Nicola Sturgeon's replacement as First Minister must eschew empty populism and focus on good government – Scotsman comment

Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation has created a major turning point for the SNP and Scotland.

The direction her party chooses to take will be vital for the well-being of everyone in the country. Down one path lies the politics of grievance, division and angry rhetoric. Heading in that direction would have potentially disastrous consequences as real-world problems are pushed to the sidelines.

The other road is harder, but it is in the interests of both the SNP and Scotland to take it. Instead of expending energy on fights with Westminster and stoking up nationalist passions, the new First Minister and their government, once appointed, should instead focus on serious tasks like restoring the NHS and other public services to a fit state. This may require backtracking on some Sturgeon-era policies – such as, potentially, the national care service – but any new leader must make a break with the errors of the past if they hope to be around for long.

The cost-of-living crisis remains a serious blight on the lives of many and the economy as a whole, so the Scottish Government must do more to help improve the country’s fortunes. As the global ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ continues, Scotland has failed to grasp many of the opportunities it is creating, despite the wealth of renewable energy on our doorstep. Other countries, including Joe Biden’s America, are stealing a march.

Of course, many of the levers that can help businesses in this area lie in Westminster. But rather than seeking to make political capital out of this, the Scottish Government needs to co-operate with its UK counterparts.

Scotland’s ‘Green Freeports’ will hopefully turn out to be a positive example of effective collaboration from Sturgeon’s time, but more can be done across all government departments. For example, Heather Wilson, of the Health Foundation, writes in The Scotsman today of the need for a “better partnership” between the Scottish and UK governments in order to help the 210,000 children living in absolute poverty.

If the SNP decide to follow a populist spouting empty slogans, Scotland will suffer and their popularity will fall. What their party and the country needs now is a serious leader determined to tackle Scotland’s very real problems. If people’s lives are genuinely improved, the absence of Sturgeon’s consummate communication skills may hardly be noticed.