Sturgeon says Covid-19 may have helped promote independence
CORONAVIRUS MAY have had an impact on support for Scottish independence, Nicola Sturgeon said, with the pandemic having “perhaps” made people think “about the benefit of self government”.
The SNP leader insisted that if she could “change things” so that the virus had never happened, and that support for independence was lower, she would “trade any day”.
Ms Sturgeon was clear: “There is no upside to Covid, and I don’t ever want to sound as if I am suggesting as if there is.”
She pledged that if re-elected to power in May’s Scottish Parliament elections “the first act of a re-elected SNP government, if there is a re-elected SNP government, will be to continue to take the country as safely as we can through Covid”.
But with support for independence “higher than it has been at
any time ever”, Ms Sturgeon said coronavirus may have seen people reflect on the political situation.
The First Minister flatly rejected the arguments made by some of her opponents that the success of Scotland’s vaccination programme was down to being part of the UK. “I find that a facile and actually kind of insulting argument,” she told the PA news agency. “The vaccination rollout is a tribute to the brilliance of our scientists and the utter magnificence of the NHS operation to get it into people’s arms.
“Yes we procure on a UK basis, and the UK has successfully procured, but the idea that that would have been different if either the UK had still be in the EU or Scotland had been independent, just doesn’t really bear any scrutiny.”
Asked if the pandemic may have affected support for independence, Ms Sturgeon said: “I don’t know the answer to that question, what I know is support for independence has grown over the past year, and is at a higher level now, and a higher, apparently sustainable level, than it’s been ever before.”
She continued: “If I could change things so we never had had Covid and that meant support for independence wasn’t quite as high as it was, I would trade any day.”