Citizens’ assembly speaks – and says dump Sturgeon

THE First Minister’s plan to take soundings from citizens’ assemblies across Scotland appears to have backfired, with one recommendation calling for the country to be ‘free of Nicola Sturgeon’.

The Scottish Government initiative has started touring Scotland, with participants asked to provide statements on ‘the kind of Scotland we are seeking to build’.

As well as opposition to Miss Sturgeon, people called for ministers to be ‘tougher on criminals and have no special privileges in jail’ – strikingly different from the SNP’s ‘soft-touch’ justice policy.

Despite some support for independence, a number of the 353 submissions urged the SNP to end its calls for a second independence referendum and for Scotland to remain within the UK.

Miss Sturgeon said she was inspired by an assembly in Ireland set up to discuss and seek consensus on a range of divisive issues such as abortion.