in parliamentary elections. polls suggest the governing centre right new democracy party is on course to win the most seats. now on bbc news, political thinking with nick robinson. hello and welcome to political thinking, a conversation with, rather than an interrogation of, someone who shapes our political thinking about what shapes theirs. it isn t that long ago, since nicola sturgeon looked to be unassailable as first minister of scotland. she and her party, the snp, were held up as a contrast to the chaos and the division of the tories down south. yet since she stood down as first minister, pretty much anything that could go wrong has gone wrong, as part of a police investigation into the snp s finances, which has a long way to run yet. now, even though no one s been charged, her party finds itself in the worst crisis it s faced, certainly since alex salmond became first minister 16 years ago. my guest this week is not sturgeon, it s not salmond. it is the new rising star
come under strain. manchester city are the premier league champions following second placed arsenal s 1 0 defeat today at nottingham forest. and while celebration are afoot in manchester, the arsenal side finds consolation in coming second their best result since 2016. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky meets uk prime minister rishi sunak at the g7 summit injapan after landing in japan. zelensky tweeted that peace will be closer as a result of his meetings. sinn fein is for the first time the largest party in both local government and the northern ireland assembly, after making huge gains in council elections. now on bbc news, political thinking with nick robinson. hello and welcome to political thinking, a conversation with rather than an interrogation of someone who shapes our political thinking about what shapes theirs. it isn t that long ago, since nicola sturgeon looked to be unassailable as first minister of scotland. she and her party, the snp, were held up as
i mean, you look at your career, you only run for council in 2015. you re the group leader a year later. you only become an mp in 2019, you become the leader three years later. pretty much everybody we called to ask about you said he s ruthless. is that the right word? lucky, ruthless, probably a bit of both. as i said at the start, when i see an opportunity, i like to to grasp it. i ve never been given a hand up in life, i ve had to work for everything that s been in front of me. maybe there s nothing wrong with being ruthless. no, maybe there isn t. and, you know, i think it s something which is bred into a lot of folk, certainly from my sort of background that you need to get on and do things, and nobody can hold you back but yourself. so i ve just gone for the opportunities as i ve seen them. i think you ve always denied it,
how would they possibly come to thatjudgment? i don t know. because you had crutches? yeah, because i had a crutch and i was walking in a way which obviously upset them. they thought you were putting it on? yeah. effectively, yeah. and at that point i was a leading councillor in the city. and you know, when you go through the school of hard knocks, you realise what s important and what s valuable. and i guess when you re in the heat of the westminster chamber, it allows you to reset quite quickly. i just wonder though whether it gave you that determination. i mean, you look at your career, you only run for council in 2015. you re the group leader a year later. you only become an mp in 2019, you become the leader three years later. pretty much everybody we called to ask about you said he s ruthless. is that the right word? lucky, ruthless,
the decades of iowa polling, you came out with a piece saying the verdict is still out. there s no clear front runner there right now. there s no clear front runner. joe biden in the poll we relowsed was at 24%. that probably giveing him a 1 in 3 chance of winning the caucuses. that means there s a two-thirds chance he doesn t. if you want to be in a position where the leader is certain, you have to be well above 35%. we have a leader a at 24% and a bunch of people at 15%. then we have the slew of people who are at 0 or 1%. i wouldn t be surprised if one of those candidates becomes a contender if not win the caucuses. given how many there are. it s a reason for us all to keep watching. we have to keep watching. stay focused. we have a few more months. we ll be there for all of you. thank you. good to see you. coming up, the twitter world gets a taste of o.j. simpson. this should be a lot of fun. i fwot a little to do. god bless.