Panorama’s SNP puff

LAST night’s Panorama was devoted entirely to the Nicola Sturgeon phenomenon. It started off badly with the revelation that not only had reporter Shelley Jofre been at school with Miss Sturgeon, her mother – former Nationalist MSP Kay Ullrich – played a key role in developing the SNP’s leader’s political career.

It was downhill from there, with little real attempt to do anything other than let Miss Sturgeon pose as politics’ poster girl as she glided around sticky issues such as her government’s abysmal record on education.

A former teacher handed Miss Sturgeon her old Sixth Year Studies dissertation on Trident. We were invited to share the delight that this country’s First Minister’s views have changed not a jot since she was a teenager in the backwoods of Ayrshire.

This Panorama will not trouble any journalistic awards – but it is on course for the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s longest party political broadcast.