BBC Scottish Leaders Debate (21/05/17, 19:30)

[Ned Nederlander]

3 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Basically admitting she lied about the food bank here and other nurses have called her out on it.

 

Interesting, and I'd say you were right about that basically being an admission.

Folk wave their hands to ask questions all over the place on BBCQT, I presume therefore that each and every one of them gets invited back to ask their question on the next programme  (or even a completely different programme)

Did the BBC pay her expenses as well, she's struggling to feed herself and they're inviting her out and about for a second time.

[Crùbag]

4 minutes ago, Jambomo said:

You'd think though, that if you're going to go on to the BBC and start talking about your use of foodbanks and being generally not paid enough then you would have the sense to make your public profiles private to you and your friends, especially when they make it look like you have a comfortable lifestyle.

Agree. Despite appearances, 'oor' Rudi is I believe a lover of all things Hibernian.

[Alert Mongoose]

She is clearly an utter roaster and should apologise publicly for lying or live with the ridicule.

[pandarilla]

Interesting, and I'd say you were right about that basically being an admission.
Folk wave their hands to ask questions all over the place on BBCQT, I presume therefore that each and every one of them gets invited back to ask their question on the next programme  (or even a completely different programme)
Did the BBC pay her expenses as well, she's struggling to feed herself and they're inviting her out and about for a second time.

Surely she was one of the ones with an agreed set question - and not just someone with their hand up? BBC question time quite often runs out of time so presumably she was asked if she wanted to have her question asked at the next event. That's not an unreasonable deduction - and without evidence to the contrary there's absolutely nothing to see here.

Someone earlier on the thread claimed she was as Tory - but there's no evidence of that either.

The woman works in the nhs, and has strong views on the state of affairs. The food bank things looks like she's exaggerated (maybe heard of someone else at work needing to use them and so pretended it was personal experience) - but I'm not in any way comfortable with her being torn to shreds for criticising the FM. Surely we need to have tougher skin.

Sturgeon should've handled it much better - and the snp have massively fucked up with the Tory councillor false links.

[archie guevara]

1 hour ago, Jambomo said:

I wonder how many people get invited back by the BBC to ask a question on another show when they don't get to ask theirs on Question Time? Thats the most interesting bit for me about this whole thing. I can't imagine they get through everyone s questions and I expect many people don't get a chance to ask theirs so why her?

I was on Radio 5 during the IndyRef and I still get e mails from producers asking me to be part of an audience for this or that, despite only ever having agreed once.   They have to balance the audience so if they know someone is one or other side then they will go to the folk in their contacts book.  She will not have been the only Question Time doubler.

[Guest Bob Mahelp]

6 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

 

Surely she was one of the ones with an agreed set question - and not just someone with their hand up? BBC question time quite often runs out of time so presumably she was asked if she wanted to have her question asked at the next event. That's not an unreasonable deduction - and without evidence to the contrary there's absolutely nothing to see here.

Someone earlier on the thread claimed she was as Tory - but there's no evidence of that either.

The woman works in the nhs, and has strong views on the state of affairs. The food bank things looks like she's exaggerated (maybe heard of someone else at work needing to use them and so pretended it was personal experience) - but I'm not in any way comfortable with her being torn to shreds for criticising the FM. Surely we need to have tougher skin.

Sturgeon should've handled it much better - and the snp have massively fucked up with the Tory councillor false links.

I thought Sturgeon handled her question OK, and showed a lot a of patience given that this was a loaded question that concerned purely devolved matters.

I'm not sure about the 'massively fucked up part'....the rabid right-wing press are using this question as a means of criticising the SNP, and are deliberately distorting facts in their daily quest to put the boot in.

The SNP have a right to defend themselves here, although I agree they should have checked their facts before reacting.

The point still stands that this woman was in the crowd as a political activist...the fact that she's been on 2 political programmes recently confirms this....and it seems that in her desperate need to have her 15 minutes of fame by attacking the SNP, she's been found out as (at the very least) a hypocrite, and (at worst) a downright liar.

I have no sympathy for her.

 

[Baxter Parp]

19 minutes ago, pandarilla said:

Sturgeon should've handled it much better - and the snp have massively fucked up with the Tory councillor false links.

 

 

Not sure what Sturgeon is supposed to do with someone who actively lies/exaggerates for effect.

[Crossbill]

Just now, Baxter Parp said:

Not sure what Sturgeon is supposed to do with someone who actively lies/exaggerates for effect.

She's had plenty of practice at FMQs.

[Baxter Parp]

3 minutes ago, Crossbill said:

She's had plenty of practice at FMQs.

She can be as robust as she likes with politicians, not so with members of the public.

[Cyclizine]

I thought Sturgeon handled it pretty well. Austin claims to have been a Senior Staff Nurse in NHS Lothian for seven years, so she's at least a Band 5, and I'm fairly sure she won't be on the first increment. I'm not party to her personal circumstances, so I can't comment on her foodbank story, but I do feel she seems to have exaggerated her claim. I'd've had no problem with her bringing up the relatively poor wages of nurses and allied health professionals - but this wasn't what she did. Health staff are already paid more (not significantly, but still) in Scotland than England. I'm not sure what else Sturgeon could've said. Wages are set by an 'independent' review board, but really they are told by the government (read England here) what they're prepared to pay.

[DI Bruce Robertson]

She can be as robust as she likes with politicians, not so with members of the public.

I love the word "robust".
I'd be very happy to "robust" most Tories in the face until my foot hurt.

[strichener]

2 hours ago, Dunning1874 said:

Undoubtedly. If it was just a few people ordinary members of public on twitter digging up old social media posts from another member of the public who'd asked a question at a debate, no one would care. It would be pretty shitty behaviour on the part of those doing the digging, but it would bring no massive amount of attention on the questioner and wouldn't reflect on any party in any way. When MPs, MSPs, councillors or any kind of official party twitter accounts get involved, they make it a story.

Sturgeon dealt with the question competently enough and the story would have gone away after today if no one had dived on the 'plant' line. As it is, members of the SNP with a public profile did dive on the Tory plant line, it has made it a bigger story, it does reflect badly on the SNP as a result and any victories Sturgeon scored over Davidson in the debate itself are now forgotten about in media coverage.

For a party who were once accused of keeping too tight a watch over what their MPs and MSPs were doing on social media, that impression has really fallen away over the last couple of years. A lack of discipline on twitter by an MP has given the media and other parties ammunition for days of criticism of the SNP, with hints at not tolerating dissent and the revival of the 'one-party state' line, where they could have been focusing on the shambles of a manifesto the Tories have put forward in what's been a shambles of a campaign for May so far, as their Scottish leader completely fails to address Tory policies.

The story will have gone away by June 8th and it's hardly going to derail the SNP juggernaut, but it's still an own goal.

Yes, an awful lot of people have made a c**t of themselves over this.  Unsurprisingly, quite a few on this thread.  I thought the question was actually handled well by the FM.

Interesting how the tact is completely different depending on who is being blamed

On 09/05/2017 at 14:02, mjw said:

Strange that the nurses using foodbanks isn't important enough for discussion on here.
Andrew Marr had no problem bringing it up two Sunday's ago when he interviewed the PM on his show. Maybe he doesn't know a nurse who saved the deposit for a flat though.

 

[mjw]

I've offered absolutely no opinion on the nurse from last night.
I'd also be interested to see the posts around mine to see what the actual conversation was about.

[Ned Nederlander]

Thankfully, the news focus has now rightly shifted to Theresa May's U-turn - when Laura Kuenssberg is accusing Theresa May of panicking you know you're onto something*

 

 

 

 

 

*although Laura still had a dig at Corbyn when framing the question.

[Chapelhall chap]

Not being from a Medical background can anyone tell me what CSW and HCA are? I was once on QT in the 80s and recently logged on to see if I could take part in a programme. The on line application form was so long and intense that I gave up trying. Presumably the answer to her question re wage increases was that the Scottish government should have over ridden the independent pay board and either used the new tax powers to increase all of our income tax to find the money/change priorities within the Scottish budget to divert funds to finance the wage increase for NHS staff and presumably all public sector workers/ or what suggestions did she have to persuade the WM Treasury to increase the Block grant for those purposes? I just found it convenient that an unanswered question from last weeks QT could be used by the BBC to provide as Jacky Bird said " the highlight" of the night.

[ayrmad]

2 hours ago, Jambomo said:

I'm not sure I'd want to be as dramatic as that but yeah, they obviously liked the story that she wanted to tell and saw an opportunity to use it better elsewhere. That does suggest an agenda.

Whilst the stuff on Twitter is poor, its regrettable that only the Sun have actually looked at the nurse in any depth. Whilst I think it is possible someone could fall into circumstances where they were on £22k and needed to use a food bank, I don't think she looks like someone in those circumstances, she has fairly regular tweets/pics etc showing that she does seem to live a reasonably good life.

Someone also posted a link to her LinkedIn page and she seems to be a specialist nurse of some description, and unlikely to be on entry level pay. I don't think she is being very honest.

She is on over £30k unless she's lying about her status and experience.

£31k+ to £41k+ that's her band for her job.

[Chapelhall chap]

Just now, Tynieness said:

Health Care Assistant and Clinical Support Worker  -  Both usually band two or three.

Thanks very much; my days of looking out for CFE ended some time ago so I take a while to work out these shorthand thingies. I think I can work out what the bands are , thanks to my strong numeracy from the glorious days of Scottish education( well according to Willie Rennie and Coburn)

[Cyclizine]

Health Care Assistant and Clinical Support Worker  -  Both usually band two or three.

They'd be band 3 now. Band 2 (and 1) no longer used in Scotland as salary would be below the living wage.

[Aubrey Maturin]

3 minutes ago, Cyclizine said:

They'd be band 3 now. Band 2 (and 1) no longer used in Scotland as salary would be below the living wage.

Plenty of band two posts still being advertised.  My understanding from STAC is that only the band one posts abolished.

[pandarilla]

I thought Sturgeon handled her question OK, and showed a lot a of patience given that this was a loaded question that concerned purely devolved matters.
I'm not sure about the 'massively fucked up part'....the rabid right-wing press are using this question as a means of criticising the SNP, and are deliberately distorting facts in their daily quest to put the boot in.
The SNP have a right to defend themselves here, although I agree they should have checked their facts before reacting.
The point still stands that this woman was in the crowd as a political activist...the fact that she's been on 2 political programmes recently confirms this....and it seems that in her desperate need to have her 15 minutes of fame by attacking the SNP, she's been found out as (at the very least) a hypocrite, and (at worst) a downright liar.
I have no sympathy for her.
 

How is she a political activist? Just because she was on qt and then asked back as her question wasn't used? Or do you mean by that 'someone with a keen interest in politics'?

You criticise the media for 'deliberately distorting the facts' in a story where a member of the snp and many of the party's supporters claimed this woman was married to a Tory councillor.

She's exaggerated her circumstances and criticised the government - and for that she's being hung out to dry by all and sundry.

I might be mistaken but did sturgeon not stutter a bit with her answer to this question (just after dugdale had stuck the boot in too)? It might have been a different question but she definitely stuttered in an answer when they were discussing this topic. That's why the nurse was bigged up in the first place.