NOT long ago, Nicola Sturgeon’s critics were absolutely raging as she missed First Minister’s Questions because she was busy at the COP26 climate summit.
The FM defended her decision to continue her work at the talks and let her deputy John Swinney fill in at Holyrood, telling reporters: “First ministers don’t just do one thing at a time – they do lots of things at a time. All of these issues, I’ve been fully engaged in all week, as well as being here.
“I have no doubt, and I mean no doubt, that had I not committed to try and do everything I can to make this summit a success then the same people who are criticising me for being here would be queuing up to criticise me for that as well.
“That’s in the nature of democracy, it’s in the nature of politics but my job, you don’t get to do one thing and you don’t get to choose to do one thing over another. All of these things are things I’m engaged in every single day.”
She also rightfully pointed out that several opposition leaders, including Alex Cole-Hamilton, Douglas Ross and Anas Sarwar had been spotted at the Glasgow event during the two-weeks it was on.
Now that the First Minister is back at the Scottish Parliament for FMQs, it seems her critics have the opposite problem.
Scottish Conservative MSP for the Mid Scotland and Fife region Murdo Fraser took to social media after today’s session to complain that actually, he was seeing TOO MUCH of Sturgeon.
“Today #FMQs took precisely 59 minutes, due to the length of the answers,” he whined. “Time for @POScotParl to step in or we will be up to 2 hours before we know it.”
Of course, there was little sympathy for the MSP’s stance.
READ MORE: FMQs: Nicola Sturgeon fired up in response to Douglas Ross's vaccine roll-out attack
“What’s wrong, did you/your colleagues have a second* job to get to? *or perhaps a third, in the case of your leader?” asked Richy Edwards on Twitter.
“Scandal as First Minister answers questions during First Minister's Questions,” joked Michael.
SNP councillor Mhairi Hunter suggested Sturgeon could be more like Fraser’s boss.
“FM should clearly spend more time talking about Peppa Pig, losing her place & impersonating cars & less time on answering questions. That's just boring,” she said.
And SNP MP Stewart McDonald noted that Fraser’s complaint was a rare occurrence of the opposition “calling for less scrutiny of the government”.
So the First Minister is seen at Holyrood too little, seen at Holyrood too much … come back for next week’s FMQs when the opposition surely find a way to complain about her being at Holyrood for an average period of time to fill in the full bingo card.
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