One of the key aims of this SNP conference in Aberdeen is for the party to reach out to those who are worried that voting for the party in the Holyrood elections will raise the spectre of a second referendum that many voters are wary of, given how divisive the first one was in some families and communities. To that end, Nicola Sturgeon was careful to use her speech to reassure nervous listeners that the SNP wasn’t planning another referendum any time soon:
‘To propose another referendum in the next parliament without strong evidence that a significant number of those who voted No have changed their minds would be wrong and we won’t do it.’
But she explained that she thought support for independence will continue to rise as the Tories pursue their policies and that therefore ‘if there is strong and consistent evidence that people have changed their minds and that independence has become the choice of a clear majority in this country, then we have no right to rule out a referendum and we won’t do that either’.
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