Nicola Sturgeon says that she “detests the Tories and everything they stand for’”.
Do you agree?
It’s a statement that has provoked a strong (some might argue, slightly hysterical) response on social media.
In recent years, there have been calls for politicians to be more moderate in the language they use to speak about their political opponents.
Politics is not a war, but it’s not a tea party either.
It’s the nature of the beast that different political parties believe that they alone have the right ideas and vision to take the country forward.
When politicians direct personal abuse at their opponents, it serves only to highlight their own lack of substance.
But that’s not what happened here.
Nicola Sturgeon detests Tories – with policies like this, is anyone surprised?
This wasn’t a personalised attack, of the kind we saw when Boris Johnson made repeated jibes about Ian Blackford’s weight, or when Liz Truss called Nicola Sturgeon an attention-seeker.
It was a statement of the obvious: Nicola Sturgeon detests everything the Tories stand for.
Did anybody really expect her to summon her inner diplomat and concede that – aside from the whole austerity agenda, dismantling of the welfare state, hostile environment for immigrants thing – they’ve probably got some good ideas?
I would (politely, non-divisively, oh-so-gently) suggest that everybody should calm down a wee bit.
The SNP leader saying she detests the party of Brexit; the rape clause and the demonisation of the poor shouldn’t be a great surprise.
Nor should it provoke faux outrage from the supporters of those policies.
The Conservative Party is free to pursue whatever cruel and unusual punishments it feels those with the least power in society deserve.
But they can’t compel others to agree with them, or ask them to pretend that they don’t find their vile priorities detestable.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said recently it was her “obsession’’ and “dream’’ to see a flight deporting refugees from the UK to Rwanda.
The lives of refugees shouldn’t be used as an political plaything by fanatical idealogues.
What is that, if not detestable?
Sturgeon comments were clearly the wrong kind of free speech
This ridiculous mass temper-tantrum has shown Conservatives believe they are entitled to a level of respect that they rarely show the most vulnerable members of our society.
The nasty party can’t have it both ways.
They can’t, on the one hand, screech about free speech and snowflake mentality while complaining that the big bad Nat said an unkind thing.
Reaction to Nicola Sturgeon's claim that she 'detests the Tories' suggests that all the free speech pearl-clutchers might have a point after all. Problem is, they're now clutching their pearls about Nicola Sturgeon exercising her free speech. Perplexing.
— James Oh Brien (@mrjamesob) October 10, 2022
While Conservative representatives were working themselves into a frenzy over Nicola Sturgeon’s “irresponsible’’ language, the many crises that their party has exacerbated continue to wreak havoc.
In her first act as Prime Minister, Liz Truss came within an inch of crashing the economy, all because she wanted to funnel some extra cash to millionaires and bankers.
Kids are going to school hungry.
Families are bracing themselves for a winter of cold and hardship.
Businesses are closing their doors.
Workers are worried that their wages won’t cover the rising cost of food and energy.
Many believe the party of government is too distracted by in-fighting to govern in the best interests of ordinary people.
Our priorities are skewed when we are more outraged by a political party being described as “detestable’’ than we are about a set of policies that have caused so much real-life harm.
Nicola Sturgeon was asked to apologise for her comments and refused to do so.
She said she wasn’t referring to individuals or Tory party supporters, adding: “I was referring to Tory party values and policies, policies that throughout much of my lifetime have devastated communities and plunged people into poverty.”
If the Conservative Party doesn’t want to be thought of as detestable then perhaps it should focus less on the negative reviews offered by its opponents and more on the needs of the people it was elected to govern.
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