Has anyone told the First Minister she is not a head of state while on trip to US?
Has anyone informed the First Minister that she is not a head of state or even the elected representative of a sovereign nation?
I know it must be galling for her, but she is the administrator of a politically devolved region of the United Kingdom and is operating well out with her already broad remit.
She has been in the United States posing as the avatar of Scotland, the sole voice of the Scottish people. But make no mistake, she is only the voice of the SNP. The Scottish peo- ple aren’t as ideologically and politically rigid as she would have the rest of the world believe.
We don’t want independence, over a third of us wanted to leave the European Union and we don’t want a second independence referendum.
But then again, she never passes an opportunity for a spot of virtue signalling to pretend how progressive she is without following through on her supposed values.
Meanwhile, the Scottish economy is in the doldrums and is on the verge of recession, despite the economy of the rest of the UK continuing to grow. It’s good to see that the First Minister has her priorities in order.
DAVID BONE Ailsa Street West, Girvan
Watching the live stream of Nicola Sturgeon’s address to an audience at Stanford University (California) I was unsurprised that she framed her speech on “Scotland’s Place in the World” in a rather glossy portrayal of Scotland as modern, progressive, pro-eu nation with high ambitions for social fairness and prosperity at the cusp of a new vote on independence.
In familiar rhetoric, she contrasted this vision with a presumably unco-operative, Brexit-ridden Westminster and declared her “fervent wish” for independence.
Yet more interesting were the questions from the floor. One gentleman asked Nicola Sturgeon why she didn’t want to stay with the UK and form a stronger alliance to get the best out of the Brexit negotiations? A Stanford student from Falkirk highlighted that Scotland relied heavily on oil, whisky and salmon exports – since she wasn’t interested in any of that, which other industries apart from renewables would an independent Scotland offer to attract her home?
A student from the EU enquired what Sturgeon intended to do about the rights of EU citizens in Scotland should there be no indyref in two years’ time. A Budapest university graduate asked her if she had any plans, given her outspoken commitment to the EU and to universal values like inclusiveness and openness, to work together with European governments to confront attacks on these values from within the EU. And so on.
It was refreshing to see the First Minister articulating responses which required more than the standard SNP phrases. Perhaps the style of questioning back home could do with a bit of refreshing, too?
REGINA ERICH
Willow Row, Stonehaven