“If you can’t be loved, you’d better be feared” has been a warning to leaders for as long as humankind has had bosses and people to boss around. It’s not entirely clear which of these, if either, Nicola Sturgeon is these days. There are those in the SNP who continue to cast palms in her path, but their faith in her seems more functional than quasi-spiritual – after all, her brand of technocratic incrementalism hardly makes the juices flow, but nevertheless it is the only game in town when it comes to the possibility of achieving independence. There is nothing messianic about this First Minister.