The First Minister has said independence is the “defining choice for this generation” of Scots, adding Scotland should have right to choose its future.
Speaking at a Scotland 2050 conference in Edinburgh on Tuesday, John Swinney took the opportunity to make the case for Scottish independence – something his Alba party opponents previously accused him of putting on the backburner.
Looking 25 years into the future, Swinney said: “It’s only, in my view, by taking charge of our own destiny, with our own hand on the tiller that we’re better able to ride the waves of change, that we’re better able to shape our own future.”
The First Minister hoped to see a “modern, dynamic, compassionate, enterprising and forward looking” Scottish nation state “back at the very heart of Europe” by 2050.
Swinney said Scotland is “prey to a broken system and a failing economic model” that holds Scotland back and leaves people “praying that decisions taken at Westminster are not too damaging”.
“I’ve long believed that Scotland is an afterthought to successive UK governments, Scotland is not on Westminster’s radar in the same way as, say, London or the Midlands or the south west,” Swinney said.
“From a UK perspective, that is completely understandable, but from a Scottish perspective, to accept it is total folly.”
He added: “It means as a nation that we must try to thrive on what amounts at worst to poison pills and at best to policy scraps from the UK table,” he said.
The First Minister told the conference that he believes Scotland should have the right to choose its future.
“Whether it is Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, or Nigel Farage, no Westminster politician should have the ability to deny Scotland her right to national self determination,” Swinney said.
However, Alba Party leader Kenny MacAskill criticised Swinney’s speech for missing the mark.
“What we needed and what SNP activists, members and supporters are crying out for was a clear vision and action on independence what we got from the First Minister was a ‘damp squib’,” MacAskill said afterwards.
The same Scotland 2050 conference was later addressed by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Sarwar used his speech as a pitch for his party ahead of next year’s election.
“If I’m being blunt about it, tinkering around the edges is not going to work,” he said.
Sarwar added that next year’s election being treated as an “auction” is also not going to work.
“One political party will offer you 1,000 nurses, another will offer you 1,100 nurses, or one party will offer you 1,000 nurses and another will offer you 1,000 police officers, another one will say 1,100 police officers,” he said.
“That is not going to fix the challenges facing our country right now and it’s not going to build the kind of Scotland we need for our children and our grandchildren.”
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