Sturgeon redeems, almost

Nicola Sturgeon's statement to MSPs earlier today was characterised by a welcome dose of honesty and humility. In responding to criticisms regarding her letter to the criminal courts in support of convicted fraudster Abdul Rauf, she clearly decided to climb out of the political bunker, admit to a degree of human fallibility and also demonstrate some contrition. Thus a stance not readily associated with politicians, and therefore likely to impress the more cynical section of the voting public (and perhaps even the non-voting public as well, assuming news of Ms Sturgeon's statement permeates through to them).

Thus instead of the previous Scottish Government talk about a "duty" and "absolute obligation" to represent constituents in this way, she outlined a more qualified responsibility on MSPs in relation to such matters, couching this in terms of "reasonableness", "legitimacy", "appropriateness" and the "application of judgement".

The deputy first minister also expressed regret for some of the content of her letter, in particular her characterisation of Mr Rauf's fraudulent conduct as a "mistake" and also insofar as she had asked the sheriff to consider a non-custodial sentence for her constituent.

She then apologised, and admirably didn't use words that might be construed as half-hearted or euphemistic, and although it's always easy to look for a lack of sincerity on such occasions, clearly it's difficult for politicians to totally avoid this, whatever their real intentions are.

However, given Ms Sturgeon's frankness and the measured nature of her response, it's perhaps appropriate not to attempt to pick holes, and the obvious conflict with previous statements - in particular, those made by herself and Alex Salmond - is maybe best not emphasised.

Unfortunately, when pressed by Iain Gray about the conflict with what Mr Salmond had previously told MSPs, Ms Sturgeon surely went too far in trying to defend the first minister, and to that extent undermined the tone of her prepared statement, and since she will have been prepared for such a question her response cannot be excused as an off the cuff mistake.

Nevertheless, in the round it was an impressive performance by Nicola Sturgeon, and all the more so because politically she could have gotten away with a lot less, and without admitting to errors and misjudgements.

She also made some more general criticisms in relation to the kneejerk reactions (which she called "instant judgements") of politicians and the consequences of this, and of course that is all very appropriate. However, this is all likely to be forgotten about in short order, and normal service will no doubt be resumed soon.

(The BBC's questionable decision to cut short Ms Sturgeon's responses to subsequent questions from MSPs meant I have only seen part of her response to Iain Gray and none of the other questions, thus the above reflects primarily on the prepared part of her statement, although I haven't made it to the end of my Politics Scotland video yet, so there may be more in the latter part of the programme. However, it seems likely that the conflict between today's statement and Alex Salmond's previous comments will be re-examined at tomorrow's FMQs.)