In the latest effort to stave off critics, Sturgeon had called a conference next month on tactics. Nor was she able to broaden nationalism’s appeal beyond her core support.Įven Brexit was a double-edged blade, reigniting separatism but raising new questions around the practicalities. Her last plan, to declare the next Westminster elections a de facto referendum, was deeply flawed and opposed even within the SNP. A legal challenge on the right to hold a vote was defeated without the expected uproar. This was perhaps the first time Sturgeon found herself badly out of step with her country, to the extent that when Westminster vetoed the measure, a majority of Scots sided with it. Such people cannot be seen to have lost their touch. Behind the empathetic manner, Sturgeon was a ruthless leader who crushed internal opposition. The temptation will be to view the row over the GRR bill, which made it significantly easier for people to change their official gender, as the catalyst. Sturgeon was good enough to know she was making mistakes she might not have made a few years ago. But another way of putting this is that she has recognised that she is facing ever tougher battles and no longer has the fight left to overcome them. There is no reason to doubt her sincerity when she said that “in my head and in my heart I know that time is now”. When Scottish Nationalists looked for a plan on how to force a fresh referendum, they realised she had no answers. This, far more than her miscalculations on her gender recognition reform bill, is the key point. The bigger and more important point is that her departure signifies an independence movement that also cannot see the next step forward.Įven before one gets to her recent mistakes, it had become clear that Sturgeon was out of ideas on how to advance the cause in the face of intransigence from Westminster. Scotland’s first minister, a supreme communicator with a strong claim to being the most effective political leader in Britain, concluded the only way was down.
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