 Ms Sturgeon told the SNP about her radical plans for change |
The Scottish National Party has been asked to turn its back on consensus politics and take on a more radical approach to bring the party to power. Deputy leader Nicola Sturgeon told the party's annual conference in Inverness on Wednesday that she wanted to end the "blandness" in Scottish politics.
Ms Sturgeon said Scotland needed bold MSPs who offered a brighter alternative which she planned to deliver.
She leads the SNP at Holyrood in the wake of Alex Salmond's leadership win.
Introducing her new radical agenda, Ms Sturgeon said: "We have had a cosy consensus in Scotland for the last five years and all it has delivered is disappointment and frustration.
"It is a consensus that has stifled our nation's ambition, held us back from our aspirations and sapped our country's morale.
"People are crying out for politicians to be bold and for leadership that offers an alternative.
"That is exactly what I want the SNP to deliver.
"I will not stand silent as I see my country told it can't do any better than the mediocrity of the last five years."
She said the current "cosy" political set up was nothing more than a New Labour "con trick" aimed at "silencing" critics.
'Bland mediocrity'
As part of her plan to break the "bland mediocrity of Labour and the Lib-Dems" she put forward a policy of independence as the engine for any future radical change.
She said: "We must offer the same sense of radical change that attracted me to the SNP and independence when I was 17 years old.
"It was in support of radical change that makes a radical difference in peoples' lives that I came into politics.
 Ms Sturgeon thanked the conference after her speech |
"And, whether Jack McConnell likes it or nor, whether it breaks his cosy consensus or not, I will not stop campaigning for it now that I am in a position of leadership."
The Glasgow MSP announced she and Mr Salmond had set up four new policy groups to translate their ideas on social democracy radical policies the party could debate and vote on.
Senior party figures expect the move will signal a return to a more left-wing stance than under previous leader John Swinney, who quit in the summer.
Mr Salmond is due to address the conference as returning convener on Friday afternoon.
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People are crying out for politicians to be bold and for leadership that offers an alternative. That is exactly what I want the SNP to deliver 
