| Nicola Sturgen Photo by Murdo Macleod |
The triumph of Nicola Sturgeon
The ‘most dangerous woman in Britain’ has become its most popular politician. Does her rise mark the emergence of a new Scotland?
Thursday 23 April 2015
When Nicola Sturgeon took the stage on 28 March before 3,000 devotees at the Scottish National party’s spring conference in Glasgow, the SNP’s deputy leader, Stewart Hosie, introduced her as “the only party leader in the UK who people actually like ... let me just say that again, the only party leader with positive approval ratings throughout the UK”. The audience whistled, clapped and cheered, and Sturgeon, in her best Kurt Geigers and coral-pink suit, climbed up the few steps to the platform, where her already-gathered cabinet rose from their chairs and, like a well-drilled military unit, turned to greet her with their arms outstretched in applause. A screen behind them showed that the number of SNP members now stood at 102,143, a fourfold increase since September’s referendum. The SNP is now the third largest party in Britain.