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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Nicola Sturgeon - Scotland's new SNP leader

 
When the Scottish National Party meets for its annual conference next month, members will have plenty to celebrate.

 Defeat in September 2014 Referendum on Independence  from the UK was narrower than many commentators had expected, and 60,000 have joined the nationalists  since then.

But the highlight of the conference weekend will be the coronation of the party's new leader, Nicola Sturgeon.

Political leadership contests are normally grueling affairs. Backstabbing and double-crossing are common as candidates vie for power. Not so in Scotland last week.

Sturgeon, a slight-framed 44-year-old Glasgow lawyer with a penchant for Scandinavian television dramas, was confirmed last Wednesday as Alex Salmond's  successor without a contest.

 She will formally take over the reins of the Scottish National Party (SNP) next month, in the process becoming the first female leader of Scotland's devolved parliament in Edinburgh.

For Nicola Sturgeon, the mantle of first minister is the culmination of a life dedicated to Scottish nationalist politics. Born in 1970 outside Irvine, a new town on the coast south of Glasgow, Sturgeon became a member of the SNP at the age of just 16.

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon delivers a speech to members of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, after she was voted in as First Minister of Scotland

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