First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the “listening exercise” to the party’s parliamentarians in Stirling today [Friday 2 September], claiming that the re-election of the Tory government, Brexit, and Labour infighting has transformed the political landscape since 2014.
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As a result, she said her programme for government “makes clear that 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’s interests”.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has launched a fresh bid for a second independence referendum, saying the recent Brexit vote to leave the European Union had fundamentally changed the state of the union.
Support for European Union membership among Scots in the June “Brexit” referendum was 62%, putting Scotland at odds with much of the rest of Britain.
Ms Sturgeon said she wanted to understand in detail how people feel about Europe, Brexit and independence and that the “wealth of information and insight” gathered would inform the next stage of the SNP’s campaign.
“People don’t want to hear more tub-thumping on independence, they want to know she is focused on the day job the SNP has neglected for so long”.
In an interview with BBC Scotland’s political editor, Brian Taylor, Ms Sturgeon said leaving the single market would have “long-term, deep and damaging” effects on the economy.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, has triggered new efforts towards the Scottish independence by launching a new survey on the issue.
Signed for supporters by Ms Sturgeon, then deputy first minister, the 670-page document, under section 557, laid down the Government’s commitment on the independence referendum. “Scotland’s fiscal position is not a verdict on independence – it is an indictment of generations of Westminster government”.
She tweeted yesterday: “By allowing my own experience to be reported I hope, perhaps ironically, that I might contribute in a small way to a future climate in which these matters are respected as entirely personal – rather than pored over and speculated about as they are now”.
Earlier this week, former prime minister Gordon Brown called for the introduction of a form of federalism in the United Kingdom to dampen the prospect of Scottish independence post-Brexit.
“It is disappointing that, days before laying a legislative agenda before the most powerful Scottish Parliament ever, the SNP are determined to drag us back to the arguments of the past”.
Responding to the criticism, a spokesperson for the Sunday Times said: “We felt our piece highlighted sympathetically the treatment of women politicians and the subject of miscarriage but on reflection we could have presented the sidebar more sensitively”. “Ireland-reconsider-ties-to-Britain” class=”local_link” target=”_blank”>writing legislation for another independence vote, prior to the seismic Brexit vote. “We want to build, if we can, a consensus on the way forward”.
“And sometimes, for whatever reason, having a baby just doesn’t happen – no matter how much we might want it to”, she added.
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Scottish Labour fell to third in this year’s Holyrood, behind the Tories – and today’s poll suggests that the party’s support has yet to hit rock bottom.
