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Scottish nationalist leader wants new referendum only if enough support

Nicola Sturgeon today took an extraordinary swipe at David Cameron, accusing him of being “pig-headed” in his attitude to Scotland.

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Speaking to a packed hall of party members in Aberdeen, Sturgeon provoked laughter by joking about the allegations from last month that, as a student, Cameron put a “private part” of his anatomy into a dead pig.

If her party wins in May she said the SNP will publish a Scottish Social Security Bill in the first year of the new parliament, setting out how it would use the “limited new welfare powers”.

‘Pressing ahead with austerity, despite 50 per cent of people in Scotland voting for an anti-austerity party.

Highlighting the “tragedy that was a Tory government” and Labour’s “inability to mount a credible challenge” for the office, Ms Sturgeon turned to the delegates and urged them to re-elect her as the First Minister.

Scots rejected independence by 55 percent to 45 percent in a referendum in September 2014 but the popularity of the SNP, whose long-term aim remains an independent state, has since surged.

“Today, I am putting this party firmly on an election footing”, she said.

The creation of Police Scotland from a merger of Scotland’s eight former forces – one of the SNP’s flagship policies – has led to one controversy after another, from claims that Strathclyde-style policing has been imposed across the country, including widespread use of stop-and-search and deployment of armed officers, to cutbacks in control centres and the tragic failure to respond to a fatal crash on the M9.

At the SNP conference, she set out her vision for a “can do Scotland” with a promise of extra cash for the NHS and more money for carers.

“We should change tack completely and start promoting the benefits of independence and the disadvantages of the British union on a long-burn campaign because other than that you will not get the support rising”.

It’s one of the few areas where Holyrood has no power whatsoever, and it’s clear from this conference that defence powers are ones the SNP would like Scotland to have for itself.

“But I don’t just want to win the votes of independence supporters”.

Thousands of new SNP members who joined after last year’s No vote may have been privately disappointed by Nicola Sturgeon kicking talk of a second independence referendum into the dunes of Cruden Bay. Convince those we didn’t convince a year ago. If there is strong and consistent evidence that people have changed their minds and that independence has become the choice of a clear majority in this country, then we have no right to rule out a referendum and we won’t do that either.

Sturgeon, who has won a reputation as a wily and often fierce political opponent, criticised Cameron over his plans to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s European Union membership. Even during the debate on fracking on Friday, one speaker underlined that “independence is the prize we all want”.

“The SNP is about healthy communities, you can’t have healthy communities if you destroy the land, if you destroy the air, if you destroy the water that we drink”.

Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Make no mistake, tax credit cuts are right up there with the bedroom tax as the most iniquitous policy since Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax’. “We look forward to working with politicians from all parties to share the knowledge and experience of Scotland’s housing professionals so we can develop solutions that will work in practice on the ground”.

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Countless selfies have been snapped, with people posing for pictures with party banners, and the SNP merchandise stall has done a roaring trade in everything from T-shirts to branded Christmas cards.

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