things still don't work out. And sometimes they don't........ The point is that things happen, and the Minister, while top of the tree of responsibility is sometimes dependent on the workers at the roots to solve the actual problems
In short, government is difficult. And slogans and campaigns are great for stirring up emotions, but there is no substitute for clear thinking, hard work and perseverence. Even then, sometimes the problems remain stubbornly unresolved. If the lack of outcry from the SNP grass roots on this issue is a sign that, at last, they are beginning to recognise these hard facts, then hallelujah!
Of course it might just be that they never really cared about C-diff as a problem in itself, just a stick to beat the other parties with.... In which case, their silence on the issue now is understandable if, predictably, hypocritical.
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