AS PARLIAMENT heads towards its summer recess, now is a good time to reflect on my first year at Holyrood.

I was elected on a manifesto with a clear commitment to focus on Covid recovery for the entirety of this Parliament. Written in the form of a Covid recovery plan, it was packed with progressive, innovative and achievable policies for ensuring the recovery of the economy, education, health, communities and our environment after the pandemic.

Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP also claimed to want to concentrate on recovery.

However, after only a year paying lip service to recovery, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed last week where her real priorities lie, with a fresh drive for another referendum before the end of next year. Her announcement came despite the worsening NHS crisis, many schools continuing to struggle, a grim outlook for the economy, a growing cost of living crisis and a projected £3.5bn black hole in Scotland’s public finances.

Any responsible government should surely be focused on these real, day-to-day priorities rather than recklessly setting off on another constitutional diversion that will only divide the nation and exacerbate the many problems we face. That is probably why most polling suggests there is little appetite for another referendum any time soon.

It feels like ministers have been treading water for the last year. There should have been a much greater focus on how government can assist communities to recover, not just in the immediate aftermath of Covid but for “building back better” in the long term.

But, with the SNP Government continuing to have just one overriding obsession, I fear we are set to keep wasting valuable time and resources on that rather than focusing on the task of making Scotland a better, fairer place for everyone.