Why Nicola Sturgeon doesn’t deserve to be called ‘Chief Mammy’ – Alex Cole-Hamilton

How can the First Minister live up to her nickname when she has failed Scotland’s children, asks Alex Cole-Hamilton

Nicola Sturgeon visits West Calder High School to view the safety measures in place ahead of the return of pupils today (Picture: Andy Buchanan-Pool/Getty Images)

Politicians often attract nicknames. Nixon was Tricky Dicky; Thatcher, The Iron Lady. Most have been disowned or ignored by their subjects. But there is one nickname, given to Scotland’s First Minister, that she has never sought to dispel. Designed to capture her stated ambition to define her legacy with things she’s improved for Scotland’s children, that nickname is: “Chief Mammy”. She doesn’t deserve it.

Nicola Sturgeon has sought to soften her sometimes frosty personality by surrounding herself with children of all ages. There was the “Baby Shark” photo shoot in the cabinet rooms of Bute House, the Jacinda Ardern impersonation, promising that the Easter Bunny would come despite Covid and there was the nauseating “Thank You Nicola” montage made by the children of nationalists (inexplicably promoted by the STV twitter feed) during lockdown.

Whilst I don’t doubt that her interest in children is genuine, she leads a government that has fallen at nearly every hurdle in trying to improve the lot of Scotland’s youngest citizens.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is the Lib Dem MSP for Edinburgh Western

The SNP talk a good game. Right out of the traps, the government stated their saccharine intention to govern our children with love and to make Scotland the best place in the world to grow up. It doesn’t and we’re not. Here’s why:

Let’s start with justice. For the first ten years of SNP administration and despite biannual rebukes from the United Nations, Scotland had the lowest age of criminal responsibility in the entire world. From the age of eight children could be held criminally responsible for their actions and could feel the full force of the law, in direct contravention of several international human rights charters.

With much fanfare, that age was finally shifted to the international minimum of 12 last year. It was meant to be a marquee Bill for the SNP with many a sugar-coated photo op planned for the First Minister. However, embarrassingly for the SNP, the UN upgraded the international minimum to 14 while the Bill was in transit. I’m told that, fearing an electoral backlash, the First Minister personally blocked my amendments to bring us up to 14.

This might seem a bit of a niche issue, but to put it in context, Russia and China have higher ages of criminal responsibility. On this they do kids rights better than we do. The FM has said she wants to be a human rights leader, but you cannot lead the world from the back of the pack.

Then there’s health. Again, for the better part of a decade the SNP have presided over waiting times for first line child and adolescent mental health treatment that have gone up and up and up. In some parts of Scotland, children have had to wait two years and more to access the help they need. Not only did Sturgeon preside over that as First Minister, but for a good bulk of those ten years she was Health Secretary too.

The SNP’s exam results scandal (and it has been a scandal) has awoken the nation to a government fixated on targets and metrics rather than the well-being of children. This week the country learned that the First Minister’s managerial dedication to systems comes at a cost.

In order to make the exam results look a little more like last year the SNP were willing to ride roughshod over the hard work of teachers and students alike. Furthermore, the prevalence of downgrading was particularly acute in deprived areas, baking in educational inequalities and making the attainment gap between richest and poorest look like official government policy.

Political nicknames are meant to capture the significant character traits of their subjects. A “Chief Mammy” to my mind would put children before electoral popularity or managerial devotion to targets and systems, every single time. The actions of the First Minister give the lie to any pretence or claim she has to that title.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is the Lib Dem MSP for Edinburgh Western