Most dangerous woman in Britain or Queen of Scotland?
The most dangerous woman in Britain / The Queen of Scotland. Depending on what newspaper you read this morning these are the two titles being given to the leader of the SNP Nicola Sturgeon.
The first title of dangerous woman relates to her party positioning itself as the kingmaker in the event of a hung parliament and in part to a leaked memo claiming to show that the Nationalist leader would like to see David Cameron return to Downing Street.
The second title of Queen of Scots refers to how she was greeted in Edinburgh yesterday following her strong performance in Thursday night's leaders' debate and to the status to which she has been elevated by her party faithful.
This is a woman who sold out a 12,000 seater stadium before even being officially elected leader of the SNP in November. (Her predecessor Alex Salmond was once referred to as the King of Scotland but then people realised that had quite different connotations - remember the film? James McAvoy, Forest Whitaker).
Anyway, back to this leaked memo. It claims to report a conversation had between Nicola Sturgeon and the French Ambassador to the UK Sylvie Bermann at Holyrood in February this year. During their chat the SNP leader is said to have told the Ambassador that she would prefer David Cameron to continue as Prime Minister and that Ed Miliband "wasn’t Prime Minister material".
There are two scenarios here. First, if the memo is true then it contradicts the SNP mantra that they would never want a Tory Government at Westminster and confirms what some unionists thought all along that the SNP were secretly (or in candid moments with French ambassadors) wanting the Tories to return to office.
Seeing Cameron return to Downing Street would give the Nationalists another five years to attack a government “the Scottish people didn’t vote for’’ and following an anticipated strong showing in next year's Scottish Parliament Elections increase the likelihood of a second independence referendum in the next five years.
With regards to the comments Sturgeon is said to have made about Ed Miliband, while not as surprising as the alleged support of Cameron, it does indicate who she reckons will be in pulling the strings in the ‘progressive alliance’ she has publicly stated she would like to form with Labour following the General Election.
But of course Nicola Sturgeon has declared, or more accurately tweeted, that this memo is 100% untrue. A belated April Fools according to her spokeswoman.
If that is the case, and the French have now supported this stance, then it starts to look like no more than an attempt to tarnish a leader whose popularity ratings are more than all of the three main Westminster parties combined - even in England.
This lunchtime the SNP Leader will attend an anti-Trident rally in Glasgow and I reckon her supporters will care not a jot about this memo, nor will it make them think twice of voting for a woman they do now hail the Queen of Scots.
At the moment Nicola Sturgeon appears unable to put a foot wrong, not only in the eyes of her supporters - even some Conservative and Labour MP’s were forced to admit she stole the show on Thursday.
But this week we have two debates which might prove more of a challenge for Sturgeon.
On Tuesday STV will host a debate for the four main Scottish Parties and on Tuesday BBC Scotland will do the same. Unlike on Thursday the SNP will be forced to defend their own record in Government and that is where the cracks, if there are any, will be exposed in Sturgeon’s crown?