Nicola Sturgeon: A Political Life, by David Torrance (Birlinn, £9.99)
Whether Nicola Sturgeon is “the most dangerous woman in Britain” as the Daily Mail described her, or a tartan messiah as many Scottish National Party supporters believe, depends largely on what you read or where you live. Either way, as commander of 56 MPs at Westminster, she is now unignorable. In that context, David Torrance’s short, meticulous book functions as a piece of public service journalism.
Whether Nicola Sturgeon is “the most dangerous woman in Britain” as the Daily Mail described her, or a tartan messiah as many Scottish National Party supporters believe, depends largely on what you read or where you live. Either way, as commander of 56 MPs at Westminster, she is now unignorable. In that context, David Torrance’s short, meticulous book functions as a piece of public service journalism.
A Political Life sets out to provide the dispassionate analysis of Sturgeon’s ability and motivations lacking in some sectors of the English press. Torrance traces a life spent almost entirely on politics. A short childhood preamble aside, we join Sturgeon as a teenager leafletting for SNP veteran Kay Ullrich and appearing on Scottish TV youth debates (“I remember being impressed by her political skills, even at that early stage,” recalls SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell). We follow her through polished student electioneering, dogged parliamentary campaigns, internal party positioning and her long, ultimately fruitful apprenticeship to Alex Salmond.
Throughout, two characteristics reoccur: managerial competence and a capacity for “scarily hard” work. She lacks Salmond’s flair for risk-taking, bringing instead consistency—“she was not,” says Torrance, unlike Salmond, “a Marmite politician.” Yet one question remains: as the leader of a newly powerful party and popular movement what will “Sturgeonism” look like? Party colleagues agree that Sturgeon is the woman to advance the party. How she will do so remains a mystery. Read this book quickly, then—its next chapters are about to be written.
