Sturgeon’s date with destiny

“NICOLA Sturgeon set for greatness” suggests Euan McColm (Insight, 29 December). It reminded me of an occasion during the general election of 1992 when, as a lass of 22, she was being interviewed on television while standing in a “no chance” situation against a well-established Labour candidate in Glasgow Shettleston. I turned entirely spontaneously to my wife and said, “That lassie has the archangel of 
history lurking behind her.”

I still feel that way. I always felt that our paths would cross, and indeed in the general election of 1997 I ended up on her campaign team in Govan, where, as McColm points out, the great Labour landslide of that year was halted.

She moved up the political ladder fairly quickly after that. However, politics being politics she was not without enemies and had to work very hard to divest herself of the “nippy sweetie” appellation that had become attached to her. Sadly, it is unlikely that the political paths of myself and Nicola Sturgeon will ever cross again. Through no choice of my own I am no longer a member of the Scottish National Party. In addition to this, my advancing years and our highly divergent views on traditional marriage make the kind of 24/7 input of our Govan days most unlikely.

However, like McColm, I do believe strongly she is destined for greatness in an independent Scotland. In this respect I join unreservedly with what I believe are a majority of Scots in offering her my absolute best wishes.

Alan Clayton, Strachur