Perfectly coiffed Nicola finds she is better together with the Tories
WHAT do you mean it doesn’t make sense? It’s perfectly reasonable, just so long as you ignore such trifling matters as logic... Nicola Sturgeon, having spent the past three decades engaged in the battle to break up the United Kingdom, travelled south to the Imperial Capital last night to argue in favour of remaining in the European Union.
Once inside ITV’s London studio, the First Minister – as part of a three-strong team with Labour MP Angela Eagle and Conservative Amber Rudd – confidently made the case that we’re, well, better together.
Across the studio floor, Tories Boris Johnson and Andrea Leadsom and Labour MP Gisela Stuart promised that Brexit would set the UK free and mean more money for the NHS and other services.
It was all terribly familiar to those of us who lived through the long and often fractious Scottish independence campaign of 2014.
In the foreign country of two years ago, the First Minister’s clear and unequivocal opinion was that the best people to take decisions on matters affecting Scotland were Scots. But, y’know, things change…
In the First Minister’s view, it may be fundamentally wrong for Scotland to unite with other nations on these islands; but she also feels it is absolutely essential we remain in political union with those who live on the others side of the English Channel. Only the most cynical would dare suggest this means the Scottish Nationalists’ driving force is a dislike of the English – and shame on you for even thinking it.
Of course, according to the SNP, any politician who dares stand shoulder-toshoulder with a Conservative is beneath contempt. Miss Sturgeon was spared the ignominy of such a state of affairs by the placement of Miss Eagle between her and Miss Rudd – but there was no escaping the reality that the First Minister was firmly on the same side as a hated Tory.
Labour supporters may believe that this reality will kill dead the SNP’s line that, having worked with Conservatives during 2014, they are no more than ‘Red Tories’. I say to those optimists: ‘Don’t be stupid. The SNP’s rules of engagement don’t apply to the party’s leader.’
The issue of EU membership has provoked passionate – often intemperate – responses from campaigners on either side of the debate, but the audience’s response last night was strangely subdued. Much of the first half of the two-hour debate was carried out in silence, with nary a ‘Hear, hear’ nor even a patter of applause from the audience. From time to time the cameras turned on the punters gathered to observe this clash. They were, as far as I could see, awake. As both sides parroted well worn lines, one’s sympathy for those trapped in the cheap seats grew.
In the second hour, audience members woke up and the debate benefited from it Though there weren’t as many boos as I might have wanted. I do like a good boo.
During last year’s General Election campaign, Miss Sturgeon swept through the television studios of London, impressing many viewers with her slick presentation and plausibility. Those, south of the Border, who bought into the idea that Miss Sturgeon – whose Government, in reality, resembles nothing more than Tony Blair’s New Labour – was a radical force will, I’m sure, have been impressed by the First Minister’s performance.
Sharply dressed in crisp white and groomed to within an inch of her life, Miss Sturgeon stood at the far left, in sharp contrast to Bo-Jo, who dangled on the right, with his trademark messy blond mop-top.
The First Minister was the anti-Boris, a working class woman up against a privileged Old Etonian – and one can see how effective that might have been among a large part of the viewing audience.
But whether either Miss Sturgeon or Mr Johnson – or any of their fellow debaters – changed any minds remains to be seen.
The First Minister was confident and impressive – and she clearly enjoyed taunting Mr Johnson about his Prime Ministerial ambitions.
But neither she nor any of the other participants did much – so far as I could see – to reach out beyond their existing supporters.
As proceedings drew to a close, all that was certain was this: if there is to be a second referendum on Scottish independence, those arguing in favour of the UK could do a lot worse than using the lines trotted out by Nicola Sturgeon last night.