‘As long as we are in power, this city will loom large in our minds’
THE first thought in Nicola Sturgeon’s head every morning is that she is First Minister of Scotland. It is a thought process she hopes will continue next week.
The SNP may have been in Government since 2007, but for Scotland’s first female First Minister it is just the start. She is now seeking her own mandate, putting education and childcare at the top of her agenda.
Being First Minister is an inescapable, round-the-clock responsibility and is one she claimed to relish.
She said: “You never stop knowing you’re First Minister. You are never off duty, it’s probably every morning the first thing that is i n my consciousness. “It is also a massive privilege.” Ms Sturgeon faces a two-pronged battle in this election. She is the face of the SNP campaign but still has a constituency contest to win in Glasgow Southside. She said: “I’ve been there most days I think. The only time that hasn’t been the case is when I’ve been in the islands and Highlands, or down in the Borders.”
In the city she has huge support but it is also home to her fiercest critics who lay the blame for cuts and job losses at her door. When asked why more wasn’t done to save 1500 council jobs in Glasgow she called the settlement tough but fair.
Ms Sturgeon, said: “We work with councils to protect council investment as best we can. The overall council budget was a tough one. I don’t make any bones about that but when you take account of the transferred investment from the health service into social care it amounted to something like one per cent of the total revenue expenditure of councils.”
She added: “I don’t for a minute say that’s easy but equally some of what we have heard from Labour councillors has been perhaps a bit political in its characterisation. So we will work with councils, whatever its colour, wherever they are in the country, to protect local services.”
She says the SNP has delivered for Glasgow and when challenged to say how, a list of achievements is rattled off: New hospital, a new college, help for small business, money for the NHS and Commonwealth Games.
She said: “We’ve done a massive amount for Glasgow. I think our record in and for Glasgow is a good one. As somebody who lives in and represents the city, I’m determined that as long as the SNP is in government Glasgow will be very much in the uppermost of our minds.”
Tax has been a key election issue and with the Greens advocating a 60p top rate and Labour 50p, the SNP has been accused of being “timid”, and “talking left and acting right”.
Ms Sturgeon says she is in favour of a 50p rate but not yet.
Asked why she has changed her mind since last year, when she called on George Osborne to re-introduce it, she said she hasn’t but that the circumstances are different.
She said: “I haven’t changed my mind that a 50p tax rate is right, but last year I was arguing for that across the UK. This year it is in the context of Scotland doing it on its own. Because we are not independent, we don’t control what the definitions of income are, we don’t control the rules around tax avoidance.”
She denies her argument is the same as George Osborne, who says that it would raise less cash because the rich won’t pay.
She added: “No it’s not. He has got the wherewithal to minimise those risks whereas I don’t. That’s the difference.”
Her priority, she says is education and childcare, and in five years she wants to be judged on her record.
She said: “For the first time there will be the evidence to see what the attainment gap is and set targets for closing it, and measure our success in doing that. Over the long term I would like to see a state childcare system extend down the age range.”
Her opponents would like to see the back of her before then but she has bad news. She hopes to bring those ideas into being and to stand again as First Minister in five years.