Scrolling through the news and comments over the last couple of days, it strikes me that you need to have the hide of a rhino, the steely determination of a fearsome entrepreneur, and a leadership skillset that may or may not eventually come in handy to tolerate the day to day rough and tumble in politics. It is not something I would personally take on lightly.
According to several cheap papers, Nicola Sturgeon is an ego tripping power maniac, even when she is bending over backwards and sideways to accommodate the varying will of the Scottish people. The rest of the party are considered a rabble of whingers by a large proportion of journalists and are not heard at all.
Meanwhile at Westminster, varying sources are struggling to find something wrong with Theresa May, who is valiantly clinging to the tiller, whilst a lot of really horrible memes are going around about Boris, not only from minor journalists but from the public. I am sorry to say I also caught out some dude from an NGO trying to use a quote from fourteen years ago as being from our foreign secretary.
I am not sure how many people actually take the time to consider the effects of this. For the first time today, I turned to Twisty and said “You know what? If I was in politics, I would quickly stop caring about the media and the public. That isn’t very good is it?”
Both sides of our current coin are doing the best they can. There is nothing further to discuss until they have a chance to get on with it. The UK situation is relatively stable so far.
I would suggest to the SNP that some PR training and possibly media consultancy is in order. Loftily ignoring the problem is not going to make it go away. Nobody is listening to the point, because they do not think they have to as long as the media keep banging out the same ill-informed nonsense to the public. Some knowledge of basic linguistics is also useful, as I keep hearing jarring points being dismissed far too readily at Westminster. A few small tweaks, and you could avoid being ignored.
I am surprised to note that a few muted yet positive noises are coming from the Conservatives at this point. By the time the rebel Labour MPs decide what they are going to do, they are likely to be largely irrelevant. I look forward with great interest to what happens next.
It would be nice to see a lull in hostilities to see what Scotland and England do in the next month or two. Progress is clearly ongoing, and mutual attacks can always be resumed after our post-Brexit direction is clearer.
In the meantime, both have deployed their weapons of choice in the form of Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson. You may not agree that either are good choices, but for my money, you could not be in better, higher profile or less ego-bound hands. It is nice to see fish swimming in the right water, for once.