Tuesday 12 January 2021

The Words Matter

Nicola Sturgeon has said "I do not consider that I misled parliament, but that is for others to judge." Interesting phrase. Why didn't she just say "I did not mislead parliament" or "I did not lie to parliament"? Perhaps because such bare faced lies are beyond even her? Very few of us can lie effectively. Instead, we tend to deflect, obfuscate, confuse or conflate. Note how the rebuttals of the charges of lying, which Alex Salmond has placed at Sturgeon's door, introduce the idea of a conspiracy, only to rubbish it. Who mentioned conspiracy? This is typical deflection. The point at issue is - has Scotland's First Minister lied to the Scottish Parliament, yes or no?

What Calton finds even more egregious is the way in which Nicola and her followers are framing the Salmond/Sturgeon war as an attack on a poor, innocent woman by an awful man. This is nonsense and dangerous nonsense at that. By inappropriately appropriating female victimhood in a situation where the female is the First Minister of Scotland and the supposed victimiser is a political has-been, Sturgeon and her female supporters, like Kirsty Blackman, are doing women in general a huge disservice. There are many situations where women are bullied and harassed by mysogynistic men and, when this happens, it needs to be called out by both men and women, but this is not one of them and to suggest it is, prejudices genuine cases of sexism and mysogyny.

Calton has already blogged about how the SNP is not good for women. Neither is Nicola Sturgeon.

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