 | 'Wanted: a leader for the SNP. Must have hide of a rhinoceros and boundless optimism.' Sunday Herald Editorial, 27 th June 2004. |  |
| 'Wanted: a leader for the SNP. Must have hide of a rhinoceros and boundless optimism.' Sunday Herald Editorial, 27 th June 2004. | |
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday launched her campaign to become the next leader of the SNP, standing in opposition to Roseanna Cunningham, her close personal friend.
Throughout yesterday afternoon in the parliamentary chamber, Ms Sturgeon and Ms Cunningham were seen frequently in conversation, but from the young pretender there was just a hint of a side-swipe at the older colleague.
"I offer a fresh start and a new generation of political leadership," she said. "I believe I have the energy, the drive, and the ideas to take the SNP and Scotland forward.
"My priority as leader will be to give the SNP back its sense of direction, to instil a new air of confidence about the future, win back members and supporters, and convert new believers to our cause."
Her problem will be convincing party members, many of whom gather for the national council meeting in Stirling tomorrow, that, as campaign director of recent election campaigns, she is not culpable for the slide in the party's performance.
She has now spent more than half of her 33 years in the party, but is seeking to position herself as a young, vibrant, Glasgow candidate who can learn the lessons of the SNP's electoral success in the north-east and convert that into a breakthrough in the central belt.
Her announcement that she would be aiming to succeed John Swinney came on the same day that Fergus Ewing, the MSP for Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, made a conscious decision to scale down his own personal ambition and pitch for the deputy leadership.
He said he would be his own man, not standing on any ticket, and dismissed as simplistic the notion that he was simply right-wing. He said he shared Alex Salmond's concern about the role of Alex Neil in recent party turbulence, saying: "Loyalty is a quality which Scots value and possess, and it is also n essential requirement for political success."
Although he said he would not be backing any individual leadership candidate, he did say there was merit in contenders having won their constituency seats, which could be interpreted as praise for Ms Cunningham at the expense of Ms Sturgeon.
Another influential party figure, Kenny MacAskill, welcomed the entry of Ms Sturgeon to the field and said he would consider his own position over the weekend, making a move for the depute's post a possibility.
Ms Sturgeon said: "It is time to re-awaken the independence debate. Dynamic debate about Scotland's future fuels the SNP. It is our job to lead that debate, to stop sniping on the sidelines and instead be positive about what Scotland can achieve. Above all, we must turn disappointment with the Scottish Parliament into a demand for change.
"To do that, we must do more than just proclaim a commitment to independence. Our challenge is to explain why, with a devolved parliament on the one hand and an ever smaller world on the other, independence is essential."
Alyn Smith, elected last week as an MEP, pitched in his own contribution to the debate in advance of tomorrow's meeting in Stirling, saying: "The parliament in Edinburgh must be cherished, and built up, and it is the job of every party member to do so. The only parliament in which we will ever win power is in Edinburgh. Calling for his Holyrood counterparts to be more positive about the Scottish Parliament, he said: "If we as a party do not shift our focus from finding knocking copy for an anti-Scottish establishment, we risk permanently undermining the very parliament that so many argued so long to achieve, which could yet achieve so much."
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