Nicola Sturgeon has been lucky with her enemies – but trouble lies ahead The First Minister’s biggest problem is that there is little appetite for a second Scottish referendum among voters or Westminster. Nicola Sturgeon stands on the steps of Bute House with her new cabinet on 19 May 2021. Arrayed on the steps of Bute House on Wednesday, Nicola Sturgeon’s newly appointed Scottish cabinet kept the requisite two metres from one another. They looked like an unusual and slightly rash football formation. A 1-2-6 or a 6-2-1? Is Sturgeon herself goalkeeper or point of attack, or (with the recent heroics of Liverpool’s Alisson Becker in mind) perhaps both? In any case, the social distancing belies the truth – this is a team of tightly bound allies, not rivals. In choosing the composition of her starting line-up, the First Minister has re-stamped her authority on her government and her wayward party.