The departure of Nicola Sturgeon has unleashed a torrent of speculation regarding the future of Scottish politics, some of it as extravagant and divorced from reality as the pet projects of the lost leader herself. The Sturgeon phenomenon was widely misunderstood during the First Minister’s period in power, the realities obscured by a prolific Scottish government propaganda machine, sycophantic media and a pervasive climate of enforced orthodoxy. To criticise Sturgeon and her party was to identify as an enemy of Scotland.