Why did Nicola Sturgeon decide to quit as First Minister and leader of the SNP? She said that she felt in her head and in her heart that this was the time to go. I find that a convincing answer.Using your head, you see the political landscape. And Nicola Sturgeon saw a clouded, potentially stormy landscape. The Tory government had refused to give Scotland a referendum on independence. That has laid bare the way the United Kingdom works -England calls the shots, Scotland, Wales and NEI obey. Declaring that the next general election would be a de facto referendum on independence just didn’t wash, and Nicola Sturgeon probably knew that. The Scottish independence movement needed a new, exciting, can-do element. So maybe it wasn’t a personal decision that she resigned. It was a clear-eyed assessment of what lay ahead.
It could also – almost certainly was – a heart thing. Being in politics for as long as she has been, battling within the party with Alex Salmond and without the party with the likes of Liz Truss. That kind of thing can leave you not just exhausted but wanting to find a shower and spend the next hour scrubbing your body.
We in Ireland tend to believe that independence is an unstoppable movement, speaking as it does to the modest request that you are maitre chez nous – we should run our house. In reality it’s anything but. Remember not too long ago the Catalan drive towards independence- where is it now? Some leaders in prison, all of the air gone out of the independence campaign.
That’s exactly what the Tories would like to reduce the Scottish independence movement to. So losing Nicola Sturgeon does seem a mighty blow, whatever its reasons. But don’t forget, when Alex Salmond stepped aside and Nicola Sturgeon stepped in, there was a fear she wouldn’t have the same combative, powerful style that Salmond had. They were right. She proved to have her own style and under it, the Scots Nats did exceedingly well. Likewise with the retirement of Gerry Adams. Surely this diminutive, brown-eyed woman couldn’t possible replace Adams, who had borne the heat of the day and reinvented republicanism. But Mary Lou McDonald used her own shoes, not those of Gerry Adams, and marched her party to a point where it is now the most popular party in Ireland north and south.
Something tells me that Scottish Labour’s hopes of a new dawn is doomed to disappointment, and that Nicola Sturgeon’s successor will find a way to take Scottish independence to new heights.
It will be difficult for SNP to find a legal route to independence without a referendum. They NEED one. The single policy election would have democratic accountability that Westminster might find hard to ignore, that said, achieving 50% in an election where others will be fighting it on other local fronts will be difficult but not insurmountable.
There is an element of fatigue now within Scottish independence that has to be revived and nurtured. Using a Holyrood election this year would keep the eye focused, rather than depending on Sunak to call one when it suits him.
Hiya Jude.
On a related matter, have you yet read the book released by Phil Macgoillabhain in the past year?
Although it’s a fictional piece, it covers many of the factors you refer to above and has almost been overtaken by the actual events.
Anyhow here’s a link for anyone interested. The author is, of course, a Donegal man. I’m sure Mr McArt may know of him.
Very good Jude