The SNP’s duplicitous election campaign

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader, has privately been saying that she wants David Cameron to remain in Downing Street, reports Simon Johnson in The Daily Telegraph. The claims were first made in an "official British government memorandum" disclosing that Sturgeon met Sylvie Bermann, the French ambassador to the UK; if true, they would seem "to confirm growing speculation in Scotland that the SNP would secretly favour another Conservative-led Westminster government". One plausible reason for this is that a Conservative victory, or Tory-led coalition, could "stoke up anti-English sentiment and make an out' vote more likely in another referendum".

This "stinking hypocrisy" is typical ofthe "wholly duplicitous campaign the SNP is running", says Alan Cochrane, also in The Daily Telegraph. By publicly supporting Labour while covertlycheering on the Tories, Sturgeon has shown that "she is perfectly preparedto dupe the Scottish people if it helpsthe SNP win votes on 7 May". Atlast the revelations "have given us a proper insight into the chicanery and insincerity that Ms Sturgeon clearly reckons is a substitute for honesty, open government and plain dealing". That said, her stance "appears to be matched by the prime minister's contentment that she hammers the Scottish Labour Party. The unspoken Tory strategy seems to be to wish that the separatist SNP wipes out and replaces Labour in Scotland, no matter what the inherent danger that spells for the union." It's time both sides came clean on this.

Still, as scandals go, this one is pretty questionable, says an unconvincedZoe Williams in The Guardian.The memo was a "third-hand account from a civil servant, who has doubts about whether the comments were ever uttered". In any case, while Sturgeon may have mulled over the possibility that a Tory win would be better for the SNP, "it's too early in the electoral process, surely, to start putting politicians on trial for their thoughts". What's worse, it's clear that nobody involved in the storm cares whether the claim was true or not; they simply want the opportunity to score political points. And that says a great deal more about our politics than whatever Sturgeon may or may not believe. "Something is lost, when credulity pushes past reality into believing any damned thing you want to believe."

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Nonetheless, there's an important point at the heart of this, says the FT. The SNP would face a "fundamental conflict of interest" in "supporting a minority UK government at Westminster". Indeed, a cynic might say that "a UK that was in serious fiscal trouble would actually serve the purposes of Scottish nationalists as it would make the union a less attractive proposition". So regardless of why the story has broken, it would be better if those conflicts "were exposed now rather than over the next half decade".