NICOLA Sturgeon today celebrates her one-year anniversary as First Minister of Scotland.

Someone from outside Scotland could look at May’s Westminster election result and the polls for next May’s Scottish Parliament elections and presume that it has been easy for Sturgeon.

They would be wrong.

There are few other politicians who work quite as hard as the First Minister. Even her staunchest of critics would be hard pushed to argue otherwise.

Indeed, when Sturgeon promised to keep up-to-date with work while on her first holiday in two years, it was her political rivals who told her to take a proper break.

The next year will be harder still. Most of us could not be politicians or lead political parties. It is a job that requires much sacrifice.

That sacrifice surely becomes much more when you rise to the position of First Minister.

For that sacrifice and that commitment we thank Nicola Sturgeon and, indeed, the four others who have gone before her.