John Swinney

The governor of Massachusetts, Governor Maura Healey, started off her speech in a most appropriate fashion. She said: ‘I hear the right words to say at the start of a speech like this is “No Scotland, no party.”’

I have recent experience of visiting the United States of America for an unreservedly happy occasion. It involved Scotland winning for the first time in a World Cup game in over 40 years.

It is absolutely vital that conventional military capabilities are enhanced, but this is made ever more difficult by the enormous investment made by the UK Government in the Trident nuclear weapons system.

I welcome the publication of the long-overdue Defence Investment Plan, although I am disappointed that it falls short of the ambition that was previously promised and we are still to receive full details of the budget reductions for…

If Andy Burnham proposes the devolution of further powers to the Scottish Government, and of course, I'm going to welcome that, because it will give the parliament, as we've seen on a number of occasions since the parliament was…

What we have now is a Scottish parliament that has the largest number of independent supporting MSPs in its membership ever in its history, so that is an indication that after the May 7 elections there remains the solid appetite within…

I think Andy Burnham has got a lot to live up to in terms of what he has set out, because I think if he's going to be in any way effective as a Prime Minister, he has to be consistent with some of the things that he said, and he's made a…

So I want us to engage urgently – within the first 100 days of this Government – to identify the early steps we can take to address these concerns.

But I recognise this is not just about individual measures.

Members of the public will ask how on earth – and they say this to me when I'm out and about in the country – how has Scotland become like this?

Our future lies in clean, affordable and secure power – strengthening affordability, resilience and competitiveness, and protecting people and businesses from their energy bills being dictated by international events.

Maybe what we also hear from Andy Burnham is a commitment to strengthen the powers of the Scottish Parliament, to make the Parliament more powerful and more influential on the lives of improving the lives of people in Scotland.

There is an honest discussion that has got to be had about European Union membership. Brexit is being a disaster for the United Kingdom.

So, while we support independence, and we want independence as quickly as possible, we will always constructively engage to acquire more powers for the Scottish Parliament.

Rhetoric alone will not cut it when Scotland so badly needs more job-creating powers and the ability to lower energy bills.

I want to make sure they’ve got more power and more scope to increase economic performance in individual localities.

He’s spent years telling us that Whitehall doesn’t work, that Westminster is broken, and that means he’s got to devolve more powers to the Scottish Parliament.

He should have a substantive discussion with the Scottish Government and me about how we empower and strengthen the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

I don’t really think Andy Burnham is in a strong position to lecture me about all of these questions.

Andy Burnham's lack of knowledge of Scotland

I certainly wouldn't speak at a conference like that because I'm going to have nothing to do with Reform.

If Andy Burnham genuinely believes people should have more control over their future, he can recognise that by confirming Scotland's national right to self-determination.

However, Scotland is a nation and not a region, and there has now been a pro-independence majority in Holyrood for four elections in a row.

I have heard Andy Burnham's proposals, but rhetoric alone will not cut it when Scotland so badly needs more job creating powers and the ability to lower energy bills.

Scotland has the resources. We have the expertise. What we lack are the powers,