Scotland: Sturgeon (First Minister), “by 2023, independence referendum from London. Brexit has made us poorer”

Although in her closing speech at the Scottish National Party Conference the leader of the Scottish National Party, Nicola Sturgeon, spoke of “co-operation” and not “confrontation” with the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, her words were a scathing attack on the Tories. “With their Brexit obsession, they are making us poorer and more isolated. They want to destroy our economy”, said the Scottish First Minister. “Our wealthy country is experiencing, for the first time, a lack of food and indispensable manpower”. “The Tories are trying make us poorer, to make us even more dependent on Westminster, but we will not allow it, and we will show that independence works and makes countries richer, as is already the case today for countries like Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Finland and Norway”, Sturgeon went on to say. “We want to become an independent European country in a European market that is seven times the size of the UK market”, she said, calling for an independence referendum by 2023. “I hope the Scottish and UK governments can reach agreement - as we did in 2014 - to allow the democratic wishes of the people of Scotland to be heard and respected”, since “the United Kingdom is a voluntary union of nations”. Nicola Sturgeon also announced that her government will fund the “COP26 Youth Conference”, which the UK government failed to fund.
Valentina Bombelli