Priorities which matter need attention now - Sue Webber

We all know Scotland faces big challenges, with the global cost of living crisis and vital public services badly overstretched, despite more public spending per head here than in England.

But everyone except the SNP thinks those should be the top priorities, so ending the parliamentary term with pointless argument about something the majority don’t want, and Holyrood has no power to grant, just proved the opposition parties need to fill the void being left by the SNP-Green coalition.

Incapable of keeping their minds on the responsibilities they have while dreaming about ones they don’t, when the SNP-Greens do turn their attention to real policies, their judgement is so skewed by the need to twist everything into constitutional point scoring that the result is chaos.

Children’s rights, gender recognition, deposit returns, unbuilt ferries and the disgrace of spiralling drug deaths are all examples of how Nationalist exceptionalism takes priority over practical deliverability. Instead of wasting public money on vain legal challenges, the Scottish Government should be working with the UK Government to tackle the big issues which really matter to you.

Styling himself as First Activist, Humza Yousaf isn’t even pretending to be a First Minister for all Scotland and is doubling down on Nicola Sturgeon’s independence plan, insisting a majority of SNP MPs at the next general election will be a mandate for another referendum. But I’m pretty sure most readers want their representatives to get to grips with immediate challenges, like growing our economy, rebuilding our NHS and reducing household bills, not being perpetually obsessed with breaking up Britain.

How will holding another referendum make your household budget go further, your wages go up, or your wait for a medical appointment shorter? How will it help our colleges fill the yawning skills gap in our workforce? How would two years spent pretending independence is not an immediate economic catastrophe lay foundations for the thousands of new homes we need?

Yet separation is what Humza Yousaf says is his number one goal for the next general election, but Tuesday’s dire debate only showed that grudge and grievance is a miserable replacement for real thinking and effective policies. Like their transport plans, the Nationalists have run out of road.

That, of course, suits the economic vandals in the Green Party just fine, their extremism showing the same disregard for national prosperity, happily prepared to wreck the livelihoods of thousands under the guise of environmental concern, their war on North Sea oil and gas threatening both east coast jobs and everyone’s energy bills, while making the transition to net zero even more difficult.

Labour is not much better, an opposition in name only, aligning themselves with the SNP and the Greens on so many issues, like North Sea energy, gender reform and free speech, allowing division to fester when pro-UK voters trusted them to fight the SNP.

There is much work to be done before Parliament reconvenes in September, and not just because of the forthcoming election. The SNP has all the time in the world to dream about independence, but the priorities which matter need attention now.

Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative Lothian MSP