STURGEON ‘IS SO OUT OF TOUCH’
Backlash after she insists bid to break up UK should still be top priority
NICOLA Sturgeon has been branded ‘completely out of touch’ after she vowed to step up her independence crusade while Scotland is still in the grip of the coronavirus crisis.
The SNP leader claimed her push to tear Scotland out of the UK is ‘essential’ to the recovery from the pandemic.
But critics condemned her for prioritising separation over people’s real priorities.
In her keynote speech to the SNP’s annual conference, Miss Sturgeon said people who call it a distraction ‘could not be more wrong’.
Setting up next year’s election campaign to be dominated by the push for another vote on Scotland’s place in the UK, she said she will seek voters’ authority for ‘a legal independence referendum to be held in the early part of the new parliament’.
In her speech, delivered from her home due to the coronavirus restrictions, Miss Sturgeon acknowledged opponents will say that pushing for independence is a ‘distraction’ from attempts to rebuild from Covid.
But she said: ‘They could not be more wrong. If we want to make sure the country we rebuild is the one we want it to be, with kindness, compassion, fairness, equality and enterprise at its
‘Accountable, outwardlooking, internationalist’
heart, and not one built in the image of Boris Johnson and his band of Brexiteers, we must work to the right plan, with all the tools we need to do the job.
‘Independence is not a distraction from the task of post-Covid reconstruction. It is essential to getting that right.’
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: ‘ All weekend she has been talking up another divisive referendum next year while we’re in the middle of a pandemic. It’s completely out of touch with people across Scotland.’
Miss Sturgeon suggested that separating Scotland from the UK has the ‘power to unite’ people.
Looking ahead to the Holyrood elections, she said: ‘Next May we will ask you, the people of Scotland, to put your trust in us to continue that task of building a better country. I will ask you to judge us on our record and endorse our plans for the future.
‘And in that election, I will seek your authority – no one else’s – for a legal independence referendum to be held in the early part of the new parliament.’
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: ‘ People who need urgent NHS care, whose future depends on our education system getting back to being the best in the world or who are counting down the days for mental health support on long wait lists can’t afford to wait years or endure more division.
‘What the people of Scotland need in this period of intense uncertainty is a focus on recovery, not referendums.’
Miss Sturgeon repeatedly tried to personalise the battle for independence as being between her government and Boris Johnson’s. She said: ‘Who do we trust to rebuild our economy for the future? A Scottish Government elected by us, accountable, outward-looking, internationalist, and with Scotland’s interests at heart? Or Boris Johnson’s band of Brexiteers?’
She also said people were wrong to suggest that in tough times Scotland benefits from the ‘broad shoulders’ of the UK. She said: ‘The Scottish Government hasn’t got everything right – far from it.
But I doubt there are many people i n Scotland who would have wanted Westminster to be more in charge of our pandemic response.’
Earlier, Miss Sturgeon had told BBC Radio Scotland she will not rule out a courtroom battle with the UK Government if it does not approve an independence referendum. She said: ‘I hope it never has to be tested in court but I don’t rule anything like that out.’
Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour’s constitution spokesman, said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon’s only priority is to further divide our nation at a time when we should be healing.
‘Her obsession with independence – mentioning it over 20 times in her speech – is shameful when
people are losing their lives and livelihoods.’
Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Kate Forbes faced ridicule after claiming next year’s election is a ‘once in a generation’ chance to force a referendum.
Miss Sturgeon has repeatedly been criticised for failing to stick by her previous claim that the 2014 referendum was a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity.
Miss Forbes told the SNP conference her budget is under threat from the ‘disinterested whims of a distant Tory Government’. She said: ‘But that risk will always be there until independence. That is why the election in a matter of months is so critical. A once in a generation vote, you might say.’ At a fringe event, polling expert Sir John Curtice warned delegates that the rise in support for independence is ‘relatively recent’ and is ‘not based on long-term emotional commitment that the 45 (per cent who supported independence in 2014) would have’.
AT the centre of Nicola Sturgeon’s pitch to the SNP conference faithful – yet again – was the notion that independence provides an escape route from the clutches of the UK Government.
The First Minister claimed the Union prevents her undertaking radical reform.
Yet public services f rom health to education have been run by the Scottish Government for more than 20 years.
And they have been in steep decline since the SNP took office in 2007.
Miss Sturgeon also called for greater power over social security, but her government is in charge of some devolved benefits already – and has even had to hand back responsibility for one of them to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Of course the bonus she outlined for the NHS is a welcome thank-you for hardworking staff who have been on the front lines throughout a horrific year.
In reality, it’s a pledge that can only be made thanks to our membership of the Union – which means nearly £10billion has gone into the Scottish Government’s coffers to support the fight against Covid.
And yet about £1billion of it has lain untouched until now, rather than being used to protect jobs and businesses.
The only other proposal of substance to be discussed at the conference was a move towards a four-day week.
It would be stratospherically expensive, but i t also reflects the Nationalists’ inability, or unwillingness, to accept the basic facts of our economic position.
Covid has plunged the UK deep into the red, and yet the SNP wants to embark on a course of action towards further calamity.
And it’s a slap in the face for owners of businesses which face extinction or have collapsed during months of lockdown.
A four-day week may be possible in the public sector – but in the real world it’s a dangerous fantasy.