THE First Minister’s white paper on Scottish citizenship addresses questions already heard on East Lothian’s doorsteps: Will there be a Scottish passport? Yes. Passport controls at the borders with England and Ireland? No. Can I still be British? Yes.

For Scottish Labour explaining citizenship is ‘a distraction. . . an obsession’. Scottish Tories and Lib Dems allege a ‘misuse of public money’, but leading expert on government and the UK constitution, Professor Robert Hazell, confirmed it was “perfectly proper” for civil servants to work on the Scottish Government’s agenda.

Humza Yousaf’s proposals draw on the inclusive and outward-looking citizenship model of the republic of Ireland (population five million), the EU’s second richest country, accessing the single market and freedom of movement. Prior to EU membership, 60 per cent of Irish exports came to the UK; now 36 per cent go to Europe and just 13 per cent to UK and Northern Ireland.

The late Sinéad O’Connor’s songs were courageous beacons for the referendum-led social transformations that make 21st century Ireland open, inclusive, and fair: learning from Ireland is smart, when failing, reckless, out-of-touch thinking dominates Westminster.

The infrastructure watchdog deems HS2 high-speed trains to London ‘unachievable’, with ‘unresolvable’ problems and £30bn spent so far won’t bring faster trains to nations in the ‘precious union’.

Westminster backs the call of self-styled people’s champion Nigel Farage for the right of “every law-abiding citizen to have a bank account”: what East Lothian wants most isn’t privileged private banking, but actual banks on High Streets.

Finally, Tory and Labour knee-jerk reactions to the recent by-election disregard both raging fires in Europe and the UN’s warning that “global boiling has arrived”.

Lord Frost (the disastrous Tory Brexit negotiator) declared that “global warming could be beneficial for Britain”, a claim rejected by both scientists and Scottish attitudes to climate change.

Are Starmer (resisting clean air policies) and Sunak (pro-car, pro drilling) backtracking on net-zero and climate agreements, ignoring Scotland’s commitment both to devolution and to tackling the climate emergency?

After 300 years of union, 21st century citizenship would bring freedoms to chart our own European, net-zero future.