Unfortunately, there are few penalties to pay for getting things wrong when you’re Nicola Sturgeon. She will not resign and she will not be compelled to. For one, there is no alternative leader waiting in the wings, or at least not one who could replicate her storming election victories. Even if there were, Sturgeon exercises an iron grip over the party, not just because the SNP is a top-down outfit but because Sturgeon’s husband is also the CEO of the SNP. Come for the queen and you come for her consort, too.

Even now, Sturgeon’s party remains loyal. She is an election winner and, besides, anyone rocking the boat will face accusations of undermining the campaign for independence. The SNP is not like other parties: it is driven by a single goal and anything that doesn’t advance the goal threatens it. The incentives to ‘wheesht for indy’, as they say, are powerful indeed. 

More fundamentally, Sturgeon’s ability to act with relative impunity is a reflection of Scotland’s broken political system, in particular the flawed devolution settlement and the faulty parliament it has created. One of the most thoughtful MSPs, the Highlander Donald Cameron, is bringing forward a private member’s Bill to reform Holyrood. While the details are still to be specified, confronting the Scottish parliament with its many inadequacies would be a bracing but very welcome exercise.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters