Nicola Sturgeon has said it is “daft” of critics to say Scottish independence does not matter to her.
The First Minister has been attacked by some in her own party and the wider Yes movement for not moving fast enough on seeing Scotland out of the UK.
But she has defended her approach, claiming support must be gained around the country before Scotland can take full control.
While on Clyde 2’s leaders phone in, the First Minister was asked about a future alliance with Alex Salmond, where she reiterated her opposition to working with her predecessor.
READ MORE: SNP MSP claims border with England would 'create jobs'
“I don’t agree with the approach he’s taking to try to win independence, because I think you’ve got to build support, you’ve got to get a majority, have a process where people can vote for it,” she said.
“All this talk of trying to bulldoze our way there, almost in spite of or regardless of public opinion, I think risks putting the undecideds off as opposed to what we really need to do to win independence, which is to bring undecideds towards us.”
Ms Sturgeon has vowed to hold another independence referendum
The First Minister has repeatedly called for another referendum to be held, and even said she thinks it may have happened in the last term of parliament if not for the Covid-19 pandemic, but all such requests have been rebuffed by Downing Street, first under Theresa May as well as the current government headed by Boris Johnson.
Commenting on the criticism of her approach to independence, she said: “That’s daft.
“I’ve campaigned for independence since I was 16 years old, I’ve dedicated my adult life to the campaign and the cause of independence and for people to say it doesn’t matter to me is silly.
“Particularly for people who know how much it matters to me.
“Whatever other difficulties I have with Alex I would never suggest he hasn’t campaigned for and wanted independence.”
She added: “This is about how you best get it – you can’t force it, you can’t wave a magic wand and bring it about and we’re not going to get there with people who support independence having an argument with themselves about who supports it most.”
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