It is certainly encouraging that the recent vilification of the SNP and, by association, the Scots in the English media has been shown to be utterly misguided. Top marks to the First Minister for achieving that, at least in the eyes of the general public.
But now the mainstream media have tried to discredit the First Minister directly. Twitter is on fire because of a Telegraph article that claims Nicola Sturgeon told a senior French diplomat that she would prefer to have David Cameron as Prime Minister, rather than Ed Miliband.
There's only one wee snag. It isn't true, as Scotland's First Minster would have told the Telegraph, if they had followed journalistic standard procedure and asked her prior to publishing. But why let the truth get in the way of a good story? This is the same newspaper that "discovered" files that had George Galloway being paid by Iraq in the oil for food scandal, and accused him of being a traitor. So they have a track record in all of this. It is funny how they had time to get quotes from Scottish Labour High Heid yins for this "exclusive", but nothing from Nicola herself. Even the French Consul General has stated that this statement was not made by the First Minister. April Fool's day was on Wednesday.
This smear is knee jerk journalism because of Nicola's assured performance in the debate. Seeing the Labour Party slavering over a story in the Daily Telegraph is yet more proof that there is no difference between them or the Conservative Party these days. James Cook, of the BBC, confirmed that this is a lie because he checked the sources of the story, unlike the Daily Telegraph. I think rather than being a major embarrassment for Ms. Sturgeon that this backfired entirely and became a major front page embarrassment for the Telegraph.
Nicola was absolutely right about the damage to the British economy done by austerity and its band of followers. A large number of English, Welsh and Northern Irish voters realize that, as well as those in Scotland who support the SNP. Now that Sturgeon is seen by the public as a highly credible player, the public will see a Labour/SNP alliance as much less of a problem than the Tories would prefer.
Last week people outside of Scotland might not have known who Nicola Sturgeon was. Now, plenty of them want her as their Prime Minister! A progressive alliance with the SNP at its core can benefit not just Scotland, but all the disaffected of the UK.