Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish independence prospectus front cover changed after it featured English wind farm

Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish independence prospectus front cover changed after it featured English wind farm
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Aden-Jay Wood

By Aden-Jay Wood


Published: 20/07/2022

- 15:15

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 10:49

The prospectus front cover has now been changed to feature a wind farm in Berwickshire

Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish independence prospectus front cover has been changed after the original featured an image of an English wind farm.

The Scottish Government prospectus front cover now features Pease Bay in Berwickshire rather than one of Fraisthorpe wind farm, near Yorkshire.


The prospectus is one of several documents to be published by the Scottish First Minister as she continues to push on with her independence plans.

But the mistake on the front cover will leave many people “red-faced”, Scottish Conservative MSP Sharon Dowey said.

File photo dated 31/01/20 of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon speaking during an event in Edinburgh to outline Scottish independence plans. Scottish independence is essential to resolving the cost-of-living crisis impacting thousands of households, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The First Minister will on Tuesday outline her plans for holding a second referendum on Scotland's future in the UK to the Scottish Parliament. Issue date: Sunday June 26, 2022.
Nicola Sturgeon
Jane Barlow

File photo dated 2/5/2022 of Nicola Sturgeon who has become Scotland's longest-serving First Minister. Having now served a total of seven years, six months and five days in the top job, Ms Sturgeon has overtaken her predecessor Alex Salmond - who quit as first minister in the wake of Scots voting to stay part of the UK in the 2014 independence referendum. Issue date: Wednesday May 25, 2022.
Ms Sturgeon's Scottish independence prospectus front cover has been changed
Russell Cheyne

Ms Dowey told The Telegraph: “There will be red faces all around in the corridors of the SNP-Green government at this embarrassing mistake.”

The Scottish Government acknowledged the error, saying: “On initial publication, our contracted publishing print and design agency used a reputable stock image website to source a picture of a Scottish wind farm for the paper.

“While the image used was tagged on the stock image website as being in Scotland, we now understand that image may have been mislabelled and, as a result, we updated our publication online.”

Ms Sturgeon has since published a second paper on Scottish independence.

The document detailed what the Scottish Government called a “democratic deficit” at the heart of the union.

Last month, the First Minister laid out plans for a referendum to be held on October 19, 2023, with Boris Johnson rejecting a request for the powers to hold a referendum in one of his last acts before announcing he would step down as Prime Minister.

The Lord Advocate also referred a prospective Bill on independence to the UK Supreme Court to ascertain its legality.

The First Minister used her speech on Thursday to take aim at both the Tories and Labour, saying that the UK faced a “shift to the right” under a new prime minister, while accusing Labour of “giving the proverbial two fingers” by saying the party would refuse a push for another referendum if it won back Downing Street.

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