The Strange Case of Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon:
A Thread
Nicola was born in Irvine, July 1970 and attended Dreghorn Primary & Greenwood Academy.
Note: That’s Ayrshire, not Glasgow 👍
Nicola said she detested Thatcher growing up yet in one of the many incongruous elements in her life, her parents took advantage of that most Thatcherite of working class policies: buy your own council house
Young Nicola went to the University of Glasgow and studied Law.
There she became involved with the Nat movement - which back then was a lunatic fringe (It really was)
Young Nicola’s critical faculties have long been criticised by her former professor, Alistair Bonnington.
Alarm bells ringing yet?
pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/politics/sc…
Young Nicola graduated and became a solicitor for a few short years, but her career ended abruptly with allegations of professional misconduct and “left under a cloud”
express.co.uk/news/uk/141893…
Young Nicola ran for office at least 5 times in local council elections and general elections and was often left bruised and battered.
But thanks to devolution, in 1999 Nicola fought Glasgow Govan, lost again, but sneaked in under the list system.
God loves a trier.
Alex Salmond led the SNP at Holyrood in 1999, but soon got fed up with it and jetted back to the bright lights of London.
Salmond and Nicola would become an inseparable duo later.
John Swinney became SNP leader, couldn’t handle it and quit. Sturgeon threw her hat into the ring but looked like she was going to lose to Roseanna Cunningham.
Turns out Salmond despised Cunningham and decided to make a heroic return to Scottish politics.
He would run as leader and Nicola would be his glamorous assistant, sorry, deputy.
Over the next few years Nicola and Ales became close. He was her mentor, her confidante and her boss.
How close did this working relationship become? Who knows. But they were a formidable team. A duo.
Batman & Robin. Fran & Anna.
Remarkably the SNP “won” the 2007 Holyrood election and with help from the Scottish Tories (oops, inconvenient there for the Nats) they formed a minority administration.
The Executive was quickly changed to the grandiose “government”.
Nicola, as well as being Salmond’s partner in crime (Tasmina who?) was also given the role of Health Secretary.
In 2010 Nicola found love and married Peter Murrell.
Peter was and still is (presumably) the Chief Executive of the SNP.
Nicola now had the ear of both the FM/Party Leader and the Chief Exec of The Party!
What a girl.
2010 wasn’t all roses.
Nicola faced calls for her resignation over her backing for a fraudster called Abdul Rauf.
Her judgement was again questioned by the more experienced politicos and media.
Nicola, using one of her nine lives, survived.
theguardian.com/politics/2010/…
Oddly, a couple of years earlier, Nicola couldn’t find compassion in helping bury Labour’s Wendy Alexander’s political career.
What’s good for the Sturgeon goose isn’t obviously good for the gander.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/…
Ignoring her failures at Health, Nicola came to prominence during the “civic and joyous” Scottish independence referendum.
One of her most telling contributions was to warn EU citizens they’d be kicked out if Scots were daft enough to vote Yes.
scotsman.com/news/politics/…
Nicola was a signatory of The Edinburgh Agreement which gave a legal basis for the democratic vote of Scots and our decision on our relationship with the UK.
The result was to be decisive (it was) and to be respected…
Respected?
Four days after Scotland rejected separation by a landslide both Salmond and Nicola gave a reconciliation church service a bodyswerve.
Bit odd if you do respect the result, eh?
pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/351820…
Nicola backed the SNP’s White Paper which was clear: the 2014 was a once in a generation event.
After being routed by Scots in a legal, democratic referendum (a gold standard said observers) Alex Salmond stepped down (in a huff it has to be said) as FM.
The door was ajar for our heroine, Nicola.
Nicola became SNP Fuhrer (sorry, leader) unopposed and of course she became our first female First Minister.
Jacinda Ardern didn’t get a look in back then.
So what would Nicola do?
She rode a Yellow wave of divisive separatism and toxic nationalism to win almost all of the Scottish Westminster seats in 2015.
But she did lose Salmond’s majority at Holyrood in 2016.
But then she was given a Get Out of Jail Free Card: Brexit.
Nicola used the EU Referendum as a chance to hijack Scottish Remain voters’ votes as a proxy for independence!
Who knew?
Scots vote to remain UK ✅
UK votes to leave EU ✅
That’s democracy? Isn’t it?
Nicola was beginning to be disingenuous with the electorate.
Our shy and retiring Nicola used Brexit (even though she was powerless to prevent it, democracy ain’t her thing it seems) as an election winning machine.
She has no credible opposition either within her party or outwith it.
Nicola is also feted by “celebrities” who proclaim undying love for her and no one can criticise her.
She is our own Boudicca, our Hillary Clinton, the Scottish Edwina Currie.
Nicola made a bold claim early in her tenure:
Judge me on Education.
scotsman.com/news/politics/…
Oops.
PISA has shown Scotland isn’t doing so well.
Critics of CfE like Prof Lindsay Paterson have warned us for years but who cares?
Now Scotland won’t be included in PISA.
And the Education report was withheld until AFTER the 2021 Holyrood election…
Nicola also promised to be accessible and transparent as First Minister.
But more on that later.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
Nicola has been dogged by failures and poor judgement.
Prestwick airport for one.
heraldscotland.com/news/13203019.…
Another is the Ferguson shipyard ferry fiasco…
heraldscotland.com/news/18109925.…
The Queensferry Crossing affair (Built by Chinese steel and has to be closed when it’s icy)
To be fair that’s probably more on Salmond as is Prestwick Airport.
But judgement is key in being a leader, isn’t it?
xinhuanet.com//english/2017-…
Nicola visited Auschwitz in 2018 and rather oddly (I’ve been there and no one took photos like this) posed for portraits (not quite selfies) with The Great Leader in the same frame as one of the most horrific, murderous places of where nationalism can ultimately lead.
Also in 2018, Nicola bizarrely referred to herself as “Chief Mammy”.
How this wasn’t ridiculed by the great Scottish wits and satirists like Frankie Boyle, Kevin Bridges, Billy Connolly, Janey Godley, Limmy and Malky fae Calderbank then I don’t know what the fcuk is happening.
The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was planned and developed when Nicola was Health Secretary and opened in 2015 when she was FM.
Just before the pandemic, this tragic story broke.
It has never been satisfactory resolved.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
More bad news for Nicola.
Scotland is the drug death capital of Europe.
Is that Nicola’s legacy?
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
Or is increased Child Poverty Nicola’s legacy?
holyrood.com/news/view,chil…
Or is Nicola’s legacy the expert edging of the Yes movement?
Just keep dangling #indyref2 in front of the gullible?
Or is her legacy intertwined with her mentor Alex Salmond?
What did she know?
independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
Nicola has done her best to create some distance between her and her mentor, Alex Salmond.
But something just doesn’t sit right.
Did she break the ministerial code?
Nicola was cleared! Phew!
Who appointed James Hamilton?
Nicola Sturgeon.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
“You are paranoid!”
Am I?
👇
thetimes.co.uk/article/charit…
And so we come to the Covid pandemic where Nicola became TV’s Nicola Sturgeon and relied on “experts” like Devi Sridhar (not a virologist or epidemiologist) to make some odd choices based on “science” and even odder proclamations.
Did Nicola play politics with the pandemic?
scotsman.com/news/opinion/c…
Nicola has had some episodes during Covid that betray the civic and joyous nationalism she likes to portray.
scotsman.com/news/opinion/c…
Or this one where she, a regional administrator, is telling the British Prime Minister that he can’t visit a part of Britain?
Odd.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
But Nicola is well used to this kind of spin.
Remember the message in Brussels when we left the EU?
It was paid for by the SNP not the EU.
And yes, this is reported in The Sun….
thescottishsun.co.uk/news/5246156/s…
Awkward that, isn’t it?
The SNP are masters of spin.
See my Pinned Tweet for the way they’ve spun lies, myths and conspiracy theories to brainwash, radicalise, indoctrinate Scots.
heraldscotland.com/politics/19534…
I’ve missed out so much but let’s finish on a couple of major issues.
First:
The Care Homes Covid crisis.
It was a disaster.
And nothing happened. No heads rolled.
scotsman.com/health/coronav…
Remember when I said we’d return to transparency?
Well at the beginning of Covid, Nicola has been naughty.
#NikeGate is a matter of life and death.
Has Nicola used up all of her nine lives?
Is it time?
#ResignSturgeon
heraldscotland.com/politics/19637…
And what of Peter Murrell?
Nicola’s loving husband who has miraculously done a Lord Lucan?
Where is he?
heraldscotland.com/politics/19433…
So the Strange Case of Nicola Sturgeon comes to an end.
What is her true legacy?
Division? Hatred? Bile? Falling standards in health, education and God knows what else?
Baby boxes.
THE END.
Sturgeon has stepped down.
Is it tiredness?
Is it the GRR Bill?
Or something else?
#SturgeonFreeIn23
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