Nicola Sturgeon: Scottish icons can provide guidance in their passing

One of the curses of the modern age in my view is the sheer speed of communication. Social media, for all its benefits, accelerates time and reduces our attention span.

This puts pressure on decision-makers to act quickly, even if that means doing so in haste before all the angles of an issue have been properly thought through.

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It can also reduce if not the quantity, then certainly the quality, of the scrutiny that politicians’ decisions are subjected to – no sooner has one big story broken than it has been replaced by another.

So, I have been trying to take advantage of the slightly different pace of life I am now experiencing, which is still extremely busy as a constituency MSP, but a bit less frantic than it was when I was first minister.

Between that and making a concerted effort to be less engaged on social media, I am finding the opportunity to read and think more slowly – and I hope more deeply – about the big issues we face here in Scotland and elsewhere.

In the last couple of weeks, however, there have been some more poignant reasons to think about how quickly time passes. The deaths, within just a few days of each other, of Winnie Ewing and Craig Brown, robbed Scotland of two masters in their respective fields, and of two people who epitomised public service at its best.

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Thinking about Winnie and Craig is also a reminder of how much has changed in politics and public life since I started out, and it is fair to say that not all of the change has been for the better. Indeed, their examples hold lessons for all of us.

I first met Winnie when I was just 18, and she was only a few years older than I am now. I was in awe from the outset. She was an icon – winner of the famous 1967 Hamilton by-election which changed forever the dynamic of Scottish politics. Back then, she was already known as Madame Ecosse for the feisty way she represented Scotland as a Member of the European Parliament.

She would later become an MSP in the first election to the new Scottish Parliament – as the oldest member elected, she got to utter the first words spoken in the debating chamber as she formally reconvened Scotland’s Parliament after a gap of almost 300 years.

Just as important as who Winnie was or what she did, though, was how she did it. She taught me a huge amount, how to be resilient and survive as a young woman in a man’s world being two of the most important lessons.

However, what I am most grateful to her for is what she taught me about campaigning. It was Winnie who instilled in me the understanding that politics is personal. It is about people and the lives we live.

She told me to never view a member of the public as just a potential voter, but to always remember that they were people with families, worries and priorities of their own – ‘always ask them about themselves before you even think about asking for their vote, Nicola’ she would say, and I have tried never to forget that.

This is a lesson modern day politicians would do well to heed too – in an age when communication is not just faster, but so much of it remote and online, we should never forget the importance of personal connection. Whereas Twitter etc encourages us to dwell on our disagreements, personal connection has the added advantage of reminding us of what we have in common.

Craig Brown’s example can also teach us a thing or two. I first met Craig when he was the Scotland manager. I last saw him in March this year at a lunch to mark my uncle’s retirement from Ayr Racecourse (he and my uncle were friends).

He was in great form that day, full of laughs and anecdotes about his life in football. I had recently announced my intention to stand down as Scotland’s longest-serving first minister after eight years in post, and he reminded me that when he stood down from the Scotland job, he was our longest-serving manager, having spent eight years in post. We joked about the coincidence.

But what that day reminded me of more than anything was Craig’s essential decency. He was a gentleman, as courteous about opponents as he was about allies and supporters.

Too often these days – certainly in politics – we are too quick to view opponents as enemies. We forget that despite disagreements, there may be lots we agree on too.

Craig also spoke that day of his respect for and friendship with Winnie – making it even more poignant that their deaths came so close to each other.

Winnie Ewing and Craig Brown – we may not see their likes again, but these two Scottish icons, who gave us so much in their lives, can also offer us guidance in their passing.