Sturgeon ‘fanning the f lames’ with reaction to defeat
NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of another ‘inflammatory and arrogant’ outburst after claiming that her Supreme Court defeat has ‘galvanised’ the campaign to break up Britain. In a St Andrew’s Day address to her party, the First Minister doubled down on her assertion that the independence campaign is now a ‘democracy movement’. She claimed support for independence is growing after five Supreme Court judges ruled unanimously the Scottish Government cannot hold an independence referendum without the consent of Westminster. But recent polling indicates only around one in three Scots support another vote next year on Scotland’s place in the UK. Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole Hamilton said: ‘This latest outburst from Nicola Sturgeon is inflammatory and arrogant. Liberal Democrats were elected to the Scottish parliament with a cast-iron mandate to oppose a second independence referendum at every stage.
‘This government needs to focus on what really matters: supporting people with the cost of living, combating the NHS crisis and putting Scottish education first.’
Miss Sturgeon was accused this week of using the ‘Trump playbook’ after claiming the campaign for independence was ‘Scotland’s democracy movement’, and that her opponents were undemocratic. Her official spokesman accused proUnion parties of a ‘denial of democracy’ for opposing a referendum.
Addressing the SNP’s annual St Andrew’s Dinner in Glasgow last night, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Wednesday’s judgment from the Supreme Court has galvanised the Yes movement right across Scotland. Thousands of people took to the streets – in freezing Scottish winter weather – to demonstrate their support for Scottish democracy.’
She added: ‘Tory, Labour, Lib Dem – they’re all joined at the hip. They now have to defend the indefensible. If they thought this outcome would be helpful to them, they have made a catastrophic miscalculation.
‘The Scottish independence movement is not going away. Indeed, it is growing. It is strengthening. And it is winning. Because it is now as much a democracy movement as an independence movement.’
She claimed the UK had changed ‘from a voluntary union to a Westminster control system’.
Donald Cameron, Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman, said: ‘People will be dismayed that Nicola Sturgeon is doubling down on the Nationalists’ obsession. The inconvenient truth for her is that the Scottish public don’t want independence.’ He said Miss Sturgeon was ‘stuck in an echo chamber’ and ‘pandering to the minority’.
‘Westminster control system’