the SNP

Scotland is a progressive nation, brimming with innovation and confident of its role in the world. Today, Scotland is at the forefront of tackling some of the biggest issues of the 21st century.

From new funding to support veterans to reducing energy bills, this week your SNP Scottish Government has been getting on with the job.

Scotland is determined to play our part in co-operation with others, to help to achieve peace and security.

The Conflict Resolution programme is a good demonstration of an area where we can make a distinctive and positive difference.

I’m going to talk about Scotland’s desire – not just to create a fairer and more prosperous country – but also to make a positive contribution to the world.

The Scottish Government has just published a new ten-year strategy to bring about ambitious improvements in our nation’s mental health.

As the new financial year begins this week, many new powers are coming into effect – so this feels like a timely opportunity to outline how we are putting some of these powers to very good use.

This week the SNP in government has been getting on with the job: investing in communities, protecting the most vulnerable in society, and delivering the best public services anywhere in the UK.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has today written to the Prime Minister to begin early discussions to allow a referendum on independence to take place.

Most Scots think Holyrood, not Westminster, should have the right to decide whether to hold a second independence referendum, according to a new poll.

Our local council candidates are ready to work to deliver key priorities such as expanding childcare and closing the attainment gap. Here are just five policies they will support.

There are days which are seen by history as truly defining. They shape the eras which fall on either side of them and come to be judged as the pivot points on which history then turns, for good or ill. Today, 29 March, threatens to become one of those days. I say threatens because I cannot pretend that I believe the triggering of article 50 by the Prime Minister is anything other than a sad day in the history of Britain, and the European continent as a whole.

The Prime Minister today triggered the beginning of the Article 50 process: informing the EU that the UK intends to leave in March 2019.

The people of Scotland should have the right to choose between Brexit – possibly a very hard Brexit – or becoming an independent country, able to chart our own course and create a true partnership of equals across these islands.

Last Wednesday, politics in Edinburgh and in London stopped.

The shocking events in and around the Palace of Westminster put into perspective our daily jousts and squabbles, whether at Holyrood or on the green benches of the Commons.

Today I stood with the SNP’s team of candidates for Glasgow to launch our manifesto for this great city. We have 56 candidates from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life. We all share the passion and commitment of the people who live here for making our city the best we know it can be.

I am determined to seize the opportunity the First Minister has given me, to use it to transform lives for the better and, in doing so, transform the future of our country. That is my agenda for Scottish education.

If she refuses to even discuss the process necessary to enable a referendum vote, Theresa May is effectively trying to block the people of Scotland having any say in their future until it is too late.

On Wednesday, MSPs will be asked to back a motion authorising the Scottish Government to open formal discussions with the UK government on transferring to Holyrood the power to hold an independence referendum.

People should get the choice when we know what Brexit means, but before it’s too late for Scotland to choose a different path.

Here are the SNP conference announcements you may have missed.

We must always work to build a better Scotland – for everyone who lives here.

The choice facing voters this May is between SNP-led councils investing in communities and local services, or Tories putting cuts before all else – propped up by the Labour party. We need to work tirelessly until the election to tell people why a vote for the SNP is a vote to keep Scotland moving forward.

We have high ambitions for our country, its businesses and people.

As long as the SNP is in Government our health service will stay true to the founding principles of Nye Bevan – publicly-owned, publicly-run, and free at the point of need.

Every day we go to work for Scotland. And the country I see today is simply unrecognisable from Scotland ten years ago.

Our priorities are investment in vital public services – the NHS, education, early years, police, childcare, digital, housing, infrastructure, local services.

2,500 delegates, 100 exhibitors and 250 media will gather in Aberdeen for the SNP 2017 Spring Conference this weekend.

Monday’s announcement certainly seems to have caught the Tory government flat-footed – but that just shows how badly out of touch they are with the mood in Scotland.