Nicola sturgeon

Given last year’s election was so much about the possibility of the SNP and Labour working together in government, Labour figures will be smiling ruefully at Nicola Sturgeon’s interview on the Andrew Marr Show today, in which she stuck the boot into the party she once suggested a ‘progressive alliance’ with. The Scottish First Minister is of course thinking more about fighting Labour in this year’s Holyrood elections than about the Westminster Parliament, and so she wanted to paint her main challengers as weak and confusing.

Minority sects are often more interesting, and more colourful, than their more popular rivals. That must explain why the Scottish Tories continue to be the subject of so much fascination. Barely a month passes without someone, somewhere, asking if this — at long last — is the moment for a Scottish Tory revival. Spoiler alert: it never is. Logic says that at this year’s Scottish parliament elections, things should be different. It is generally agreed that Ruth Davidson, the party leader in Scotland, had a ‘good independence referendum’; generally agreed, too, that after Nicola Sturgeon, she might be the most impressive politician in Scotland.

Christmas is almost here, so it’s time for our annual year in review podcast. In this View from 22 hour-long special, I’m delighted to be joined by a stellar line-up of Spectator contributors to look back on the events of the past twelve months, as well as asking each of our guests for their person of 2015. Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth discuss the surprise Tory victory in May’s general election and how David Cameron has finally proven himself a winner. Does he now have the whole Conservative party behind him? And who should take credit for this victory?

So, it turns out that the SNP weren’t that bothered about the plight of foxes after all. Back in July, you might remember, David Cameron was forced to backtrack on his plan for a parliamentary vote on relaxing the hunting ban, after the SNP decided to vote against any changes. This, of course, came after Nicola Sturgeon wrote in February: ‘the SNP have a long-standing position of not voting on matters that purely affect England — such as fox hunting south of the border, for example — and we stand by that.

Someone at Scottish Labour is having a very bad day. The beleaguered party's Perth conference has made the news. Alas, it has made the news for the wrong reason after a video posted on the party's official YouTube channel had an embarrassing typo. The video in question was supposed to help the party win the youth vote, with a message on the screen supposed to read 'generation for the next'. However, whichever Labour brain typed it up, ought to take some time out to brush up on their spelling as the message actually read 'genertaion': Still, at least they have won the attention of the SNP: https://twitter.

At the SNP conference the First Minister and her deputy, John Swinney, both had precisely the same thing to say about university. Here’s Swinney: “Students from a poorer background have never had a better chance of a place at university than under the SNP”. And Nicola Sturgeon: “More students from poorer backgrounds are now going to university”. More. That's the test they set: if more poor students are going to uni then the SNP is succeeding. They both talk about “university,” as distinct from other forms of further education. Yes, the ratio of poor kids at uni is rising in Scotland – but shamefully, it’s half the level of England. Worse, the gap is growing (see chart, above).

Nicola Sturgeon spoke at the open and close of the SNP conference, and her speech today transposed the key themes of the short address she gave on Thursday morning. She attacked Jeremy Corbyn for disappointing her 'high hopes', saying 'so far, Jeremy Corbyn isn't changing Labour - he's allowing Labour to change him'. And she talked about independence, though in this speech the First Minister didn't talk about when, but how. Her first speech had acknowledged that the party couldn't commit to another referendum until there was evidence a majority of Scots were now in favour of leaving. Today she argued that 'if we want Scotland to be independent - and we most certainly do - then we've got work to do'. She said the party needed to convince voters that 'independence is the best future'.

This year's SNP conference has proved to be a somewhat tame affair with Nicola Sturgeon playing down talk of a second independence referendum.

One of the key aims of this SNP conference in Aberdeen is for the party to reach out to those who are worried that voting for the party in the Holyrood elections will raise the spectre of a second referendum that many voters are wary of, given how divisive the first one was in some families and communities. To that end, Nicola Sturgeon was careful to use her speech to reassure nervous listeners that the SNP wasn’t planning another referendum any time soon: ‘To propose another referendum in the next parliament without strong evidence that a significant number of those who voted No have changed their minds would be wrong and we won’t do it.