Nicola Sturgeon was right to see Westminster as a jailor – even unionists like me understand that

February 15, 2023 12:47 pm(Updated 2:54 pm)

And just like that, she’s gone. Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation this morning hit the political world like a hammer blow. Precious few people saw it coming. Precious few predicted it. Suddenly, in the quiet lull of recess, the political world was thrown into disarray.

The sum result is this: Britain has lost the most persistently impressive leader of the last decade. I say that as a committed Unionist and a passionate opponent of Scottish independence. But put all that to one side and give credit where it’s due. Sturgeon was exceptional.

Her politics were generous and intelligent. She spoke to voters like they were adults, avoiding the management speak vacuities of most professional politicians of her generation. She was able to articulate complex ideas in evocative easy-to-understand language. Despite the seething anger you find among many independence supporters online, she was generous and calm.

On the morning of 24 June 2016, Sturgeon emerged into the daylight following the drama of the Brexit referendum result. It was a moment of supreme chaos, with the political class falling apart as one and Britain bracing for a journey into oblivion. But she was composed, sensible, articulate and clear-sighted. Of course, she had self-interested reasons for this. Brexit meant a change in material conditions which could justify another referendum on Scottish independence. But she is a politician. It is pointless to try and exclude any kind of self-interested reasoning from their actions.

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What mattered that day was that someone had retained their sense of reason. Apart from Bank of England governor Mark Carney, there was no-one else able to do so. David Cameron was breezily resigning, as if he didn’t really mind the kind of chaos he’d thrown his country into. Michael Gove and Boris Johnson looked stricken and confused. Jeremy Corbyn was babbling about triggering Article 50. But Sturgeon was an adult in a world of children. She was an anchor, a reassuring presence when things felt completely out of control.

One of the most striking things about her is that she reads. That seems a strange and superficial thing to say, but it is a profound one. Occasionally she will post photos of her shelves of books on Twitter. They are lined up neatly, series placed together, all well worn. It is, in short, the bookshelf of someone who loves books.

That is an unusual thing in British politics. Most politicians you speak to will hardly ever read a book and when they do it is typically on British politics – an account of recent events, or a political memoir, or at best a work of history concerning the 20th Century. But Sturgeon’s shelves were full of fiction. She maintained an imagination about lives that were not her own. She was alive to the world that exists outside of politics. And that ultimately made her a better leader and a more thoughtful politician.

There are all sorts of problems with what Sturgeon represents. Her brand of nationalism is social democratic but it remains nationalistic all the same. It requires the active search for differences between Scotland and the rest of the UK for its internal logic, rather than an openness to our similarities. If it were ever to succeed in an independence referendum, it would present all the same problems we saw when dividing up an internal market during Brexit – customs borders, regulatory checks, trade negotiations and petty squabbling, but this time even more violently, given the deep roots Scotland and the UK share, not least on currency. The relentless focus on independence means a normal objective conversation about the bread-and-butter of politics – education, health, transport and the like – has been often absent from Scottish debate.

But it has to be said – and acknowledged by Unionists – that Sturgeon’s tenure persistently justified her view of Westminster as a jailor rather than a partner.

You could see it in the way Downing Street rode roughshod over Scotland’s Remain vote to pursue the hardest form of Brexit possible without any attempt to find a softer consensus that would work for all nations. You could see it in the power grab of the Internal Markets Act, which acted to massively centralise power away from the devolved assemblies, or the denial of the clear mandate for another referendum after the 2021 Scottish elections, or the government’s decision to trigger Section 35 and veto legislation from the Scottish government. During her eight years in power, London has acted like the bully nationalists make it out to be, rather than the colleague Unionists claim it to be.

Nevertheless, Sturgeon’s departure significantly reduces the likelihood of Scottish independence. She was the most impressive politician in these islands. Without her, the SNP face real problems. Perhaps they will get lucky and find someone of equal stature. But it is not likely. And without that kind of figure at the helm, things become more complicated for them.

Her departure offers Labour an opportunity, amid the collapse of the Tory vote and a surge in its polling, to try to reclaim Scotland, or at the very least to get a hearing. And that in itself is a significant advantage. It means progressive politics can drive forward without the inevitable Tory attack about the Labour leader being in the pocket of the SNP. It means liberal, pro-immigration, economically left-wing voters in London and other major urban areas can join in a united front with those in Scotland, free of the obstacles placed to that kind of cooperation by nationalist politics. There is no guarantee of this. But it is easier to accomplish without Sturgeon than with her.

Any decline of the SNP will ultimately be a good thing for the country. But that should not blind us to what happened today. We lost the most impressive figure in frontline British political life. Sturgeon should be recognised by her allies as a truly exceptional leader. But she should be recognised by her opponents too, for the skills she demonstrated and qualities she possessed. If we’ve any sense about us, we’ll create a better kind of Unionism in her wake.