NO TIME FOR INDY TALK
First Minister says effective handling of Covid-19 crisis has been important leadership lesson for indy campaign
NICOLA Sturgeon has sent a “show not tell” message to SNP activists, amid growing signs of impatience in the indy movement.
The SNP leader said her complete focus was on tackling Covid-19 and pointed out that the recent rise in support for independence, while she put aside constitutional campaigning, “maybe has a lesson in it for my own party”.
Asked by the BBC’s Andrew Marr if she was hitting the pause button on constitutional arguments, Sturgeon said: “At a time when I and the SNP have not been talking about independence all the time, but getting on with the job of autonomous decisionmaking and trying to get the right decisions to get the country through a crisis, support for independence appears to
BY TORCUIL CRICHTON have increased, so maybe there is a bit of a lesson in there about show not tell.”
She added: “I want to see Scotland become an independent country, and none of that has changed. But I think that people across Scotland right now would expect me to have my entire focus on leading the country through the biggest crisis that any of us have ever experienced, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.
“If in the process of doing that people can see the benefits of autonomous decisionmaking then perhaps there’s a lesson there.”
A recent Panelbase poll put support for independence at 54 per cent when the “don’t knows” were excluded.
Sturgeon’s comments came against the backdrop of splits in the nationalist movement over the handling of the Alex Salmond court case.
It is expected that a new independence party backing immediate calls for separation will be launched soon.
A poll last week suggested more than a quarter of Scots would vote for a new pro-indy party led by Salmond.
The Alliance For Independence is said to have ex-SNP MSP Dave Thompson among its members. He said the party will not challenge the SNP in constituency seats and only contest list seats in an effort to boost the number of pro-indyref MSPs.
He added: “We haven’t made any formal approaches to anyone like Alex (Salmond). After we launch, anyone is welcome to join.”