Ever since the photographs of convicted sexual predator Adam Graham (aka Isla Bryson) went viral last month, prompting an almighty row over whether male ‘transgender’ rapists should be sent to women’s prisons, Sturgeon had struggled to regain control of the narrative.

In fact, Sturgeon’s gender-reforms had been causing alarm to much of the public even before the trans-rapist scandals. A month before it was announced that Adam Graham was to serve his time in a women’s prison, polls clearly showed the reforms to be wildly unpopular. A YouGov survey carried out on behalf of The Times found 60 per cent of respondents disagreed with the proposal to allow people to self-declare their own gender without a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Sixty-six per cent were also opposed to the lowering of the age limit to obtain a gender-recognition certificate, from 18 to 16.

Yet when voices within Sturgeon’s own party warned that the gender-reform bill was flawed, she dismissed their concerns as ‘not valid’. Indeed, as disquiet about gender self-identification grew in volume, Sturgeon doubled down.

[And as often happens with a double-down, you lose everything. That seems to be the case with Sturgeon, but there are also compelling arguments that the unraveling of the assumptions behind the heavy COVID restrictions was about to backfire on her as well. Her resignation over the same claimed fatigue of fellow pandemic authoritarian Jacinda Ardern does not seem coincidental. It could be a combination of both, of course. — Ed]