Sturgeon announces new drive for independence

STIRLING (SCOTLAND): The Scottish National Party is to send out thousands of its faithful to measure the appetite for independence, leader Nicola Sturgeon announced on Friday, raising the political stakes further as Britain decides how it will leave the European Union.

The first minister of the devolved Scottish government said Britain’s June vote to leave the EU, dragging Scotland with it, had shifted the debate dramatically just two years after Scots voted by 10 percentage points to reject independence.

“Do we control our own destiny as a country or will we always be at the mercy of decisions taken elsewhere?” Sturgeon asked her Scottish National Party ( SNP) lawmakers in Stirling, the site of a historic Scots battle over the English in 1297.

The SNP, funding the entire project itself, aims to have at least two million nuanced responses from Scotland’s 5.3 million population by November 30, Scotland’s national day via a survey and doorstep interviews.

Scotland voted 62 per cent to 38 to remain in the EU in the June 23 Brexit referendum, putting it at odds with Britain as a whole which voted to leave.

The SNP says EU membership was a key factor in Scottish voters’ decision in 2014 to remain part of Britain.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson accused Sturgeon of using the EU referendum to create yet more division.