The first SNP leadership hustings was neatly summed up by the first question asked: ‘What will the candidates do to counter the misinformation, lies and antipathy aimed at our party on a daily basis by journalists based in Scotland?’
There was no mistaking that this was an SNP event. No political party likes the news media but Scottish nationalists are almost as much defined by their boundless, visceral hatred of journalists as they are by their ardour for independence. It wasn’t the only question to raise an eyebrow in Cumbernauld last night. Another member asked the candidates:
Yousaf is every bit the machine politician that Sturgeon is; he just does a better impression of a human being
‘Would you be prepared to invoke our claim of right to self-determination under the international law at the UN on a 50 per cent plus one vote?’
None of the three candidates disavowed the premise of the first question.
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