In the rabid hamster-eating-hamster world of Scottish politics Nicola Sturgeon is a rarity: a politician of obvious competence who’s respected by her peers regardless of their own political allegiances. There are not so many folk at Holyrood of whom that could be said. The Deputy First Minister is not a flashy politician but she’s quietly become almost as important to the SNP as Alex Salmond. This, according to one sagacious owl, makes her one of the ten most interesting politicians in Britain. Hard though it is to imagine this, there are voters immune to the First Minister’s charms. Part of Nicola’s remit is to reach those parts of Scotland that are disgracefully reluctant to trust Mr Salmond.
So Unionists should take Sturgeon seriously. Yesterday she gave her first “major” speech since she assumed responsibility for the constitutional question. The Guardian’s Severin Carrell has written a fine analysis of it and Sturgeon’s speech is also the subject of my latest Think Scotland column:
She began with a fine line from TS Eliot: “We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”.
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