AA Edit | A blow to Free Scotland?

Nicola Sturgeon may have had her Jacinda Ardern moment in calling it quits on her political career as Scotland’s First Minister as well as leader of the Scottish National Party. Her shock move will have ramifications beyond another woman leader caving in against the incessant demands, physical and mental, on a leading politician in power.

The Scottish freedom movement has lost its foremost champion of modern times, a blow from which it may not recover anytime soon as it scouts for an immediate replacement for the First Minister before it can begin to nurse ambitions of freedom again, this time against much longer odds as the UK Supreme Court has ruled against another referendum on Scottish freedom being held unilaterally.

Nicola blamed herself for becoming a polarising figure though reasons for her voluntarily stepping down could be sighted in many other things, least of all her championing freedom. She will go down in history as the first of major leaders to pay the price for ideas considered “too woke” even for the most modern and evolved age.

Nicola’s transgender reforms — by which people could apply for their Gender Recognition Certificate for an acquired gender by self-identification and without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria or a undergo a two-year waiting period — were, perhaps, too radical even in the far more enlightened times we are in, at least so far as living in liberal democracies goes. An extreme polarisation caused by a transgender rapist being housed in a women’s prison proved explosive, however, the GRC Bill itself was vetoed by Westminster.

Her Scottish party is incensed that Nicola, with her ratings falling, did not groom a successor, thereby endangering the party as well as Scottish independence, and the Labour Party senses an opportunity to rebuild their once dominant position in Scotland. None of it may be good news for the Tory party of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak even if its stand against a second referendum and the need for the UK to live up to its name and stay united may stand vindicated.