FMQs: Rennie riles sharp Sturgeon
- Published
Willie Rennie pursued a broad range of issues with Nicola Sturgeon
Today sundry MSPs posed questions to the first minister, as is their Thursday habit. The questions were eclectic, ranging from the ethereal to the blunt.
But here's another one - what has Nicola Sturgeon got against Willie Rennie?
Today, the Lib Dem leader was pursuing her on an admittedly broad range of issues - which can be exasperating to the focused FM. And he called her administration "incompetent".
Which was scarcely guaranteed to win her warm support. But was it really necessary to point out so starkly to Mr Rennie the gap in polling status between Mr Rennie's party and the SNP?
OK, that gap currently appears somewhat substantial. And there are elections pending. To the European Parliament. Yes, the one the UK voted to leave three years ago.
An imminent contest tends to concentrate political minds somewhat, not that electoral success or otherwise is ever too far from the thinking of our tribunes.
But, still, Ms Sturgeon appeared notably sharp - as she has done in the past with Mr Rennie.
Perhaps she finds his questions infuriating, a blend of sharp and cunning. Perhaps she dislikes the way he finds linguistic formulae which, just, dodge the perils of cliché. Which, of course, he avoids like the plague.
Perhaps she grumbles at the way the Lib Dems refuse to back the SNP in their budgetary plans, leaving them to the tender mercy of the Greens.
Perhaps she just hates him. Who knows? But the exchanges were notably more acerbic than with others.
The first minister regularly has a sharp reply ready for Willie Rennie in particular
Ruth Davidson, for one. The Conservative leader is back in office, after maternity leave. Jackson Carlaw is back deputising.
Ms Davidson appeared to be thinking: "Plus ça change." Or she would do if a Tory leader were allowed to deploy a European tongue.
In any event, she told the chamber she had returned to find that the FM was still reluctant to give a straight answer. Or, at least, to answer the question posed.
To be fair to the FM, Ms Davidson was scarcely innovative in her choice of topic. She opted for the issue of the education of our offspring in the upper years of secondary school and beyond.
It wasn't, she said, good enough. Ms Sturgeon disputed her figures, her analysis and her conclusions. Which advanced matters little.
But, then, one cannot always have instant resolution and clarity in public life. Just ask the prime minister.
Ruth Davidson was making her return to first minister's questions after maternity leave
Labour's Richard Leonard tackled the topic of rents in the private sector, linking this to child poverty. It was an effective prelude to the launch of a Labour bill on the subject of rent capping, named after Mary Barbour who led the Glasgow rent strike in the early years of the twentieth century.
Ms Sturgeon traded data with him, emphasised her own government's record in social housing (including ending the right to buy) - and suggested that unacceptably high levels of poverty were largely caused by benefit constraint.
Which brought us to a theme which ran throughout questions today. That of Holyrood's powers. On this occasion, Ms Sturgeon was challenging Labour to back the full transfer of welfare to Scotland.
But the issue arose on other occasions. Mr Rennie, in deploying his charge of incompetence, had referred to the suggestion that the assignation of VAT to Scotland might not go ahead.
The Lib Dem leader suggested this was a power returned. Not so, said the FM. It was a Treasury ruse. Scotland would not be able to vary VAT in any way. There would simply be a notional calculation - done by the Treasury - which might result in unscheduled cuts to Scotland's budget.
'Grubby hands'
But what about the prolonged devolution of welfare, asked Mr Rennie. Others have suggested this delay runs counter to the suggestion, made elsewhere, that the creation of an independent Scotland could be achieved within a relatively short timescale.
Ms Sturgeon did not address that particular suggestion today. But she did say that the devolution of welfare allowed decisions to be taken in line with the wishes and needs of the people of Scotland.
At which point, there arose Bruce Crawford from the SNP benches. He referred to a suggestion that some Scottish funding might, in future, be rebadged or reallocated to emphasise that it came from UK funds.
Mr Crawford suggested that the UK government should "get their grubby hands" off Scotland's cash and devolved powers. Nicola Sturgeon, you will be astonished to learn, heartily agreed.