NICOLA Sturgeon heads into next month’s election on a high, a woman with the Midas touch.
A series of polls has suggested that under her leadership the SNP will win a considerable number of Holyrood seats, enough to form a second majority government.
It is a considerable achievement for a politician and a party that could have been crushed after the defeat of the Yes campaign in the independence referendum in September 2014, but who instead have gone from strength to strength.
This success now gives the SNP leader and her team the confidence and political capital to address deep-rooted problems that continue to plague our country.
A top priority for the next Scottish Government will be to develop and implement effective solutions to grow the economy, create well-paid and secure jobs, and make Scotland prosper.
The aim to make us a wealthier nation is an attractive one, but one that is not simply an end in itself, rather a means to alleviate poverty and address stark and persistent educational and health inequalities.
Details of the SNP’s plans to bring a better and a fairer society about will be unveiled when its manifesto is launched this morning in front of an army of 1,400 members and activists in Edinburgh. Sturgeon is promising a “bold and ambitious” programme for government.
But of course, independence is the over-riding mechanism the SNP believes will help bring about a better nation.
Building the case that Scotland can and should be autonomous will be high on the list of expectations of the very many people who back the SNP next month, but there will be undoubtedly be others who vote for the party who do not want to see Scotland become fully self-governing.
Over the coming months and years it will be a vital challenge for the SNP to listen to those sceptics, to take their concerns on board – and to come up with persuasive answers to enable them to turn their No vote into a triumph for the Yes campaign.
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