Nicola Sturgeon's SNP conference speech showed Liz Truss what a stateswoman looks like. If only her track record in government was as good – Scotsman comment

It was a great speech. With a few well-crafted words, Nicola Sturgeon displayed greater prime ministerial qualities than Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Theresa May combined and showed them all what a global stateswoman sounds like.

Little wonder that she kept getting standing ovations from an audience enthralled by her soaring rhetoric and a vision of Scotland as an independent nation standing in solidarity with Ukraine as it resists Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the people of Iran as they rise up against their tyrannical rulers, and girls in Afghanistan who simply want the right to an education.

On the domestic front, she put forward a progressive, compassionate, social democratic agenda that will appeal to the vast majority of Scots, which she repeatedly contrasted with the regressive policies and chaotic mismanagement of the Truss government.

For those hitherto unconvinced by the idea of independence, it may well have been hard not to imagine what it would be like, to allow themselves to dream the same dream.

However, for all the First Minister talked a good game, it should be remembered that it is the playing that actually matters.

And, on that front, the Scottish Government’s track record in recent years has been dismal.

The inability of Scotland’s state-owned shipyard to build two ferries even remotely close to on time and on budget has become emblematic of the SNP’s inability to deliver on its grand promises.

In her speech, Sturgeon talked about how a right to healthcare, free at the point of delivery, would be written into the newly independent Scotland's constitution.

Nicola Sturgeon waves as she leaves the stage after her speech to delegates at the annual SNP conference in Aberdeen (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

However, a law introduced by the Scottish Government in 2012 which guaranteed the legal right to treatment within 12 weeks for a number of conditions had been broken more than 100,000 times by 2018 – long before Covid.

The pressure on NHS staff had been building with a severe vacancy crisis when the pandemic hit, and doctors and nurses have made it clear they are now close to breaking point.

Similarly, Scotland’s teachers, set to ballot for strike action over pay from tomorrow, have long expressed deep unhappiness with their working conditions, despite Nicola Sturgeon’s promise that education would be her priority when she became First Minister.

So, while the rhetoric may sound good, the reality has turned out to be radically different in too many cases to be ignored.

For all the chaos in Westminster under the calamitous Truss and the unfolding disaster of Brexit, anyone thinking about voting for independence has no option but to use the SNP’s actual time in government as a means to extrapolate what life would be like in a new nation.

Some may get carried away by Sturgeon’s warm words, but others will need much greater evidence of what could be called Scottish Government ‘success stories’ before taking the considerable gamble of independence.

At a time of chaos and instability in the world, embarking on such a great upheaval would necessarily add more to the lives of people in Scotland.

Leaving the European Union, putting up barriers to trade and the movement of people, has been bad for our economy and life in general, but ‘Scexit’ would be Brexit on stilts, particularly given our departure from the UK Union would not be offset by entry into the European Union for several years at least. We currently take for granted many of the achievements and advantages of the Union, which Sturgeon understandably overlooked in her speech, but we would miss them.

Interestingly, however, Sturgeon’s talk of the “independence generation” sounded like an attempt to shift the timeframe of her supporters' expectations. This was not a speech of a leader expecting a referendum victory in little over a year, but rather of one steeling the faithful for a long campaign ahead.

When all is said and done, it was a good speech, particularly when contrasted with Truss’s faltering delivery, but one which may not resonate for long.