Scottish politician Nicola Sturgeon is 'the most dangerous woman in Britain'

Nicola Sturgeon appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Photo / Comedy Central

Nicola Sturgeon is on a roll. The most senior politician in Scotland - and the woman leading the drive for Scottish independence - is in Washington as part of a four-day tour of the United States that's being called a huge public relations success.

The Scotsman newspaper said she was "a hit" on The Daily Show earlier this week, where she was jokingly compared to Saddam Hussein. The Daily Mail said she wooed MSNBC's "Morning Joe" as she talked breezily with the hosts about dying her gray hair. In Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, Sturgeon is giving speeches at the World Bank and the Council on Foreign Relations.

In the United Kingdom, Sturgeon's pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) will be delighted by a new poll showing support for the party has risen since the British election last month, when the party scooped up 56 of Scotland's 59 seats.

So, who is this shining political star?

1) She is "the most dangerous woman in Britain"

At least that's what her critics call her. Sturgeon is the first minister of Scotland and the leader of the SNP, which wants to break up the United Kingdom. The SNP is the third-largest party in the House of Commons, and stands out from the other main parties for its left-wing rhetoric, including calls to "end austerity." Under Sturgeon's leadership, party membership has surged.

"She is hugely dangerous to unionism, to anybody who wants the U.K. to stay together, for the simple reason that she is devastatingly good at what she does," Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator magazine, told a recent BBC Panorama program.

2) Before last year's referendum, Sturgeon said that such a vote for independence would be a "once in a generation" event. Don't bet on it.

In September, Scotland decisively rejected independence, 55 percent to 45 percent. Both Sturgeon and her predecessor said that a vote on independence was a once in a generation opportunity.

There's a possibility that "once in a generation" could mean "a couple of years." Although Sturgeon insisted during the recent general election that a vote for the SNP was not a vote for a second referendum, commentators say that the whole independence question is not off the table. Next May, Scots will go to the polls for Scottish parliamentary elections. The SNP is on course to increase its majority, and they could include an independence referendum in their election manifesto. Separately, sometime before the end of 2017, the U.K. will hold an in/out referendum on the U.K.'s membership in the European Union. Sturgeon has said if the U.K. votes to leave the E.U., it could trigger another independence vote in Scotland.

"My gut says we will see an independent Scotland in our lifetimes" Sturgeon told the hosts of "Morning Joe."

3) She's not a comedian, but. . .

In his biography "Nicola Sturgeon: A Political Life," the journalist David Torrance quotes a comedian asking Sturgeon what she would tell her 16-year-old self, to which she replied: "Lighten up ... and then the girl of 156 would say 'eff off.' "

But the 44-year-old political veteran has lightened up over the years, even honing her comedy chops on "The Daily Show." She was mistakenly billed as a "comedian" on the show's Web site, an error she immediately brought up with Stewart, saying: "You raised all these expectations that I'm going to be funny, and I'm a politician. And as you know politicians are rarely very funny."

But she landed some jokes of her own. When talking about Scotland's oil reserves, Stewart asked: "You have oil? May we invade you?"

Sturgeon responded: "I think this is progress because you just heard there Jon, presumably on behalf of the United States, asking permission to invade an oil-producing country. It doesn't usually work that way."

4) Margaret Thatcher was a huge influence

Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, is a looming figure for Sturgeon. There has long been widespread opposition to Thatcher's economic policies by the Scots, who blame the Iron Lady for taking on the miners and letting state-funded industries fail.

In his biography, Torrance quotes Sturgeon as saying: "Thatcher was the motivation for my entire political career. I hated everything she stood for."

5) Don't underestimate her

Sturgeon grew up in Dreghorn, a former mining town in the west of Scotland. The daughter of Robert, an electrician, and Joan, a dental nurse, she was a studious but shy child. But when she was 16, she summoned the courage to ring the doorbell of a local candidate for the SNP and ask if she could help campaign. She was the first in her family to go to university, studying law at the University of Glasgow.

Over the course of her long political career, she has lost seven elections, according to the BBC. She recently told the broadcaster that the stream of defeats helped to forge her character.

"I'm very very grateful that I suffered so many defeats as a politician, before I experienced success. Because we know what it's like to lose, and we know hard it is to persuade people to vote for us and to win," she said.

Nearly 30 years since the shy but tenacious teenager joined the SNP, Sturgeon is now one of the most popular politicians in the U.K.