Nicola Sturgeon

Scottish independence: No country has been better prepared for independence than Scotland, says Nicola Sturgeon

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Nicola Sturgeon has said no country in history has been “better prepared to become independent” than Scotland will be.

The First Minister’s comments came as the Scottish Government is due to publish a paper on its plans for the economy and currency of an independent Scotland tomorrow.

The paper will be the third release in the Building a New Scotland series, which aims to set out a refreshed prospectus for Scottish independence.

It is expected to provide detail on moving toward a “fairer, greener independent economy to help people live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives”.

To do so, the paper will set out proposals including rejoining the European Union for access to the Single Market, a redesigned energy market that will provide “secure and reliable” low-cost energy, and greater workplace security with an end to “age discrimination in minimum wage setting”.

It will also outline a migration policy which is designed to boost the country’s working population.

Topics such as currency and fiscal policy, border arrangements and the proposed Building a New Scotland Fund – which aims to deliver investment of £20 billion in the first decade of independence – will also feature in the document.

The First Minister said the debate on independence is not about “change versus status quo”, adding: “There is no status quo, and Scotland cannot afford to live under Westminster control any longer.”

She said: “In 2014 we were promised stability if we voted no to independence. Instead, we got austerity and Brexit, and are now being taken on a libertarian joy-ride.

“These are not abstract issues – they are doing real damage to our economy, public services, mortgage costs and pensions.”

Ms Sturgeon continued: “(Monday’s) economic prospectus will outline how resource-rich Scotland can match that success with the powers of independence – moving from a stagnating, high-inequality, Brexit-based Westminster economic model and build a modern, dynamic and sustainable economy to help people live happy, healthy, fulfilling lives.

“We can use powers over electricity market design to ensure security of supply and help tackle the climate emergency.

“We can build a European-style labour market policy which values and invests in workers.

“And by rejoining the EU, we will not only be able to travel freely across both the UK and the 27 member states, but it will be easier to attract EU workers to support sectors so badly damaged by Brexit.”

The people of Scotland “deserve a grown-up, honest discussion about their future”, the First Minister said.

“I will never pretend that everything about independence is easy, but the potential prize open to us means it is more than worth it – for us and for future generations.

“We must never forget that we already have many of the key institutions that an independent country needs, and coupled with our strong economic foundations and immense potential, probably no country in history has been better-prepared to become independent than Scotland will be.”

Source: Scottish independence: No country has been better prepared for independence than Scotland, says Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon responds to JK Rowling’s ‘destroyer of women’s rights’ T-shirt

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Picture: Lisa Ferguson/JK Rowling Twitter

Nicola Sturgeon has insisted people should “try to treat each other with respect” after JK Rowling wore a T-shirt calling the First Minister a “destroyer of women’s rights”.

By Alistair Grant

The author tweeted a picture of herself wearing the garment on Thursday as she gave her backing to a protest outside the Scottish Parliament over controversial gender recognition legislation.

The T-shirt read: “Nicola Sturgeon: Destroyer of women’s rights.”

Ms Rowling tweeted: “I stand in solidarity with @ForWomenScot and all women protesting and speaking outside the Scottish Parliament. #NoToSelfID.”

It came as a majority of MSPs on Holyrood’s equalities, human rights and civil justice committee recommended the general principles of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill should be approved.

The legislation aims to make it easier for transgender people to be legally recognised as their preferred gender.Supporters say the move will streamline a process many find distressing, but critics have raised concerns self-identification will undermine women’s sex-based rights, such as access to women-only spaces.

Asked about Ms Rowling’s tweet, Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “People are entitled to express their views, and their entitled to express their views in whatever way they think is fit.

“I’ve always thought, on this issue, where people have very strong views, we should all try to treat each other with respect, and that’s what I will continue to do.”

Ms Sturgeon said the current gender recognition process is “degrading and traumatic”.

She said: “This Bill is about reforming an existing process that is degrading and traumatic for trans people, seeking to make it less traumatic for those who want to legally change their gender.

“It doesn’t give any additional rights to trans people, nor does it take any rights away from women.”

She added: “It’s men who attack women and we need to focus on that, not on further stigmatising and discriminating against a tiny group in our society who are already one of the most stigmatised.”

The First Minister said she is a “passionate, lifelong feminist”.

She said: “Any man who seeks to abuse the law on gender recognition for nefarious purposes would be committing a criminal offence under the proposed Bill that’s before the Scottish Parliament.

“It’s right to make a degrading and traumatic process simpler for trans people, and to make sure their are protections for anybody who would seek to exploit that legislation.”

Source: Nicola Sturgeon responds to JK Rowling’s ‘destroyer of women’s rights’ T-shirt

Scottish PM Nicola Sturgeon announces £500 one-off ‘thank you’ payment for NHS and care staff

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Sturgeon demands Scottish independence referendum powers after SNP landslide 

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First minister tells Boris Johnson she has renewed mandate after winning 47 of Scotland’s 59 seats

Nicola Sturgeon has challenged Boris Johnson to give Scotland the powers to hold a second independence referendum after the Scottish National party won a landslide in the general election.

The first minister said she had won “a renewed, refreshed and strengthened mandate” to call for a fresh independence vote after winning 47 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats, 11 more than in 2017.

n the most dramatic result, the SNP unseated Jo Swinson, the Liberal Democrat leader, in East Dunbartonshire by 149 votes, leaving the party leaderless.

Sturgeon said on Friday the Conservatives had focused their campaign in Scotland on opposing a second referendum but had been roundly defeated, hit by a series of losses at the hands of the SNP in seats including Stirling, Angus and Gordon.

“I don’t pretend that every single person who voted SNP yesterday will necessarily support independence, but there has been a strong endorsement in this election of Scotland having a choice over our future; of not having to put up with a Conservative government we didn’t vote for and not having to accept life as a nation outside the EU,” she said.

SNP strategists said the significance of its victory, which has echoes of its remarkable landslide in 2015 when it won 56 seats, was given greater weight by the contrast with the election result in England where the Tories won a significant overall majority.

By comparison, the Tories in Scotland had a very difficult election, holding only six of the 13 seats they won in 2017. Labour was humiliated, losing six of the seven seats they held to the SNP, belying the party’s confident claims in the final week of the campaign it would hold those seats and win several more.

The only surviving Labour MP in Scotland was again Ian Murray, who held Edinburgh South with a significant 11,095 majority. Murray, an arch-critic of Jeremy Corbyn’s, was Labour’s only Scottish MP after the SNP landslide in 2015.[ . . . ]

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