‘Nicola Sturgeon will triumph again as her iron grip has inspired a generation of women’
(Image: Getty Images)
NEWS
POLITICS
FOOTBALL
CELEBS
TV
MONEY
ROYALS
OPINIONByPaul Routledge
18:52, 26 Mar 2023
|
|
BOOKMARK
Paul Routledge
My first thought after meeting Nicola Sturgeon on the campaign trail in Glasgow many years ago was: “I didn’t know they still made pocket battleships on the Clyde.”
This diminutive young woman, a “nippy sweetie” as they say in those parts, bursting with political vitality, was clearly going places.
But not to Westminster, the centre of the universe for most ambitious wannabe-MPs, but Edinburgh, as part of a nationalist government for Scotland.
I have watched her career over the decades since with a mixture of admiration and dismay. Admiration, because she was so successful in her single-minded pursuit of her objectives, and dismay because she almost killed off the Labour Party in Scotland.
Nigel Farage dodges EIGHTH potential defeat as he confirms he won’t stand as Reform MP
Nicola Sturgeon is pictured alongside Alex Salmond when she was his deputy ( Image: PA)
Queen Elizabeth II greets Nicola Sturgeon, during an audience at the Palace of Holyrood house in Edinburgh
Queen Elizabeth II greets Nicola Sturgeon, during an audience at the Palace of Holyrood house in Edinburgh ( Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
It was a long haul to the top, and it required phenomenal staying power once she got there, inviting comparison with Margaret Thatcher, who, she admitted, inspired her to go into politics.
But for the contrary reason that “it was wrong for Scotland to be governed by a Tory government that we hadn’t elected.” She later insisted: ”Thatcher was the motivation for my entire political career. I hated everything she stood for” – and refused to apologise for her words.
Voted Scottish politician of the year five times, and once ranked as 50th most powerful woman in the world, she was excoriated in the London Right-wing media as “the most dangerous woman in Britain.”
In Britain, note. Nicola’s influence spread far beyond her native Scotland. Her electoral success north of the border sharply diminished Labour’s chances of ever forming a majority UK government. And she inspired a generation of women in a progressive path wholly different to the Iron Lady.
That may come to be regarded as her greatest legacy, because she leaves behind a bitterly-divided party, rocked by scandals and further away from her heart’s desire of Scottish independence than when she took over the SNP leadership eight years ago.
Her bid to make the next UK election a de facto referendum has run into the sands, her controversial Bill to allow 16 year olds to choose their gender has been struck down by London and her husband, Peter Murrell, has been forced to quit as SNP chief executive over a row about membership figures. Police are investigating the party’s finances over a questionable £600,000 loan.
Sturgeon once stated she ‘hated everything Margaret Thatcher stood for’ ( Image: Mirrorpix)
