Nicola Sturgeon, the independence champion doomed to fall short of her dream

The first minister has dominated politics in Scotland for most of the past decade – but she has paid a price

For all her recent stumbles and U-turns, the one thing Nicola Sturgeon has been constant about, indeed given her life to, is the cause of Scottish independence.

Even when Scotland was still a one-party Labour state, and the SNP was the eccentric hobby horse of a small band of some “tartan Tories”, Sturgeon was smitten by the romance of the national cause.

It is for this reason that, however sincere her belief that she was now becoming an obstacle to its achievement, it was indeed painful.