ASH Regan faced off against Finance Secretary Kate Forbes and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf at a hustings in Fife on Friday night, taking questions from members and making their pitch to replace Nicola Sturgeon in Bute House.
Under her leadership, Ash Regan said an “independence commission” would be formed that would lay the “infrastructure” for the country to become independent, which would likely include early work in the creation of a central bank – if allowed within the powers of Holyrood – among others.
To track the progress of the commission, Regan suggested the creation of a “readiness thermometer” – a physical installation in a Scottish city that would show the work done by the commission.
Effectively the thermometer would be a count-down clock - similar ones have been erected for events like COP26, and there is currently one in Glasgow Central counting down the days until the World Cycling Championships.
Regan said the thermometer would “build that confidence with the public”, adding: “When that gets up to 100%, everybody in Scotland knows that we’ve solved all these problems, everything is ready to go and we’ll have that confidence.
"So when we’ve made all the plans for the currency for instance, or we’ve set up how we’re going to do something to do with defence, or whatever it is, that dial will move and it will inch forward.
"And the media can look at it, everyone can look at it, and it builds that confidence with the public so that when we get up to the 100%, everybody in Scotland knows we’ve solved all these problems.”
To win independence ormer community safety minister Regan has laid out what she calls the “voter empowerment mechanism”, whereby a majority vote for independence parties in any UK or Holyrood election would give her government the mandate to commence negotiations with Westminster over secession.
Laying out her vision, Regan told the crowd: “We’re in a position right now where Westminster is seeking to prevent the will of Scotland being expressed, so when it gets to that point … my idea is that we just run every election as an opportunity to test Scotland’s will, and if they’re ready for independence they’ll tell us.
“At that point, when Scotland expresses its will, Westminster will accept it, they’ll have to.”
