You may have already seen this in the SNP press release yesterday, but a YouGov poll conducted last Thursday and Friday found an extraordinary level of support across the whole of Britain for Nicola Sturgeon to be included in the leaders' debates - 53% thought she should be in the line-up, while only 30% did not, and 17% didn't know. What's particularly striking is that there is an absolute majority in favour of her inclusion in every single region of England and Wales...
London -
Sturgeon should be included : 52%
Sturgeon should not be included : 29%
South of England (excluding London ) -
Sturgeon should be included : 53%
Sturgeon should not be included : 33%
English Midlands and Wales -
Sturgeon should be included : 52%
Sturgeon should not be included : 30%
North of England -
Sturgeon should be included : 51%
Sturgeon should not be included : 28%
Scotland -
Sturgeon should be included : 66%
Sturgeon should not be included : 24%
Over 50% of people who are planning to vote Tory, Labour or Lib Dem support Sturgeon's inclusion, with the opposition coming disproportionately from UKIP supporters. In Scotland itself, the percentage who think Sturgeon is entitled to a place in the debates is almost identical to the percentage who think Nigel Farage and Natalie Bennett should be included.
So fairness demands it, and the public support it. Inclusive debates would even make for a superior TV spectacle, because there would be more of a gender balance. So what exactly are the broadcasters scared of? It's terribly hard not to conclude that the answer is "the result of the election if her voice is heard".
It was an affront to democracy that they can actually consider not having all the parties in the debate. They seem to manage very well elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteThis actually demonstrates one of the key problems with Scottish culture as well.
ReplyDeleteThe very fact that only 66% of Scots thought Nicola Sturgeon should be in the debate shows pretty damn clearly that the cultural cringe and sense of inferiority that is still prevalent due to 300 years of colonial status.
The idea that 34% of the population do not think that the leader of the largest party in the country (and the most popular of any political party in the UK in terms of votes in seats where they stand) shouldn't participate in the national debate over the future of the country is just appalling.
To be fair, it's only 24% - the other 10% said they didn't know.
DeleteOf course but I still think it's a concern that this aspect of Scottish culture still hasn't been overcome. The SNP's insistence on White Heather/Shortbread Tin cultural tropes doesn't help.
DeleteThere are ways I can think of to get past this - ideally you need to create platforms for Scotland - and by that I mean the Scottish Government - to take on a more international perspective.
One option might be to pursue membership of the Nordic Council before Independence.
Another possibility is that the 14% are applying different criteria from you to determine who should be included. Perhaps they think it should only be parties who stand in enough seats to achieve a majority. That's not the test I'd use, but it's not really much more arbitrary than any of the other possibilites.
DeleteOr they might think Sturgeon shouldn't be there as she isn't a candidate, but would have no objection to Salmond. Admittedly, you hear this particular objection much less from Unionists than you did in 2010.
DeleteThe establishment want the two party system to continue to protect themselves.
ReplyDeleteBanned Worldwide: Princess Diana Documentary ‘Unlawful Killing’. Must See.
This is all the more impressive when you consider the blanket demonisation of the SNP and Yes supporters that went on for years in the overwhelmingly unionist media in England and rUK.
ReplyDeleteNot only has that failed utterly but it would appear that voters in rUK actually realise there's probably a good reason Nicola and the SNP are so popular while the out of touch westminster leaders like little Ed, Cameron and Clegg are so unpopular.
They want to hear from Nicola and hear what she and the SNP stands for. Considering their only alternative is listening to the same old tired right-wing bullshit from the likes of Cameron, little Ed, Clegg and Farage, you can hardly blame them.
I just have some reservations about Nicola being in the debates when she's not standing to be an MP. Wouldn't Angus Robertson be more appropriate. He'd shred them too.
ReplyDeleteStewart Hosie as Depute Leader?
DeleteOr him, indeed. He'd shred them too.
DeleteI reckon that's it then. There will be no debates. Unless the BBC can come up with a cunning enough watertight scheme to make Nicola look bad.......
ReplyDeleteNicola, it should be remembered, is not standing for election to the Westminster parliament. Should it not be Angus Robertson - as the SNP leader in the House of Commons - who would be invited in the unlikely event of the English broadcasters agreeing to permit insurgents to sully the stage?
ReplyDeleteIs there an echo in here? ;)
DeleteThe leader of the Greens isn't an MP either so Nicola is in same position.
ReplyDeleteNot really. Natalie Bennett isn't an MP but she is a candidate to be one. But this objection is easily answered by having Salmond or Hosie as the SNP representative.
DeleteMuch like the poundshop racist Farage. Last I looked he wasn't an MP and that they might want to be one is immaterial since they are far from assured to become one.
DeleteOnce again for those who somehow didn't get it, this is supposed to be a LEADERS debate.
These are supposedly leaders debates and it isn't a presidential system. We vote for a party at the westminster GE.
ReplyDeleteTo be totally accurate, we vote for a candidate.
DeleteFair enough but since the broadcasters unaccountably think viewers brains would explode at the horror of a mere five or six leaders sharing a stage, I have to wonder what their response would be to having a debate with several hundred candidates.
DeleteI'd rather watch that than any of the permutations that we may actually end up with.
DeleteI'd rather watch all six including Nicola and Natalie in multiple debates covering all policy areas. Since that is self-evidently the fairest solution and also easily done. It's also what the public want to see as this poll proves.
DeleteI know what the westminster twits want to watch and that's themselves with nobody else given a chance to debate them.
Whether the unionist broadcasters cave in to their westminster masters and exclude something fairly close to a half of scottish voters and so many green voters from having a voice remains to be seen.
If they do then the scottish public are hardly likely to miss that blatant unfairness or soon forget it. Nor will the westminster twits do particularly well since they can hardly hide how laughably out of touch they all in the debates are or hide away from the voters till after May if it does all fall apart.
I agree with Tris on this matter. Stewart Hosie would be the better choice.
ReplyDeleteAngus Robertson is an ideal guy for a committee or parliamentary procedure but Hosie is a stronger presence in the studio. He has a steady, understated seriousness which compels the listener's attention and handles interviewers' interventions with aplomb.
Nicola Sturgeon should treat the UK election as a waymarker on a longer road. Meanwhile Alex Salmond is still box office and can float as many red herrings as he wishes and the media will still bite.
This election is gonny be a laugh.
Stewart Howie is also a good debater as George Robertson learned to his cost last year at Abertay University
ReplyDeleteStewart would be good but the question was about Nicola and I have no doubt whatsoever the westminster twits fear debating Nicola above all else.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast between Nicola and a bunch of privileged male machine politicians/overgrown public schoolboys could hardly be more stark.
It's also telling that the most clueless and out of touch of the westminster bubble media drones have tried to pretend this part of the poll doesn't exist. Such a pity for them that it's doing great on Facebook and social media in scotland. It will also be used again and again and again during the campaign if the unionist broadcasters keep trying to marginalise and silence so many of scotland's voters by unfairly excluding Nicola and the SNP.
The SNP might hold that crucial balance of power at Westminster after the election and therefore be in a strong position to influence which bills are and are not passed by the Westminster Parliament, if they change their position on not voting on english-only matters. You would therefore think that the rest of the UK outwith Scotland would want to know more about the SNP's leader and policies and who and what they might support as this could inevitably affect them in the event of a hung parliament.
ReplyDeleteI'm not particularly bothered as to who would represent the SNP as all of those mentioned could do equally well but the whole point is that they should be invited to do so in the first instance. I notice that Farage was on Question Time again and wonder how often UKIP have been on the programme and/or "Have I got news for you" as compared to the SNP?
ReplyDelete