Sadly you are probably correct Shadow, Sturgeon you are quite right has limited power as a First Minister, however she does have the strongest position of all to question and lead on the issue.
She can question the approach from the Police, she can come out and state she fully understands and stands by the right to protest peacefully. She can ask questions as to why the antagonists from Wednesday – which she came out and criticised in very strong terms- were not kettled yet a group of protesters were who to date had not been involved in any trouble were. She can then ask why the press were stopped from taking pictures of and reporting what was happening.
There were clear attempts in my opinion here from the Police to avoid public scrutiny of their actions and Sturgeon can question why.
That said you are right, it is clear she is up against an establishment who offer her little respect and certainly don’t appear to fear her. I’m not sure that would be any better in an independent country, those views and tactics don’t disappear because Scotland becomes independent, the situation in Westminster and who controls the levers was evident with Boris and Cummings. Sturgeon could lead here, she could be vocal, she could shine a light on the inconsistencies in policing and question those tactics publicly. And she could do that through the press that the Police were clearly fearful of by their actions in trying to silence them on Saturday, there didn’t appear to be a united front from Police and media on Saturday. That would at least bring the scrutiny they were so keen to avoid. Perhaps there are cracks that can be exploited.
Like you said earleir in the thread there are questions to be asked in the consistency of policing of those that protest and those seeking to disrupt it with evident violence. I'd like her to at least call that out. HH
Naw I agree 100% Niall when you say NS should be coming out and condemning this and asking those who head up Police Scotland the very questions you highlighted above but what I'm driving at here is then what? What comes after the questions and condemnation?
Kelly made the point about how paying lip service to this is not enough, that without action criticism of her government will rise and support for it will wane and he is bang on. The question I'm posing here is what, beyond her condemning Police Scotland's actions and asking the questions you raised above, can she actually do?
Any government's ability to govern is wholly dependent upon the cooperation of institutions like the Police, Judiciary etc. so what happens when those institutions are so politically and ideologically opposed to that government that they not only withdraw their cooperation but seek to undermine it's ability to govern?
In a situation like this how can a government take action? How can they enforce the law when trying to clamp down on violent far-right British Nationalist racists, how can they uphold the fair treatment and rights of peaceful protesters opposing that violence and racism when those they depend on to enforce that law and protect those rights are not only actively undermining and working against them due to political/ideological opposition but are in fact more politically aligned (at least) with those engaging in the violence?
You're also correct to say the Police were trying to avoid scrutiny yesterday but it wasn't the scrutiny of the national media they were trying to avoid it was the scrutiny of social and independent media.
Police Scotland, like everybody else in this country, knows fine well how Scotland's media works and where it's political and cultural allegiances lie so they had no need to worry about how they would be portrayed by the national press when they ran with the Green Brigade being a 'football risk group' excuse for kettling the protesters. The same way they had no need to worry when allowing far-right BritNats to run amok because that same press would equivocate and obfuscate by banging on about 'rival factions' and anti-anti-fascists instead of calling them exactly what they were......far-right British Nationalists!
You yourself have condemned the behaviour and written often enough about the allegiances and bias of the Scottish press Niall. You've made clear your distrust of them on many occasions and have done so again just today so I'm confused as to why you'd trust them to allow Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of a party they are known to despise, a fair opportunity to criticise the Police and ask probing questions of them without resorting to a twisting of the issue through their usual Unionist spin and their gifting of a larger platform to opposition politicians to launch a barrage of political attacks on her and her government.
Again I agree Niall, like you say all these views and problems will not magically disappear overnight if Scotland became independent but if we were then we could start to dismantle the foundations they are built on! Change doesn't come from standing still and accepting the status quo, we won't rid ourselves of these problems and backward attitudes by preserving the system that promotes and instils them in our society or by waiting on the electorate of another nation to free us from a toxic British Nationalist mentality that too many of them refuse to let go of!
Independence is not a fix-all solution and it would be ridiculous for anyone to claim it was but it does offer us the opportunity to determine our own path as a society, it would allow us to challenge and address some of these and the other problems we face as a country without the interference of a UK establishment and UK media that props up and seeks to keep these backward attitudes, ideals and people in place for it's own selfish ends even though they are to the detriment of the people who live here.
I'm not trying to draw you or anyone else into an argument or get into some drawn out political debate but we all know how things currently operate in Scotland and I'm genuinely asking does anyone have a solution to how we deal with these issues because other than breaking the system that perpetuates these problems I'm at a loss as to how we fix them.
Apologies for the lengthy reply mate but it's hard to explain where I'm coming from in a couple of paragraphs
HH Niall