Nicola Sturgeon has two houses and they could hardly be more different. Her official residence, Bute House, in the heart of Edinburgh’s New Town, is a Robert Adam designed early 19th century masterpiece with all the grace and elegance appropriate to the office of First Minister. Her life-size portrait hangs on its walls.
Her other home — her own — is an anonymous detached modern house on an ordinary estate in an unglamorous Central Belt town. Only the Neville Johnson bespoke bookcases and, it is said, a £1,000-plus coffee maker mark it out as unusual in this relatively deprived part of Scotland.
Sturgeon and her husband, SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, come and go and the neighbours hardly notice anymore. To them, they are just two other ordinary residents they could borrow a torch or a garden strimmer off if they needed to.
This dual existence of homely neighbour and leading stateswoman may seem — and be — contradictory, but then so is Sturgeon.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in