The prospect of a long period of Conservative rule in Westminster – the main opposition Labour Party is now embroiled in a bitter leadership battle and well behind the governing Conservatives in opinion polls – meant a new debate on Scotland’s future was needed, she said.
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The SNP wants to find out why people voted against independence in 2014 and what new offer might persuade them to back it in future.
Scotland’s first minister, who has been the subject of relentless questioning and speculation throughout her career about her childlessness, said she hoped her honesty “might challenge some of the assumptions and judgments that are still made about women – especially in politics – who don’t have children”.
“And second, important though the issue of European Union membership is, the case for independence is about more than that”.
The UK’s referendum vote to leave the European Union was won 52 per cent to 48 per cent – but Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in Europe. “We want to build, if we can, a consensus on the way forward”. “Scotland’s fiscal position is not a verdict on independence – it is an indictment of generations of Westminster government”.
This would include a new website to gauge public opinion, a series of town hall meetings, and a “growth commission” to figure out how Scotland can remain financially viable as an independent country.
SNP lawmaker Richard Lochhead says the party had to measure the lie of the land after the “gamechanger” of the “Brexit” referendum to understand “what all that means for how we present the independence case and how people view it”.
“Any change in policy on currency would be required to go through the normal party processes – but we agree with Professor Stiglitz that we should not join the euro”, an SNP spokesman said.
“If she was really listening, she would know that rehashing the referendum debate will only add a further cloud of uncertainty over Scotland’s future at the time when we need a government dedicated to security and stability”.
THE Scottish Government has this weekend officially launched another bid for independence, declaring the United Kingdom post-Brexit had fundamentally changed the debate of Scotland’s place in the world.
Yet Sturgeon has balked at calling for a second Scottish independence referendum outright. “She and the SNP want a referendum as soon as possible – that is as soon as it is possible to win”.
“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.
He continued: ” I am someone who is fundamentally, deeply a unionist because I believe in socialism for everybody across Britain and I want every family, no matter where they are in Britain, to have maximum chance to achieve their potential.
“More than that, my party will demand that this increasingly arrogant nationalist government gets back to the day job it was elected to do – to improve our schools, our hospitals and to create jobs”.
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The Scottish Conservative leader said thousands of people are angry at Nicola Sturgeon’s administration for putting “its own narrow political interests before those of the wider country”.
