SOMETIMES It’s impossible to avoid cliché, but today tectonic plates shifted in Scottish politics. Nicola Sturgeon is going. For eight years, she has been, in an overwhelming sense, the Scottish Government, the Scottish National Party and the Independence movement. All three are now reeling, and will never be the same again.
A sense of decadence, a fin-de-siècle feeling, has hung over Sturgeon’s government since Christmas. Coverage has been relentlessly negative, even on the inside pages. The First Minister’s public performances have seemed increasingly absurd and detached from reality, and the fourth estate has scented blood for the first time in years.
Indeed, thinking of the problems in the First Minister’s in-tray – GRR and the dangerous transwomen still in women’s prisons, the deposit return scheme, the A9 dualling, the NHS, the National Care Service, the teacher’s strike, the ferries, the council rebellions over the budget, the upcoming conference and opposition to her de facto referendum plans, the police investigation into party finances – few easy or obvious remedies present themselves.
Changes in direction on any of these issues would mean a loss of face and authority, as well as in some cases aggravating conflict within the SNP-Green coalition or in the SNP itself. “Wheesht for Indy”, the SNP’s exhortation to ensure party union, recently morphed into “Wheesht for Nicola” on social media. It plainly didn’t work: big names such as Angus MacNeil, Stewart McDonald and Fergus Ewing as well as the usual Alba suspects are now disagreeing with her publicly.
In the meantime, each issue just promises more negative headlines and tricky questions. While there was a time the Queen of Teflon’s spin doctors could turn any difficulty or failure into an argument for independence, their tricks have now stopped working and new ones are in short supply.
So it was unbelievable when the First Minister at this morning’s press conference emphatically dismissed these “short-term pressures” as the reason for her resignation. When, after all, did she ever tell the truth? She is a fine actress when it comes to play-acting sincerity, and she pulled out all the stops in a rambling display of self-pity and self-congratulation. Although she couldn’t muster a tear (despite insisting she was on the verge), she did seem visibly happier and more relaxed than she has for months, if not years.
Sturgeon’s list of achievements – the obligatory attempt to frame a legacy – was embarrassingly thin. She mentioned the baby box, the extension of nursery hours and the increased number of students from deprived backgrounds at university – none are unquestionable successes. Her claims to have brought Scotland closer to independence than ever before, and that there was now a majority for independence, were just laughable. In fact, on the big challenges – like closing the attainment gap, the NHS, drug deaths and above all winning independence – her premiership has been an abject failure.
The most brass-necked moment of the press conference came when the First Minister decried the increasing dominance of personality and polarisation in Scottish politics. They were, she said, “barriers to reasoned debate” which she implied were a major limiting factor on her premiership. Nicola Sturgeon has been the most divisive, polarising and tribal of politicians – just think of her constant putting down of Westminster and Tories. Abuse, not argument, has been her modus operandi. Nevertheless, perhaps there was a moment of truth in her recognition that such a politics cannot build the consensus necessary for independence, let alone effective government.
Only time will reveal the real reason for Nicola Sturgeon’s going. BBC political editor Glenn Campbell shot a final question at the First Minister as she was leaving the press conference, asking her if she had been or would be interviewed by police investigating SNP finances. She refused to answer and promptly exited but he has since tweeted that he has been told the answer is no.
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