Nicola Sturgeon believes Royals are "polite and courteous" except one
She said almost all of her dealings with members of the Royal Family were "positive".
Sturgeon said: "I know it is part of their training (breeding is probably the more accurate term), but they are always engaged and engaging, polite and courteous.
"I can imagine Prince Andrew might be an exception but thankfully, I've never had much to do with him.'
READ NEXT:Nicola Sturgeon tells of clubbing in Glasgow with Hollywood star
She also told of an occasion where Prince William caused her to be "slightly agrieved".
It was following a private meeting between the two in 2021.
Sturgeon said: ' The meeting was cordial' and the pair chatted about covid, she asked about his grandmother and they discussed football and the upcoming Euros tournament.
However, she said she found out a few days later that the Prince had a private meeting with former prime minister Gordon Brown in the wake of his setting up the anti-independence think tank Our Scottish Future.
Sturgeon said a comment from the Prince's office said he wanted to meet people across the political spectrum.
She said this was 'disingenuous' as she had not discussed politics or independence with the Prince during their meeting.
The other occasion was following a big speech during the independence referendum, positioning the Yes campaign on the centre left.
READ NEXT:Nicola Sturgeon tells how staff in this Glasgow pub refused to serve her
Sturgeon said the speech was a success and well-received.
The limelight, however, was about to be stolen, as she added: ' No sooner had I finished my speech than news broke that Prince William and Kate were expecting their first child.
She said: 'No-one was going to keep them off the front page,' adding, 'We just couldn't get a break.'
On the Queen, she said prepping for their meetings was 'nerve-wracking'.
She said, as well as talking about world events, Sturgeon said: 'Chatting to her was like being given a private window onto all the big events and key personalities of twentieth-century history. It was remarkable."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scotsman
40 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Thankfully chapters of Sturgeon's life that affect us are closed
Nicola Sturgeon's autobiography, Frankly, won't change anyone's minds about her, says Sue Webber I've been away from Edinburgh for the past few days and have missed most of the growing media circus around former first minister Nicola Sturgeon's memoirs, but I can agree with her on one thing: it won't change anyone's minds about her. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... As she moves on, I can understand her desire to paint a different picture from that of a strident and steely political leader to one of human vulnerability amidst the turmoil going on behind the scenes; a real person with real feelings, a sensitive soul who only wants the best for everyone. Who would not have buckled in trying to make the right decisions about the pandemic when flying completely blind because no one understood how to deal with such a new, all-engulfing and deadly crisis? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And I'm sure she was 'shaken to the core' when, in the full glare of inescapable publicity, her house was turned upside down by police investigating alleged embezzlement of SNP funds by her husband. To go from a woman in complete control of her government to being arrested and interviewed in a police station was a public humiliation. Then there are the revelations about her miscarriage and the incident of alleged sexualised bullying. It would be a very hard person indeed who did not have some sympathy with someone coping with crisis after crisis, having to put on a brave face for the public – especially after losing a child. But did she sob with relief, rather than sorrow, at the death her mentor of 30 years, Alex Salmond, with whom her relationship was shredded when the shocking sexual assault allegations against him came to light? Her implausible theory that he leaked the initial story about the complaints, involving prominent female SNP figures, has only reignited the conspiracy theory fires. Let's put it all another way. Poor me, poor me, poor me. Ms Sturgeon wants us to set aside the years of relentless aggression, the snide, snarky dismissal of those who dared to disagree with her, the refusal – right up to this week – to apologise even to members of her own party for the vicious way she set about attacking those who opposed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill which came to define her. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Poor me, poor me, but those who stood up for hard-fought women's rights were, according to her, nothing but transphobes and bigots, and in her mind remain so. Tellingly, her book suggests that what really drove her passion for this dreadful legislation was her ambivalence about her own sexuality. 'I've never considered sexuality, mine own included, to be binary,' she wrote, a personal opinion which turned into the self-identification policy which came within a whisker of becoming law. But never mind the politics and intrigue, what really appalled me – repeated in her ITV interview – was the unnecessarily graphic detail about her miscarriage, and how she flushed the foetus down the toilet. Did we really need to know that? Was there not a more tender and respectful way to write about the loss of a baby? But that she chose such a crass description, is as much a window on her soul as any of her other confessions. She will have other chapters of her life to go but thank goodness the one that affects all of us is closed. Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian
STV News
40 minutes ago
- STV News
Nicola Sturgeon's memoir hits shelves across UK
Nicola Sturgeon's autobiography, Frankly, has officially gone on sale across the UK. The former first minister began work on the memoir in 2023, describing it as an open account of her 'mistakes and heartbreaks' as well as her 'triumphs'. In the lead-up to the launch, excerpts from the book and clips from an exclusive interview with ITV News at Ten presenter Julie Etchingham showed the former SNP leader speaking candidly about the shame she felt at the police raid of her home; her regrets at how she handled the gender reform bill in Scotland; her complicated relationship with political ally turned foe, Alex Salmond, as well as her sexuality and devastating miscarriage. The 55-year-old MSP said she 'poured her heart into' telling the story of her journey, covering 'extraordinary events', 'colourful characters' and 'incredible experiences'. Publisher Pan Macmillan picked up the UK rights to Sturgeon's book in a hotly contested auction in 2023. The company described the book as a 'deeply personal memoir' that 'recounts her journey from working-class Ayrshire to the steps of Bute House.' 'Revealing the person behind the politician, she explores the schism between her private and public personas: one painfully shy and self-critical, the other a consummate public performer.' While Frankly is officially published on Thursday, the book was spotted on sale earlier this week in at least two Glasgow branches of Waterstones. The retailer had said no sales embargo was in place. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Sturgeon can shut the door on the way out and few will give a toss
As far as I am aware, I have never met Ms Sturgeon but I was in the vanguard of identifying her as a nasty piece of work. That was in the summer of 2000. Sam Galbraith, then Scottish education minister, and his young family were holidaying with us in Lewis; a desperately needed break for the world's longest-surviving lung transplant patient. Read More: Sam, as a brilliant neurosurgeon, had spent his life caring for people. The Galbraiths had hardly arrived when a commotion arose about the new Scottish Qualifications Authority which had made a mess of issuing exam results. It was the kind of thing Ministers are accountable for sorting out but nobody with any sense believes they can personally pre-empt. Sam, of course, was deeply concerned about the implications for pupils and headed straight back to get to the bottom of it and limit the damage. By this time Ms Sturgeon – the SNP's education shadow - was in full flow, demanding his resignation as if that would have helped a single child. Rather, she smelt the opportunity to establish a reputation as the SNP's attack-dog, which she duly did. I do not know if the episode merits a line in Ms Sturgeon's collection of political trivia and have no intention of finding out. But for those of us close to its effects, the sustained venom of her crusade, devoid of human empathy, marked her out for what she would duly become – a glib, unscrupulous operator who believed in nothing so much as her own self-promotion. In later years, as she ordered or organised one cover-up after another to conceal inconvenient truths from the Scottish public, or cover the backs of her anointed ones, we often thought back to her early career as a demander of resignations. Clearly, a harsh tongue would take her a lot further in politics than it was ever likely to in law, where standards are more demanding. The 'revelations' squeezed from her prose for the purposes of pre-publicity mainly serve notice that she has no intention of telling readers anything that might be worth knowing. For example, if there is still anyone remotely interested in her personal life, the tortuous form of words about sexuality being 'not binary' is unlikely to have come as a tremendous shock. If she thought this was important, the time to say it was when it would have involved even a modest degree of political courage and leadership. Politics is awash with people who are open and honest about their sexuality, and a good thing too. There is no evidence that voters care a hoot, which is real social progress. So why would they be impressed by the coy phraseology of a long departed First Minister? Another of the 'poor me' anecdotes which rang false was the one about her reduction to tears by a male MSP calling her 'Gnasher' which had been attributed by the vulgar to an alleged sexual encounter. Actually, she wrote about this in 2005 when the more light-hearted source of her concern was the embarrassment of telling her mother its alleged basis. Twenty years later, to fill a few paragraphs – or, for all I know, a few pages – the same episode has grown into a traumatic experience of "bullying of an overtly sexual nature, designed to humiliate and intimidate, to cut a young woman down to size and put her in her place". Maybe she should have stuck with her original story and told us what her mother said. Probably the most unpleasant aspect of her pre-publicity has been the ghoulish determination to further blacken the name of Alex Salmond, safe in the knowledge that he is dead. Her suggestion that he briefed the Daily Record against himself when he was still trying to head off allegations becoming public is fantastical and surely intended to divert from much more plausible theories. If I thought Ms Sturgeon might have revealed what she knows about another 'leaking' exercise – to pre-empt the Holyrood committee's report into the Scottish Government's role in the Salmond affair – I might even have bought the book. I am confident my money is safe. Like all the other dirty work at the crossroads, performed in her interest during that murky affair, omerta will continue to prevail. Ms Sturgeon's disdain for the Scottish justice system unless it delivers the results she demands ill befits the dignity of the office she once held. Mr Salmond was found not guilty by a jury of his peers, with a majority of women, in Scotland's highest criminal court. End of story. It is those who tried to put him behind bars who have still not been held to account. As Ms Sturgeon gender-neutralises Samuel Johnson's aphorism about the noblest prospect a Scotchman ever sees being the high road that leads to England, what symptoms of legacy has she left behind? Well, take your pick but there's not much to boast about. At least she can take satisfaction from the fact that the National Library of Scotland bans books which oppose her views on gender - not on grounds of content, they plead, but for fear of the backlash. That's the kind of Scotland which Sturgeon's career did so much to shape – too small, too stifling, too divided; a land where enlightenment has been subordinated to zealotry and progressive politics to empty sloganising. The late Margo Macdonald delivered the classic put-down when Ms Sturgeon asked her disparagingly: 'What planet are you on?'. To which Margo replied: 'Planet Nice. One that you will never visit'. She can shut the door on the way out, frankly, and very few will give a toss. Brian Wilson is a former Labour Party politician. He was MP for Cunninghame North from 1987 until 2005 and served as a Minister of State from 1997 to 2003.
