The French monarch Louis XIV is not described, in history books, as a man of humility and grace.
Rather, le Roi Soleil – the Sun King – was a believer in the divine right of rulers. It was God’s will that he should take the throne.
Louis saw him himself not merely as a king. He considered himself the living embodiment of his nation.
Famously, he was said to have proclaimed: “L’etat, c’est moi” – “I, myself, am the nation” – and so we may, reasonably, deduce that he was a man not short of ego.
Which brings me, neatly, to our own Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of all she surveys.
The SNP outrage machine rumbled into top gear
The week before last, you may recall, the current favourite to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister, Liz Truss, was asked how she would deal with Sturgeon. Truss replied that the first minister was an attention seeker who was best ignored.
Unsurprisingly, the SNP outrage machine rumbled into top gear. This was not merely a snub to Sturgeon; this was an insult to all of Scotland.
A couple of days ago, during an event at the Edinburgh Fringe, the first minister took the opportunity to expand on this ludicrous assertion.
Interviewed by the broadcaster Iain Dale, Sturgeon said Truss’s remarks didn’t make her angry on her own behalf, but on behalf of Scotland. Not everybody in Scotland supported her and her party, she conceded, but she was the democratically elected first minister, and when you said she should be ignored, you were effectively saying that Scotland’s democratic choices and preferences should be ignored.
You were, she added for clarity, effectively saying Scotland should be ignored.
Sturgeon has repeatedly ignored the views of the majority
There are many, of course, who share Sturgeon’s worldview. Across social media, an explosion of outrage indicated that a troubling number of Scots do, indeed, see Sturgeon as the embodiment of the nation. A great many positively revelled in being offended on her – and therefore Scotland’s – behalf.
When Nicola Sturgeon accuses Liz Truss of ignoring the preferences of Scots, she’s a pot attacking a kettle from within a glass house
Others, however, may take a different view. There is a strong case to argue that nobody has ignored Scotland in recent years more than Sturgeon herself.
Since succeeding her mentor, Alex Salmond, as first minister after the defeat of the Yes campaign in the 2014 independence referendum, Sturgeon has repeatedly ignored the views of the majority. She has had nothing of worth to say to those who support the maintenance of the United Kingdom, beyond continually asserting that they are about to change their minds.
When Nicola Sturgeon accuses Liz Truss of ignoring the preferences of Scots, she’s a pot attacking a kettle from within a glass house.
Old Louis XIV really did have nothing on Scotland’s very own glorious Sun Queen.
Euan McColm is a regular columnist for various Scottish newspapers
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