DOUGLAS ROSS: Nicola Sturgeon 'presided over a decade of division and decay'
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When Nicola Sturgeon was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, I was still at Forres Academy.
Little did I know then that our paths would cross at the Scottish Parliament a couple of decades later, every Thursday at First Ministers Question Time in Holyrood.
Whatever our political differences – and they are vast – it cannot be ignored that Nicola Sturgeon has been a major force in Scottish politics for a significant amount of time.
As someone who represents this area in both Parliaments as well as being leader of the main opposition party in Scotland, I am acutely aware of the toll that the demands of politics put on individuals and their families.
That is why I believe it is right that Nicola Sturgeon has accepted that now is the right time to step aside and make way for fresh leadership.
Inevitably, discussions will now focus on the outgoing First Minister’s record and legacy. For the avid bookworm that is Nicola Sturgeon, a lot of the analysis will not make for pretty reading.
The reality is that she has presided over a decade of division and decay in our communities in Moray, the Highlands and across Scotland.
Her government has been completely distracted by their relentless pursuit of independence which communities here resoundingly rejected in 2014’s referendum.
That obsession has meant that vital local services and priorities have been neglected by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP government.
Consultant-led maternity services at Dr Gray’s in Elgin have still not been restored, over five years on from when we were told that this downgrade of services would be temporary.
The effects of that have been devastating for expectant mothers in Moray who have had to travel to Inverness or Aberdeen to give birth, at their own risk. I experienced that journey first-hand when my wife Krystle could not give birth to our second son in Elgin.
To do so, she had to travel on the dangerous A96. Nicola Sturgeon has bowed to her anti-car Green coalition partners and kicked her promise to dual this route into the long grass.
For motorists who use the A9 it is equally bad news with the promise to fully dual the route by 2025 shamefully now abandoned.
My political opponents will naturally spin her record for our communities as positive but there is nothing to talk up when the highest percentage increase in drug deaths in any part of Scotland took place in Moray in 2021.
Neither is the SNP’s failure to deliver a fair funding deal for our local authorities which has cut local services to the bone, or the fact that superfast broadband is now years behind schedule.
All these issues were put on the backburner by an out-of-touch SNP government and First Minister.
Now is a chance for a new leader to put the pursuit of an independence referendum behind them and start to focus on the real issues facing Moray and the Highlands, such as the cost-of-living crisis, our crumbling NHS and the unique needs of rural communities.
Do you agree? Do you think he's talking nonsense? Alternative view? Email newsdesk@hnmedia.co.uk
