Nicola Sturgeon Saves The Day / Calm Doon, Am Oan It

About

Nicola Sturgeon Saves the Day or also known as Calm Doon, Am Oan It (Scottish slang for Calm Down, I'm On It) is a series of photos of First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon where she holds a serious facial expression and on occasions, puts her hands in the air. Many have added the phrase 'Calm doon, am oan it' to some photos of Nicola Sturgeon having a serious facial expression which conveys that she will do something to resolve a situation if it harms Scotland in any way.

Origin

At the 2014 SNP conference on November 15, 2014, Nicola Sturgeon was elected as the new leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), the largest political party in Scotland.

In the aftermath of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, which saw a majority of Scots voting to remain part of the United Kingdom, Alex Salmond resigned as SNP leader and First Minister of Scotland and Nicola Sturgeon replaced him. Just starting her acceptance speech, many people in the audience had not stopped clapping and Nicola put her hands in the air whilst holding a serious facial expression.

Spread

2016 European Union membership referendum

In the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, it was hinted that Scotland could be forced out of the European Union against it's will. After this was hinted, Nicola Sturgeon had threatened the UK Government to let Scotland remain in the Single Market and Customs Union post-Brexit.

In reaction to this, Twitter user @Ryan_McCran uploaded the picture of Nicola Sturgeon from the 2014 SNP conference and added the caption, 'Calm doon, am oan it' in response. After it appeared on Twitter, it quickly spread on Facebook and Reddit leading more people to make their own versions.

Before the 2016 EU referendum result, the photo was spread out again across Scottish SNP voters who voted Remain after Nicola Sturgeon vowed to get Scotland to remain in the Single Market and Customs Union in a result where Scotland would be forced out of the European Union against it's own will.

After the 2016 EU referendum, which resulted in Scotland voting to heavily to remain in the European Union, the meme resurfaced, some had made new pictures which showed Nicola Sturgeon reacting to the result of the referendum.

November 2018 resurface

In November 2018, the meme once again resurfaced in the wake of Theresa May's draft Brexit agreement being passed through the cabinet. After the cabinet agreed, Theresa May was to make a statement on the agreement. A journalist took a photo of the microphone stand outside 10 Downing Street waiting for Theresa May to respond. In response to this, Twitter user @thatscot had used Photoshop to add Nicola Sturgeon into the image adding the 'Calm doon a'body, am oan it' caption to it. (see below)

On November 15, 2018, after there was cabinet resignations the next day in response to the Brexit draft agreement, a screenshot of Nicola Sturgeon shouting 'yes' in response to Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard's question at First Minister's Questions was uploaded to Twitter with the caption.

On November 26, Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, the leaders of the Conservative Party and Labour Party announced a debate on the Brexit deal. Downing Street rejected proposals for other parties to get involved in the proposed debate – mainly the SNP. In response to this, Nicola Sturgeon had criticised that no parties besides the main two were being represented with their stances on either being Remain and Leave. Out of this, users uploaded new memes responding to the criticism of the exclusion of the SNP during the debate.

Media Reaction

Several articles used the images in the wake of the 2016 EU referendum, including Enable Magazine, PlayBuzz and ScotBuzz

Black t-shirts with the words 'Calm doon, am oan it' printed on the front were selling on Amazon.com.

Various Examples