Nicola Sturgeon gives you permission to question her
SKETCH: Douglas Ross pushes back against a regal First Minister.
One of Nicola Sturgeon’s favourite rhetorical feints is to declare it ‘perfectly legitimate’ for an opponent to question her about this or that.
There is a regal air to Sturgeon’s rule, so it’s only natural that she thinks of First Minister’s Questions as her weekly audience.
Under quizzing on education by Douglas Ross, she graciously allowed that he ‘should by all means raise all these issues’.
‘I am glad I have permission from the First Minister to raise issues,’ the obstreperous opposition leader taunted.
This was the third FMQs of this parliament and the first that must be called a clear victory for the Tory leader.
Here’s how he did it. First, no livestock talk. Ross’s enthusiasm for farming is evident but a little of the Old MacDonald stuff goes a long way. I enjoy hearing about bovine reproduction practices as much as the next person but one episode of The Archers every Thursday is enough.
Next, he prefaced his questions with a shout out to Steve Clarke and the Scotland men’s team, who are doing A Football Thing at the moment. Clever bit of interrogative footwork, that. Kick off your opening salvo with a point of unity and you hobble your opponent.
What clinched it for Ross, though, was an assured marshalling of difficult facts into a case that the First Minister couldn’t convincingly answer. He attacked the spiralling exams crisis not with partisan slogans but with a combination of Sturgeon’s own words and those of the young people who are experiencing her efforts first-hand.
The SNP leader last week gave an undertaking that assessment grades would not be arrived at via ‘algorithms, statistical models or historical performance of schools’, and told Ross: ‘I stand by the statement that I made absolutely.’
He suggested ‘the evidence paints a very different picture’. You could clear a Hobbycraft warehouse trying to paint the differences between the First Minister’s assertions and the evidence.
Ross noted that an Education Scotland report found ‘three in four councils in Scotland are analysing results using historical attainment data’, while Inverclyde Council was holding ‘data analysis meetings’ before submitting final marks. This evidence was ‘in direct contradiction’ to the First Minister’s statements and meant ‘young people will lose out based solely on where they go to school’.
‘This is the same shambles as last year,’ Ross argued. ‘It is just more sleekit.’
First off, points for the use of ‘sleekit’, a fine Scots word that warrants more outings at FMQs. If sleekitness was a natural resource, Holyrood could give Exxon Mobil a run for its money. More immediately, though, the Conservative leader had put his finger on the grading racket the Scottish Government is running.
‘How on earth can young people have confidence in the system when the First Minister’s words do not match reality?’ he pleaded. Just wait till they learn the awful truth about Father Christmas.
Sturgeon cavilled that this was ‘simply not the case’. Past performance wouldn’t be taken into consideration except when ‘provisional grades… appear to be significantly out of step with past performance’, whereupon the grades would be referred back to the teachers who would reconsider them at their discretion, but not based on past performance. If you can follow that sentence, you may be entitled to an Advanced Higher in English as a Foreign Language.
As well as the First Minister’s own words, Ross had come armed with the statements of Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament, which is like the Scottish Parliament only with more life experience. The budding lawmakers had told Ross youngsters ‘should be able to appeal their grade without the risk of it being downgraded’ and should not be asked ‘to roll the dice with their future’.
Sturgeon proclaimed the young people’s views ‘perfectly legitimate’ (not again), but accused Ross of ‘misrepresentation’. The only person the First Minister doesn't think should be judged on past performance is herself.
Originally published in the Scottish Daily Mail on June 11, 2021.
Coming from Dreghorn, the FM will be enamoured by the use of the word 'sleekit' that came from the Bard's pen.