The contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon really shouldn’t be a contest at all. The obvious successor is Kate Forbes, the Scottish finance secretary. She is young at 32 but she was even younger three years ago when she stepped in to deliver the Scottish budget just 12 hours after finance minister Derek Mackay was forced by scandal to resign. Her plaudit-winning performance showed her to be a woman of ability and nerve.
If you want to keep evangelical zeal out of politics, Kate Forbes is the least of your worries
These are not her only qualities. Forbes is Cambridge-educated and a disciplined media performer. She is a true believer in the cause of independence but a moderate in tone and temperament. She doesn’t think Tories and Unionists are wicked or less patriotic and not only tolerates but respects different points of view. She represents a Highland constituency in a political landscape dominated by the Glasgow-Edinburgh mafia.
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