First Minister “determined” to lead a normal life

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is “determined to live as normal a life” as she can, despite her important new role.

Speaking to Holyrood in an exclusive interview, Sturgeon said while she recognises the changes brought by being First Minister, she’s making a “conscious effort” to maintain the life she led before.

She said: “I went Christmas shopping on my own and while these things for anyone reading this will sound bizarre – what do you mean you can’t go Christmas shopping on your own – a lot of folk would say you shouldn’t do that and for some good reasons too and they will tell you why you should be more careful about what you do, etc but going Christmas shopping is one of the things I like doing and while going down Buchanan Street takes longer now because you get to stop and talk to lots of people and take lots of selfies, that’s one of the lovely things about it. I’m determined to live my life as far as I can the way I lived it before I became First Minister.”

Speaking about social media, the First Minister, who has over 116,000 Twitter followers, said while she tweets herself, she maintains a common sense attitude.

She added: “Since the day I first went onto Twitter I have applied a couple of very basic rules and so far it has mainly kept me out of trouble.

“The first rule is, don’t say anything on Twitter that you wouldn’t stand in front of a television camera and say. I think that’s the mistake a lot of politicians make, they forget it is public and because there’s a feeling of privacy about it, they treat it as if they are talking to a pal in the pub.

“That is the first rule I’ve applied and the second is don’t do it after you’ve had a glass of wine.”

Read the full interview with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in Holyrood magazine on Monday. 

And see Liam Kirkaldy weigh in with 'Advice to Nicola' here.