For many Scots, very few of the achievements set out by Nicola Sturgeon in her resignation speech ring true. Under her leadership, Scotland has become more divided than ever, pulled apart by the SNP’s unrelenting desire to break up the United Kingdom.
She had eight years to lead the whole of Scotland into a fairer and more progressive era. Instead, she’s raised taxes, decimated our education system, destroyed local democracy and took her “eye off the ball” when it came to drug-deaths.
Her failures are countless and will not be looked back on favourably by political commentators.
But it’s Nicola Sturgeon’s lack of self-awareness that has caused the most damage. Having listened to her in the Scottish Parliament for years the line is always the same – good news was her doing and the bad news someone else’s.
We saw this on countless occasions. The ongoing ferry fiasco was pinned on former Finance Secretary Derek Mackay. Failing education standards and a poorly performing NHS – both supposedly the fault of the UK Government.
And when quizzed by a Holyrood Inquiry about the Salmon scandal, with no one else left to blame, the First Minister’s default position was to deny all knowledge.
In typical fashion, she described her resignation as an “opportunity to de-polarise public debate” and “reset the tone of our discourse”, but failed to accept any responsibility for setting that tone in the first place.
Whoever replaces her, must start a-fresh and govern in the interests of all of Scotland, not solely SNP members and politically-driven pressure groups.
That means raising Scotland’s education standards, which have gone backwards in international rankings despite Nicola Sturgeon describing this as the “overriding mission of this government”. It means getting a grip of NHS waiting times, which continue to skyrocket, and reversing the massive tax hikes that are stagnating growth and punishing middle-earners.
And it means developing a constructive relationship with Westminster and the UK Government that benefits Scotland. Not one that holds it back.
