I am in my late 70s and have been active in UK politics for over 60 years, since I first went to work in a coal mine at 15.
My wife is slightly older than me, she is from Kent and although she has been aware of politics during our long married life (56 years), she has never joined a political party until recently when she joined the SNP.
We both have the greatest respect for Nicola Sturgeon, who is the most effective political leader I have ever known, however I was not able to describe why we were both so attracted to Ms Sturgeon. Reading Ian Bell's column has cleared that up for me (Why Sturgeon's ahead of the game, Comment, April 26). As Mr Bell writes: "Sturgeon does ordinary to an extraordinary degree."
That's it in a nutshell. That is exactly Nicola Sturgeon's political attraction, people, my wife and included, find her believable in a way we do not find other political leaders believable. She is so lacking in the usual arrogance and aggressive assertion which we have come to expect from politicians that we find it hard to believe that she is a politician at all, never mind a highly successful one. I'm grateful to Ian Bell for this insight.
Andy Anderson
Dunoon
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article