SPRING sees East Lothian with busy high streets, popular tourist sites and vibrant open spaces attracting local residents and visitors.

The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions reported that 2022 saw an increase in Scottish visitor numbers over 2021 of 128 per cent, indicating progress in tourism’s post-pandemic recovery.

This vital sector needs more support and, as Housing Minister, I’ll strive for balance between businesses providing attractive, varied tourist accommodation and the demand for affordable housing, including rentals, for workers in retail, hospitality, transport and tourist destinations.

I offer my respects to those of Jewish, Christian or Muslim faiths able to mark this special season without any restrictions for the first time since 2019.

Easter also provides opportunities to reflect on 25 years since the hard-won Good Friday (or Belfast) Agreement, a historic compromise to which both sides of Northern Ireland’s sectarian divide, including countless largely unrecognised women, dedicated heroic, determined commitment.

Driven by desire for peace in the island of Ireland, parliaments in the UK, Ireland, the USA and the EU supported the Northern Ireland communities’ search for a route to peace that all sides could live with.

This was shamefully put at risk by Brexit’s cavalier disregard; recent steps aim to ensure that Northern Ireland enjoys the now-unique economic, cultural and social benefits of belonging to both UK and EU single markets – something Scotland also voted, unsuccessfully, by a large majority to retain in 2016.

Admired across the world, Northern Ireland’s achievements also carry reminders of the fragility of political harmony.

Thousands of conversations as a councillor and MSP persuade me, however, that vast numbers of residents have unshakeable confidence that Scotland’s future will be as an independent European country. Twenty-five years of devolution have profoundly convinced me that self-determination is better than rule by Westminster, and it’s not just for any one political party but for the people of Scotland together to shape our short and long-term destiny.