Nicola Sturgeon blames “aggressive unionism” for undermining devolution and says independence for Scotland is the only way to secure a partnership of equals between the nations that make up the UK.
Scotland’s first minister, whose government has asked the UK Supreme Court to rule on whether the parliament in Edinburgh has a legal right to hold a “consultative” referendum on breaking away from the UK, will tell supporters of her Scottish National party on Monday that separation would reset the country’s relationship with the rest of the UK.
But excerpts of her speech, released ahead of her closing address to the SNP’s first in-person national conference since the Covid-19 outbreak, did not directly deal with the economic questions that have dominated the independence debate, such as which currency an independent Scotland would use or the creation of a trade border with England in the event of an independent Scotland joining the EU.