I watched the first debate with the Scottish party leaders on Tuesday this week.
It was in Edinburgh, giving Jim Murphy the chance to make a very sour comment that Nicola was not talking to an English audience, last week’s debate in Manchester which Nicola won hands down. Jim of course would like to have been at that event but he wisna asked.
Nicola had the edge and the audience was more enthusiastic about her, Ruth Davidson was the usual flag waving Tory – union flag, not the Saltire, and Willie Rennie just seemed to meander from one topic to another. Ruth was not courting Willie. In many ways it was an opinion poll type debate, and a contest in what should be the outcome of the General Election. Nicola was up front, if the SNP had a large group of MPs and Labour had less than the Tories but could form an anti Tory alliance with the SNP, would Jim Murphy be amenable to that? He successfully avoided answering that, claiming his response was interrupted by Nicola! He kept wittering on about the last time the Westminster government was not formed by the largest party was 1924. He tried to dodge away from Labour’s attempt in 2010 to cobble up a coalition with anyone; the move was frustrated as it would have meant talking to the SNP and Gordon Brown’s boys refused to do that! And we only had 6 MPs!
Also I commented in the April Scots Independent that Alex Salmond overshadowed the last session of Prime Minister’s Questions. What kind of havoc will he wreak when he gets there!
Murphy said if we wanted a Labour government we should vote Labour and not SNP. Nicola’s response was that only a strong group of SNP MPs would get the best outcome for Scotland, as that would hold Miliband to his promise – remember the Vow? On their own they would just forget about us.
Westminster does not recognise fairness when it comes to Scotland, it only recognises power.
The Unionist mob are fair upset that we did not pack up our tents and go away after the referendum result. Where have they been as the grassroots movement grew exponentially?
I’m not sure that these debates do much good, seems that all each party wishes is to out do the other. Last Sunday we had what turned out to be a ‘Who can shout loudest’ match, totally our of control with nothing achieved. Today I watched a debate from Newcastle and I have to say it was really well conducted. There was no shouting over one another only the person with the microphone allowed to speak. Stewart Hosy was representing the SNP but it was clear that no one was really interested in what he had to say. It was as if he was an interloper, as if nothing he had to say was anything to do with their lives. What we really need is more debates without politicians present, then we would find out the real problems people face in their lives and what they would like their elected politicians to do about it, I think they call it democracy.