ON TUESDAY, I sat in the Scottish Parliament’s Debating Chamber as Nicola Sturgeon laid out her plans to press ahead with another divisive referendum on Scottish independence.

In her statement, she claimed that her Government would make a positive case for independence with “an unashamedly optimistic view of the world”.

And yet, in her speech, Ms Sturgeon used her platform to attack other political parties over 25 times.

She made no mention of how her Government would resolve the cost of living crisis, no mention of how her Government would support the economic recovery from Covid, and no mention of how her Government would improve Scotland’s NHS at a time where we have record-high waiting times and delayed discharge.

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Instead, she announced that her Government would be wasting millions of pounds of taxpayer money going to the Supreme Court to check whether her Government could hold an unwanted and meaningless referendum on independence which would not be binding and which would inevitably cost the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds to hold.

She stated in her speech that her sole priority ahead of the next General Election would be independence.

She also claimed that “the democratic decision was clear” that Scottish people wanted another independence referendum based on the result of last year’s Scottish Parliamentary election – where more Scots actually voted for pro-UK parties than separatist parties.

It’s clear that now is not the time to be revisiting the 2014 referendum.

Instead, Sturgeon and Paul McLennan need to get on with the day job and focus on supporting the thousands of people in this county who are struggling with their grocery bills, the cost of fuel and tackling record NHS waiting times.