Sturgeon would choose different name for SNP

NICOLA Sturgeon said she would choose a different name for the SNP if making the decision now.

The SNP leader admitted the word “national” could be “hugely, hugely problematic” and said the connotations were at odds with her and her party’s vision for independence.

Ms Sturgeon was speaking to Turkish author Elif Shafak, at the Edinburgh Book festival. Ms Shafak said the word nationalism, has a “very negative meaning because I’ve seen how ugly it can get, how destructive it can become”.

Ms Sturgeon said the SNP vision of independence was internationalist not insular but she admitted she would have chosen a different name for the party.

She said: “The word is difficult. If I could turn the clock back, what 90 years, to the estab- lishment of my party, and choose its name all over again, I wouldn’t choose the name it has got just now, I would call it something other than the Scottish National Party.”

The First Minister said it was too complicated to change it now, adding: “Because what those of us who do support Scottish independence are all about could not be further removed from some of what you would recognise as nationalism in other parts of the world.”

Opposition politicians seized on the remarks to state the SNP was divisive . Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP, said: “Nationalism is by its very nature divisive.

“That’s why Labour rejects narrow nationalism and believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more together than we achieve alone.”