Has the departure of Scotland's First Minister Nicholas Sturgeon from frontline politics

done long-term damage to the cause of Scottish nationalism?

In particular, has the nature and suddenness of her departure led people to think twice about whether or not independence is the way forward after all?

And can a reinvigorated Labour Party with Keir Starrmer at the helm cause real problems for the Scottish

separatist movement. That's what we're discussing on this week's Red Lines in the company of three

well-known experts in the field. Alex Massey is Scotland editor of The Spectator and a columnist for

The Times and the Sunday Times. Leslie Riddock is an author, broadcaster and commentator who writes a regular column for the national and Karen Andrews is Scottish political editor at the Times. Welcome to all of you and thanks for joining us on Red Lines this week. Karen Andrews, just before we dig into a bit more of the detail, not least that Sunday Times poll last week, what's your overview on what's happening politically in Scotland at the moment?

Well, we're at something of a crossroads in Scottish politics,

which has for so long been dominated by the Scottish National Party.

Won a historic majority in 2011 after initially coming to power in Scotland in 2007.

There was the independence referendum of 2014, which redefined, you know, how a lot of people cast their vote.

It suddenly shifted to being down constitutional lines.

But now, Nicola Sturgeon has departed office. The S&P looks almost human.

Humzaa Yusuf is not in the same league as his predecessors. I'm Joseph the new first minister.

And we wait to see with a Labour Party, which for the first time in the the decades a bit, I've been covering politics

in Scotland looks almost credible, certainly at a UK level.

Leslie Riddock, how much trouble do you think the independence project in Scotland is in at the

moment? The strange thing at the moment is that whilst support for the SNP has dipped,

support for independence has stayed

pretty static. So the question for a lot of people really is whether or not the SNP is a vehicle,

given the Supreme Court judgment of last year, in November the Supreme Court announced a decision

that essentially the world's most powerfully devolved

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