HOLYROOD resumes this week, after a busy summer when I’ve devoted time to my priorities of addressing poverty, homelessness, lack of affordable housing and related social ills.

Last Saturday, tens of thousands called for independence as a way of improving people’s lives, rallying from Edinburgh Castle to the parliament.

Some political flags and activists promoted causes (CND, a greener environment and support for refugees among them) but, overwhelmingly, thousands upon thousands of Saltires and European Union stars made clear the event’s theme: “Believe in Scotland”.

READ MORE: Paul McLennan MSP column: No room for complacency on drugs deaths

First Minister Humza Yousaf addressed the rally. Standing in front of a banner proclaiming “Independence is normal”, he called for an independent Scotland to rejoin the EU and undo the Brexit catastrophe.

Opposition parties at Holyrood condemned this exercise of free speech by crowds of up to 30,000 – double the number expected – and the politicians supporting it.

According to the UK Government, and Scottish opposition politicians, priorities in Scotland are the cost-of-living crisis, inflation, the NHS, education and other issues that Holyrood does indeed address, along with homelessness, poverty, the environment, and drugs and alcohol deaths.

But hundreds of thousands of people also rejected Brexit and support pro-independence parties.

 

 

Instead of criticising civic Scotland’s groups, associations and individuals calling for change, opposition parties should spell out what “Believe in the UK” might stand for.

Does it mean the same in England, in Wales, in Northern Ireland, and in Scotland?

How many trades unionists, teachers, transport or retail workers, NHS staff, exporters, farmers and young people would rally in their thousands to a banner stating “Believe in the UK – put Westminster first”?

It’s not Humza Yousaf who’s out of touch with the people of Scotland – it’s an ideologically blinkered Tory government and a Labour elite who are out of touch with a hugely damaging Brexit. Fear of losing power keeps their heads buried in the sand.

It’s also deeply disappointing that the UK Home Office rejected Westminster’s Home Affairs Select Committee’s recommendation to back a Glasgow pilot project creating safe consumption facilities for illegal drugs.

Unsafe consumption is lethal, and evidence from other countries, including Portugal and Denmark, shows lives can be saved; from day one an independent Scotland would save them.