NICOLA Sturgeon will today shun the Braveheart notion of Scottish independence, urging voters to decide the 2014 referendum not on the basis of how British or Scottish they feel but on what sort of country they want Scotland to be.

In what is being billed as a significant speech on Scotland's future, the Deputy First Minister will tell an audience of civic and business leaders in Glasgow: "My conviction that Scotland should be independent stems from the principles not of identity or nationality but democracy and social justice."

Ms Sturgeon will argue that Scotland has a democratic right to choose its own government and determine its own future as well as a right to put in place its own values and a duty to make its own decisions.

"Our referendum may be asking only one question but, in truth, Scotland faces two choices: the first is whether to bring the powers home to govern ourselves or stick with UK governance and the second is what kind of society do we want? But we don't get to make the second without the first."

Ms Sturgeon will add: "As the people of Scotland make up their minds, I ask them to base their decision not on how Scottish or British we feel but on what kind of country you want Scotland to be and how best you think that can be achieved."