The tragedy of Nicola Sturgeon is that she could have achieved so much more

If Nicola Sturgeon’s political career had not been devoted to independence, she might have done more to improve the lives of people in Scotland

Nicola Sturgeon, who has announced she will not stand as an MSP at next year’s elections, is one of the most capable and talented politicians of her generation. Indeed, she is arguably the most capable of the modern age in Scotland.

Her skills as a communicator saw her win fans south of the Border when she took part in televised UK hustings. Unlike lesser politicians who resorted to scripted or evasive replies to straightforward questions, she was seemingly able to respond in a thoughtful and considered way to almost every point that was put to her.

This was one reason why she became Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister, achieving a position of almost unassailable power.

The combination of these two things – genuine talent and longevity in high office – should have produced something special, a legacy that almost everyone, opponents and supporters alike, would agree had improved life in Scotland. Instead, there is really very little that anyone can point to and say with pride: “Nicola Sturgeon did that.”

Nicola Sturgeon was an undoubtedly talented politician (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell) | Getty Images

‘Eye off the ball’ on drug-deaths

Her actual legacy is one of wasted talent, a political career dominated by the pursuit of independence to the detriment of almost everything else. The most stark example of this was her frank admission, ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, that her government had taken its “eye off the ball” over the shocking rise of drug-deaths in Scotland to levels by far and away the highest in Europe.

The long, steady declines of the NHS, council services, and the standard of education in schools, as measured against other countries, provide other examples where the SNP should have been laser-focussed on finding better ways of working, but was not.

Of course, she was First Minister during troubled times. Brexit, the Covid pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis largely caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine all created circumstances that would have been difficult for any politician.

Genuine efforts to save lives

It was during Covid that she demonstrated how good a leader she could be. Many were impressed by the reassurance she provided at a most troubling time. The sense that Scotland had an adult in charge undoubtedly helped persuade people to abide by Draconian rules designed to reduce the virus’s death toll.

The Covid inquiries for the UK and Scotland are looking into our governments’ actions and it is unlikely ministers will have got everything right. But Sturgeon’s dedication to her task and genuine efforts to save people’s lives should not be doubted.

It was, however, a shame that even this part of her legacy was tarnished by the mass deletion of her WhatsApp messages, despite reassurances that they would be kept to aid the work of the inquiries.

Toxic gender debate

Her long period in power also seemed to have gone to her head during Sturgeon’s final months in power, particularly in relation to the fractious issue of transgender policy. Dismissing critics as “bigots” just added to the toxicity of the debate and meant that practical problems with gender self-identification were not addressed.

This almost guaranteed the resulting backlash as seen during today’s Holyrood debate about protecting single-sex spaces in the public sector. In a way, the previous Conservative government may have done the SNP a favour by blocking the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which would have enshrined gender self-ID in law.

It was clear it was time for Sturgeon to move on even before we knew about the police investigation into the SNP’s finances and today’s announcement suggests her acceptance that there is no way back. John Swinney may be a less able, less charismatic politician but he has steadied the party that, even without Sturgeon’s once-towering figure in charge, now has reasons to look forward to next year’s election.