A Fresh Start with Independence

Foreword by the First Minister

Scotland is a wealthy country with enormous potential, yet too many people in Scotland today are finding it difficult to make ends meet.

That is because standards of living in the UK have barely improved in over 15 years due to decisions taken by Westminster, like the imposition of austerity and the disastrous decision to leave the European Union.

Scotland did not support austerity and it did not support Brexit.

The hard reality is that Westminster is not working for Scotland. But Scotland does well when we take our own decisions.

Since the Scottish Parliament was set up in 1999, we have achieved so much through self-government.

There has been an expansion of early learning and childcare, students don’t have to pay for their university tuition, patients receive free NHS prescriptions, and we’ve introduced minimum unit pricing of alcohol to help tackle a deep-seated Scottish problem.

Child poverty has fallen in Scotland as a result of self-government—pioneering measures like the creation of the Scottish Child Payment have enabled Scotland to take a different course to the United Kingdom.

But progress of this type is happening against a backdrop of poor UK economic performance and the UK’s long standing, deep inequalities.

Scotland needs to be able to improve the opportunities available to our people, our communities, and our businesses. Scotland needs to build a stronger, more inclusive economy that works for all. Scotland needs to be able to make the most of the immense natural resources of our country for the benefit of all our people.

Those possibilities are only available to Scotland with the fresh start of independence.

Independence—becoming a nation state—is about having confidence in each other and in Scotland’s potential to succeed.

It is about ensuring decisions about Scotland are made in Scotland, and made by the people who care most and know best: the people who live and love and work and build their lives here.

We will all have our own ideas about how to make the most of the opportunities of independence: what matters is that we all get the opportunity to decide for ourselves, and that we get the means to build a new Scotland.

I believe independence is today urgent, necessary and possible.

It is urgent because of the path the UK is on: outside the EU, with your living standards stagnating, and with little prospect of change.

It is necessary because it is only with the full range of powers of independence that the sort of transformational change that we need to see—the sort of change that makes the economy work for everyone—can be achieved.

And it is possible because of the existing strong foundations Scotland has, and the opportunities that would come to grow our economy and deliver a fairer society.

Scotland has huge economic strengths for the future, including abundant renewable energy sources, formidable tech capability, outstanding food and drink industries, beautiful natural environment and our talented, cultured and skilled people.

We can see that comparable independent European countries, with fewer of our advantages, are thriving: they are fairer, more dynamic and more prosperous than the UK.

An independent Scotland would be just as capable of matching the success and living standards of those independent nations.

We all care for this stunningly beautiful country.

With love, hope and kindness, I believe we can transform the life chances of the people who live here and those who choose to live here.

That is the promise of independence.

Rt Hon John Swinney MSP, First Minister of Scotland