WE saw this coming a mile off.
For a week, Scotland’s exam results coverage was dominated with news of a no-confidence motion in the Education Secretary and calls for John Swinney to resign.
Scottish Labour and the Tories pressed ahead with their bid to oust Swinney even after the Scottish Government apologised and declared downgraded results would be withdrawn and replaced with teachers’ estimates.
Even this morning, after Swinney survived the vote of no-confidence, Scottish Tories are foaming at the mouth over the Scottish Government’s handling of the exam row.
All the while, they ignore what’s happening over the Border. Nearly 40% of A-level pupils had their results downgraded and England’s Education Secretary has ruled out any changes to the system.
Scottish Labour led the charge urging Swinney to resign, and pushed the no-confidence motion. Fascinatingly, UK Labour is not doing the same to England’s Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.
Keir Starmer’s criticism of the Tory Government consists of him asking them to “urgently rethink” the system. Wow. Powerful.
And his deputy leader Angela Rayner’s reaction could not be more different from her Scottish equivalent Jackie Baillie’s.
Labour's @AngelaRayner on @BBCBreakfast: 'We believe the option now is to go back to teacher awarded grades... the government have to act very quickly on this'
— Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) August 14, 2020
Her scathing take on the situation this morning was, as Nick Eardley tweeted: “We believe the option now is to go back to teacher awarded grades … the Government have to act very quickly on this.”
Absolutely incredible how such a simple sentence can say so much.
READ MORE: SNP hit out at Tories for 'rank hypocrisy' over English exam results
Meanwhile, Douglas Ross has been accused of “rank hypocrisy” over his call for Swinney to resign. He did not say anything about Williamson.
In a tweet, he said: "Some say the exam results in England cause me difficulties. My job as leader of @scottories is to get the best for young people & everyone in Scotland. It’s not my job to support the UK government on everything. I’ll challenge them when I believe they're wrong."
The SNP have hit out at the Scottish Tories for their “deafening silence” over the English results.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel