No more the SNP’s ‘nippy sweetie’

Nicola Sturgeon is a politician to watch. Scotland’s 42-year-old deputy first minister is spearheading the Scottish National party’s campaign in the referendum planned for autumn 2014 – a daunting task as some polls put support for independence as low as 23 per cent.

At least her heart seems to be in it. Alex Salmond, her mercurial boss, has been low-profile of late. Many think him unenthusiastic about holding a referendum he is likely to lose towards the end of his career. It was Ms Sturgeon who ensured it will be a simple yes-no question, killing off Mr Salmond’s idea of a third “greater powers” option.

In the past she was seen, although ambitious and formidably intelligent, as spiky and humourless – a “nippy sweetie”. Unkind SNP colleagues once dubbed an early attempt to soften her image “Operation Human Being”. She put this problem down to being a young woman trying to be taken seriously in politics: “I was probably a bit po-faced.” But there has been a transformation. These days she is a more relaxed figure. Journalists find her good company and even opponents admire her skills. Some put this down in part to her relationship since 2003 with Peter Murrell, SNP chief executive, a calm strategist nicknamed Penfold because of his alleged resemblance to Danger Mouse’s sidekick. They married in 2010.

Ms Sturgeon, from the North Ayrshire town of Irvine, joined the SNP at 16. After studying law at Glasgow university and working as a solicitor in a law centre, she entered the Scottish parliament in 1999 on the SNP’s Glasgow regional list. She won the Govan constituency in 2007.

She was set to stand for the party leadership in 2004 until Mr Salmond made a comeback, and instead she became his deputy. As health minister between 2007 and 2012 she won plaudits for her grasp of detail, especially during the swine flu crisis.

Ms Sturgeon says it was anger over Margaret Thatcher’s treatment of Scotland that drove her to the SNP. She does, though, share the Iron Lady’s penchant for early rising. She and her husband get up at 5.15 every morning to beat the rush hour traffic from their Glasgow home to Edinburgh.

As the referendum build-up intensifies, things can only get harder. The controversy over whether an independent Scotland would have to reapply for EU membership has been bruising. We shall see whether her upward career momentum survives a difficult plebiscite and its aftermath.

. . .

The super-north

Like many people from northern England, I feel an affinity with Scotland, having lived in Edinburgh for 10 years. But the relationship between northerners and the Scots sometimes seems oddly unbalanced, which results from a different perception of the UK.

Given the proximity, it is no surprise that many northern English people live, work and take holidays in Scotland. But we northerners tend to see Britain as divided into north and south somewhere around Birmingham. Hence we see Scotland as an extension of the north: a super-north that is even better at being northern than we are. Scots, for the most part, do not see it that way. For them, a border is a border, even if historically it was a moveable one: in the middle ages the Scots raided as far south as the Lake District, where Robert the Bruce destroyed much of Cockermouth castle in 1315.

These days the geography of some Scots gets hazy beyond Newcastle. Occasionally a Scot will ask me if Manchester, my home town, is in the Midlands (as if). But Scotland is a nation and northern England is not. Their politics share some similarities, in that the Conservatives are weak in both places, but Scotland has the Scottish National party.

If Scotland ever does vote for independence, we must hope the days of border warfare do not return, even metaphorically.

. . .

Toil and trouble

The disinterment of Richard III is prompting efforts to rescue the reputations of sundry monarchs, not least Macbeth, 11th-century king of Scotland. He seems to have been unlike the murderous tyrant portrayed by Shakespeare, though he did kill his predecessor, Duncan, in battle. Alex Johnstone, a Tory member of the Scottish parliament, will table a motion urging a better appreciation. Supporters say Macbeth ruled equably, imposing law and order and encouraging Christianity. Sounds less exciting.

brian.groom@ft.com