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Time is a healer.
It’s a cliché that has stood the test of, well, time. Is it something Nicola Sturgeon should have considered before criticising the SNP’s latest election campaign in her memoir, Frankly?
In a new foreword, the former SNP leader said the campaign was detached from the issues impacting Scots, as she criticised it for lacking “vision” and “big picture thinking”.
She also warned it would be “a massive blunder for the SNP to soften its left-of-centre environmentalist credentials”, adding that the party “rightly put Scottish independence centrally as an objective but didn’t always bring alive the opportunities it offers for people in a tangible sense”.
First off, Sturgeon is entitled to her opinion and endless ex-politicians before her have equally not hesitated to share their own views on their party’s fortunes after their time – Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and, of course, Alex Salmond – and many would agree with her assessment.
Many even host weekly or daily podcasts – the likes of Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, Ruth Davidson and Harriet Harman, and Ed Balls and George Osborne.
Given this, it’s fair to say some of the commentary around Sturgeon sharing her views has differed greatly from when those people speak up, with ex-SNP spin doctor Geoff Aberdein saying she has “no self-awareness, no loyalty, and no class” on the Holyrood Sources podcast.
It’s hard not to see the difference when people have described the likes of Blair, Brown or even the likes of Jim Sillars as elder, veteran statesmen offering guidance when they piped in with their thoughts.
That said, there are arguments – even from Sturgeon supporters – that she is damaging her legacy with the criticism she has put out there.
Kyle Renton – described by Buzzfeed in 2014 as the "pro-independence Scottish teenager more popular on Facebook than the Labour Party " – said he does not feel “it’s in Scotland’s best interests for her to continue to comment on the SNP and Scottish politics from London”.
“What saddens me most is that I don’t think she sees she’s now doing more harm than good,” he wrote on Facebook.
“I don’t say that with anger. I’ve always had a soft spot for Nicola Sturgeon, and I’ll always acknowledge what she achieved. But every political leader reaches the point where stepping back protects their legacy more than remaining in the spotlight.”
There’s probably a lengthy debate to be had as to whether Sturgeon has already reached that point where she should just let her party get on with the job.
But her timing certainly seems a little tactless. It may have been three years since she resigned as SNP leader, but the party is still recovering from the setbacks it suffered at the end of her reign. Some ministers have certainly not taken it well, with Mairi McAllan calling Sturgeon's analysis "nonsense" .
She has only just stepped down from being an MSP having been one since the onset of devolution and, warranted or unwarranted depending on your own personal view, she has been in negative spotlight for months amid the jailing of her estranged husband and ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell for embezzlement of party funds.
It is difficult to shake the feeling she could have been better off giving things time to cool off. You can see why some may have become cynical that her mind is on book sales over loyalty to her party.
The political narrative has been against her and while that might have been out of her control, seeing her become defensive in an attempt to control can be uncomfortable, especially for those who still admire her.
Will some time out of the spotlight be what she needs to regain faith in her legacy?
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