We want to bring people back together - Alex Cole-Hamilton

While John Swinney may be the new First Minister, he comes with significant baggage. As former SNP leader who previously served as wingman for Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon, Swinney has been complicit in the SNP’s appalling neglect of public services for more than two decades.

His is a party that has been in power for too long, and a First Minister who embodies that stale governance will do very little to fix it. It was in this context that I wanted to offer an alternative, liberal vision for our country. I wanted to show that Scottish Liberal Democrats believe in a country that is industrious, innovative and internationalist of outlook. We believe in a Scotland where we imagine things again, where we make things again, where we harness the potential of our people and our natural resources.

To that end, we would rewrite the failed NHS Recovery Plan to bring down waits, get everyone seen and support NHS dentistry which is on the brink of collapse in Scotland. We would ditch the SNP’s bureaucratic plans for a takeover of social care, which would waste £1 billion on a centralised overhaul rather than improving pay and conditions for staff and enhancing conditions for staff and enhancing services.

We have set out plans for creating world class mental health services, tackling a crisis that continues to afflict adults and children up and down the country. We’ve put forward proposals for a Clean Water Act to clean up the sewage in our rivers, a scandal that the government-owned water company has been happy to neglect.

And while SNP ministers have ditched key climate targets during the climate emergency, Scottish Liberal Democrats are brimming with ideas for how to boost sustainability, energy efficiency and support households in the process. We want to introduce an emergency insulation programme to make every house a warm one and slash emissions in the process. These are the kinds of fresh choices which, I believe, people deserve. They deserve to know that things could be done differently and more effectively.

For too long, Scotland has been saddled with an artificial and overly simplified choice: are you for the SNP's separation agenda or are you against us? John Swinney articulated it in his somewhat contradictory leadership slogan – “Unifying for Independence”. But are we not, after all, more complex than this one tired, reductive question that grounds a country and its people in division?

In the coming months, I suspect that John Swinney will play the part of the SNP’s liquidator, perhaps even its soon-to-be undertaker. He may try to make the best of a bad situation, but it is impossible to reverse the years of failure that he has contributed to.

Yesterday, I set out the hope and change that defines the spirit of my party. It is a spirit committed to a fresh start and good governance; we want to help everyone who can’t get a GP appointment or see an NHS dentist, support our schools, deliver for business and get islanders the ferries they need. We want to bring people back together, put Scotland at the heart of Britain and fix our broken relationship with Europe. It’s time people had that choice.

Alex Cole-Hamilton is leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats