Nicola Sturgeon has said she believes there is a growing sense of urgency for Scotland to become independent in order to avoid being dragged down a political path it does not want to go down.
The First Minister, speaking at an Edinburgh Fringe Festival event on Monday with Iain Dale, said that a Lord Ashcroft poll suggesting that a majority of Scots favour independence highlights a shift in views on the issue since the independence referendum in 2014.
And Ms Sturgeon also said that the case for Scotland to become independent is an "entirely optimistic" one.
READ MORE: Majority now want Scottish independence, says 'phenomenal' new poll
The First Minister said: "I think there is growing support for independence in Scotland and I think there is, accompanying that, a growing sense of urgency that if we don't want to get dragged down a path, and I'm not just talking about Brexit here although largely that's what I mean, but dragged down a sort of political path that we don't want to go down, then we need to consider becoming independent sooner rather than later.
"Anecdotally, I have been detecting that shift that's shown up in the Ashcroft poll for quite some time now and I think we are now starting to see that manifest itself in the opinion polls.
Ms Sturgeon added: "I think the case for independence is an entirely optimistic one, it's about being in charge of our future, it's about making our own luck, owning our own mistakes and learning from them."
READ MORE: Sturgeon reveals 'pain and anguish' of Salmond split
The First Minister also said that independence supporters would not necessarily have to also support the SNP, stating that voters would be free to choose whichever government they want to have in an independent Scotland.
"You don't have to support the SNP to support independence," said the First Minister.
"People in an independent Scotland will be able to vote for whichever government they want and if that is a right-of-centre government, then that's what they'll elect.
"As it happens, I don't think it is likely that Scotland would vote for a right-of-centre government, but who knows what will happen in the future.
"If you don't support the SNP, you don't have to vote SNP in an independent Scotland, you can vote Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, whoever."
When asked what electoral system would be used in an independent Scotland, Ms Sturgeon added: "I've always been a proponent of Single Transferable Vote (STV), which we use for local government elections here.
"We have a different proportional system in the Scottish Parliament. I suspect, although this would be for discussion, we'd probably use the Scottish Parliament system for the first period and over time, if there was a majority to do that, to move to STV."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel