Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Sturgeon’s soft-balls up

Scottish Parliament

Oh dear. It was less than a week ago that Nicola Sturgeon mixed up two of her SNP backbenchers in the Holyrood chamber and gave pre-emptive answers to their questions, thus appearing to be clairvoyant. Now the same thing has happened again today.

Asked by one of her MSPs for an update on the establishment of a Covid-19 inquiry, the First Minister gave an answer solely on education and reducing risk of outbreaks in schools. Baffled parliamentarians heard the following exchange: 

Question: Thank you very much Presiding Officer. Can the First Minister provide an update on the work being conducted to establish an independent public inquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic in Scotland?

Answer: We will continue to work across the education sector to make sure that we take all appropriate actions to support the safe return of teaching, to ensure physical distancing remains in place, that face coverings continue to be used and that vaccination continues to be encouraged. There is an opportunity over the next few weeks to really maximise the uptake of vaccination and to use testing to full extent as well, and there is a big responsibility on the part of everybody here to make sure that everything possible is being done to reduce the risk of outbreaks in the weeks to come.

Tory Stephen Kerr raised this in a point of order, only to be told by the Presiding Officer that the issue of member’s contributions is not for her. Quelle surprise. Still, Steerpike congratulates Sturgeon on her ingenuity on such a seemingly boilerplate answer.

Only the SNP could manage to answer the wrong softball question eh?

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Steerpike
Written by
Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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