Sturgeon - true voice of the Scots?

Jimbro66

Nicola Sturgeon is, as ever, having plenty to say - this time at the SNP conference. I'm curious, does she represent the majority views of the ordinary folk of Scotland or is some/much of what she says political posturing? Do the Scots widely support her seeming preoccupation with independence or do they perhaps feel she could be concentrating more on other important day-to-day issues?

As someone living about as far south of the border as it's possible to go I'd just like to have some understanding of what our Scottish friends feel.

Brize

Moe_Zambeek

I voted SNP last time round and I wish she'd pipe down and do some actual governing, rather than wittering on about a referendum she won't call because she knows she would lose...again.

I don't think her Brexit interjections are useful, all she does is annoy everyone, even if slightly less blawhardy than Eck.

Scotland has more pressing problems than indyref2 and even Brexit to worry about, and no one really seems to care about those in government just now.

paulnb57

Loving as far South as the Isle of Wight I am pretty much divorced from the Scots, but there is something I really dislike about her and her gobbiness....

Brize

She's a gobshite who needs to realise that she's not a head of state.

octatonic

I wish she was in charge of the Brexit negotiations for the UK.

thomasross20

I'm annoyed by her. I used to think SNP were ok, they did some good. But I never voted for them last time. This whole second vote is as ridiculous as a second BREXIT vote. 

cj73

My take is that the SNP have always stood for independence.  They rode a wave and got into a coalition, then surfed that wave into a majority on the basis of a referendum.  All the while spending like there was no tomorrow to garner the floaters.  Then Scotland voted no and UK voted leave.  Oopsie

I was  generally Liberal/Tory till about 6 years ago, voted for independence and remain in the last two years.  

I'm fed up with her, though Rab the Bruce and the spider spring to mind

mike_l

She's an arsehole who wants everything for Scotland whilst taking as much as possible from the UK.

mikeyrob73

As an exiled Scot I just find her like an annoying midge that won't piss off

ICBM

Agree with Moe and thomasross. I voted Yes, and I voted SNP at the last general election. While I would still vote for independence again if there was another referendum, I don't think there should be one. I'm not sure I would vote SNP again, at national level.

Yes, the EU referendum has changed things, and Scotland has got the worst of both worlds in my opinion. But now is not the right time to be complicating the problem even further and risking alienating both unionist Scots and English people. We need to fix the mess we're in first, and a precipitous rush to a second independence referendum is not the way to do it.

Majorscale

This made me laugh....

axisus

I thought that she was a decent leader, but the fact is that she's just a bloody annoying person. You can't keep setting up FRIKKIN referendums until you get the result you want. The fact is, Nicola, that YOU LOST. Get over it.

ICBM

An interesting fact about the SNP losing is that a greater proportion of Scots voted for independence than UK voters did for leaving the EU. (38% vs 37%.)

Make of that what you will...

stimpsonslostson

As has already been said, I'd much prefer the SNP to focus on the business of running Scotland rather than Brexit & IndyRef2. 

I think there is still an undercurrent of dissatisfaction (especially in the wake of Brexit) & a referendum could go either way, but I suspect it would go Yes. A lot of people seem to think that if we're gonna get screwed by Westminster over Brexit then what loyalty do we owe them. 

The whole business concerns me. In a world that has instant communication (& virtually everyone has a voice) I think that closer ties & supporting our neighbours in the "global village" would be a more prudent approach... But I'm not charging votes am I?

Jimbro66

Yes, I think @mikeyrob73's comment as an exiled Scot sums up how a lot of English folk feel about her but I want to learn about the feelings of Scots towards her. Some interesting comments above.

ICBM said:

...............We need to fix the mess we're in first, and a precipitous rush to a second independence referendum is not the way to do it.

OK, so what is the mess and how does it need to be fixed?

BTW there was a widespread feeling of injustice in England following the 2015 general election when the SNP somehow snaffled 56 times as many parliamentary seats as UKIP, even though the latter scored a considerably higher percentage of overall UK vote. Not that I'm a fan of UKIP.

Evilmags

Independence after her three year splurge and a defect that beats Greece is not going to happen. 

ICBM

Jimbro66 said:

OK, so what is the mess and how does it need to be fixed?

The mess is the total uncertainty about what the relationship between the UK and the EU will be, and thus how that will affect Scotland's relationship with the UK.

The solution - I don't know! What I do know is that it's likely to make it more complex and difficult by changing the second before we know what's happening with the first.

Jimbro66 said:

BTW there was a widespread feeling of injustice in England following the 2015 general election when the SNP somehow snaffled 56 times as many parliamentary seats as UKIP, even though the latter scored a considerably higher percentage of overall UK vote. Not that I'm a fan of UKIP.

Agreed. FPTP is not a properly democratic electoral system.

Although it's not directly comparable on overall UK percentages since the SNP didn't put up candidates in England.

AliGorie

what I get from my m8s up there is that the snp are seen as a tool, playing UK political game - by the UK’s rules - to achieve a goal, very doubtful it will be allowed to happen but ya never know, i.e. hold it or be allowed to win it.
If it did the Scots would adopt a more ’Scandinavian’ style of government, social and political culture.
Imagine if we had ’next door’ a country treated it’s citizens like human beings, don’t think that’d go down well with HRH plc and workers (subjects).
Theres a joke going round up there about the last independence referendum - “the British State, although saying it was up to the people of Scotland how they voted were barraged by every thing from HRH to David Bowie, Obama the MSM et al - in fact every one - except the Dalai Lama. If theres another indiref, they expect to see Elvis to have been against it plaster all over the media.
We should be up to speed on how the ’State’ operates after our Euref.
I've said it here before - things could get very ugly.

Jimbro66

ICBM said:

The mess is the total uncertainty about what the relationship between the UK and the EU will be, and thus how that will affect Scotland's relationship with the UK.

The future relationship between the UK and the EU has become far less certain as a result of the EU electing to act like a jilted bride (hell hath no fury, etc) and it's incredulous decision to 'punish' the UK to deter others from leaving. Good luck to the Government dealing with that one! But, yes, it must be causing even more uncertainty in Scotland.

Jimbro66

Interesting post @Aligorie. As regards Obama you'll recall that he also tried to influence the outcome of the Brexit referendum. There's something about the inflated American ego that can't resist the urge to poke it's unwanted nose in the business of others.