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Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon62 posts

Nicola Sturgeon MSP is a Scottish nationalist politician, who was born in Dreghorn, Scotland, in 1970. She is currently the First Minister of Scotland and the leader of the Scottish National Party. She has been a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) since 1999, and currently represents the Glasgow South constituency. She is married to Peter Murrell.

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Supports McDermid, Rattray over Goodwillie signing

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Sturgeon says she supports McDermid and Rattray, after the former brakes her lifelong support and sponsorship of the club, and the latter resigns from the woman’s team.

28 Jan, 2022

Sturgeon: Gray report wrangling ‘getting murkier by the minute’

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The Scottish First Minister says the process row between the Met Police and the Cabinet Office over which details of Sue Gray’s partygate report should be published was creating a ‘suspicion’ that events were helping the Prime Minister.

This gets murkier by the minute. Sue Gray and the Met are in difficult positions but the sequence of events and the situation arrived at now creates the suspicion – however unfairly – that the process of inquiry is aiding Johnson at the expense of public accountability.

Sturgeon criticises EHRC gender census position change

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At Frist Minister’s questions, Sturgeon says the EHRC is misrepresenting the outcomes of her government’s planned reforms to gender laws, after the human right’s body urged the Scottish government to pause its reforms to the gender recognition process for further consideration. Sturgeon says the EHRC had gone through a “significant change in the position” following earlier consultations on gender reforms.

Obviously it’s for the commission to say why its position has changed but I think it’s important for me to narrate that it is a change in position. [The Bill] doesn’t confer any new rights on trans people, nor does it change any of the existing protections in the Equality Act, so it doesn’t change the current position on data collection or the ability of sports organisations to take decisions, for example.

27 Jan, 2022

Sarwar questions Sturgeon on social care risks

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At First Minister’s Questions, Sarwar highlights Audit Scotland’s findings that social care in Scotland is in crisis.

We had a staffing crisis even before the pandemic and now services are reporting they do not have the staff they need. This is a stark report that makes clear a lack of action now presents serious risks. We have been calling for a National Care Service for over a decade but it can’t now be used as a Government slogan to delay action until 2026.

Sturgeon responds, saying ministers will establish the National Care Service before the end of the current session of Parliament and that, while the Scottish Government has given a 12.9% pay increase, they still had not gone far enough.

We are increasing the pay of those who work in social care, because recruitment and retention and the valuing of the social care workforce is an important part of what we need to do. An increase of 12.9% is actually what we have already delivered. Does that go far enough? No. And we have said that we want it to go further.

Sarwar said that change had to happen immediately not in the future and he challenged Sturgeon to back Labour’s plans for an immediate pay increase to £12 an hour.

25 Jan, 2022

Relaxes work from home rules

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Sturgeon says that, as of Monday 31st January, work from home rules will be relaxed, leading to a gradual phased return to working in the office. She says the updated guidance is based on a fall in infections, from 10,000 new infections to 7000. Places of worship will have their social distancing requirements cut from two metres to one. She also warns against everyone returning to the office at the same time as she thinks this will cause another spike in infections.

We would not expect to see a wholesale return to the office next week – indeed, given that the level of infection though falling remains high, a mass return at this stage is likely to set progress back. But we know there are many benefits to both employees and employers, and to the economy as a whole, in at least a partial return to the office at this stage.

ONS: Sturgeon correct to say English covid rate 20% more than Scotland

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The ONS says Sturgeon was correct when she said England’s coronavirus infection rate was more than 20 per cent higher than in Scotland. The First Minister was accused of having “seriously twisted” the Covid figures by the Lib Dems who reported her to the UK Statistics Authority. ONS figures show 5.47 per cent of people in England are infected compared to 4.49% in Scotland – a difference of 0.98 percentage points or 21.8 per cent. ONS Chairman Norgrove:

The data does suggest that the rate of infection is lower in Scotland than in England. The distinction between percentages (parts per hundred) and percentage points (the simple difference between two percentages) can be made easier to understand by quoting the two numbers being compared. For clarity, when publishing results from CIS, the Office for National Statistics gives the absolute number of people with Covid-19; the percentage of the population with Covid-19; and the number of people with Covid-19 as a ratio to the whole population. For example, one in 20 people.

Sturgeon:

What matters is that Scotland is doing better now than we were doing before Christmas and better now than we might have been doing had we not taken action to stem transmission. That is what is important. How we are faring relative to England or anywhere else is not, in my view, the key comparison. But, given that others have sought to draw that comparison – inaccurately – in an attempt to undermine confidence in the Scottish Government’s decisions, I hope all members will now accept the conclusion of the chair of the UK statistics authority that the data I cited was, indeed, accurate.

‘I feel a responsibility to talk about menopause’

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In an interview with The Shift podcast, Sturgeon says she is ambivalent about discussing the menopause in public:

We talk about the menopause much more, and I’m very conscious of being a woman with a profile and a platform, a fair degree of influence, so I feel a responsibility – given that I’m at that age – to talk about it myself. And yet even talking about it like this, I am so far out of my comfort zone, in terms of the intensely personal nature of it. That tells me no matter how far we’ve come in this discussion, we still have a long way to go that somebody like me still feels kind of uncomfortable with it. ven though there is more information available than there has ever been before, there’s still a massive amount of guesswork about it. We’re still all feeling our way through it.

Asked how she might deal with a hot flush during a work meeting:

I would like to think I would be open about it. If you look around the world, there’s not been that many women leaders … I guess Angela Merkel must have gone through when she was in office, Hillary Clinton … so if you’ve got that platform, then I would like to think I would use that positively, but I’m also a human. So I’ve got windows open in the depth of winter, my poor husband is shivering. I’ve thought to myself: what if that happens when I’m on my feet in parliament in the middle of first minister’s questions? What would I do? That could happen any time. I’m not sure I will know the answer to that question until it happens. Maybe male opposition leaders should be thinking about what I will do, as well

She says that she has already had a conversation with her doctor about taking hormone replacement therapy.

‘I often think the world would be a much better place if it were ruled by women’

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Sturgeon, speaking on The Shift podcast, says the world would be a “better place” if it were ruled by women and that females are still forced to work “twice as hard” as men to be taken “even half as seriously”.

I went through periods in life – and still go through periods in life now – where that sense of [ambition] is challenged and I doubt it more. I have spoken to a lot of women who feel this, friends and other women who would articulate exactly the same thing here…You really have to work so much harder to prove yourself so much more, to be taken probably half as seriously – particularly in the profession I’m in – as your average man. It can be tiresome are wearisome that we still have to do that but I’ve come to the conclusion in my life that it’s actually quite a good thing. Because you end up being better [than the men], because you work a lot harder and you have to really go so much further to prove yourself and be taken seriously. I have to be careful that doesn’t sound like an argument for women always having to struggle more to be taken seriously, because it shouldn’t be like that…But when you see women, and I’m not talking about myself here I’m talking about other women in senior positions: by and large, they’re better than their equivalent man and, more often than not, they’ve had to push themselves a lot harder to get to where they are. I often think the world would be a much better place if it were ruled by women.

23 Jan, 2022

Legislative timetable for 2023 referendum to be decided in ‘coming weeks’

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Appearing on the BBC’s Sunday Morning show, Sturgeon says The Scottish Government is preparing for a second referendum in 2023.

The preparatory work on that is underway right now. We haven’t decided on the date that we would seek to introduce the Bill. We will decide that in the coming weeks. But what I have said, and I will happily say again to you right now, is that my intention is to take the steps that will facilitate a referendum happening before the end of 2023…That’s the proposition that just short of a year ago I fought an election on and was re-elected as First Minister. My party was re-elected with a historically high share of the vote. This is about democracy. It’s about allowing the people of Scotland to choose our own future. I make no apology for the fact that over the past two years, as First Minister, I have prioritised steering the country through a pandemic. I am determined, I won an election on this basis, to give people in Scotland the choice over our future. I believe when that choice comes people will choose an independent future.

Says mask rule could be enforced for years

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On The Sunday Show, Sturgeon says that if mask wearing is shown to help in the fight against Covid then they would be required to potentially be worn for years. While Scottish restrictions restrictions on hospitality and on gatherings will be removed on Jan 26, the requirement to wear masks in shops and other venues will remain. This is in contrast to England where all restrictions are being removed altogether. Asked if she foresaw masks being worn for “months or years to come”:

I don’t want any of these measures to be in place for any longer than is necessary. But masks…are something we can do. None of us enjoy wearing them but they are perhaps not the biggest handicap to endure in order to try to stem transmission. So while they can make a difference to controlling the virus then I think it is something we should do.

21 Jan, 2022

Ross: Sturgeon’s covid restrictions ‘far too gung-ho’

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Ross says Sturgeon’s covid restrictions during the festive period, compared with England, which had fewer restrictions, had adversely affected peoples jobs businesses and mental health. He said her “wrong calls” on restrictions were compounded by her government’s failure to pay compensation that had been promised to affected businesses, with some firms “still waiting for a single penny of support”.

The First Minister imposed restrictions that had a massive impact on jobs, businesses and people’s mental and physical health. But we can now see they weren’t needed. It was the Scottish public’s actions, not the SNP Government’s restrictions, that got this right. The First Minister has tried to build a reputation for caution during this pandemic – but she was far too gung-ho in imposing restrictions last month. The Government went too far.

Sturgeon:

We’re taking a sensible approach through this, which is why infection levels – though dropping now thankfully in all parts of the UK – are lower in Scotland than they are in England right now. Over the festive period, the numbers of people in hospital proportionately were lower. We’re not out of the woods yet, but I’m going to continue to take a cautious approach, because, frankly, the price of throwing caution to the wind is not paid by governments. The price of throwing caution to the wind is paid by people across the country in terms of ill health and sadly, in some cases, serious illness and death.

20 Jan, 2022

Says Labour and Tory MPs are ‘interchangeable’

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In response to a question from Anas Sarwar, Sturgeon cites Conservative MP Christian Wakeford’s defection to Labour, saying:

I’m just sitting here reflecting, almost unbeliveably actually, that Anas Sarwas has accused me of behaving like a Tory, the day after his party threw open the doors to a Tory MP. There is now so little difference between the Tories and Labour that their MPs are just interchangeable.

FMQs: Sturgeon says Labour and Tory MPs are 'interchangeable'

Sturgeon calls for inquiry into Wragg blackmail claims

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Sturgeon says an independent inquiry should investigate Wragg’s allegations that Tory MPs calling for the Prime Minister to quit have faced blackmail and intimidation.

These are gravely serious allegations – intimidation, blackmail and using public money to do it. I would suggest that these accusations need to be fully and, crucially, independently investigated…They shock me.”

Later, the First Minister tweeted:

Let’s be clear: if Tories are threatening to withhold public investment from constituencies as a way of keeping MPs in line then, yes, that’s blackmail & intimidation – but it is also corruption. The moral decay at the heart of Johnson’s govt may be even worse than we thought.

19 Jan, 2022

Slorance widow: ‘No answers’ received from Sturgeon

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Louise Slorance, widow of Andrew Slorance, says Sturgeon is not being honest about the real cause of his death in December 2020.

Nicola Sturgeon wrote to me 15 minutes before FMQs. I replied the same day. I still have no response to my letter…Myself, his children, family and friends, deserve better, we deserve answers…[It is] fruitless [to send her a letter]. I have had no contact regarding Andrew since this letter despite the assurance made by the FM that I will be kept updated. Since the circumstances around Andrew’s death became public, I have not received any answers to my questions regarding what happened at the QEUH from the Scottish Government or NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

Scottish Government spokesman:

Ministers have been awaiting details to update Mrs Slorance and will be writing shortly. The NHS Lothian Peer Review has been examining the care and treatment received at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital as well as the communications Mrs Slorance and the family received from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. We expect the findings of the peer review to be shared with the family in the near future. We have offered to meet with Mrs Slorance to discuss the care provided to Mr Slorance and remain committed to doing so.

Writes Glasgow Times article

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Sturgeon writes an article for The Glasgow Times, in which she talks about the lifting of Covid restrictions, Boris Johnson and period poverty.

We are all fed up with Covid. We yearn to put the last two years of the pandemic firmly behind us and get back to normal life – and I certainly hope that this time next year we’ll be looking at Covid in the rear view mirror.

Whilst the Prime Minister struggles with his attempts to cover up the culture of sleaze and corruption in Downing Street, the Scottish Government will continue getting on with the job of government and implementing policies that are deigned to make life better and easier for those who live here. Just one example of such an approach is our ground breaking action to tackle period poverty and remove any lingering stigma associated with periods, by providing sanitary items free of charge across our communities.

18 Jan, 2022

Lifts Omicron restrictions

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During her First Minister’s statement in Holyrood, Sturgeon says that, as of Monday, January 24, the restrictions brought in just before Christmas to stem the rate of Omicron infections, will be lifted. This means an end to one-metre social distancing, the three-household limit for indoor meetings and nightclubs will be able to reopen. The intended extension of the use of vaccine passports has been cancelled but they will still be retained for large events. She says Omicron infections peaked the first week of January and along with hospital admissions the numbers are now dropping.

[I am] cautiously optimistic that we are turning the corner on this Omicron wave.

17 Jan, 2022

Sturgeon: Johnson using ‘cheap, populist policies’ to distract from scandals

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Sturgeon says Johnson of attempting to create populist policies to distract public outrage away from his recent scandals. Johnson has allegedly launched “Operation Red Meat”, which includes plans to scrap the BBC License fee in five years time and to use sonic weapons against small boats in an attempt to send illegal immigrants back into French waters. Government ministers have denied that the policies were created to divert from the Prime Minister’s travails. Sturgeon:

While everybody will have different degrees of criticism of the BBC, to try to jettison the BBC to save his own skin, it’s unedifying. It’s beneath the office of Prime Minister and all it does really is underline this feeling that Boris Johnson is not just himself damaged irreparably, in my view, but he is bit by bit undermining and damaging the institutions of the country and the institutions that support our democracy and that’s why it’s got to stop. A line has to be drawn under this and it’s now up to the Tory Party to decide what’s more important – protecting Boris Johnson or acting in the wider interests of the country…I think there is such a fundamental issue of trust and integrity now around the Prime Minister and the responsible thing for him to do, to allow the focus to be back where it needs to be, would be to resign from office.

Sturgeon also compared her behaviour to Johnsons, climing that she that she would have resigned had the Jamese Hamilton inquiry found any evidence of breaking the ministerial code been found.

Welcomes record £700m offshore windfarm lease auction

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Sturgeon comments on the Scottish Crown Estate’s largest-ever auction of permits to construct offshore windfarms. £699.2 million was raised for 17 separate offshore energy projects off the east, northeast and northern coast of Scotland, to companies such as Shell, BP, SSE and Scottish Power. The developments – a combination of floating, fixed and mixed turbines – are estimated to produce almost 25,000 megawatts of energy.

It’s really hard to overstate how significant and important today’s announcement is for Scotland’s energy, environmental and economic future. This gives us the potential to meet our own energy needs from renewable sources. It’s going to position Scotland as a major exporter of green energy, green hydrogen as well – and delivers massive economic benefits as well as the revenues that will flow to the Scottish government. The estimate is that for every gigawatt of power generated from these projects in due course, there will be a billion pounds of investment in the supply chain and that has the potential to create thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of jobs. So, as we make this transition to net-zero to meet the climate emergency, this helps ensure Scotland can do that in a fair and a just way that creates new jobs to replace those in oil and gas, for example, which we are in the process of transitioning away from. This is perhaps one of the biggest, most significant days in terms of Scotland’s energy and industrial future that we’ve had in a very, very long time. Really exciting

Wind-farm contracts worth £700 million have been awarded to energy companies

13 Jan, 2022

Sturgeon: Rees-Mogg comments show ‘utter contempt for Scotland’

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In response to Rees-Mogg calling Ross ‘a lightweight’ and ‘not a big figure, Sturgeon says his comments reflected the contempt with which English Tories hold Scotland itself. Ross had called on Johnson to resign after he had eventually admitted to attending an outdoor party, months after rolling out emergency pandemic legislation to make such parties illegal. Sturgeon observed:-

These might be personal insults directed at the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, but actually they say something much deeper about the Westminster establishment’s utter contempt for Scotland. If they can’t even show basic respect for their own colleagues, what chance do the rest of us have? The fact is Westminster thinks Scotland doesn’t need to be listened to, can be ignored, and now we’re being told we have to thole a Prime Minister that his own colleagues think is not fit for office.

An added benefit of being independent is that we will no longer have to put up with being treated like something on the sole of Westminster’s shoe.