Nicola Sturgeon: Dividing critics and supporters until the end

Ahead of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the SNP was increasingly aware of the pulling power of Nicola Sturgeon.

Then deputy leader of the party she would go on to head, Sturgeon was already a key part of the campaign for a Yes vote.

At campaign events, she was drawing ever-bigger crowds, her smiling selfies with members of the public becoming a mark of the political moment. And even off-the-clock, the former solicitor attracted attention. In one incident during a dinner with now-estranged husband Peter Murrell, a stranger came over to the couple's table, crouched down on her knees and told Sturgeon she was an inspiration to women. 

A No vote followed, but so did promotion. As Alex Salmond resigned, taking the fall for an independence dream left unfulfilled, Sturgeon rose as his clear and unchallenged successor. 

Hers would be an extraordinary leadership period as the SNP built on the momentum generated in the run-up to the referendum and an indy movement galvanised, not dissipated, by the failure to achieve its goal.

There were record turnouts and record results – it seemed Sturgeon's SNP could do no wrong as membership swelled to unprecedented levels and it dominated the polls. 

A decade later, Sturgeon is not only out of office but now planning her exit from Holyrood altogether.

The former health secretary has achieved partial reinvention as a book reviewer and her memoirs are set to be published. Her retreat to the backbenches has been so complete, however, that she has drawn criticism for a perceived lack of engagement in the Scottish Parliament, based on fleeting few spoken contributions in the chamber. Of those 13 contributions since leaving Bute House in late March 2023, around 25 per cent have been about problems with her voting app.

When Sturgeon has voted at length, it has been on climate justice, the war on Ukraine and The Promise, calling for greater progress on commitments she made to care-experienced children and young people exhorting fellow MSPs to unite on that mission.

And while this policy and the agency set up to deliver it remain, other key pillars of Sturgeon's legacy have fallen, and her resignation as FM sent the SNP into a spiral which cost it its position as Westminster's third party in the last general election.

The Bute House Agreement bringing the Greens into government to shore up SNP support was axed by her successor Humza Yousaf, ultimately costing Scotland's first Muslim leader the position he'd taken on just over a year earlier. 

Meanwhile, targets brought in to tackle the climate emergency have been shelved and the attainment gap for poorer pupils continues to gape. The National Care Service announced to improve provision as a post-Covid measure has been greatly scaled back after losing stakeholder and parliamentary support. Her plan to use the general election as a "de facto" referendum on the constitution came to nothing.

And the issue which she is now perhaps most associated with, the introduction of legal self-ID for transgender people, has not only resulted in a history-making Westminster veto, but in diminishing Sturgeon's reputation as an inspirational figure for women.

There is no question that the politician who was once feted in Vogue and garnered international acclaim retains a strong core of support. However, it is incomparable to that which she commanded in 2014 and the years thereafter. 

Now planning a comedy tour with writer Val McDermid, Sturgeon was at the weekend booed and jeered by opponents of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill she backed so strongly. The incident, snapped by photographers, happened as she arrived for an SNP event marking International Women's Day.

Sturgeon – along with the many other MSPs planning a retirement from parliament – has around a year to serve to complete her term. And there are opportunities yet for this long-serving politician to affect the public's perception of her, and to make further marks on our legislature. 

But in Glasgow, the city where she has represented constituents since 1999, it is acknowledged that her star power has dimmed, and prior to her announcement, SNP councillors remarked privately that it would be better for her to go. 

It is, as Sturgeon has said herself, time for "a new chapter". The pending departure of this woman from the national stage elicits questions not only about her achievements and legacy, but about the future of the party she joined as a teenager.

With Operation Branchform still live, the investigation into the party's funds has had a lasting impact on its reputation, costing it members and donations. Sturgeon was released without charge earlier in the inquiry and denies wrongdoing, though husband Murrell, from whom she has announced a split, has been charged with embezzlement.

John Swinney, who for so long was Sturgeon's loyal deputy, has succeeded in restoring a sense of calm in the SNP, emphasising unity and purpose, but has yet to inject the sort of fervour into the faithful that Sturgeon did at her peak.

Membership has dipped, so have finances, and a new chief executive in Carol Beattie faces real challenges in adapting the party to its new circumstances. 

What is absolutely certain is that we are now set to enter the truly post-Sturgeon era. Hot takes will follow. Will any of them blaze as brightly as Sturgeon once did?