I vividly recall a conversation with an elderly woman in Edinburgh towards the end of the pandemic.

She was conservative-minded and hostile to the SNP, but said of Nicola Sturgeon’s handling of covid:

“She has done well. She has worked hard.”

Her respect for the former First Minister summed up the feeling of a sizable cohort of voters who recoiled from her pro-independence politics.

Friends and foes believed her handling of coronavirus and the hours she put in were her finest moment in office.

Sturgeon’s omnipresence during the crisis was milked by the SNP and the Nationalists easily won the 2021 Holyrood election.

But Sturgeon’s appearance at the UK Covid Inquiry is proof her positive pandemic legacy has crumbled.

No fair-minded person can defend the decision by Sturgeon and her inner circle to delete their WhatsApp messages during covid.

Sturgeon tried to hide behind the rules on deletion, which came into force after an inquiry was announced, but she was responsible for the rules.

Inquiry KC Jamie Dawson – the star of the Inquiry – performed a demolition job on Sturgeon by establishing secrecy as the theme of her covid response.

Her Government kept quiet news of the first outbreak at a Nike conference in Edinburgh, despite a breach of patient confidentiality being low.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Health Matters