It is strange that the PM will not meet me – Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon


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Nicola Sturgeon has described it as “strange” that the prime minister will not meet her for talks on the country’s coronavirus (Covid-19) recovery while he’s in Scotland.

Stranger in a foreign land

Boris Johnson has declined an invitation to meet the Scottish first minister and SNP leader at her official residence, Bute House in Edinburgh. Speaking as the prime minister began his two-day trip north of the border, Sturgeon said she does not feel “snubbed” but instead claimed it is a “missed opportunity”.

Her comments came after Johnson said he was “keen” to have talks with Sturgeon. In a letter to her, he said this should take place in a “structured forum for ongoing engagement between the Government and the devolved administrations to deliver tangible outcomes in the interest of people throughout the UK”.

Boris Johnson
Prime minister Boris Johnson is in Scotland for a two-day visit (Tolga Akmen/PA)

Sturgeon told broadcasters:

I don’t feel snubbed. I think most people will think it’s a bit odd, and a bit strange, that we’ve got a Prime Minister visiting Scotland who talks a lot, rightly, about the need – despite our political differences – for us to work together where we can on getting through Covid and into Covid recovery but doesn’t take the opportunity when in Scotland to come and talk to me directly about how we might co-operate and work together.

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I think people will just find that strange and it’s for Boris Johnson to explain, I suppose, why.

This would be the first opportunity, given Covid, for us to sit down, appropriately socially distanced, and have a face-to-face chat. I think it would have been a good opportunity.

I was getting ready to welcome him to Bute House today. There’s lots that Boris Johnson and I fundamentally disagree on but we both lead governments that are trying to get our countries through Covid and so there’s a lot for us to co-operate on.

So, you know, missed opportunity but that’s on him.

I stand ready to work with whoever, however I can to get Scotland through Covid and into recovery.

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  • Show Comments

    1. Dear Nicola – the problem is that Doris doesn’t recognise you as the leader of a government, because he thinks Scotland (and indeed Wales) is a region of England, infested by a “verminous” race he’d like to see exterminated. Here’s the evidence (at risk of invoking Godwin’s Law, this is reminiscent of a certain C20th dictator):

      The Scotch – what a verminous race!
      In the light of Johnson’s becoming Tory Party leader and Prime Minister, his attitude to Scotland, as exemplified by the publication of this disgusting diatribe, needs to be more widely known. I am not aware of when these hateful lines were penned, but it was very likely to have been encouraged by Johnson at the time of publication in 2004.

      The Scotch – what a verminous race!
      Canny, pushy, chippy, they’re all over the place,
      Battening off us with false bonhomie,
      Polluting our stock, undermining our economy.
      Down with sandy hair and knobbly knees!
      Suppress the tartan dwarves and the Wee Frees!
      Ban the kilt, the skean-dhu and the sporran
      As provocatively, offensively foreign!
      It’s time Hadrian’s Wall was refortified
      To pen them in a ghetto on the other side.
      I would go further. The nation
      Deserves not merely isolation
      But comprehensive extermination.
      We must not flinch from a solution.
      (I await legal prosecution.)

      You can read the whole article here: http://glendiscovery.com/scots-a-verminous-race.html

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    2. “He’s not coming to meet you, First Minister!”
      “Oh THANK FUCK! It would have wasted a whole day, and been utterly pointless as I didn’t have any off-the-books corrupt deals to offer him, and that’s all he cares about. So, OK, write some carefully worded criticism about this pathetic excuse for a human being not turning up, but don’t make it TOO good – we don’t want the shit [Sack of yellow custurd] to change his mind! 😮 “.

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