the SNP

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.

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

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

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.

No one cares more about Scotland’s future than the people who live here. It’s only right that you are given a choice about the kind of country Scotland is to become in the years ahead.

By taking the steps I have set out today, I am ensuring that Scotland’s future will be decided not just by me, the Scottish Government or the SNP. It will be decided by the people of Scotland.

If anyone was in any doubt about how the Tories view Scotland’s place in the UK, they need look no further than the Prime Minister’s speech to the Scottish Tory conference last week.

In 2015 we pledged that our MPs would make Scotland’s voice stronger at Westminster and to use our influence to help deliver positive change.

Working with campaigners and other parties from across the UK, that is exactly what SNP MPs have been doing. Here’s how.

Following Brexit, powers will come back from the EU to the UK. Some of these are in areas within the remit of the Scottish Parliament.

Today the Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered the 2017 UK budget. Here’s what was missing from the speech.

International Women’s Day is about helping take action to create a more inclusive, gender equal world. Here are just some of the actions the SNP is taking to be Bold for Change.

We are committed to ensuring that we build a social security system to be proud of – and the direct personal experiences of 2,000 service users will be instrumental in achieving that.

The hard fact is that Tory budget plans are bad for the economy and bad for the country.

Here’s just some of what an SNP Scottish Government has achieved for young people.

Scotland has now been ranked the best in Europe for LGBT rights for two years in a row. It is vital, however, that we maintain progress. There are still areas of the law that need to be developed in order to guarantee full equality for all members of our community.

The Brexit process has emboldened a now powerful Westminster faction, which never accepted devolution, and which now sees it as an opportunity to rein in the Scottish Parliament.

In a debate that would be about the kind of country we want to be – an issue bigger and more fundamental than EU membership, key questions will be these: should we allow Scotland’s future direction to be determined by Westminster governments we don’t vote for or should we take charge of shaping our own destiny?

That is nothing short of a democratic outrage – having our own parliament was meant to ensure such a thing could never happen again.

The Scottish Government has set out its budget plans for the year ahead. The Draft Budget includes new investment in public services, as well as new measures to support business, jobs and economic growth. Here’s why the Scottish budget means workers get the best deal anywhere in the UK.

The Scottish Government’s plans will see business rates cut, overall, by £155 million in 2017-18, with seven out of ten premises better or no worse off – and in most cases, paying nothing at all.

The Scottish Government already provides funding to make sure that no one in Scotland has to pay the Bedroom Tax – but we want to abolish it completely. It shouldn’t be on the statute book at all.