Articles by Tom Gallagher

In his new book on post-war European leaders, Tom Gallagher assesses Nicola Sturgeon's disastrous legacy, and how her failure provides an insight into Europe’s Leadership Famine.

Nicola Sturgeon definitely merits a chapter in a book on European leadership. It isn’t because she left Scotland a better place than she found it or because under her the independence cause flourished. Neither thing happened. Indeed, many of the 12,000 people who crowded into Scotland’s main events venue, the Hydro in Glasgow on 22 November 2014 to hail her emergence as First Minister of devolved Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) would today bitterly assail her as a fraud who had duped them.

George Galloway, Jamie Blackett, David Griffiths and Alan Sked spoke with clarity and conviction about their formative experiences. An ardent socialist, a conservative-minded businessman, a Leaver and a Remainer, as well as two supporters of Glasgow’s highly competitive football clubs, can be found among the four.