General election diary: Soleros and Cybernats

RUTH Davidson’s bonkers election campaign continues. Fresh from posing with giant fish and riding tandems, today she had a shot on the bagpipes and fed a Solero to BuzzFeed’s Jamie Ross.

She also reached out to Niall Gooch, who said on Twitter that he would ‘vote for any party whose leader was willing to appear in public smoking a pipe’ saying that she ‘might be tempted’ if Gooch’s vote was in Scotland.

Proof, were any more needed (and it probably wasn’t) that general election time in Scotland is utterly bonkers and we love it as a result.

Nicola Sturgeon admits ‘Twitter habit’

NICOLA Sturgeon admitted that Twitter is her “bad habit” as the leader of the SNP offered an insight into her life away from the political spotlight.

And Ms Sturgeon also revealed her love of soaps (Eastenders, Coronation Street) as well as the X Factor.

But the First Minister also hit out at recent coverage of her appearance, telling STV in an interview: “Men, the colour of their tie is the most difficult decision they have to make every day.

“So you have to be thinking about what you’re wearing but you don’t want to be thinking about it at the expense of what you really need to be thinking about.

“It still annoys me when I read really derogatory things about how a woman looks because you would usually not read these things about a man, and that still has the potential to put women off public life, and that’s a real shame.”

Twitter trolls dominate FMQs

THE news that an SNP candidate had been unmasked as a Twitter troll was met with anger on Twitter today, with opposition parties calling for Neil Hay, candidate for Edinburgh South, to be sacked.

But in a fiery FMQs, Nicola Sturgeon said: “Neil Hay has rightly apologised - and I think given that we face an election two weeks today it’s up to the voters to decide.”

Scottish Labour deputy leader Kezia Dugdale said this was not enough but was told to ‘put her own house in order first’, making reference to comments made in the past by Labour member Ian Smart describing Nationalists as ‘fascist scum’.

Nationalism vs Nationalism

JIM Murphy attacked David Cameron’s ‘crude and cheap’ English nationalism, saying it can’t defeat the SNP.

Mr Murphy, who spoke to an audience in Edinburgh this morning, said that only ‘social solidarity’ could stop a nationalist surge.

The Scottish Labour leader added: “David Cameron is playing with fire, with his crude and cheap tactics. The Scottish Tory Party no longer exists in any meaningful sense, as David Cameron has given up on it and is acting as an election agent for the SNP.”

Vote blah, for a better-spelt future

WE’VE become increasingly aware of the rise in grammar gaffes on campaign leaflets, such as misspelling the word guarantee (looking at you, Labour), getting the word ‘apprenticeships’ wrong on an education-focused leaflets (really Lib Dems, ‘Aprentiships?’) or just cutting sentences off in the middle.

We particularly enjoyed the leaflet that urged voters to ‘vote Name Surname...for a strong and effective MP who will be accountable to you’.

News in brief

• Russell Brand has said he will not be voting in the General Election, despite initially appearing to back the ‘fantastic’ Green Party. Brand admitted that he is not registered to vote and didn’t support the Green Party

• A new survey for Sky News has revealed that over 40 per cent of Scots believe the General Election campaign is increasing the likelihood of the Union breaking up

• Professor Stephen Hawking declared his backing for the Labour Party today. Your move, Tories...