John Swinney: IndyRef anniversary can reawaken optimism in Scotland

John Swinney told SNP members: ‘As a nation, we can’t just regret the things that we cannot do.’ Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

John Swinney has urged independence supporters not to live in the past as he celebrated the 10th anniversary of the independence referendum as a moment of “reawakening” for the yes movement.

Speaking to a crowd of campaigners in Edinburgh 10 years to the day since Scotland voted 55% to 45% to remain part of the UK, the SNP leader said: “We have had a long, dark decade – a decade of austerity, of Brexit, of a cost of living crisis and a global pandemic.”