ON March 31 the Sunday National kindly published a letter of mine giving it the heading, “Ponsonby’s list of formidable politicians was telling.” To briefly recap, my letter was about Bernard Ponsonby’s last ever appearance on STV, prior to his retirement, on Scotland Tonight. He was interviewed by his longstanding colleague John Mackay.
John asked him which politicians had impressed him the most over the years. Bernard mentioned several and they were all male. Amazingly he didn’t utter Nicola Sturgeon’s name at all! What I felt was worse, though, was that John Mackay wasn’t professional enough to pro-actively mention Nicola to Bernard and ask his thoughts on her, given what a massive figure Nicola has been in Scottish politics since devolution. Not good!
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Fast forward to May 21, and Scotland Tonight did a special titled “25 Years of Devolution”. This time the Mackay doing the interview was Colin, John’s colleague. He interviewed three politicians about this momentous landmark and surprise, surprise, the independence-supporting representative was Alex Neil. He and the other politicians involved, Ruth Davidson and Kezia Dugdale, are in my view all fully paid-up members of the NSHC (to the uninitiated, that is the “Nicola Sturgeon Haters Club”!)
At one point Colin asked them, “Of the 349 MSPs over the 25 years, who stands out for you?” The names of Margo MacDonald, Donald Dewar and Alex Salmond were, quite rightly, mentioned. Alex Neil praised the Tory David McLetchie to the rafters, relating to the period when the SNP minority government did some deals with the Tories. He also stated they could trust him and Annabel Goldie.
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Unsurprisingly, though, when it came to the progressive, environmentally conscious Greens, he contemptuously dismissed them out of hand. Interestingly, Alex effectively gave more respect for the Unionist party that stamps on the poor, the vulnerable and the disabled than the independence-supporting one that is the polar opposite! Hmm! Hae ye heard o’ food banks, Alex?
Guess what, guess whose name wasn’t mentioned at all? Aye, Nicola’s! Colin, like John, could have proactively introduced her into the discussion, but like in the previous programme about Bernard Ponsonby, that was never, ever going to happen!
The high heid yins at Scotland Tonight are also, in my view, fully paid-up members of the NSHC! Seriously, surely Nicola, a serial election winner in my lifetime (nearly 64 now), must arguably have been the most popular politician in Scotland with the public, the folk that really matter – not jealous, spiteful politicians or journalists, hacked off because they were once the recipient of one of Nicola’s famous withering looks! To omit her name entirely from this special Scotland Tonight programme was, well, Orwellian!
The fact Nicola has been airbrushed out of the history of Scottish politics by Scotland Tonight – and they definitely ain’t an outlier – for me reflects the fact that she was always a massive threat to the English state, unlike folk like Alex Neil! Fur me, thaim determined to cancel Nicola’s rightful place right at the top of the history of Scottish politics are mere pygmies, the lot o’ thaim!
Ivor Telfer
Dalgety Bay
I WOULD like Rishi Sunak to know that if he gives Largoward £20,000,000 I will vote for his party.
If not then he has zero chance of getting my vote.
Harry Key
Largoward
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