article: Last weekend, after a sunny day in the Borders, I posted this picture of myself on Twitter with the caption ‘Just met Nicola Sturgeon lookalike out canvassing!’ I admit, it wasn’t a particularly funny joke, but I had no idea of the outrage my light-hearted comment would provoke from the devoted followers of Scotland’s First Minister and the leader of the SNP. I was called ugly, vile, ‘someone who deserves to die’, and one wit even ‘hoped I would catch malaria’. In all, I’ve probably received more than 600 insults, and two days later they’re still coming. Luckily, I’ve got a thick skin, but whatever happened to free speech? In the knockabout atmosphere of an election campaign, everything is up for debate. Scroll down for video . Janet Street-Porter posted this picture on Twitter with the caption ‘Just met Nicola Sturgeon lookalike out canvassing!’ Both the Press and the public routinely talk about politicians in less-than-flattering terms, mocking their trendy (or spartan) kitchens, their silly casual clothes and their strange hairstyles, not to mention their attempts to eat a bacon sandwich, hug babies, cook a casual lunch or chuck a bowling ball — all in the name of a photo opportunity. The UK is home to a rich and raucous tradition of political satire, from 19th century caricaturists such as George Cruikshank and James Gillray, to more recent cartoonists Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman and those in Private Eye magazine, as well as TV series such as Spitting Image, Mock The Week and Have I Got News For You. Most of our most successful comedians sneer at the party leaders. So you might imagine that the Scots could cope with a few harmless jibes about their own First Minister. Wrong, wrong, wrong. All the pollsters agree that the SNP is destined to win the vast majority of the seats (up to 50) North of the Border in the General Election, crushing the Tories and trouncing Labour. They already control the majority of votes in the Scottish Assembly. Could this surge of nationalism mean that Scotland is in danger of becoming another North Korea, a land where the ‘dear leader’ is sacrosanct, a figure on a pedestal, to be worshipped and admired — but never criticised? At the weekend, one commentator announced that ‘Scotland has fallen in love with Nicola — she is adored’. Indeed last night Ms Sturgeon was as feisty as ever in the leaders’ debate. My goodness, you certainly couldn’t say that about any party leader South of the Border, or in Wales. Despite all the photo calls at factories, in schools and cafes and villages halls, poll after poll shows that the public find most British politicians ‘out of touch’. Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have ‘minus’ personal ratings, while even Ukip’s Nigel Farage, once the poster boy for the disaffected, could be in danger of losing his bid to become an MP in South Thanet. Janet Street-Porter said she had no idea of the outrage her 'light-hearted comment' would provoke from Nicola Sturgeon's (pictured) supporters . So how has Nicola Sturgeon become Teflon Woman, a person so perfect that a mere joke about her appearance means (according to her fans) I can no longer be considered a feminist? According to her followers, I am a traitor to my sex, a woman less attractive than Red Rum, a sub-human who should be neutered. It’s all beginning to sound like a repressive communist state. Sadly, some SNP supporters combine commendable patriotism with a deep-seated distrust of the English — not just the posh people from down here, but anyone born in the ‘wrong’ country. I first encountered this when I made an hour-long documentary for BBC Scotland last year, looking at voting intentions in the independence referendum. I love Scotland and have spent many happy weeks walking, working and fishing there, so making this film was a real pleasure. I talked to people of all persuasions in the Borders, the Central Belt between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in the North-East. We went to inordinate lengths to present a scrupulously balanced film — but when it was transmitted, because I was born in England (and am actually half-Welsh) I was attacked in the Scottish Press, on Twitter and other social media for having the audacity to host a programme about ‘their’ country. Utter madness. Some SNP members are so consumed with themselves that all they want is people to agree with them, and sod everyone else. They are blinkered zealots incapable of reasoned debate. During their aggressive campaign for independence — which got the knockback by a sizeable margin, with 55 pc in favour of remaining in the UK — the Nationalists earned a reputation for ruthlessly attacking anyone who didn’t agree with them. The author J.K. Rowling was denounced as unpatriotic for daring to speak out in favour of Scotland remaining part of the UK. Dubbed the Tartan Taliban and the Cyber Nats, fanatical SNP followers use social media to ‘troll’ opponents, and anyone daring to criticise their leader. When the BBC political editor Nick Robinson reported from Scotland on the referendum last year, the Nationalists took such offence to what they regarded as his biased broadcasts that hundreds of marchers took to the streets carrying a huge banner with the words ‘Sack Nick “The Liar” Robinson, a totally corrupt journalist'. But they don’t stop at professional attacks. When Robinson announced a few weeks ago that he had a cancerous tumour on his lung, the Cyber Nats went straight on Twitter with comments such as ‘a bit of chemotherapy would do the biased Beeb man good’. In similar vein, after a Daily Mail writer published a profile of Nicola Sturgeon in these pages recently, he was attacked relentlessly online, and called a Nazi, racist scum, a vile bigot, a misogynist, and told to f*** off back to England. Many of those abusing him had a blue Nationalist ‘45’ logo on their Twitter feed, to represent the percentage who voted for independence last year. So what of the woman these people idolise as some great political saviour unlike any other figure in Britain today? Janet Street-Porter (right) asks how Nicola Sturgeon (left) has become 'a person so perfect that a mere joke about her appearance means (according to her fans) I can no longer be considered a feminist?' Consider the facts: Ms Sturgeon, just like Ed Miliband, has spent her whole life (apart from a brief period working as a solicitor) entirely engrossed in politics. Her husband and her former boyfriends and most of her friends all work for the SNP. Yet it is Ed Miliband, not Sturgeon, who gets derided for being ‘weird’ and having not experienced the real world. From 1992 onwards, she unsuccessfully stood for seat after seat in local and national elections, before eventually gaining a place in the Scottish Parliament via a quota system in 1999. She had a total image make-over in 2004 — hiring a stylist, changing her Krankies-style hairdo, losing weight and softening her approach. But make no mistake, she is as ruthless an operator as any other party leader. Her stated goal is Scottish independence, no matter what effect that might have on the rest of the UK, even though her party lost what was supposed to be a ‘once-in-a-generation’ vote on this issue last year. When questioned on television this week, she refused to rule out a second referendum in the very near future. When it comes to dealing with the deficit and setting out an economic strategy, Cameron, Miliband and Clegg have had their plans ruthlessly dissected. Sturgeon, however, based her sums on an oil boom that has failed to materialise, which has deprived the Scottish economy of billions of pounds of expected revenue. She wants Scotland to be responsible for raising its own taxes, but when an independent think-tank, the Institute For Fiscal Studies, looked at her plans for tax and spending and said they would result in a whopping £7.6 billion deficit, she described their findings as ‘irrelevant’. Yes, I admire Nicola Sturgeon’s tenacity, and I applaud any woman who rises to the top in her chosen profession. I know from experience just how tough that can be. Nevertheless, we find ourselves in the unenviable position of facing an election where a party that 60 million Britons cannot vote for — the SNP — could hold the balance of power at Westminster. It is a self-proclaimed ‘progressive’ party which hypocritically accepted £2.5 million of donations from Brian Souter, the Stagecoach boss who doesn’t believe in equal rights for gays. Does that make her any different to Ed Miliband, with his much-criticised relationships with the trade unions, or David Cameron with his cronies in Big Business? Voters in England can do nothing to stop the Sturgeon bandwagon gaining momentum — SNP membership has tripled in the past year, and it’s now the third-largest political party in the UK. But worrying questions remain about some of her followers. By trying to stifle debate and silence any jokes (no matter how feeble) about their leader, they are beginning to look more like fanatics than political supporters.
highlights: Janet Street-Porter joked about SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon on Twitter .
  The journalist was called ugly, vile and 'someone who deserves to die'
  Says worrying questions remain about some of the SNP leader's followers .
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