End of an aura as Nicola reveals her Achilles heel

THERE are some in the Nationalist movement who seem to think Nicola Sturgeon is invincible and invulnerable, a power-house of a politician without the flaws which bring others down. Well, they are in for a shock. The First Minister has an Achilles heel and it is a weakness that could cause her significant problems in the future.

What is most interesting is perhaps not this weakness itself – an obsession with England, or rather an obsession with comparing Scotland to England – but that such an accomplished politician as Miss Sturgeon has allowed it to be revealed in public.

Alex Salmond had similar issues with England but covered them up by insisting he was on best, back-slapping, mates-down-the-pub terms with England.

It was something of a giveaway: the more Mr Salmond went on about how Scotland would change from being ‘a surly lodger to a good neighbour’, the more you could be sure he was irked by something going on south of the Border.

Miss Sturgeon is different. She is more reserved, more calculating and less blustering than her predecessor, so her obsession with England has never really surfaced – until now.

The revelation came last week, when she was being goaded by Ruth Davidson over an English hit squad, which had, the Tory leader claimed, been sent into Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to sort out the crisis there.

Miss Davidson congratulated Miss Sturgeon for getting help from south of the Border to sort out a Scottish problem.

The First Minister instantly bridled at the suggestion Scotland might need – and take – help from England. ‘There is not a team from the NHS in England helping in the Queen Elizabeth hospital,’ she snapped.

Then she added: ‘There is input to that from a very small team – two people, I think – from a commissioning provider in the North of England – but it is a Scottish Government support team.’

This was revealing enough but there was more to follow as Miss Sturgeon went on and on about how much better the ugly truth: Nicola Sturgeon has shown her true colours Scottish health service was than its English counterpart; that there was a crisis south of the Border and there wasn’t in Scotland; that the English could learn from the Scots, not the other way round.

Two glaring issues emerge from this. The first is: what are any of our politicians doing talking about the nationalities of the experts in a hit squad sent in to sort out the myriad problems in Scotland’s flagship hospital when it should be the problems themselves that are the focus?

Scotland’s biggest, most expensive and most technologically advanced hospital is a shambles, with lengthening waiting lists, missed targets and patients suffering. Why are our politicians arguing about whether the rescue squad comes from Doncaster or Dundee. It is scarcely credible.

But it’s not just health. Listen to the First Minister talk about education and it won’t be long before she says – well, at least we are better than the English.

It’s the same with crime, road accidents, infrastructure investment, student debt or, indeed, anything. Miss Sturgeon’s first point of reference always seems to be England, almost to prove that, if we are performing better than our big neighbour to the south, that makes the argument for independence.

BUT there is a second, wider, point: the First Minister’s obsession with England exposes the central weakness of the independence case. She talks about Scotland being open-minded and diverse, with a global outlook, yet her obsession with what’s going on over the Border reveals she and her fellow Nationalists are anything but.

If they were really as mature in their outlook as they make out, they would not notice every little comparison with our southern neighbours – and they certainly wouldn’t pounce angrily on the suggestion English help might be needed in Scotland.

Miss Sturgeon has now discovered, these comparisons work both ways. She has spent so long pointing out how good Scotland is compared with England that it would be an admission of failure for her to admit we actually had to ask the English for help – which is presumably why she reacted so strongly when it was raised last week.

So, however absurd it was for Miss Davidson to start talking about where the hit squad came from, it actually achieved something very notable.

Like most politicians, Miss Sturgeon never likes to reveal any chink in her armour. The worry for her now is this: because Miss Davidson has seen just how sensitive she is to any suggestion that we might be able to learn something from the English, she will needle away at it time and again, making the First Minister more and more uncomfortable.

More than that, Miss Sturgeon has reminded everyone in Scotland that independence has never just been about ‘us’: it has always been about ‘them’ too. That’s a rather ugly truth she will never be able to keep hidden ever again, however hard she tries.

EVEN by the SNP’s standards, last week’s press release from the party in London was extraordinary. It actually trumpeted the fact that the words ‘Scottish’ and ‘Scotland’ had been used in Commons debates 3,733 times in the year since the last election, up from a mere 1,493 times a year before that. Nationalist MP Deidre Brock said: ‘These figures clearly show the SNP is standing up for Scotland.’

I bet you had no idea what that army of party researchers did all day. ECONOMIC forecasting is not the easiest of subjects. But here is Robert Chote, pictured, of the normally dry Office for Budget Responsibility, speaking to the Holyrood finance committee last week: ‘It is a spot-the-ball competition in which you have to be prepared for the judges to change their minds repeatedly about where the ball is, often many years after the closing date of the competition.’

At last, someone explaining things in a way our MSPs could understand.