NICOLA Sturgeon has delivered a speech citing what Scotland is capable of even before becoming an independent nation.
The First Minister stated that in areas such as income tax and public services Scotland had the chance to take a different route from the UK - hoewever she concludes that only independence would let Scotland reach its full potential.
The speech was given to the SNP National Council in Glasgow yesterday, coming with a stark warning that the Tory party now feel they can get away with treating Scotland however they want.
She said: “Eleven years in government and the SNP enjoys double-digit leads.
“In every one of those years we’ve driven Scotland forward. World-leading climate change legislation. Expanded childcare. The best performing A&Es in the UK. The attainment gap in our schools starting to close.
“We know that Scotland’s full potential will only be realised when we have the normal powers of an independent country - but not being independent yet has not stopped us doing our best to improve the lives of the people of Scotland.
“With the new powers of the Parliament, won after the independence referendum, we are renewing our mission as a party of government and a movement for change.
“The Scottish Government budget, passed last month, has reignited a debate about the kind of country we want to be.
“On one side of the argument are the Tories. They want to give tax cuts to the richest – instead of investing in the NHS.
“They are dismantling the post-war welfare state. Benefit cuts which will push hundreds of thousands of children into poverty. The rape clause, the benefit cap, the bedroom tax, and the pensions scandal which means WASPI women have been robbed of their entitlement.
“The SNP has a renewed mission in government: to use Scotland’s new powers to show we can follow a new path – better than the old Westminster way of cuts and austerity, to meet the challenges of the future.
“In our budget we announced an extra £400 million for the NHS. We reformed the tax system to make it fairer and, yes, to allow us to put more money into the NHS, while protecting other vital public services.
“The decisions we have taken will mean that for the majority of tax-payers, Scotland will be the lowest taxed part of the UK this year. And we have asked those with the most money to contribute a bit more.
“We are the first party in most of my lifetime to have the guts in government to make income tax more progressive and raise more money from it to protect what we hold dear.”
Sturgeon added: “The Tories promised Scotland would be an ‘equal partner’. They promised that power lay with the Scottish people to decide how they are governed. That there would be no going back to the old ways.
“But they have gone back to thinking they can do what they want to Scotland and get away with it.
“Well, they can’t. They are a party, after all, that hasn’t won a democratic mandate from the people of Scotland for over 60 years. A party that struggles to even get the levels of support they got under Margaret Thatcher.
“So let this message go to the Tories today. You have no mandate for your hard Brexit. No mandate for your cuts. And no mandate for your attacks on the welfare state.”
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