Nicola Sturgeon 'not convinced' MSPs would vote for same-sex marriage today
dailyrecord.co.ukNicola Sturgeon is "not convinced" that same-sex marriage would pass in Holyrood today. The former first minister claimed MSPs may not have voted it through because there would be a "much more toxic debate" on the subject.She said minimum unit pricing for alcohol would also struggle to pass and said increasing the number of MSPs should be considered.
The ex- SNP leader was speaking alongside former Scottish Lib Dem deputy first minister Jim Wallace. The pair appeared at an Edinburgh University event to mark 25 years of devolution.Sturgeon said many "uncontroversial" policies in the the past would be "probably be controversial" today.She said: "The culture, at times, in politics is downright unpleasant.
It's downright toxic."She continued: "If an MSP or the government was to take a proposal to parliament to increase the number of MSPs, it would just descend into the most vicious, toxic rammy, with bad faith arguments all over the place."I was the minister that took through minimum unit pricing.
I don't think that would get through and onto the statute book today.“I'm not even convinced equal marriage would – certainly not without a much more toxic debate – get there today."So a lot of it comes back to, how do we fix that underlying problem of we've just lost our way in how to debate things rationally and properly."The bill legalising same-sex marriage was passed in February 2014.It was comfortably voted through by 105 votes to 18.Minimum unit pricing was also passed by Alex Salmond's government in 2012.
