‘I hated it': Sturgeon on the SNP's #ImWithNicola branding
Within days, the party also had merchandise emblazoned with '#ImWithNicola.'
Even though she believes the strategy ultimately did the SNP 'no harm', Ms Sturgeon writes that it was 'overdone' and born from 'a strange mix of insecurity, electoral expedience and arrogance'.
'No one other than me thought I lacked legitimacy as First Minister,' she writes.
"However, I was obsessed with getting my own mandate. As far as I was concerned, until I had put myself on the line and been elected First Minister in my own right, I wouldn't be taken seriously."
Her approval ratings were high, routinely exceeding the SNP's, and she was, she says, viewed as a 'massive electoral asset'.
But the approach, she admits, 'ended up a bit over the top' and was driven by her own ego.
'I had started to believe, politically speaking, that I really did walk on water. Indeed, if there was any period in my time as leader when I succumbed to hubris, this was it.'
It was the '#ImWithNicola' merchandise, she says, that made her feel most uneasy, suggesting it implied 'voters were expected to pledge loyalty to me rather than the other way round — and I hated it'.
Although she did not personally micromanage the campaign leaflets and marketing, she now wishes she had stopped the more overtly personal branding.
Despite her discomfort, the SNP won a decisive victory. Sturgeon secured 61.4% of the vote in her Glasgow Southside constituency, with her majority surging to 9,593. Nationally, the party increased its share of the constituency vote, becoming the first in the history of the re-established Scottish Parliament to secure more than one million votes.
But the result still fell short of an outright majority, prompting some commentators to portray it as a disappointment. 'It was frustrating,' Sturgeon writes, 'but that, I suppose, is politics.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
STEPHEN DAISLEY SKETCH: Imagine Frost/Nixon with all the depth of an Instagram post
With a book to peddle, Nicola Sturgeon is popping up all over, including on ITV last night, where she sat down with Julie Etchingham. Ah, the tough interview. Once time was deducted for some introductory ambling along a windswept coast, the proceedings lasted about 25 minutes, and even then it dragged on. Nicola Sturgeon somehow seems incapable of providing any insight into Nicola Sturgeon. What was it like being arrested during the SNP finances investigation? 'Utterly traumatic,' she told Etchingham. Naturally. What was it like seeing her husband arrested and led away? She hadn't seen it happen, and didn't have a clear memory of how she felt about it. OK, then. Once the police had left, she fled to her parents' house and watched the news, where she saw her house 'looking like a murder scene'. Sure, everyone said that at the time. It was the forensic tent and the police tape. That's Netflix serial killer documentary stuff. The only thing missing was the old dear next door saying: 'She didn't seem the type to have 15 bodies buried under the patio.' What could she tell us about the experience? About how it affected her? Very little, in truth. Every attempt to elicit a description of her feelings at the time brought the same staccato, one-word responses: 'Horror', 'upset', 'shame'. The whole point of book interviews is to dole out enough meaty little morsels of information that people will be driven to buy and read. She provided nothing like that in her conversation with Etchingham. If she can't manage 25 minutes of vaguely compelling chat, what must the book be like? Nothing new that she said was interesting, and nothing interesting was new. The SNP hadn't done enough prep work when David Cameron granted the referendum, and the White Paper needed more research. (We noticed.) She used to talk to Alex Salmond inside her head. (Well, he was living there rent-free, after all.) We were treated to a discussion of her new tattoo, a self-designed infinity symbol tipped with an arrow and etched onto her right wrist. 'Midlife crisis alert!' Sturgeon yelped. 'Midlife crisis alert,' Etchingham purred. Imagine Frost/Nixon but with all the depth of an Instagram post. On matters of politics and policy, it was as though she had done no self-reflection since leaving office. Asked why she failed to deliver in government, she cited the pandemic. Nasty old pandemic. Ms Sturgeon revealed a new infinity symbol with an arrow tattoo on her wrist Not only did it confine us all to our homes in 2020 and 2021, it went all the way back to 2014 to stop Scotland's First Minister keeping any of her promises. For the briefest of moments, she seemed to acknowledge her error in refusing to say that Isla Bryson, who was briefly placed in a women's prison, was in fact a man. Rapists, she said, 'forfeit their right' to self-identify their gender, then, under the lightest of pushbacks from Etchingham, she took it back. Under questioning about her sexuality, she remained coy, which was fair enough. Her private life is her own affair. What was infinitely more difficult to watch, and the only section of the programme that actually carried any weight, was her memories of the miscarriage, of the guilt that burdens her still. Nicola Sturgeon was a terrible First Minister, a serial breaker of promises, a spinner without substance, and for all that I'm happy to decry her. But she is also the mother of a little girl who never was – 'she would be 14 now,' she mused – and a lifelong bearer of the ungodly pain that comes with baby loss. She told Etchingham she was 'happy being my own person now'. On that, at least, I'm glad for her.
North Wales Chronicle
an hour ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Sturgeon: ‘Witch-hunt' MSPs investigating me were being directed by Salmond
The former Scotland first minister wrote in her autobiography, Frankly, that she thought either Mr Salmond or his allies were guiding some opposition MSPs on what to ask her. She accused her opponents in the special Holyrood committee of a 'witch-hunt' against her. The committee ultimately found Ms Sturgeon misled the Scottish Parliament over the Salmond inquiry. However, she said the probe that 'really mattered' was the independent investigation by senior Irish lawyer James Hamilton which cleared her of breaking the ministerial code. The former SNP leader said that while she was 'certain' she had not breached the code, 'I had been obviously deeply anxious that James Hamilton might take a different view', admitting that 'had he done so, I would have had to resign'. She said that she felt 'on trial' as part of a wider phenomenon that when men were accused of impropriety, 'some people's first instinct is to find a woman to blame'. Ms Sturgeon did admit to 'misplaced trust and poor judgment' in her autobiography, which was published early by Waterstones on Monday, having been slated for release this Thursday. From a shy childhood in working class Ayrshire to wielding power in the corridors of Holyrood, Scotland's longest serving First Minister @NicolaSturgeon shares her incredible story in FRANKLY, coming this August. Signed Edition: — Waterstones (@Waterstones) March 19, 2025 She wrote: 'This feeling of being on trial was most intense when it came to the work of the Scottish Parliament committee set up to investigate the Scottish government's handling of the original complaints against Alex. 'From day one, it seemed clear that some of the opposition members of the committee were much less interested in establishing facts, or making sure lessons were learned, than they were in finding some way to blame it all on me. 'If it sometimes felt to me like a 'witch-hunt', it is probably because for some of them that is exactly what it was. 'I was told, and I believe it to be true, that some of the opposition MSPs were taking direction from Alex himself – though possibly through an intermediary – on the points to pursue and the questions to ask.' Ms Sturgeon described the inquiry, to which she gave eight hours of sworn evidence, as 'gruelling' but also 'cathartic'. MSPs voted five to four that she misled them. The politicians began their inquiry after a judicial review in 2019 found the Scottish Government's investigation into Mr Salmond's alleged misconduct was unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias. Mr Salmond, who died last year, was awarded £500,000 in legal expenses. Ms Sturgeon wrote of the inquiry: 'It also gave the significant number of people who tuned in to watch the chance to see for themselves just how partisan some of the committee members were being. 'Not surprisingly, the opposition majority on the committee managed to find some way of asserting in their report that I had breached the ministerial code. 'However, it was the verdict of the independent Hamilton report that mattered.' She said her infamous falling out with her predecessor was a 'bruising episode' of her life as she accused Mr Salmond of creating a 'conspiracy theory' to defend himself from reckoning with misconduct allegations, of which he was cleared in court. Ms Sturgeon said her former mentor was 'never able to produce a shred of hard evidence that he was' the victim of a conspiracy. She went on: 'All of which begs the question: how did he manage to persuade some people that he was the wronged party, and lead others to at least entertain the possibility? 'In short, he used all of his considerable political and media skills to divert attention from what was, for him, the inconvenient fact of the whole business. 'He sought to establish his conspiracy narrative by weaving together a number of incidents and developments, all of which had rational explanations, into something that, with his powers of persuasion, he was able to cast as sinister.' Ms Sturgeon speaks about Mr Salmond several times in her autobiography, which also has a dedicated chapter to him, simply titled 'Alex Salmond'. In it, she speaks of an 'overwhelming sense of sadness and loss' when she found out about his death, which she said hit her harder than she had anticipated. Ms Sturgeon says the breakdown in their relationship happened long before Mr Salmond's misconduct allegations. She said it had begun to deteriorate when she became first minister in 2014 following his resignation in light of the independence referendum defeat. Ms Sturgeon claims her former boss still wanted to 'call the shots' outside of Bute House and appeared unhappy that she was no longer his inferior. She also accuses him of trying to 'distort' and 'weaponise' his alleged victims' 'trauma' through his allegations of conspiracy. Ms Sturgeon claims that Mr Salmond, who later quit the SNP to form the Alba Party, would rather have seen the SNP destroyed than be successful without him. Despite her myriad claims against her predecessor, though, Ms Sturgeon said: 'Part of me still misses him, or at least the man I thought he was and the relationship we once had. 'I know I will never quite escape the shadow he casts, even in death.'
Glasgow Times
an hour ago
- Glasgow Times
Sturgeon: ‘Witch-hunt' MSPs investigating me were being directed by Salmond
The former Scotland first minister wrote in her autobiography, Frankly, that she thought either Mr Salmond or his allies were guiding some opposition MSPs on what to ask her. She accused her opponents in the special Holyrood committee of a 'witch-hunt' against her. A special Holyrood committee found Nicola Sturgeon misled MSPs during their investigation into complaints against Alex Salmond (Jane Barlow/PA) The committee ultimately found Ms Sturgeon misled the Scottish Parliament over the Salmond inquiry. However, she said the probe that 'really mattered' was the independent investigation by senior Irish lawyer James Hamilton which cleared her of breaking the ministerial code. The former SNP leader said that while she was 'certain' she had not breached the code, 'I had been obviously deeply anxious that James Hamilton might take a different view', admitting that 'had he done so, I would have had to resign'. She said that she felt 'on trial' as part of a wider phenomenon that when men were accused of impropriety, 'some people's first instinct is to find a woman to blame'. Ms Sturgeon did admit to 'misplaced trust and poor judgment' in her autobiography, which was published early by Waterstones on Monday, having been slated for release this Thursday. From a shy childhood in working class Ayrshire to wielding power in the corridors of Holyrood, Scotland's longest serving First Minister @NicolaSturgeon shares her incredible story in FRANKLY, coming this August. Signed Edition: — Waterstones (@Waterstones) March 19, 2025 She wrote: 'This feeling of being on trial was most intense when it came to the work of the Scottish Parliament committee set up to investigate the Scottish government's handling of the original complaints against Alex. 'From day one, it seemed clear that some of the opposition members of the committee were much less interested in establishing facts, or making sure lessons were learned, than they were in finding some way to blame it all on me. 'If it sometimes felt to me like a 'witch-hunt', it is probably because for some of them that is exactly what it was. 'I was told, and I believe it to be true, that some of the opposition MSPs were taking direction from Alex himself – though possibly through an intermediary – on the points to pursue and the questions to ask.' Ms Sturgeon described the inquiry, to which she gave eight hours of sworn evidence, as 'gruelling' but also 'cathartic'. MSPs voted five to four that she misled them. Nicola Sturgeon said her famed relationship with Alex Salmond began to deteriorate when she became first minister (Andrew Milligan/PA) The politicians began their inquiry after a judicial review in 2019 found the Scottish Government's investigation into Mr Salmond's alleged misconduct was unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias. Mr Salmond, who died last year, was awarded £500,000 in legal expenses. Ms Sturgeon wrote of the inquiry: 'It also gave the significant number of people who tuned in to watch the chance to see for themselves just how partisan some of the committee members were being. 'Not surprisingly, the opposition majority on the committee managed to find some way of asserting in their report that I had breached the ministerial code. 'However, it was the verdict of the independent Hamilton report that mattered.' She said her infamous falling out with her predecessor was a 'bruising episode' of her life as she accused Mr Salmond of creating a 'conspiracy theory' to defend himself from reckoning with misconduct allegations, of which he was cleared in court. Ms Sturgeon said her former mentor was 'never able to produce a shred of hard evidence that he was' the victim of a conspiracy. Nicola Sturgeon accused Alex Salmond of creating a conspiracy to shield himself from his reckoning with his own behaviour (Robert Perry/PA) She went on: 'All of which begs the question: how did he manage to persuade some people that he was the wronged party, and lead others to at least entertain the possibility? 'In short, he used all of his considerable political and media skills to divert attention from what was, for him, the inconvenient fact of the whole business. 'He sought to establish his conspiracy narrative by weaving together a number of incidents and developments, all of which had rational explanations, into something that, with his powers of persuasion, he was able to cast as sinister.' Ms Sturgeon speaks about Mr Salmond several times in her autobiography, which also has a dedicated chapter to him, simply titled 'Alex Salmond'. In it, she speaks of an 'overwhelming sense of sadness and loss' when she found out about his death, which she said hit her harder than she had anticipated. Ms Sturgeon says the breakdown in their relationship happened long before Mr Salmond's misconduct allegations. She said it had begun to deteriorate when she became first minister in 2014 following his resignation in light of the independence referendum defeat. Ms Sturgeon claims her former boss still wanted to 'call the shots' outside of Bute House and appeared unhappy that she was no longer his inferior. She also accuses him of trying to 'distort' and 'weaponise' his alleged victims' 'trauma' through his allegations of conspiracy. Ms Sturgeon claims that Mr Salmond, who later quit the SNP to form the Alba Party, would rather have seen the SNP destroyed than be successful without him. Despite her myriad claims against her predecessor, though, Ms Sturgeon said: 'Part of me still misses him, or at least the man I thought he was and the relationship we once had. 'I know I will never quite escape the shadow he casts, even in death.'
