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She's Scotland's longest-serving First Minister and a proven vote winner,

but her political career is formally coming to an end as she prepares to stand down as a member of the Scottish Parliament.

She failed to deliver on her precious ambition for Scottish independence,

and her high-flying career came at a price, not least a fractured relationship with her political mentor, Alex Salmond, and a very public broken marriage.

But Nicholas Durgeon believes there are positives she can look back on and lessons that can be learned.

I'm Mark Carruthers and in this bonus edition of Red Lines recorded

on a recent working trip to Belfast, the former First Minister talks to me about the rise of

Nigel Farage, independence and culture wars. Hello, nice to see you. Thank you very much

for pleasure to be here. Thank you. That's your seat.

Nicholas Sturgeon, you're here in Belfast discussing the challenges involved in making devolution work.

Many people believe Scotland has benefited from devolution, while Northern Ireland is struggling in terms of delivering good quality services for people here.

Do you think there are lessons our politicians in Belfast can learn from the experience of their counterparts in Edinburgh?

Inevitably, yes.

I think we've done lots of things in Scotland that others can learn from.

But I'm a great believer in the fact that we can learn lots from others as well.

And it's often, I think, helpful to see,

you know, a country through the eyes of somebody from the outside. And, you know, Belfast,

and the final period of my time as First Minister, you know, Scotland's hugely successful in

attracting foreign investment. And in that final period, I actually started to see Northern Ireland

as potentially a key challenger, partly because of the... foreign investment. And in that final period, I actually started to see Northern Ireland as

potentially our key challenger, partly because of the Brexit protocol and the particular

...