Why it is time to stop pretending Nicola Sturgeon is some kind of political giant

The SNP’s argument in favour of independence couldn’t be clearer. Ask any nationalist politician why she wishes to break up the United Kingdom and she’ll tell you decisions affecting the people of Scotland are best taken here, in Scotland.

That’s quite compelling, isn’t it? And not only to nationalists.

Indeed, during the 1997 devolution campaign, Labour and SNP politicians stood, shoulder-to-shoulder, asking all Scots, regardless of their position on the constitution, to support the establishment of a new parliament on the grounds that, across a number of policy areas, Scotland required unique solutions and that these solutions would be better designed in Edinburgh than in London.

The-then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was a reassuring figure for many during the Covid-19 pandemic. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/PA

We now know this principle was abandoned by the Scottish Government at a most crucial moment.

Until last Thursday, if you’d asked a Scottish voter which senior politician between Nicola Sturgeon and Boris Johnson had been the more successful leader throughout the difficult days of Coronavirus lockdown, odds are they’d have said the First Minister, every time.

The findings of the UK Covid Inquiry should put an end to that particular example of Scottish exceptionalism.

Inquiry Chairwoman Baroness Hallett tells us not only that the SNP Government at Holyrood was inadequately prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic but that it simply adopted flawed UK government resilience plans without adapting them for Scotland’s needs.

So much for Scottish solutions for Scottish problems, then.

Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon may have been a daily presence on Scottish television screens and she may even have done much to reassure an anxious nation, particularly during those first months of lockdown in 2020 when we did not know when, or even if, a vaccine might be developed.

But in the cold light of day, four years after that first lockdown, it’s now clear that Sturgeon is every bit as responsible for the failure to prepare for the sudden spread of the virus, which killed more than 235,000 people in the UK including 17,000-plus Scots, as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is.

This corrective to the narrative is long overdue.

Sturgeon achieved little, either for her party or Scotland, during her nine years as First Minister. In her resignation speech, last year, she recognised she had become too polarising a character to continue.

As time has exposed the lack of any kind of meaningful Sturgeon legacy, her remaining supporters have increasingly clung to the idea that, well, at least she we had her instead of Johnson in charge doing lockdown. At least Sturgeon showed some kind of leadership.

This is a view based on personal taste rather than actual facts.

The horrors that took place south of the border during lockdown – including the still shocking and inexplicable transfer of infected elderly and vulnerable patients from hospitals into care homes, where the virus swiftly spread with devastating consequences – took place in Scotland, too.

Baroness Hallett found that ministers had carried out some pandemic planning but based most of their preparations on a possible outbreak of flu. A UK-wide Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy was copied by the Scottish Government without adaptation to meet specific local demands and SNP ministers – along with counterparts in other devolved administrations – “did not act with sufficient urgency, or at all” on the findings of a previous planning exercise.

Perhaps the Scottish Covid Inquiry will take a different view of matters. Perhaps it will find that Sturgeon made good call after good call and that her Government was the very model of preparedness.

Or perhaps this will serve as a sobering moment for many - including, I’m afraid, senior figures in both the public sector and the media - to whom the former First Minister remains close.

Please, let this be the end of the era of “Nicola”, where a political leader was treated as a friend, even a hero, rather than as the cynical – if often very effective – political operator she is.

In years to come, when historians argue over when it became clear that Scotland had begun to fully lose the plot, perhaps they’ll agree that 2016’s STV Hogmanay Show hosted by Elaine C Smith marked a key point. Who can forget the downright weirdness of a major broadcaster booking the First Minister, her mum Joan, and her sister Gillian as guests on their flagship New Year entertainment show?

Sturgeon’s acolytes – a dwindling but substantial band – talk of her skill with a crowd. The former SNP leader – naturally shy and slightly awkward in private – is a commanding performer with a rare common touch. When the SNP was on the up, Sturgeon could deliver countless more votes for her party by touring Scotland taking selfies with voters than her opponents could outlining any number of innovative policies.

Not only was Nicola a politician and a friend, she was also a vibe.

To be with Nicola was to be be on the right side of history, to sing in chorus with the angels.

It’s fair to say the former First Minister’s reputation may no longer be quite what it was so let us hope a new character to fill this politician-as-chum role does not emerge. We need fewer first-name politicians and more old-fashioned distance between ourselves and those in charge.

We don’t need cynicism, mind. That’s Sturgeon’s thing. But the return of a healthy degree of scepticism to our political debate would be no bad thing.

I wonder whether those that might most benefit from asking a few more difficult questions are those who loyally followed Sturgeon right up until she said “Who me? I’ve no idea sorry bye” and resigned to spend more time at book festivals.

Nicola Sturgeon went into politics demanding decisions affecting Scots be made in Scotland. When it came to Covid-19, she abandoned that principle with devastating consequences.

Can we stop pretending she’s some kind of political giant, now, please?