Despite Labour’s jeers at her apparent U-turn in Holyrood on Tuesday, Sturgeon has been slowly and carefully lowering the temperature on a second referendum, gradually stressing the case for increasing Scotland’s influence over the final Brexit deal.
Advertisement
“The First Minister and the SNP have had almost a decade”.
Sturgeon also outlined 14 Bills which her SNP administration at Holyrood will introduce – including four pieces of legislation making use of new powers that have just been devolved to Edinburgh.
Davidson said: “This is a chance for Nicola Sturgeon to show the country she is serious about being a First Minister for all”.
“We will consult on a draft referendum Bill so that it is ready for immediate introduction if we conclude that independence is the best or only way to protect Scotland”, she told parliament.
Her apparent suggestion that independence might not, in fact, prove to be the best way to protect Scotland’s interests drew laughter from the opposition benches.
Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said the prospect of another independence referendum was a “direct threat to our nation’s economic growth” despite the First Minister dealing with it in a “throwaway line”.
WWF Scotland director Lang Banks said: “It’s expected that this Programme for Government will focus on the economy, and as the First Minister herself has said action on climate change is a massive economic opportunity for Scotland”.
Investment guarantees and some loans, of up to £5 million, will be available to small and medium-sized firms who would not otherwise be able to expand because of restricted access to finance.
Sturgeon said: “This is a new parliament, with new powers, operating in a new political, economic and constitutional context”. She said Holyrood had to have legislation ready to put before Scottish voters as soon as the United Kingdom government triggered the Article 50 process to leave the EU.
“This is a half-billion pound vote of confidence in Scottish business, Scottish workers and the Scottish economy”. While the 2014 poll ended tight in favor of remaining part of the UK, Ms Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party is in favor of seceding.
The Scottish First Minister has now spoken publicly about her agony after she lost the baby in the early stages of her pregnancy in 2011.
Now, just two years later, despite putting her signature on the agreement, as well as losing her majority in the Scottish parliament and even her own mother resigning from her SNP mayor’s role, Ms Sturgeon is going back on her word.
In addition, a governance review to be published by Deputy First Minister and Education Secretary John Swinney next week will look at how to “empower schools and decentralise management”.
Last year, Sturgeon described as crass the cover of the New Statesman magazine that portrayed her and other female politicians who do not have children, including Theresa May and Angela Merkel, standing around a cot with a ballot box inside.
Advertisement
Among the commitments made were the launching of a child poverty bill which will make Scotland the only place where childhood deprivation is measured in relation to household income.
