Nicola slams sexist BoJo
BORIS Johnson is a sexist who has threatened democracy by shutting down Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday in a blistering attack on the PM.
Johnson was embroiled in controversy last week when he used the terms “girly swot” and “big girl’s blouse” as insults.
The First Minister, speaking at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Diversity Summit in Gleneagles, branded his comments “sexist”.
She added: “It must say something about somebody when – as we have seen with both of those examples – his insult of choice is ‘girl’.
“I have to say though – as somebody who is very proud to have been a girly swot – the world might be a better place right now if there were more girly swots in charge.”
It emerged last week that Johnson had branded David Cameron a “girly swot” in a leaked cabinet paper.
He also called Jeremy Corbyn a “big girl’s blouse” for not agreeing to an immediate general election to break the Brexit deadlock.
Sturgeon told delegates the PM’s remarks on women were connected to his flippant attitudes to other matters.
And she insisted his decision to prorogue Parliament raised issues about democracy in the UK.
She said: “Boris Johnson has come into office after Theresa May and has quite dramatically shifted the policy position and the approach the Government has taken and there has been no opportunity for the public to have their say on that.
“So I do think there are issues of democracy being raised there, obviously, with what has happened over the last week or so with the proroguing of Parliament and all the issues around that.
“What we are seeing in politics just now is not normal and I suppose there is a connection between that and some of the language he has used about ‘girly swots’. The UK is not unique here – this is happening all over the world. We are in danger of normalising things that are not normal and we have got to be very careful about that.
“When things happen that are wrong, we have got to be careful that we don’t forget they are wrong and don’t allow them to become part of the normal way of functioning.”
Sturgeon also admitted she had acted more aggressively as a young politician because she had
“subliminally” been influenced by men she looked up to.
The SNP leader, who worked closely with Alex Salmond for decades, added: “The most important piece of advice I always give to young women who ask me for advice is: ‘Be yourself ’.
“When I look back now, because I was a much younger woman in politics, I was surrounded by men and you subconsciously find yourself emulating their behaviour
“In politics thaat can mean behaving very aggressively and
adversarily because you subliminally think that is the way to get on.
“Often what you find is that it is a double whammy – if you behave like that you are criticised for not being feminine enough but if you behave more femininely you get criticised for not being serious enough.”
Other speakers at the conference included comedian and Labour activist Eddie Izzard, tennis legend Martina Navratilova and Judy Murray, mum of tennis stars Sir Andy and Jamie Murray.