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Nicola Sturgeon to resign?
Strong rumours Ms Sturgeon will announce her resignation as Scottish First Minister this morning.
She seems to be a divisive character, loved & despised in equal measure. I don't really follow Scottish politics closely, but I quite admire her, & she seems to communicate well.
Guess there will be a backstory soon enough, but she seems to have upset many folks with her views on gender recognition. To be fair, that's a very hot potato indeed & a very difficult one to grapple with. I don't envy anyone in politics trying to square that particular circle as people's views are generally entrenched.
She seems to be a divisive character, loved & despised in equal measure. I don't really follow Scottish politics closely, but I quite admire her, & she seems to communicate well.
Guess there will be a backstory soon enough, but she seems to have upset many folks with her views on gender recognition. To be fair, that's a very hot potato indeed & a very difficult one to grapple with. I don't envy anyone in politics trying to square that particular circle as people's views are generally entrenched.
Comments
I don't have much knowledge of Scottish politics Tuney, but why do you think it's a good thing?
I don't have a strong position either way really, though at a superficial level I like her, but I'm interested to learn.
p.s. this isn't meant to start a huge debate over trans issues. I am entitled to my opinion and as someone who has a biology degree I think I have earned that right.
@Enut
OK, gotcha.
It IS a tricky matter though, isn't it?
There's an interestingly diverse range of views about Ms Sturgeon over on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/search?q="Nicola Sturgeon"&src=trend_click&vertical=trends
Yes, that's pretty much my stance too.
And she has been extraordinarily successful in General Elections, and Scottish Elections. Although not in relation to Independence (although it was Salmond who actually failed to win).
I wonder if the result of the referendum would have been the same if the Brexit referendum had been first.
Same is true if it had been Sturgeon heading the campaign, rather than Salmond.
She spent too much time tryin to force through independence ( ah know that's what SNP is all about ), instead of running the country and tryin to get it back on it's feet after covid.
Getting in bed with the Greens was never goin to work, they want rid of oil rigs when Scotland needs oil money, We can't afford to go on our own, independence at the moment would put us up shyte creek if were not already up there.
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-told-explain-extraordinary-29201250
Resign for another 4 years.
As resignation speeches go, I give that 9/10.
Here are a few of her failings ...
SNP FAILURES
AND BROKEN PROMISES
Health
1. Instead of ending delayed discharge in 2015 like they promised, in 2019/20 it cost the NHS
£139 million.
2. The SNP have broken their own legal Treatment Time Guarantee for patients over 380,000
times.
3. The 62 day waiting time standard for urgent cancer referrals has not been met since 2012.2
4. 1 in 4 young people are still being rejected from specialist CAMHS services almost three
years after an external review called for rejections to end.
5. The water contamination scandal at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital caused almost
40 infections in young cancer patients and the deaths of two children, but years on the
families are still waiting for answers.
6. The flaws in the construction of the delayed Edinburgh Sick Kids hospital led to the SNP
paying £1.4million every month for an empty hospital which was not safe for patients.
7. A decade of cuts has left the NHS with a maintenance and repairs backlog of £1.03billion.
8. Increases to NHS funding in Scotland have failed to keep pace with those in England
meaning Scotland’s health spending advantage has almost been completely lost.
9. Life expectancy has stalled in Scotland and there is at least a ten year gap between the
richest and poorest areas.
Social Care
10. The SNP have failed to deliver fair work in social care – nearly 1 in 5 workers are on
insecure or temporary contracts and 15% of staff work unpaid overtime.
11. As of January 2021, Scotland had the second highest rate of care home resident deaths
from Covid-19 in Europe.
12. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, 3,000 untested patients and 123 positive patients
were transferred to care homes – Health Secretary Jeane Freeman admitted the SNP “failed”
the social care sector.
Education and Childcare
13. The number of full-time equivalent teachers in Scotland’s schools is 1,700 fewer than when
the SNP assumed office in 2007.13 Additionally, more than 2,600 teachers have dropped or lost
their professional registration over the last five years.
14. The SNP’s failure to work with the SQA to create a credible and fair moderation system
for exams in 2020 led to a grading system with inequality baked in and rushed u-turns from
Ministers.
15. Failed to deliver their planned childcare expansion on time after years of opportunity to
improve childcare for families.
16. There are 578 fewer specialist teachers for children and young people with additional
support needs compared with 2012, despite a near doubling of those with ASN.
17. The SNP have failed to get all primary 1 – 3 pupils in classes with 18 or fewer despite
promising to do so.
18. They failed to deliver on their commitment to close the attainment gap despite
almost a decade and a half in government and Nicola Sturgeon saying it was her “sacred
responsibility”.
19. Students have been let down by the SNP scrapping their 2007 pledge to end student
debt, and they failed to return college student numbers to 2007 levels.
20. They failed to scrap the Scottish National Standardised Assessments for Primary 1s, as
instructed by Parliament.
21. Forced to scrap their flawed Named Persons legislation and permanently shelve their
proposed Education Bill.
Economy and Jobs
22. 350,000 people in Scotland still do not earn the Scottish Living Wage.
23.
24. SNP cuts to local government have stripped £937.5 million from non-ringfenced revenue
funding.
25. The SNP have repeatedly broken their promise to scrap the “unfair council tax”.
26. Before the pandemic, the Scottish economy had grown at roughly half the rate of the rest
of the UK following the 2008 crash.
27. In 2010 the SNP promised 130,000 green jobs by 2020 but instead the number of people
directly employed had fallen to 21,400.
28. The SNP’s mismanagement of Scotland’s manufacturing base has led to the loss of critical
contracts and jobs in yards such as BiFab.
28. There are 45,000 young people unemployed in Scotland following Covid-19 but the SNP
young person’s guarantee only provided funding to create 18,000 job opportunities – offering
support to only 40% of the young people who need it.
Environment and Climate Change
29. In 2016 the SNP promised to have the first low emission zone in place by 2018, but their
delays to enacting the Transport Act means the first zones will not be in place before 2022 at
the earliest.
30. Since 2017, Nicola Sturgeon has promised the creation of a publicly owned energy
company, but it has not got beyond the business case stage.
31. After 8 rounds of funding the SNP have supported the purchase of only 53234 low emission
buses, equivalent to only 12% of the Scotland’s total fleet. Continuing at this rate it will take
65 year before all of Scotland’s buses are low emission.
32. The SNP has failed to protect wildlife. 49% of species have decreased in abundance, and
there has been little change in the rate of decline over the last 10 years. 1 in 9 species face
extinction, including red squirrels, Scottish wildcats, and capercaillies. Scottish breeding
seabirds have declined by 38%.38 A leaked Scottish Government report shows a 10 year target
to prevent damage to marine wildlife has been missed.
33. The SNP have slashed funding for major environment bodies – SNH, SEPA, Scotland’s
Rural College, and the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.
Transport & Connectivity
34. Failed to deliver their promise of delivering superfast broadband to every home and
business by 2021.
35. The SNP have presided over a catastrophic ferry building contract which has seen two
ships delayed by four years and running at least £100 million over budget.
36. Bus services have been dismantled under the SNP, with many local routes disappearing
and passenger numbers down by 25% since 2007.
37. The SNP’s own cycling targets45 have been missed – they promised that by 2020 10% of all
everyday journeys would be made by bicycle but it has been stuck at 1% for the last decade
and from 2009-2019, active travel and transport actually decreased.
38. Glasgow airport is still without a rail link and after the SNP scrapped not one, but two
proposed projects.
Housing
39. The SNP were failing to deliver their promise of 50,000 new affordable homes by 2021,
even before Covid and in the end they missed they social homes target by over 22%.
40. Their £60m First Home Fund was so inadequate that is closed to applications because it
was exhausted only 5 working days after it reopened.
41. The Fuel Poverty Bill failed to meet the ambitions of the SNP’s promised Warm Homes
Bill, while figures show a quarter of households in Scotland are living in fuel poverty.
Poverty & Social Security
42. The proportion of Scottish pensioners stuck in persistent poverty has increased under the
SNP and is now higher than levels elsewhere in the UK.
43. More than one in four (260,000) of Scotland’s children are officially recognised as living in
poverty and more than two-thirds of children in poverty live in working households.
44. Despite welfare powers being devolved to Holyrood the SNP have twice delayed taking
over control of benefits, choosing instead to leave them the responsibility of the with the UK
Government and DWP.
45. In 2015/16 the SNP cut funding for alcohol and drugs services and now Scotland has the
highest drugs death rate in Europe; over 1,260 people lost their lives to drugs in 2019 alone.
46. Food bank use has been rising, with the Trussell Trust recording a 75% increase in need in
Scotland between 2015/16 and 2018/19.53 This pre-dates Covid-19, which saw further rises, and
is a greater increase than in other parts of the UK. Meanwhile the SNP failed to introduce a
Good Food Nation Bill.
Justice
47. In 2007 the SNP promised to put more police on local streets but their centralisation of
police forces has resulted in a reduction of over 500 local officers since 2017 alone.
48. In the eight years since the creation of Police Scotland there have been at least four chairs
of the Scottish Police Authority, three Chief Constables, and a recent independent report
found serious flaws in Police Scotland’s misconduct proceedings, along with evidence of
mistreatment of minorities across the institution.
49. In 2013 the SNP closed a fifth of all sheriff courts56 and following Covid-19 there is now a
backlog of over 34,000 court cases to be heard.
50. The Scottish Government’s flawed sexual harassment policy led to the concession of a
judicial review, costing the taxpayer over £500,000 and failed at least two women who had
raised complaints.