RESIDENTS know East Lothian is a great county, and many congratulations to North Berwick, named the UK’s best place to live by The Sunday Times, with East Linton – and its new station – also making the list.

Nonetheless, residents undoubtedly face challenges in health and other inequalities, and I welcome Public Health Scotland’s contribution to Cancer Research UK’s recent findings.

Over three decades, UK-wide cancer mortality rates have fallen, with lung cancer mortality decreasing by more than half for men and over a fifth for women, largely due to action on smoking-related risks. Thanks to screening and faster treatment, other cancer death rates are falling. Mitigating cancer risks – from obesity and alcohol, for example – will also deliver better outcomes.

Some factors are beyond individual control, such as the negative impact of poor housing on mental and physical health.

A common denominator is poverty, at its most brutal when it blights children’s life chances. UNICEF found the UK’s increase in child poverty was twice that of other countries; the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reported nearly a third of children in England and 28 per cent in Wales live in poverty.

Scotland has lower child poverty – 24 per cent – in part due to millions of your taxes supporting the Scottish Child Payment and free school meals. Ending poverty and improving housing will be high on my party’s agenda for the next General Election, alongside growing the economy and becoming a better, fairer country with full self-determination.

I congratulate new Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Vaughan Gething, who joins Humza Yousaf, Anas Sarwar, Rishi Sunak, the Catholic Irish nationalist Michelle O’Neill of Northern Ireland, and Eire’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in demonstrating that post-British Empire social evolution stems from nations seeking autonomy and welcoming post-colonial diversity’s many forms.

The incoherent extremism/racism storm at Westminster makes David Cameron’s so-called “British values” disintegrate. Tories are tearing themselves apart over extremist ideologies, while accepting colossal campaign funds from a racist, misogynist donor who’s made millions out of the NHS.

London Labour struggles for credibility on Brexit and climate change, on ending poverty, and respecting the UK’s first black female MP.

Without fundamental change, including reversing Brexit, Westminster’s next parliament will simply rearrange the deckchairs on the Tory/Labour Titanic. Scotland’s 21st-century future must flourish, not be held back by outdated political concepts.