Dear All
We are know that SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is looking for an escape route out of her current situation. Having destroyed Scotland at national and local government level, Sturgeon has it appears finally worked out that the longer she fails to deliver a second Scottish independence referendum, the more of the Nationalist community will turn against her. I think it would be fair comment to say that a huge chunk of the wider Yes movement have wised up to her game. Even within the SNP elected politicians, there is quiet dissent about the fact independence campaigning is effectively dead, and has been since Sturgeon took over the SNP leadership in 2014. In life imitating art, I am reminded of a cartoon character Judge Cal, Cal appeared in the comic strip 2000AD in the series of stories featuring the main character called Judge Dredd. Judge Cal was a madman who schemed his way into power by backstabbing, but he was so fearful of his fellow judges that he surrounded himself with his own external private army. This was due to him being totally mad and paranoid. In some ways you can see the Cal narrative played in Nicola Sturgeon. Sturgeon surrounded herself with sycophants, and then brought in her own private army in the shape of the Scottish Greens to hold a tight grasp of power. All the while, the party that she leads like Mega City One judges, voice their quiet disapproval which doesn't go un-noticed. I look at Nicola Sturgeon and see the Judge Cal episodes playing out in real life. During Cop26, an obsessed and clearly deranged Sturgeon has turned up to the Cop26 event, and used it as a personal jobs fair. The sight of her grabbing any world leader into an unofficial meeting to give the impression that she was at Cop26 in her own right is so laughable and sad. Cop26 is supposed to be about climate change, but Sturgeon is determined to hijack it at every opportunity for self promotion and job hunting.
A key point to note is that SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon isn't an environmentalist!
Nicola Sturgeon and her incompetent SNP Government has failed to climate change targets year in year out. No experience, no interest, and no deep understanding of the issues of climate change. The main problem facing the world is over population, it is not climate change, climate is a symptom of over population. Just as Nicola Sturgeon is planning to go at some stage, it seems that a think-tank has called for Nicola Sturgeon to chair a UK-wide agency on climate co-operation. Putting Nicola Sturgeon in charge of a UK-wide agency on climate co-operation is like putting a vegan in charge of an abattoir, it is a ludicrous suggestion, I can only assume that the pro-unionist think-tank, Our Scottish Future knows this. When you look at who is in Our Scottish Future, you maybe minded to opine that this is a front for the Labour Party, despite the fact it has Eddie Barnes listed in its who we are. It is not uncommon for political parties to setup front organisations, then these same organisations then echo a party's policies. The SNP did this during the 2014 referendum, they setup many Yes Groups, supposedly independent but who were run by SNP members. The most obvious SNP controlled group was Yes Scotland, run by the SNP, staffed by the SNP and funded by the SNP, with a few Greens and SSP as cover.
So, what about Our Scottish Future, doing a casual search, leaving aside Gordon Brown who we already know is Labour, others listed have also Labour Party connections and former employment. So, I can assume that the think tanks suggestion will find no takers into two key places, the UK Government and the SNP Government. I am surprised that their suggestion would even rate as a viable proposition, I can only assume that they are doing this because they are under the misconception that this idea would boost Anas Sarwar as Labour leader going forward into the 2022 council elections and 2024 Westminster elections. Anas Sarwar isn't making an impact as leader, and polling for the party hovers around the 20% mark with a blip of 22% which shows, nothing that Sarwar does actually matters. London Labour will find that out to its cost in 2024, which I suspect will lead them to the pragmatic choice that they will need to put a new centre left in, which given the current cast of players, would mean Paul J Sweeney, Glasgow list MSP.
One issue which they think tank doesn't grasp is that although Sturgeon wants to bail out, it was been seen as utter betrayal to join a UK Government agency, her name would be mud in the SNP. There would be no Winnie Ewing status afforded to her. Nicola Sturgeon probably had her sights set on a cosy EU job working in the Commission, but Brexit put pay to that idea. Other prestige organisations like the UN or the WHO are so far out of her reach, she wouldn't be able to scale those highs even with a B&Q extendable ladder. There is only one direction of travel for Nicola Sturgeon, downwards, talk of a university position is an option, but with her lack of teaching experience, and less than impressive pre politician work history, who wants to scrap the bottom of the barrel? Glasgow University or Herriot Watt? Could you imagine having your work marked by Nicola Sturgeon, you would looking for the appeals process even before you submitted an essay.
If there is anyone who has the credibility to chair a UK Government agency on climate change from Scotland, it would have to be without question, former leader of the Scottish Greens, Robin Harper. Harper at least has green credentials, experience and importantly genuine interest in the subject. Harper has also been roped into Our Scottish Future camp chairing environmental commission.
He said:
“We need to co-operate rather than compete; we need constructive dialogue; and in the face of the environmental emergency that looms, we should be abandoning the toxic binary politics of today in favour of constructive dialogue.”
His first sentence shows why Nicola Sturgeon would be unsuitable for the chair of a UK Government agency, two reasons, not a leader, and not a team player. Sturgeon has a known history of non cooperation with the UK Government and personal animosity with the ruling party in Westminster. Also if you look at the party she leads in Westminster, she is either complicit in their behaviour or failing in leadership to manage them as a discipline body.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said:
“The First Minister has made clear to world leaders and COP26 delegates Scotland will continue to lead by example on climate change issues.”
Scotland isn't continuing to lead by example, the SNP failed to met their own targets.
They add:
“Scotland has decarbonised faster than any G20 nation and was the first devolved nation in the world to publish an indicative nationally determined contribution showing how we will help meet the objectives of the Paris agreement, pledging to cut emissions by three quarters by 2030, and to be net zero by 2045. Our updated climate change plan and associated commitments provide a clear and credible pathway, across all parts of the economy, to meeting Scotland’s emissions targets out to 2032.”
I would assume that Nicola Sturgeon will have left politics by that time, and due to 'whatever', those targets will not be met.
In the last part of the spokesperson's address, they said:
“It is disappointing that any annual emissions targets have been missed, but we are proud to show our accountability by publishing a catch-up report setting out our commitments to going further in our policy approach in order to ensure we deliver on future targets. The proposals for any new body would need to be considered alongside other organisations that already advise and assess progress on Scotland’s just transition to net zero, such as the UK Climate Change Committee, Environmental Standards Scotland and the Just Transition Commission.”
Finally,
the SNP drone basically, they said, 'we failed, but we published a report',
just like a new report will be produced when they fail to meet the future
targets they failed to meet the last time. If you don't know what this is, I will
explain, it is a 'paper chase', the purpose is to keep writing in order to buy
time, so the agenda can move onto something else. As to Nicola Sturgeon,
although she is keen to move onto new pastures, she deludes herself that there
is a magic job tree at Cop26, and if she rattles the delegates then someone
will come back with a plum job with big bucks, pension and perks. Every SNP leader
prior to Nicola Sturgeon saw their career trajectory go right down the crapper,
including Alex Salmond. If Salmond couldn't scale the heights, what chance does
a Dreghorn hairy wee ned have? Nicola Sturgeon couldn't fake being a nice
caring human being, even after a team did a makeover on her, what chance do you
really think she could pass herself off as a green environmentalist?
Yours sincerely
George Laird The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
👏👏👏
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