This week in Scottish politics began on Friday night, and some exemplary reporting on the part of the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent Severin Carrell.
Little more than an hour after the Telegraph’s story about a leaked memo claiming that Nicola Sturgeon wanted David Cameron back in power broke online, Severin had tracked down France’s consul general in Edinburgh, who backed Sturgeon’s “100%” denial of the story.
As a reportedly “fuming” cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, ordered an immediate inquiry into the leak - which we revealed on Thursday could conclude before the general election - Sturgeon elegantly parried with a piece for the Observer which challenged Ed Miliband to create an anti-austerity alliance with the SNP and “lock David Cameron out of Downing Street”.
Arguably, Miliband’s repsonse comes on Friday morning, when he attacks the SNP’s plans for full fiscal autonomy in a speech in Edinburgh, stating “I will never sell Scotland short by signing up to the SNP’s plans”.
Severin also reported on Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, deleting tweets that highlighted the by now widely contested report; while BBC Scotland called for restraint after some of its staff - notably the excellent James Cook - were attacked online while reporting on the leak story over the weekend.
Over on Comment, we carried great pieces of commentary on the Sturgeon memo from Kevin McKenna and Zoe Williams.
Before we leave the subject of #nikileaks for now, it’s worth reminding ourselves of these extraordinary front pages from last Saturday.
With the greatest respect to everyone involved, reporting from the campaign trail can sometimes feel a bit...well...circular.
I bumped into this wee guy (a degu, a small Chilean rodent, since you asked) coming back from an SNP event on Monday, and felt that he had a lot to teach me in terms of perseverance.
There was Jim Murphy on Monday, urging Labour voters not to turn to the sNP out of anger.
David Cameron on Tuesday, defending the Scottish Conservative alliance with the SNP, leading to claims of hypocrisy from Labour after he described an SNP-Labour pact as a “nightmare scenario”.
Nicola Sturgeon on Monday through to Thursday, talking about pensions and leaks, child poverty and Ed Miliband, and independence referenda.
On Thursday, Ed Miliband accused the Conservative party of basing its campaign on “deceit and lies” after the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, accused the Labour leader of planning to “stab the United Kingdom in the back” over the renewal of the Trident nuclear deterrent.
And there were more accusations of hypocrisy from Labour over claims of backroom deals on Trident between the Tories and Lib Dems.
It could be that the only creature not accused of hypocrisy by the end of the week is the degu, but that may only be because he hasn’t got off his wheel long enough to answer the phone.
And it’s not all photographer scrums and stale sandwiches. This happened when I was out on the doorstep with Alex Salmond (full story to come, and yes I know I’ve spelled ‘canvass’ wrong - I was over-excited).
I reported on nine of the most prominent SNP candidates who are likely to be heading to Westminster after May, including Hannah Bardell (left) in Livingston.
Another of them, Dundee West’s Chris Law, faces a fresh challenge after Labour announced it had chosen Michael Marra - borther of Labour MSP Jenny Marra - as their candidate after the sitting MP Jim McGovern retired on health grounds.
Labour strategists hope that tactical voting will help save its most vulnerable seat from the SNP after the last minute reselection.
In case you missed it, there was also this wonderful feature from Peter Geoghegan on how Glasgow tackled its knife crime problem.
And then came the debates. On Tuesday night, over on STV in Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon prompted boos from the audience when she suggested the SNP would hold another independence referendum if it wins next year’s Holyrood elections on a manifesto promising a second vote.
On Wednesday, on the BBC and broadcasting from Aberdeen, Sturgeon clarified her position on a future referendum but also committed to full fiscal autonomy in the next year for Scotland (if Westminster allowed it), prompting Jim Murphy to accuse her planning a “black hole” in the country’s finances.
This was bolstered by the Institute for Fiscal Studies on Thursday, which claimed that Nicola Sturgeon has failed to include billions of pounds of extra welfare and pensions costs in her plans to increase UK public spending by £165bn.
Is this having any effect on the voters? Not really... In the latest of our Battleground Britain series, we found that voters are swinging firmly behind the SNP in the key Labour-SNP battleground of Glasgow East. The key point:
Many of SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon’s central messages are now embedded in the panels’ thinking: tackling austerity by increasing public spending; keeping Labour honest in an alliance with the SNP and pressing Scotland’s cause in London, and a sense too, that she is the victim of dirty tricks.
There will doubtless be more from Miliband and Murphy later today, as Sev predicts...
We’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, missing links, notions and dark warnings BTL as usual please.
