New first minister must make the economy a priority…

The old saying goes that all political careers end in failure.

To apply that to a political giant like Nicola Sturgeon, who has won eight elections and spent 16 years in power, feels flippant.

In an age where integrity in public life has been eroded so much, she was seen as a leader with decency and humanity.

You can argue with many of her policy choices, but you cannot argue that she is motivated by anything other than a desire to make Scotland better.

However, as she made reference to herself, for everyone who will miss her, there is probably someone who won’t.

Her relationship with Scotland’s business community has been fraught in recent years, fractured in many ways by CV19 policies which placed such a heavy burden on companies as financial support faded away.

Repeated attempts since to “reset” the relationship between government and business have never lasted more than a few weeks before being undermined by policy decisions.

This is reflected in the fact that as she leaves office, she is at loggerheads with the two industries for which this country is best-known; the drinks sector and the oil and gas industry.

For someone who has always excelled at centre of many of this country’s polarising debates, in recent months she has made crucial missteps in areas where public opinion is binary.

The North Sea is clearly one. Almost nine out of 10 people believe that oil and gas used in this country should be produced here, rather than imported from overseas.

Despite this, Ms Sturgeon and her government have proposed a presumption against future oil and gas exploration in the UK Continental Shelf.

And I’d press you to find many people who think that the alcohol advertising ban is a good idea in a nation famed the world over for its whisky.

For all she has sought to do right by Scotland, I think it is a fair criticism to say that on these issues, she has been tin-eared to the concerns of business.

She was a tribal leader for tribal times - but we now need cool economic head to navigate difficult fiscal terrain.

Kate Forbes has shown herself to be a very capable Finance Secretary and at the time of writing appears to be an early contender to take the hotseat.

Sturgeon has herself privately intimated that Forbes, a Highlander and fluent Gaelic speaker, is the most talented of her potential successors. The outgoing first minister respects her finance minister’s clarity of thought, precision and rigorous attention to detail, according to commentators.

Alex Massie wrote that she is one of the very few members of the Scottish Government who instinctively appreciates the value and necessity of commerce.

“Economic prosperity is not an inevitability,” she says.

Language like that is refreshing to hear.

And comments she made last year during a dinner held by Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce offer hope of a different approach to businesses here in the North-east.

She told business leaders there is as an “enormous opportunity” to attract investment in low carbon technologies, saying that COP26 had demonstrated the markets are

“serious” about investing trillions in renewables in the coming decades.

Several European nations – including Finland and Denmark – are seeking to become low carbon energy hubs as the world pivots towards new energy sources.

However, Forbes suggested that the skills, people and companies rooted in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire put it ahead in the race to become Europe’s net zero capital.

“The North-east is the perfect location,” she told guests at a leadership dinner we held in July 2022.

“Not just within Scotland, not just within the United Kingdom, but actually across the world in terms of bringing together talent, ingenuity, innovation and resilience.”

I agree – and wish this thinking had been reflected when Scotland Green Freeports were being selected, and the energy strategy was being drafted.

Whoever the new leader is, the economy must be their number one priority. And the North-east can be front and centre of delivering a prosperous new era for Scotland.