There is a truism in British politics that things would be much more civil if there were more women in the room. Tonight’s all-male Scottish leaders’ debate undermined that: the exchanges were far less vehement and aggressive than they had been when Nicola Sturgeon was SNP leader and when she was facing other female leaders.
The real reason for this had nothing to do with the gender of the leaders standing in the STV studio, or indeed much to do with a new era of kinder, more civil politics and everything to do with the fact the wind has gone out of the SNP’s sails. John Swinney reminded the audience that he hadn’t expected to be in this position just five weeks ago, but that he wanted to ‘protect Scotland in these tough times’. It was a shift from the hugely popular ‘stronger voice for Scotland’ pitch that Sturgeon made when the SNP swept away nearly all other parties in Scotland in 2015.
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