{"id":10646,"date":"2015-01-12T10:25:15","date_gmt":"2015-01-12T10:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/?p=10646"},"modified":"2015-01-16T11:04:37","modified_gmt":"2015-01-16T11:04:37","slug":"introducing-nicola-sturgeon-first-lady-of-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/2015\/01\/introducing-nicola-sturgeon-first-lady-of-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing… Nicola Sturgeon: first lady of Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nicola

\u00a9 Scottish Government\/Alan Peebles<\/p><\/div>\n

T<\/span>he place: a small chilly country in Northern Europe; the star: a feisty female head of government. It could be the plot of Borgen<\/i>, the award-winning Danish TV drama. In fact, it is Scotland where nationalist Nicola Sturgeon, herself a devoted fan of Borgen<\/i>, has been handed the keys to power.<\/p>\n

She replaces Alex Salmond, First Minister and veteran leader of the Scottish nationalists, who stood down the day after Scotland voted \u2018no\u2019 to independence. It will be her thorny task to ensure UK government promises are kept \u2013 pledges to deliver new powers over tax and welfare for the Scottish Parliament. Even her opponents admit she is a formidable force. However, it was hardly a meteoric rise to power.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nicola Sturgeon was born in Irvine in North Ayshire in 1970. Her father was an engineer and her mother stayed at home to look after two daughters. Sturgeon was a serious, bookish child. At the age of 16 she joined the Scottish Nationalist Party, which was no surprise as she came from a family of staunch SNP voters, including her English grandmother. Later she studied law, worked at a Glasgow law centre and tried (and failed) to win a Westminster seat for the SNP. Aged 29, she became a member of the Scottish Parliament and a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Alex Salmond. Fiona Hyslop, now Scotland\u2019s culture secretary, remembers Nicola Sturgeon as an earnest campaigner in her 20s. \u201cShe was always quite guarded, to make sure that she didn\u2019t do or say anything that perhaps would cause difficulty later.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The party she represented was hardly ready for power. In 2004 Alex Salmond stood down as leader of an SNP that had been torn apart by in-fighting. His replacement, John Swinney, proved unsuccessful. Was this Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s moment? She was ready to stand for the leadership when Salmond burst back into the running and offered her the post of his deputy. After taking a few days to consider her future, she withdrew her own bid for power and accepted the Salmond ticket.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Following the SNP\u2019s 2007 election win, she rose to become Scotland\u2019s Deputy First Minister and Health Secretary. Catty newspaper stories spoke of a re-vamp of her image \u2013 smarter hair and power suits. By 2011 Nicola Sturgeon was at the forefront of the SNP\u2019s landslide election victory against Scottish Labour. Some believe she had helped attract women voters who had been put off by the tribal and aggressive style of Alex Salmond, the party\u2019s master tactician as well as her mentor and supporter. Salmond conceded that she would often rein him in by administering \u201ca very strong corrective to my love of the cut and thrust\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt she lives and breathes politics. How does she relax? In 2010 she married her long-time partner Peter Murrell, who is chief executive of the SNP. According to her mother Jean, she is a huge fan of TV\u2019s X-Factor<\/i>, but reading is her greatest love. She is able to relax, says Jean, but always with one eye on the phone. \u201cThe phone is never switched off \u2013 many of my family can vouch for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sturgeon\u2019s biggest task yet has been to oversee the setting up of the referendum on Scottish independence. Michael Moore, who acted as Westminster\u2019s negotiator, saw her appointment as his opposite number as a \u201cvery strong signal\u201d that things were about to get serious.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the 11th hour before September\u2019s referendum, Westminster politicians who feared a \u2018yes\u2019 vote made expensive pledges about new powers for Scotland in the event of a \u2018no\u2019 vote. In the end, 55 per cent of those who voted wanted Scotland to stay within the UK. Many \u2018yes\u2019 campaigners felt devastated by the defeat. Alex Salmond decided to resign as party and government leader, taking effect last November. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was only one candidate to replace him, quickly backed by party heavyweights. \u201cI can think of no greater privilege than to seek to lead the party I joined when I was just 16,\u201d she said. Now Sturgeon must deal with the post-referendum bitterness of divided families and communities, and she must ensure those hastily made UK promises become reality. <\/span><\/p>\n

Has she given up on Scottish independence? Salmond recently warned that Scots could demand a second referendum if Westminster parties renege on their promises of further powers for Scotland\u2019s parliament. Sturgeon has been more circumspect, saying she still believes Scotland will become independent \u201cat some stage in the future\u201d. The question is whether a referendum will form part of the 2016 SNP manifesto. Right now, she\u2019s playing her cards close to her chest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her opponents may wholeheartedly disagree with her politics, but many concede she will be competent and pragmatic as a leader. She has certainly proved herself able to ride the turbulent wave of Scottish political history.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The place: a small chilly country in Northern Europe; the star: a feisty female head of government. It could be the plot of Borgen, the award-winning Danish TV drama. In fact, it is Scotland where nationalist Nicola Sturgeon, herself a devoted fan of Borgen, has been handed the keys to power. She replaces Alex Salmond, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10673,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[188,18,40,9,32,91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10673"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10656,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10646\/revisions\/10656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.global-briefing.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}