A Covid coup with no signs of resistance
Opinion polls come and go. Recent ones around Scottish voting intentions are not yet worth getting excited about.
Indeed, the low esteem in which the same polls now hold Alex Salmond is a timely reminder that what goes up also comes down.
He too walked on water and in the days before the 2014 referendum, independence was in the bag. The privacy of the polling booth provided a different answer.
Frankly, it would be surprising if his successor was not now soaring the popularity heights, giving the relentless campaign of unchallenged exposure she is permitted.
The generals behind any self-respecting military coup know the most important buildings to occupy are the broadcasting studios. Scotland has witnessed a Covid coup without any signs of resistance.
I am in Ireland at present and each jurisdiction has done around three times better than Scotland, measured by excess death rates during the Covid-19 months. Who would know that?
Astonishingly, this has been achieved without any politician dominating the airwaves or continuing to report personally that another day has passed without a death. Scotland is uniquely blessed.
In fairness, everyone else seems to have dropped the pretence that this is primarily a “public health update”. Even the Scottish Government’s website publishes her text under the heading “First Minister’s Speech”.
On Monday, the “speech” ran to an impressive 1,700 words though any competent sub-editor could have cut it by three-quarters without any sense of loss . And that was only the opening gambit. How long is this farce to continue?
Like Mrs Thatcher, it seems Ms Sturgeon intends to go “on and on”. But then, look what happened to her. And, for that matter, to Mr Salmond.