In the wake of Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation, Sir Tom Hunter and Lord Willie Haughey have spoken out about her departure from frontline politics. Sir Tom acknowledged Ms Sturgeon was “probably the most capable politician of her generation”.
He said: “She was a politician who won elections and her popularity rating, even eight years in the job, was the envy of her peers.
“I don’t think there’s any other politician who was in the job for this length of time who enjoyed the popularity rating, but and it’s quite a big but, her record on what matters to the people of Scotland and pretty much every voter in Scotland, I’m afraid that’s a different tale. For example, on the NHS, which is a totally devolved part of government.
“So nobody can blame Westminster for this, after eight years. It’s worse than when she came to power on education, again, totally devolved from Westminster and the First Minister actually said this was her defining mission. So after eight years of being the leader, education is in a worse state then where she found it.
“On the economy, which matters to us, businesses really felt that we didn’t have a voice, that business was not that important to the First Minister and I think that is going to be a defining thing for me.
“So I’m afraid, on delivery, I would mark our First Minister’s report card as a fail.”
Lord Haughey was keen to point out Ms Sturgeon had promised to close the attainment gap, adding: “That has failed miserably. So, if you judge me by what I do, then I’m sorry, it’s not about your popularity, it’s not about winning elections, it’s about what you delivered. Unfortunately that was an anchor around your neck.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel