Sturgeon: A personal mandate to become First Minister "matters a lot to me"

To the small but enthusiastic group of SNP supporters gathered in Eyemouth their leader can do no wrong.

Indeed, some of them seem to believe Nicola Sturgeon has supernatural powers over the elements.

"There she is, there she is", says one woman excitedly. "And look the sun comes out too when she arrives. She's just wonderful, Nicola."

It's always first name terms. And the sun did indeed come out - albeit briefly - when the Nationalist leader arrived at a campaign stop in the Borders.It was an appropriate metaphor for her career. If what the polls are suggesting is correct, the sun will continue to shine on Ms Sturgeon.

On May 5, the polls suggest, she will be returned to power at Holyrood and win her own mandate to lead the country as First Minister.

Having just interviewed her for Representing Border, it is clear how much getting that mandate matters to her.

She told me she is "acutely aware" she was elected to succeed Alex Salmond during a parliamentary term.

Ms Sturgeon adds: "I have not got a mandate in my own right as First Minister. It matters a lot to me that I get a personal mandate to implement this manifesto and lead the country for the next five years."

So what of that SNP manifesto, which has her picture on the front under the simple, some say very American political-style one word slogan: "Re-elect".

To Ms Sturgeon it is a radical blueprint for the future of Scotland. To her opponents it is timid, at least in terms of its commitment on raising tax.

The SNP will raise some £300 million a year, compared to the Lib Dems, Labour and the Greens who propose raising far more - more than £1 billion in Labour's case.

Ms Sturgeon says she will not increase the tax of less well off people, something her opponents say won't happen unless you earn more than £20,000 a year.

Timid plans, her detractors say. Sensible and enough to raise at least £2 billion over a parliament, Ms Sturgeon says. That debate continues.

But what of the rest of the manifesto? Well, there's a promise to “transform our democratic landscape” in Scotland. It sounds radical and indeed it might be.

One of the key criticisms of the SNP has been that it is a party that wants to bring more power from Westminster to Scotland but not pass that power further down from Holyrood.

If the SNP is re-elected, it is promising to change that. Ms Sturgeon pointedly refuses to rule out cutting the number of bodies running Scotland. There are 31 local integration bodies for health and social care, 22 health boards (14 special and 8 ‘special’ boards), and 32 local councils.

Now, the SNP is talking about giving more power to head teachers and parents in schools, giving community councils more power - possibly including financial power - and creating education 'regions'.

What does that leave the 32 councils to do? Ms Sturgeon told me she is not going to take power over education away from councils but they would have to work with others in those regional groups.

When we sat down in Eyemouth, here is how she sums up her approach: "I am absolutely passionate not just for here in the Borders but for our island communities, for the Highlands and islands, that we get power and responsibility into the hands of local communities."

Scotland now has a single police force, and a single fire service Ms Sturgeon points out, both delivered by the SNP government. Scotland is a "relatively small country" and it is time to look at the way it is run.

I ask her whether we need all those authorities? Her reply: "I'm not going to preempt the outcome of the review the manifesto talks about but I do think that has to be an open questions. Equally, I'm not going to close off some of the options."

How about combining councils and health boards? "I'm not ruling that out. We've actually got now a big chunk of the responsibilities of councils and health boards combined in the form of integrated health and social care partnerships.

"So community health functions, social care functions of local authorities are now combined into one organisation. What I am saying and saying very openly is that begs the question about how councils and local health boards work together in terms of the other functions where there is cross-over."

I pressed her again. Do we need all those bodies? "Perhaps not. What I'm not going to say given I've said it's time to look at that in detail, I'm not going to sit here in an election campaign and preempt the outcome of that.

"I think this is a really good opportunity over the next couple of years to have a look at how all of the different bits of the governance of the country work together, so it is working as well as possible in terms of the structures and bureaucracies, so it is working as cost effectively as possible so that as much of the public pound as possible gets into public services."

Words which will be studied with interest, and perhaps some trepidation, by councillors and health board members across Scotland.

There is much more in our interview, which you can see on Representing Border later this evening.

But what of one key issue for our area, the Borders Railway? I suggested to her that it had been so successful, there was no need for a feasibility study on extending it from Tweedbank to Hawick and on to Carlisle as the manifesto suggests.

Ms Sturgeon upbraided me for such a suggestion, but was as enthusiastic as I've heard any minister on extending the railway.

She told me: "Yes it has been a fantastic success because we did detailed feasibility work, planning work, along the way to make sure that development was founded on the best possible evidence.

"It has proven to be a success. There are many more people using the railway than we expected. So now we would like to see it extended to Hawick and on to Carlisle but of course we've got to do the feasibility work on that."

She added: "We've got to look at what it would cost, what the practical requirements would be and what the likely demand would be.

"I happen to think that it is likely to prove to be something worth doing and therefore I hope we can get on and do it."But any government that opted for such an ambitious project without doing a feasibility probably wouldn't be a government doing its job properly."

You can see the whole of my interview with Ms Sturgeon on Representing Border on ITV Border in Scotland tonight at 10.40pm.