HOLYROOD is reconvening but work continued during recess, including the launch of a CalMac ferry whose late delivery attracted national debate.

The strategic National Islands Plan addresses multiple priorities to ensure unique island communities are sustainable, and public transport plays a vital role. In 2022-23, across Scotland 396 million journeys were made by bus, rail, air or ferry, a 34 per cent increase since the pandemic.

The entire British Isles forms an extended archipelago, geographically including the island of Ireland, where Eire retains its EU membership. A recent report on the UK Foreign Office concluded that Britain itself is now an “offshore, mid-sized country”, with hard and soft power, and a seat on the UN Security Council, but whose global power “is not as it used to be... our wealth, military assets and reputation have all declined relative to others in the last decade”.

Since 2007, voters have increasingly backed Scotland as a small, fair European country.

In diplomacy, small countries can punch above their weight, and Nicaragua (population just over a million more than Scotland) has called out the mighty German state for its arms sales to Israel.

The Scottish Parliament has condemned the war in Gaza and the famine disaster, described by the World Food Programme as the world’s worst starvation crisis. An independent Scotland could speak truth to power; instead, we’re implicated in the UK selling arms to Israel as it leaves Gaza in ruins.

East Lothian’s Muslim community recently marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan with Eid al-Fitr, the globally observed ‘breaking of the fast’ celebration overshadowed by the brutal violence of the Gaza conflict.

This culminated in the USA and its allies, including the UK, deploying UK armed forces in combat to defend Israel against Iranian drone and missile attacks.

Constitutionally, the UK Prime Minister can authorise military action without Parliament’s approval. This escalation, however, the sale of weapons, and a secret treaty with Israel might not win majority support in an independent Scottish Parliament. Scotland’s goal is a coherent, ethical foreign policy, not one managed by an unelected Lord Cameron.