Desperate Times (04/04/15)

Desperate times call for desperate measures, so they say, but if this Guardian article is accurate then Ed Miliband is unfit for office as Prime Minister. 

Because the Labour leader is trying to smear Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, with a ridiculous 'dirty tricks' story which has been emphatically denied by the people directly involved. 

So what it comes down to is that Ed Miliband is so worried about the kicking Labour is receiving north of the border that he's prepared to use any tactics, including bare-faced lies, to try and turn things around.

But if you ask me, these dirty tactics will only make matters worse because they'll remind people that Ed only won the Labour leadership with the support of a few trade union bosses, by overturning the will of individual Labour Party members and by stabbing his brother in the back.   

Ed Miliband refers to Nicola Sturgeon allegations as 'damning revelations'

Labour leader responds to claims that SNP leader said she would rather see David Cameron win general election

Ed Miliband: ‘While in public the SNP are saying they don’t want to see a Conservative government, in private they are actually saying they do want a Conservative government’ Photograph: Reuters

By Dan Carrier - The Guardian

Ed Miliband has described an allegation that Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish National party leader, told a senior French diplomat that she would rather see David Cameron win the general election as “damning”.

In a terse, angry tweet on Friday, Sturgeon said it was “categorically, 100%, untrue” that she made the dramatic disclosure when she met the French ambassador to the UK, Sylvie Bermann, in late February. Her version of events has been backed up by the French consul-general in Edinburgh, Pierre-Alain Coffinier, who said on Saturday that he had no idea where the claim had come from.

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon)April 3, 2015

.@simon_telegraph your story is categorically, 100%, untrue...which I'd have told you if you'd asked me at any point today

But Miliband told Sky News on Saturday: “I think these are damning revelations. What it shows is that while in public the SNP are saying they don’t want to see a Conservative government, in private they are actually saying they do want a Conservative government. It shows that the answer at this general election is if you want the Conservatives out, the only answer is to vote Labour for a Labourgovernment.”

The Telegraph claimed Sturgeon’s comments were contained in a leaked UK government memorandum, thought to come from the Foreign Office, which sets out an official account of the meeting from Coffinier.

The allegation comes as polls suggest that the SNP is on track to take up to 50 seats from Labour in Scotland, and Sturgeon’s personal popularity is soaring in the wake of a well-received performance in this week’s televised leaders’ debate.

Ed Miliband narrowly beats David Cameron in snap poll after leaders' debate

Jim Murphy, leader of Scottish Labour, has also said the memo shows the SNP believe a Conservative victory could, in the long term, strengthen their hand in cementing opposition in Scotland to Whitehall rule.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the memo said: “Discussion appears to have focused mainly on the political situation, with the FM stating that she wouldn’t want a formal coalition with Labour; that the SNP would almost certainly have a large number of seats ... that she’d rather see David Cameron remain as PM.” The note went on to say that Sturgeon had said she did not think Labour leader Ed Miliband was “prime minister material”.

However, the civil servant appeared to doubt whether the report accurately conveyed Sturgeon’s comments, adding: “I have to admit that I’m not sure that the FM’s tongue would be quite so loose on that kind of thing in a meeting like that, so it might well be a case of something being lost in translation.”

The leaked document was drafted by a Whitehall official after Coffinier called the FCO, as protocol requires, to pass on a confidential account of several of the ambassador’s meetings in Edinburgh, which included a meeting with Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish secretary.

Coffinier, who was present at the meeting, confirmed that he had talked “in broad terms” to the UK Government’s Scotland Office about the ambassador’s visit, but denied saying that Sturgeon had expressed a preference about the election outcome and said he could not recall any casual comment which could have been interpreted in this way.

“I didn’t say that,” the consul-general told Sky News. “I do not know where this comes from, because it is certainly not in my report that anyone gave any preference.”

Coffinier said Bermann’s conversation with Sturgeon was conducted in English. He said: “They discussed the political situation, which is normal, but at no stage did anyone make any comment on their preference regarding the outcome of the election.” 

Miliband also told Sky News that there would not be a formal coalition between Labour and the SNP. “That’s not going to happen. As for how other parties will end up voting on a Labour Queen’s speech, that’s a matter for them. I want a majority Labour government.”

But he did not rule out an informal post-election deal, short of a coalition, under which the SNP might prop up a minority government in a hung parliament, saying: “What I’m saying very clearly is we are not going to have a coalition with the SNP. As for other post-election possibilities, I’m not getting into that.”