After the agony of the recent ITV opposition leaders’ debate, the Scottish leaders’ debate felt like a much-needed upgrade – in terms of leaders, and debate. Both Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon are better speakers than most MPs, and Kezia Dugdale (Labour leader in Scotland) makes more sense than anyone on Labour’s front bench. In the UK we get ‘strong and stable’ clichés from the Tories, a tragicomedy from Labour and either sex or marijuana from the Liberal Democrats. The BBC Scotland debate, deftly compered by Sarah Smith, felt like proper politics. The debate we should have had in the rest of the UK, but haven’t.
It was rowdy. Scots often are. Blows and barbs were exchanged, but they tended to be entertaining and informative. Ruth Davidson reminded Nicola Sturgeon about the last time she was in an televised election debate in Scotland, when she promised not to call for a second independent referendum unless people wanted it. Kezia Dugdale was also strong on EU migrants saying the first thing a Labour government would do is guarantee that they can stay. It’s the best reason I’ve yet heard for voting Labour on either side of the border, a point made with the kind of conviction that Corbyn and Dianne Abbott etc are unable to muster. But let’s leave the politicians aside: what struck me about tonight was the audience – and how many of them have had enough of the SNP.
The SNP recently celebrated its tenth year in power in Scotland, but after a decade it’s harder to disown failures. Of which there have been many. A relatively high proportion of Scots work in the public sector so in any audience Q&A there’s a higher chance that a nurse or a teacher will be asking the question. Given SNP’s handling of hospitals and schools, this could mean trouble for Nicola Sturgeon.
The first sign of this trouble was a nurse with a question for Ms Sturgeon.
There are far too many nursing positions unfilled, she said, a sign of what’s going wrong in NHS Scotland, run by the SNP government.
Sturgeon starts droning about the OECD but the questioner took the floor again. She revealed that she is a maths teacher. The camera didn’t show Sturgeon’s face at that point, but I’d have loved to have seen it: yet another public sector worker with first-hand experience of the SNP’s money-squandering. This teacher, it turns out, had plenty to say. ‘The Curriculum for Excellence [the SNP’s new school regime] has been panned by experts,’ she informed Sturgeon. Then she got going.
Ukip’s David Coburn, who was a noisy irrelevance for most of the debate, then made a good point: Scots used to boast about having the best education system in the world. State school kids were taught Latin and Greek at the age of 12. Each party leader on stage was (as I am) product of a schools system that was once world-class, but now isn’t. It’s a tragedy, and one should cause a lot more anger than it does.
Another student pointed out to Ms Sturgeon that her tuition fees pledge, which vastly subsidises middle class students, has come at the cost of pathetic support for living costs. This is a real killer, and helps explain why a Scottish kid from a disadvantaged background is half as likely to get into university than a deprived kid from England. This is a scandal.
The Scottish Green leader, Patrick Harvie, tried to save Sturgeon saying that health and education are issues devolved to Holyrood and technically not up for discussion in a Westminster election. ‘But we had a lot of interest from our audience and a lot of people care about it,’ said Sarah Smith. Which is telling: Scots are angry about the SNP’s record on public services and they want to talk about it, even in a Westminster general election campaign.
David Clegg, the political editor of the Daily Record, said at the end that the audience gave Ms Sturgeon a harder time than any of politicians: ‘I’ve never seen Nicola Sturgeon look quite so uncomfortable on television before,’ he said.
It has taken a while. But at long last, it seems the SNP’s atrocious record in government is catching up with Nicola Sturgeon. All the more reason to look forward to the general election on 8 June.
There are far too many nursing positions unfilled, she said, a sign of what’s going wrong in NHS Scotland, run by the SNP government.
Ouch – a very good question. Ukip’s David Coburn’s then saved Sturgeon from answering it by intervening with some irrelevant Brussels-bashing point. The nurse came back on later, saying that NHS Scotland nurses are talking about striking. The SNP has been in power for ten years – and for nine of them, nurses’ pay has been increased by just 1 per cent. She then started to lay into the First Minister. Later on, things then turned to education. Sturgeon started going on about the ‘much to be positive about’ and that it will be her first priority. Labour’s Kezia Dugdale then snapped.‘Do you think your perceived obsession with independence might actually cost you your seat in this election? Take the NHS: you say that you’ve ploughed millions into it. I’m a nurse, I can’t manage on the salary I have. I have to go to food banks. I’m struggling to pay bills. I want you to explain to me: do you know where any of that money has gone? Can you tell me? Because I can absolutely assure you that the nurses are seeing none of it on the ground floor.’
Kezia Dugdale: ‘You’ve had ten years. You’ve been in charge for ten years’ Nicola Sturgeon: ‘Which is why I’m proud of the fact that…’ Kezia Dugdale: ‘Proud? Proud of £1.5 billion of cuts, 4,000 fewer teachers, 1,000 fewer support staff, and a widening attainment gap between the richest and poorest kids? That’s your record! That’s ten years of the SNP!’
Sturgeon claimed, falsely, that the attainment gap is closing. Kezia didn’t let her away from it, and asked for the source. Sturgeon tried to deflect, but Kezia wouldn’t let go. ‘You can’t provide a a source because you’ve just told a porkie there,’ she said: the audience loved it. Sturgeon then admitted she was talking about university access, not schools. Then another audience question from a Louise Perry (below) about where the fault lies for the recent atrocious deterioration in numeracy in schools.
Sturgeon starts droning about the OECD but the questioner took the floor again. She revealed that she is a maths teacher. The camera didn’t show Sturgeon’s face at that point, but I’d have loved to have seen it: yet another public sector worker with first-hand experience of the SNP’s money-squandering. This teacher, it turns out, had plenty to say. ‘The Curriculum for Excellence [the SNP’s new school regime] has been panned by experts,’ she informed Sturgeon. Then she got going.
A few questions later, yet another teacher emerges (pictured, below) to administer some more home truths for Nicola Sturgeon: a fifth of primary students leave without basic literacy and numeracy skills – SNP rules, he says, means head teachers end up having to sink their budget by buying furniture, rather than investing in staff.‘I’m a teacher myself. I teach maths. You talk about record passes: well, that is going to happen if you lower the standard of exams. The standard of exams going out is absolutely disgraceful. The National Five does not look like what Standard Grade Credit did. [Both GCSE equivalents.] I’m only speaking about maths, because that’s my area. But if you’re going to lower the standard of exam, then you would see passes rising.’
Ukip’s David Coburn, who was a noisy irrelevance for most of the debate, then made a good point: Scots used to boast about having the best education system in the world. State school kids were taught Latin and Greek at the age of 12. Each party leader on stage was (as I am) product of a schools system that was once world-class, but now isn’t. It’s a tragedy, and one should cause a lot more anger than it does.
Another student pointed out to Ms Sturgeon that her tuition fees pledge, which vastly subsidises middle class students, has come at the cost of pathetic support for living costs. This is a real killer, and helps explain why a Scottish kid from a disadvantaged background is half as likely to get into university than a deprived kid from England. This is a scandal.
The Scottish Green leader, Patrick Harvie, tried to save Sturgeon saying that health and education are issues devolved to Holyrood and technically not up for discussion in a Westminster election. ‘But we had a lot of interest from our audience and a lot of people care about it,’ said Sarah Smith. Which is telling: Scots are angry about the SNP’s record on public services and they want to talk about it, even in a Westminster general election campaign.
David Clegg, the political editor of the Daily Record, said at the end that the audience gave Ms Sturgeon a harder time than any of politicians: ‘I’ve never seen Nicola Sturgeon look quite so uncomfortable on television before,’ he said.
It has taken a while. But at long last, it seems the SNP’s atrocious record in government is catching up with Nicola Sturgeon. All the more reason to look forward to the general election on 8 June.
Comments