Why Sturgeon is popular

There is a great ennui settling again over the electorate in the UK. The three main party leaders are regarded with a degree of scepticism bordering on disrespect. Leaving aside their personal qualities (or failings) and leaving aside the ministrations of party spinners (very evident in the election debate) we should ask why this is so. After all, none of them are ‘bad’ people and they all seem reasonably sincere and the country is in a rather better state than the USA and most of the rest of Europe. We must look elsewhere for our answer. The Farage factor is easily dealt with. He says what he thinks and he is blunt and doesn’t tie up his statements in caveats and get-out clauses. We either like him or hate him, but none of us shrug our shoulders. Johnson also speaks his mind and shows himself as human by making mistakes and admitting them afterwards. Sturgeon, though, is a bigger mystery. She is more of a traditional ‘politician’ than Farage and Johnson. I think the secret of her new-found popularity lies in just one of her answers in the TV debate. Discussing tuition fees, Clegg admitted the mistake but failed to say he would try to put it right, Cameron said nothing save to say it was not a big problem, then Miliband promised to reduce them from £9,000 to £6,000. All very bland and undramatic. Sturgeon, in contrast, said her party had abolished them altogether in Scotland. Why? Because she BELIEVES in the PRINCIPLE of free education. As a Labour leader, Miliband OUGHT to believe in the same thing but clearly doesn’t, judging by his policy. In other words we like politicians who have PRINCIPLES and are willing to articulate them and, above all, implement them. This same analysis could be applied to other issues, including taxation, welfare, health issues and Europe. Just to contradict myself, Miliband does state clearly he believes in the EU and British membership of it (a belief shared by Cameron but he dare not state it). The problem for him is that few care about this belief. Many do care about education, free for all at the point of delivery. Just like health.