Nicola Sturgeon Quotes

Many hard working people in low paid jobs get housing benefit.

I won’t say I’ve never felt in Alex Salmond’s shadow, but latterly, when Alex was leader, I didn’t. It’s more about my awareness of the fact I became First Minister during a parliamentary term. That means you’re First Minister, but you haven’t been elected in your own right as First Minister.

For me, personally, it has been humbling since I became First Minister to speak to women and girls and have them tell me how much it means to them to have a woman in the top job in politics in Scotland.

Our opposition to Trident is very clear, very firm, very long-standing, very principled, and we would seek to build an alliance to prevent the renewal of Trident.

Because of lower life expectancy in Scotland – something that we are working hard to improve – the average woman will get £11,000 less in pension payments than counterparts in the rest of the U.K., even though she will pay exactly the same in contributions.

I don’t cook very often. Actually, I’d go further: I can’t cook.

Glasgow is a great city.

Voting Labour in the past hasn’t protected Scotland against Tory governments.

As a veteran of many campaigns, I know how important it is not let up in the last few days.

An independent Scotland could afford pensions full stop – after all, it is our taxes and national insurance contributions that fund them now.

I consider myself a selfie specialist.

Scotland almost invented the modern world. I mean, all of these televisions, telephones, penicillin, we all – all of these things were invented in Scotland.

An independent Scotland – like all countries – will face challenges, and we will have our ups and downs. But the decisions about how we use our wealth will be ours.

The importance of education is ingrained in Scottish history.

It still annoys me when I read really derogatory things about how a woman looks because you would usually not read these things about a man, and that still has the potential to put women off public life.

People don’t want to go back to the days, pre-referendum, when the Westminster establishment sidelined and ignored Scotland. They want Scotland’s voice to be heard.

The Scottish Government will continue to do all it can to get people into work.

We’ve chosen to stay part of the Westminster system, but we don’t want to be a forgotten, sidelined part of it.

As First Minister, I will always act in the best interests of the country. As party leader, I will always act in the best interests of the party, and if that sometimes means taking difficult, unpalatable decisions, I will never shy away from that.

I’m a politician, and as you know, politicians are rarely very funny.

American companies based in Scotland employ large numbers of people – in fact, we are the best performing part of the U.K., outside London and the southeast of England when it comes to attracting foreign direct investment.

Vote SNP for a party that always stands up for Scotland, that is stronger for Scotland, and a government that will keep the country moving in the right direction.

Twitter’s probably my bad habit.

I desperately want Scotland to be an independent country. I cannot, though, sit here and tell you definitively that it will happen, and that it will happen on this timescale, because I have to respect the opinion of the people of Scotland.

The decision on whether there is another referendum is down to the Scottish people.

I came into politics because of my opposition to what a Tory Government was doing to the community I grew up in.

Of course, aid is only one small part of international development. Some of the greatest benefits to the world’s poorest can be achieved through policy changes by developed countries.

There’s nothing in my background that would have said I was destined to be a senior politician.

The debate around the ageing population should, in my view, focus much more on how we grow the active, working population.

I worry about the direction of the U.K. and U.K. politics and governance in the event of a Brexit.

If there is a ‘Leave’ vote in England and across the U.K. as a whole, then we see the reins of power being seized by politicians who are on the right of the Conservative party.

One of the attributes Glasgow is best known for all over the world is the friendliness of her people.

Too often in the past, Scotland has been sidelined and ignored in the Westminster corridors of power, but that doesn’t have to be the case anymore.

Clearly, any issues about breaching of expenses rules should be properly investigated.

I’m manifestly not the same as Alex Salmond. I’m a different gender, for example… I’m being flippant, but maybe this is a partly gender-driven difference: I’m very keen that we find a way of reaching out across party divides to find things we agree on, as well as the things we disagree on.

If you have a Tory government at Westminster that takes us out of Europe against our will, there may be people in Scotland who think, ‘You know what, we might be better off independent.’

This government and the party that I lead will continue to argue an alternative to the Tory-Labour austerity.

Personally, I can think of no greater privilege than to lead the party I joined when I was just 16.

I believe we should support people to live, and I am therefore in favour of good quality palliative care.

Our MPs will take decisions on how they’re voting on a day-to-day basis. But I’m the leader of the party, and in terms of our overall strategy and how we vote on key issues, then ultimately, those decisions will be mine.

I wish we lived in a world where how you looked or what you wore wasn’t an issue for men or women, and it’s by and large not an issue for men, so I wish it wasn’t an issue for women, but it is.

For parents – women in particular – good quality, affordable childcare is vital.

The U.K.’s debt belongs legally to Westminster, so Scotland, by definition, can’t default on it.

My message is a simple one – the E.U. is not perfect, but Scotland’s interests are best served by being a member.

I stand here today as the first woman first minister of our country. Every day I hold this office, I will work to ensure that every woman, every wee girl across this country, gets a chance to do what I’ve done and follow their dream.

The fact that healthier lifestyles and advances in medicine mean that we are living longer is actually something to be celebrated.

I’ve not had a deliberate image makeover.

Tax credits are designed to help people who work hard but who, through no fault of their own, don’t earn enough to keep their families out of poverty.

For the Scottish government, the practice of having meetings in different parts of the country is well established, but for the U.K. government, it is a much rarer event.

I’ve never had a voice coach, but I am about to name drop horrendously here: I did once get some advice on how to project my voice from Sean Connery, which was lovely. It’s all about where you breathe. That’s my claim to fame.

I don’t feel we need to be independent for me to feel confident in my Scottish identity. I think Scotland is pretty comfortable in its identity. We won’t need independence to preserve it… if we don’t become independent, it won’t disappear; it isn’t under existential threat.

I think Scotland will become an independent country. I’ve always believed that. It means that if I’m right on that, there has to be another referendum at some stage. But the timing and circumstances of that will require careful judgment.

A good education is the most important gift we can give our young people.

Poverty is on the increase – due to welfare cuts – and demand for food banks has rocketed.

I think the Tories are doing – and are intent on doing – damage to things I hold dear.

I feel comfortable in a position of leadership, but that’s not to say I feel complacent about it. I take it incredibly seriously.

The total impact of the Tory/Liberal tax, welfare and public spending changes has hit the poorest 10% in society disproportionately hard – and women have been affected even more badly than men.

I think the fact that people are even talking about the prospect of the Tories coming second is less about anything the Tories have done and more about the failures of Labour to set out, in any kind of coherent sense, what it’s for anymore.

Scotland is not a region of the U.K.; Scotland is a nation, and if we cannot protect our interests within a U.K. that is going to be changing fundamentally, then that right of Scotland to consider the options of independence has to be there.

True gender equality in Scotland – and elsewhere – is still some way off.

Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, it is possible for other parties to change the direction of a government without bringing a government down.

Most politicians come into politics because they want to make a difference; we just have different ideas how to do it.

If there are healthy – and growing – numbers of people working and paying taxes, we are better able to pay the costs of people living longer.

Sometimes things happen in life, sometimes they don’t. Don’t get me wrong: I have no regrets – if I could turn the clock back 10 or 20 years, I wouldn’t want to fundamentally change the path my life has taken.

I feel sorry for generations of Labour voters and supporters who must look and wonder what on earth has gone wrong and what Labour is for.

I do not want to see, for any reason, the Tories resurgent in any way.

I know you’ve got to earn people’s trust, and you’ve got to earn it day after day after day.

I love talking to the public, I love hearing what people have got to say.

As a young woman in politics, with few women around, you start to subconsciously behave like men in politics. That comes across as quite hard, tough and humorless, but you’re trying to be taken seriously.

I do struggle to identify an occasion when I was held back because I’m a woman… You don’t think about it at the time, but looking back at it, of course.

Tory governments are bad for Scotland.

I’ve not hidden and I’ll never hide the fact that I want Scotland to be an independent country. But as long as we’re part of the Westminster system, it’s really important to people in Scotland that we get good decisions coming out of Westminster. So we’ve got a vested interest in being a constructive participant.

Scottish politics, U.K. politics, is not really like American politics in this respect. Not everybody is absolutely obsessed with image. I’m not saying the United States is obsessed with image.

The assumption that people sometimes make is that I have made a cold, calculated decision to put my career ahead of having family, and that’s not true.

I’m the leader of the SNP. I think you would expect me to say I would vote SNP in whatever constituency I lived in.

Maybe its time for politicians to fight back a little bit in terms of this notion that politicians are all in it for themselves, we’re all the same, we’re not driven by sincere motives. Because the fact of the matter is the vast majority are.

I think you should always aim for more.

I am quite driven. I know what I think, and I know what I want to achieve, but I also hope that people who are asked to describe me would describe me as pretty down-to-earth, loyal, friendly. The more experience I have got in politics, I think the more I have allowed me to shine through.

I want there to be another independence referendum at some stage. I want Scotland to be independent, but I wouldn’t choose to have it happen because England votes to come out of the E.U.

It would be a very serious mistake for the U.K. to vote to leave the European Union, and I think it would be democratically indefensible for Scotland, if we had voted to stay in, to face the prospect of being taken out.

The truth of the matter is that countries the world over have deficits. Let us remember this about Scotland’s deficit: it was not created in an independent Scotland; it was created on Westminster’s watch.

My pledge to you is that the SNP will put women and gender equality right at the heart of the Westminster agenda.

To every woman out there who thinks that they might like to get involved in politics or stand for parliament, I say go for it. If I can do it, so can you.

A minority government can’t govern without support from other parties.

I am quite a shy person. You say that to people, and they say, ‘You do interviews, speeches. How can you be shy?’ But, fundamentally, I am.

Ed Balls has made it crystal clear that, left to its own devices, a Labour government would simply carry on with the same budget policies as the Tories.

Labour’s support in Scotland depends on their ability to be electable. If they are divided and unelectable, what’s the point?

If something can be proven to work, we should try it… Making sure that our young folk get the best education is the only thing that matters to me, and if something can be shown to work in doing that or if something’s worth trying to do that, then I’ll certainly be in the market for it.

There is nothing in your background that inherently holds you back or means you can’t achieve what others can achieve. You are the master of your own fate, and if you work hard, you can do what you want.

We already know that social security is more affordable in Scotland than it is in the rest of the U.K. – spending on social protection takes up a smaller share of our economic output and our tax revenues than is the case in the U.K. as a whole.

It is one of the little known facts about modern Scottish politics that it is not quite as cut-throat as people think it is.

Polls can change; people’s opinions can change. Voting intentions can change, and I think it would be a silly leader, a silly political party, that would assume that we have it sewn up.

If your pal or neighbour is in the SNP, you’re more likely to listen to them than if you just turn on the telly and see me or Alex. The growth of membership is building a politically engaged community base that hasn’t been there in my lifetime.

I and Alex Salmond are not in competition – we are on the same side; we are on the same team, working together.

Would I love to think that one day I would be First Minister of an independent Scotland? Of course.

Governments in countries across the world have a duty to do everything possible to keep the public safe from terrorist attacks.

It’s very much the currency of discourse on social media where political disagreements very quickly become very personalised.

My political awakening, if I can be as grand as to call it that, was all about what was happening around me. It wasn’t some romantic, patriotic vision of Scotland going back to what it had been 300 years previously.

I admire Obama.

Let us put the normal divisions of politics aside. Let us come together as one country; let us seize this historic moment to shift the balance of power from the corridors of Westminster to the streets and communities of Scotland.

In particular, I want to set a challenge to public bodies and private companies to improve gender balance on their own boards.

Instead of an end to austerity, Labour has made clear that it wants to impose more austerity cuts.

It’s not opinion polls that determine the outcome of elections, it’s votes in ballot boxes.

Not once in my life has the Tory Party come anywhere close to winning an election in Scotland, and yet, for more than half my life, we have had a Tory government. That is wrong and undemocratic.

I hope nobody in England is afraid of the SNP – there is absolutely no need to be.

Labour long ago realised it could no longer automatically assume that it would win elections in Glasgow and other places where it has taken people’s votes for granted for decades – as we have seen across Scotland at local council and Holyrood elections.

I am quite hot-headed; I am quite impulsive. Fortunately, it doesn’t last very long.

I have said repeatedly I do want to take longer to eliminate the deficit than the other parties. Because I want to see us have the ability to invest more in our economy, in our public services, and in lifting people out of poverty.

The Scottish Government’s international development work began in 2005 with a £3 million budget focused solely on Malawi, reflecting the historic links between our two countries.

We will never vote for the renewal of Trident; that’s a decision which will fall to be made in the next Westminster parliament. We will never vote for that.

I don’t know Ed Miliband as a person particularly well.

Parties that win elections should form the government, not parties that lose elections.

It is hard to overstate the economic importance of the U.S.A. to Scotland, and that makes it essential that we engage with companies and potential investors and get the message across that we are open for business.

The fact is Scottish Labour has lost its way.

I am privileged to count many Muslims among my friends – some are amongst my closest friends.

A whole range of things are done to ensure services remain safe and sustainable because that is the absolute paramount duty of the health board.

Scotland has been re-energized, and people all over the country have become involved in – and informed about – politics and government in a way that I have never known before. In short, we have put ourselves firmly in control of our country.

I’m quite hypercritical of myself. It’s a very Scottish thing, always thinking that you’ve got to be that bit better than everyone else to be good enough.

The U.K. needs a strong opposition, and Labour shows no signs of being capable of being that. The SNP is filling that void and will go on seeking to do that.

People who think of a nationalist party sometimes think ‘inward-looking and parochial.’ The kind of nationalism I represent is the opposite of that.

There was nothing in my childhood that said, ‘She’s going to be first minister of the country one day.’

Scotland never voted for Margaret Thatcher.

U.K. welfare cuts are pushing more children into poverty; that is beyond dispute.

Thatcher was the motivation for my entire political career. I hated everything she stood for.

My early years as a political activist were dominated by the poll tax.

Talent is really important in politics, but experience is also really important.

The fact is that co-operation between independent countries – to our mutual advantage – is the way of the modern world.

Any politician or campaigner trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public won’t get very far.

London has a centrifugal pull on talent, investment and business from the rest of Europe and the world. That brings benefits to the broader U.K. economy.

One of Ed Miliband’s shadow ministers has said he would never vote for the renewal of Trident.

The U.K. government sets a cap on how much can be spent on discretionary housing payments.

I was fascinated, long before I joined the SNP, in the world around me; current affairs really interested me.

There are lots of jobs and investment in Scotland dependent on our membership of the E.U. single market.