SWINNEY INDY SPEECH LATEST BID TO APPEASE NATS

JADED John Swinney is set to bang the drum for Scottish independence yet again in a speech later this week.

- Ross Thomson

The First Minister, under pressure from sections of his own party following the humbing Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election defeat, will address the Scotland 2050 Conference in Edinburgh tomorrow, where he will say that independence is key to achieving Scotland's goals for the middle of the century.

Mr Swinney will urge Scots to imagine what the country would look like "had we not been subject to a decade and a half of Westminster austerity".

He is expected to say: "The harsh lesson of that 15 years of lost opportunity must spur us on to building a better future - let us deliver a spirit of optimism and hope. In the year 2050, do we want to be looking back on how we picked up the pieces from another 25 years of Westminster mismanagement?

Overwhelmed