WOW!

We were privileged last night to attend Nicola Sturgeon's speech and question and answer session in Dundee's Caird Hall.

The hall, which holds around 2,300, people was pretty much sold out. There were a few seats not taken in the balcony, but the body of the hall was jam packed. One was reminded of David Cameron's visit to Perth where they couldn't even manage 200 people in the audience, despite going around the old folks homes inviting people and offering tea and biscuits.

The "One Great Thing" Big Country song announced the arrival of the Deputy First Minister, and the hall stood, as far as I could see, as one.

Nicola's first word was: "WOW".

And she kicked off with an apology to the pub owners of Dundee for doing them out of business.

Then she got down to her brass tacks.

She talked a little about her own situation. She has been elected leader of the SNP, and it is expected that parliament will elect her First Minister of Scotland within the next few weeks. 

She said how incredibly privileged and proud she was, and promised us that she would work tirelessly for the good of Scotland, both to make the country more economically sound, and to make it a fairer, more decent place to live. She admitted that she was probably the luckiest leader ever to have come into power at a time when her party had grown from 25,000 to 84,000 members. She acknowledged that some people were saying that this surge in membership would be a problem for her... she wished all her problems would be that small.

She addressed the referendum, and said that it was the most exciting thing that had happened in Scotland in her political lifetime. She said that she absolutely accepted that the Yes side lost... and she was prepared to take her share of the responsibility for that. However, she said that that didn't stop her campaigning now for the very very best that can come out of the deal that Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, along with Brown, promised the country.

She said she would oversee the government of the country for the benefit of every Scot, whether they voted yes or no. She added that she knew that there were some, perhaps even many, who had already changed their minds since the referendum. 

Promises made by unionists were already being broken. The Labour Party, for example, having promised devo max, now appeared to consider that a small amount of independently raised income tax would cover that description. 

This was borne out later be several people who prefaced their questions to Nicola by saying that they had recently joined the SNP because they were sickened by the betrayal of these "vow" promises.

She was lavish in her praise of Alex (and that got a cheer that raised the rafters), but also of other colleagues. John Swinney, who was in the audience, got a special mention for finding so much cash from a reducing budget to help Scots caught in the horrors of Tory benefit cuts. Patrick Harvie was also given high praise (and audience applause for him too was rafter raising).

In a hall of over 2000 people, there were, of course, far too many people who wanted to ask questions for the amount of time alloted, so, despite the fact that Nicola was prepared to go on answering questions a good half hour after the the event was due to close, nowhere near half of the questions could be answered.

However, she has promised to come back. She has said that if (when, I'd say) she is endorsed by parliament as First Minister, she will hold meetings on a regular basis around the country... her and her cabinet. So perhaps there will be an opportunity for those who didn't get a chance last night, to ask their question next time she's in Dundee.

One question came from a young lad of ten. (I should have said that the hall was full of people of all ages, from this lad, through teenagers, middle agers to people in their 80s.) Anyway, the lad said that one day he'd like to be prime minister of Scotland and asked if there was anything he should be studying. Nicola suggested that the best thing would be for them to arrange to get together in Edinburgh and she would take him around, introduce him to some people... and maybe let him sit in the first minister's chair in parliament.

Te deputy first minister ended as she began... with a standing ovation.  Mum and I had sore hands and Munguin had sore paws!

It was a great evening, and I came away from it reinvigorated.

I think that with Nicola at the helm, and 84,000 members (one in ever 50 of the adult population of Scotland) we will move forward towards independence, and I look forward to seeing Nicola as the first First Minister of an independent country.