“To ensure that the voice of everyone in Scotland is heard in these changed times, I am today launching Scotland’s biggest ever political listening exercise – a new conversation and a new debate for these new times”.
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She said: “If the miscarriage hadn’t happened, would I be sitting here as first minister right now?”
“But what hasn’t changed, and never will change, is our determination to deliver on our promises and our desire to make improvements that benefit everyone in Scotland”.
The SNP leader told STV News to expect a “nuts and bolts” approach to governing the country with a focus on closing the attainment gap in education and improving the health service.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the new bid for an independent Scotland was the “biggest ever political listening device” and a “new debate for these new times” as she symbolically chose Stirling to launch the campaign, the city where William Wallace defeated English rule in 1297.
Labour needs to do more than offer soundbites to oppose austerity, Mr Smith said, adding his plans for a “British new deal” investment programme would provide a £200 billion boost for the United Kingdom, including £20 billion for Scotland.
“And while we will pursue all options to protect our interests, the debate must include an examination of independence in what are profoundly changed circumstances”.
Nicola Sturgeon has signalled her determination to push again for an independent Scotland in the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
“The people of Scotland deserve to know why the First Minister is changing her tune”.
She told Mandy Rhodes, the author of a new book, Scottish National Party Leaders, that instead of dealing with her grief at home she attended on January 3 2011 the 40th anniversary of the Ibrox disaster, in which 66 Rangers football supporters were crushed to death.
Scottish Labour’s poll ratings have plumbed new depths as the party slips to just 15 per cent in a survey of how people would vote in Holyrood elections.
“It comes back to my message to SNP parliamentarians on Friday that we have got to make that case and win that case and that involves answering some hard questions”. “We want to build, if we can, a consensus on the way ahead”, Sturgeon said.
She added: “The wealth of information and insight that we gather will then inform the next stage of our campaign”. The collapse in worldwide oil prices has caused a dramatic slow-down in the Scottish oil and gas industry, with a resulting fall in oil revenues that translated into a notional Scottish deficit of £15bn in last month’s annual GERS (Government Expenditure & Revenue Scotland) figures.
Party leader Ruth Davidson said: “Nicola Sturgeon has shown today that she is prepared to ignore the priorities of the people of Scotland, in pursuit of her own narrow nationalist agenda”.
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Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser claimed the public do not want a second Scottish independence referendum. It is utterly unjustified and unnecessary.
