ANYONE doubting the popularity of the First Minister and her ability to reach out to people should have been at Tynecastle Stadium yesterday morning.
Arguably only she could get 200 business people – not exactly known for their support of the SNP – to come along at the back of 8am to listen to her attempt to persuade Scotland’s business community to sign up for the Scottish Business Pledge.
There did appear to be a suspiciously large turnout of Hearts-supporting business people who no doubt spent the rest of yesterday showing off their selfies to their family and friends – plenty of them with the First Minister, but somewhat more with the SPFL Championship Trophy which Hearts recently acquired. John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, was technically the host, and he was clearly getting on famously with Ann Budge, chairwoman of Hearts.
He recalled working in a paper shop not far from Tynecastle where a certain Mr Walker bought his daily paper – it was only later that he came to realise that “Mr Walker” was the Hearts legend Tommy Walker, and guess whose giant image towered above proceedings yesterday?
The event was a pleasure to attend for most people but you had to feel sorry for the Daily Telegraph’s Scottish political editor, Simon Johnson, who had clearly been sent along to ask a nuisance question about whether the First Minister would appear on a pro-Europe platform with like-minded Conservatives.
Johnson, of course, was one of the two Telegraph reporters involved in the Frenchgate leak debacle which would never have surfaced if either had bothered to check whether the memo was accurate.
If looks could kill, Johnson would have been heading for the city mortuary made famous in Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels. Yet the First Minister dealt with the question courteously: “I have no plans to share a platform – I will be making a case as the SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland for the positive case for Scotland and the UK’s future within the European Union.”
Professional to her heels, off she went to her next engagement, leaving only one person looking out of touch, frankly.
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