IT’S ABOUT WHY.. NOT WHEN AND HOW
First Minister says it’s time to have a national debate on independence before setting a date for another referendum
NICOLA Sturgeon wants a fresh debate on the “substance” of independence before she sets the date for a second referendum, she said yesterday.
And the First Minister claimed a new national discussion about the “whys” of independence will not “polarise” the country in the same way speculation about a second referendum would.
Sturgeon refused to be drawn on the timing of IndyRef2 as she launched the growth commission report, which she has said will “restart” the constitutional debate.
The SNP leader famously called for a repeat referendum in March last year only to see her party lose 21 MPs in the snap general election three months later.
It’s thought public anger at the prospect of a second vote so soon after the September 2014 poll helped fuel the backlash against the Nationalists.
Sturgeon has now said she will wait for more clarity on the outcome of the Brexit negotiations before making a decision on a second trip to the ballot box.
“This report doesn’t change what I have said about waiting until we have clarity around Brexit before saying anything about the timing,” she told the Record during an interview at SNP headquarters in Edinburgh yesterday.
“Actually, I think that is a strength. The questions about the when and the how of independence excite those who are already convinced of independence.
“This report is not about the when and the how, it’s about why and it’s about the benefits of independence.
“That’s how we go about winning the hearts and minds of the people who are not yet convinced. So I think this opens a period where we debate the substance of independence not the process issues around it.”
Asked if she was concerned a new debate about independence would reopen divisions from 2014, she added: “I actually think that getting on to the substance of independence allows that debate to be engaged in, without an immediate polarisation in the way that
you might have when we’re talking about an independence referendum.
“I hope people, regardless of how they voted in the last referendum or how they think they would vote now if there was another one, can engage with this on the basis the vast majority – whatever our view of independence – want the best for Scotland.
“This is a proposition about how we can build the best country that we can be and that is something I hope will engage people whether they voted Yes or No in 2014.”
Sturgeon denied suggestions the long-delayed report was being published now to smooth over cracks in the SNP and Yes movement over the timing of a second referendum.
Senior figures have urged delaying a new vote until the SNP have rebuilt their case for independence and there is more polling evidence they would win it.
But others are demanding a vote before the 2021 Holyrood election, with a grassroots march in Glasgow earlier this month seen as a bid to crank up pressure on the First Minister.
Sturgeon insisted satisfying diehard supporters was not a factor in the timing of the publication of the report by former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson.
She said: “Andrew wanted to do a good, thorough job and I think he has done that. It is comprehensive and it is thorough.
“In the period since this report was set up, I think it is fair to say there has been a turbulent political period.
“There has been a general election that wasn’t anticipated when the report was set up, so there have been events that have happened along the way that have meant that this was the right time to publish the report.”
She urged No voters from 2014 to approach the report with an open mind. Sturgeon said: “Wherever you come from in this debate, it provides the foundation for a debate that is about how we maximise our potential as a country – not a debate just about how we limit the damage of Brexit.
“And that’s a much more healthy, positive, aspirational debate and I hope it is one that is engaged in by people from across the spectrum of constitutional opinion in Scotland.”