Sturgeon isn’t an ‘attention seeker’

There is a lot of pearl-clutching over Liz Truss’s dismissive remarks about Nicola Sturgeon. Much of it involves conflating a dig at the leader of the SNP with a grave insult to Scotland. This is symptomatic not only of the fetid culture of grievance that permeates Scottish politics but of the steady merging of the party of government and the state itself. Were Emmanuel Macron to brand Boris Johnson an ‘attention seeker’, these same guardians of the public discourse would scoff at the suggestion it represented a slight against the British people. In fact, they would regard anyone proposing such an interpretation as a hysterical ideologue and perhaps even a jingoist.

The difference is that Boris Johnson isn’t regarded as a semi-monarchical figure. He and his government are robustly scrutinised. He is treated as what he is: just another politician. Nicola Sturgeon is just another politician and neither criticisms nor insults directed at her are reflections on Scotland or its people.