By Christine Grahame

I WISH I had some good news. Well actually my lettuce seeds are up and the slugs haven’t found them yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

In Ukraine the pummelling of her cities goes on.

Recent data released tells the equally sad story of some 50,000 Russian soldiers dead increasing as the “regulars” are replaced by ill-trained conscripts.

In Sudan, civil war is pushing the population into starvation. Gaza is on the brink too and the West Bank with increasing illegal Israeli settlers terrorising Palestinian communities.

Iran now is openly in this volatile mix. I know it would make only a little difference if Scotland had an international voice in these matters, but while domestic issues are of course important it does underline how limited we are as a Parliament because my goodness, there are some scary voices at Westminster.

I’m thinking Suella Braverman who can’t wait to export illegal immigrants to Rwanda – now apparently classified as a humane destination because the Tory government (not the courts) says so.

Then up pops an unrepentant Liz Truss. She says she is blameless for the shambles which followed her brief reign.

No, it was all the fault of the Bank of England. Oh, but she hopes Trump becomes President.

You know when the Scottish Government gets attacked right, left and centre ( and it does make mistakes and I have said so) they are not a patch on Westminster.

I’ll end on Brexit, which this month has landed additional charges on imports from Europe, all of which you and I will pay for at the checkout.

And what happened to that £350 million per week for the NHS on the side of the Brexit bus? Are we in Scotland, which voted 62 per cent remain, just supposed to take this all on the chin? Wherever I look – at the international scene, at the EU, in domestic affairs (by the way our NHS does not have the lengthy waiting queues for A&E that England has, nor strikes) – we may not be perfect but we are a darned sight better than Westminster.

As for Labour and Sir Keir Starmer, the light blue “Tory”, it would be more of the same, the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of UK politics.

That bad choice is no choice at all but it not the only one open to Scotland.