A trip to the USA? Nice work if you can get it...
NICE time of year for a break. The weather is miserable, the country is going to hell in a handcart and there’s absolutely nothing on the box. So perhaps we shouldn’t be too harsh on our esteemed First Minister, who jetted off to the US this week for a few days away. After all, her aides would no doubt tell us that far from this being a jolly little holiday, Nicola Sturgeon has been ‘working hard’.
First up was an address at Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security in Washington, and an interview with TV channel PBS.
Then she met the head of Marriott Hotels and signed an agreement with the Governor of New Jersey to tackle climate change. All crucial events for the future of Scotland, I’m sure you’ll agree.
On Thursday she hobnobbed with a few business folk and then trotted off to the United Nations, where she was appointed global advocate for UN Women’s gender equality programme.
What an honour. Although I can’t help but wonder what’s going to be boosted more by this accolade, gender equality or Sturgeon’s ego? Also – whisper it – hasn’t she got enough on her plate?
Look, I understand that as a small nation, it’s important to be out there on the global stage. Particularly when you’re trying to prove to the world, and the folks back home, that you really can make a go of this independence thing (spoiler alert: it’s not going to happen).
But there’s such a thing as reading the room. Scotland is not exactly in good shape right now. This is a country reeling from watching Alex Salmond, Sturgeon’s predecessor and self-styled father of the nation, be charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and two attempted rapes.
A place that is bruised, confused and sick to the back teeth of endless Brexit negotiations.
A country that wants the basics – healthcare, transport, education – the things we all care about, yet often seem like a minor distraction to our politicians, taken seriously.
On Monday the SNP unveiled its disastrous and ill-thought-out car parking levy, crowbarred into existence by the seemingly all-powerful Greens.
It is a tax which will once again target middle Scotland, the hardworking folks trying to get by, the ones who cannot, by any measure, be viewed as rich, yet are being squeezed dry by an SNP Government that is making it harder than ever to get on in life in this country if you are ambitious and work for a living.
What does Sturgeon have to say about this? I’ve no idea. Perhaps we should ask the Governor of New Jersey.
ALL-SINGING, all-dancing overseas trips such as this are little more than showboating politics – a soft-soaping week away in which no one asks the hard questions and the First Minister gets a break from the Chamber.
To be fair, Sturgeon is quite popular abroad. Given her dive in approval ratings here, it must be a refreshing sensation. But for most Scots, this trip is utterly meaningless. Sturgeon shouldn’t be surprised, when she finally returns home, to be accused of fiddling while Holyrood burns.