🏴 @NicolaSturgeon: "I'm asking Parliament to endorse a basic but fundamental principle - that Scotland's future should be decided, not by politicians at Westminster who haven't won a GE in Scotland since the 1950s, but instead by all of us who live here and call Scotland home."
@NicolaSturgeon NS: "It is the sovereign right of the people of Scotland to determine the form of Government best suited to our needs. That is the declaration at the heart of the Claim Of Right and it should be endorsed by this Parliament today."
@NicolaSturgeon NS: "These trade negotiations are about to led by a UK Government that is completely deaf to Scotland's interests, needs, and voice. At no point has any effort whatsoever been made to understand Scotland's different views or accommodate our interests in any way."
NS: "As recently as Monday, when the Scottish Government published practical proposals on migration, backed by businesses and civic Scotland, designed to work within the current constitutional arrangements, the response of the UK government was to dismiss them out of hand."
NS: "That's the reality Scotland faces as part of the Westminster system and it is not good enough."
NS: "Labour, perhaps, should reflect on this. If they continue to stand against the right of the Scottish people to even consider a different future, then it is that Tory vision for Scotland's future that they are giving the green light to."
NS: "A Tory vision driven, on the part of some, by jingoism and xenophobia. A Tory vision that will narrow the horizons of the next generation, make the country poorer, and hit hardest those who are already poor and vulnerable."
NS: "Brexit, and everything that will flow from it, is happening against the will of the vast majority of the Scottish people. It is an affront of democracy, and of course it represents a material change of circumstances from those we faced in the 2014 independence referendum."
NS: "Back then, the message from those on the anti-independence side could not have been clearer. The only way to protect EU membership, they said, was to reject independence."
NS: "As Ruth Davidson said, and I am quoting her directly, 'No means we stay in, we're members of the EU'.
Of course they also told us then that the Tories probably wouldn't win the next election and the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister was just a scare story."
Of course they also told us then that the Tories probably wouldn't win the next election and the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister was just a scare story."
NS: "In my view, it's beyond doubt that the only realistic way for Scotland to return to the heart of Europe and ensure we get the governments we vote for is to become an independent country."
NS: "It must be Scotland's choice to make. It must be for this parliament, not Westminster, to determine when and on what basis an independence referendum should take place.
A view, of course, backed by more than 60% of people in Scotland in a poll just at the weekend."
A view, of course, backed by more than 60% of people in Scotland in a poll just at the weekend."
NS: "My party has now won three successive elections on a manifesto commitment to offer people a choice. Not to impose a future on them, as the Tories want to do, but to give them a choice."
NS: "A choice between accepting Brexit as part of the Westminster system or choosing a different future as an independent country."
NS: "In the general election just passed, it was the Tories who explicitly recognised that the result would provide a mandate. It was on the ballot paper, they said. A vote for the SNP was a vote for a referendum and the only way to stop it was to vote Tory."
NS: "Well, people cast their verdict. In that election the Tories lost more than half of their seats and the SNP won a higher share of the vote than Boris Johnson did UK-wide."
NS: "The democratic case for allowing people in Scotland to decide whether or not to become an independent country is overwhelming."
NS: "Parties who had confidence in their case, who believed it would win the day, would have no problem whatsoever with trusting the people of Scotland to make the choice.
It is only ever parties that know their arguments are bust that resort to blocking democracy."
It is only ever parties that know their arguments are bust that resort to blocking democracy."
NS: "I can't remember the last time I heard any of these parties make a positive case for the Union. All they ever do is tell us to keep quiet and accept whatever it is the Tories want to throw at us."
NS: "Independence is the means by which we can shape our own future and build a better Scotland."
NS: "We can do more to lift people out of poverty, we can build a fairer country. With control over economic levers and as part of the world's largest trading bloc, we can build a more prosperous country."
NS: "With control over migration policy we can end the Hostile Environment and ensure we remain the welcoming, tolerant nation we must always be."
NS: "With independence we can choose to become a member of the European Union in our own right."
NS: "It is time to put Scotland's future into Scotland's hands. That's why I urge Parliament to back the motion in my name."
