Invincible no more, Nicola Sturgeon will have to go back to basics | Martin Kettle

She overplayed her hand on Brexit. Now the chest-thumping conference slogans have gone, as the SNP gets down to some old-fashioned deal-making

Just two years ago Nicola Sturgeon seemed invincible. As she took over from Alex Salmond as leader of the SNP following the 2014 independence referendum, thousands of new recruits flocked to the Scottish nationalist cause, turning defeat into victory. In November 2014 she sold out the 12,000-seat Glasgow SSE Hydro, a week after Lady Gaga had done the same.

The Sturgeon tsunami kept on rolling through 2015. In that year’s general election, she was the face of the SNP landslide that captured 56 out of 59 Scottish seats, all but obliterating Labour as well as the Tories and Liberal Democrats north of the border. “If only we could vote for her too,” was a common refrain in radical parts of England.

Related: Signs of burnout at SNP conference: 'I’m not quite sure what we’re for now'

Last year, Sturgeon spoke from a rostrum whose slogan was a chest-thumping ‘Stronger for Scotland'

Related: The Guardian view on the SNP conference: deals and ideals | Editorial

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