She has won all five elections as leader of the SNP. She’s led her party to its biggest ever numbers (three times her SNP gained more votes than the Brexit Leave campaign managed in Scotland, in a higher turnout, and binary, referendum). She was the most prominent figure in the Remain campaign against Brexit that won 62-38.
She performs very well on tv and appears effortlessly good humoured and charming with people she meets. She has insanely high approval and trust ratings- especially in comparison to her many, come and go, opponents. Independence has never been more popular a goal than it has been for the last year.
In her time as FM she has seen the political demise of Ed Miliband, David Cameron, Jim Murphy, Kezia Dugdale, Theresa May, Jo Swinson, Jeremy Corbyn, Ruth Davidson, Jackson Carlaw, and, this week, Richard Leonard. She has had to deal with Brexit, Covid, the Salmond affair, and a sizeable part of the country not happy with the speed of progress towards independence (both that there is progress at all and that it is too slow).
And, still, according to all the polls, Nicola Sturgeon is very well placed to lead her party to a big win in May. She has stated her government will push for an independence referendum if the mandate is given. It’s been reported that, privately, Tory politicians admit they can’t realistically stop her anymore, in that scenario. Polls, consistently, suggest Scotland would vote Yes now.
Is any of that hyperbole? Her opponents will bristle at the fawning style of the summary but can they argue with it as factual?
Tory ‘War Gaming’ strategy to undermine FM popularity
These numbers are pretty incredible, particularly, after such a long, eventful, time in power. You can see why right wing Unionist newspapers have seen the FM as a target for some time.
All the polls show Unionist parties are still absolutely powerless to take support away from the SNP. Their knee jerk, reactionary attacks backfire more often than hit. Knowing they can’t beat her in an election, demoralised Unionist campaigners have been reduced to calling her a dictator.
With another leaked Tory Party ‘wargaming’ memo calling for ‘hard-hitting, attack focused campaign against Sturgeon‘ we can probably expect the personal attacks on her to increase along with their growing unease over another referendum looming.
We know the Unionist press will be very enthusiastic participants.
