Get on with the job

ONE month on from the EU referendum, it is clear the fallout from that shock result will shape British politics for years to come.

But the battle to secure a favourable Brexit deal is no excuse for our political leaders to ignore other pressing challenges facing our country.

Especially when, as a litany of official figures has revealed in recent months, Scotland is facing an economic crisis, an education crisis, a healthcare crisis and a transport crisis.

Nicola Sturgeon has been touring London TV studios and Brussels backrooms to remind anyone prepared to listen to her that Scotland voted in favour of the EU.

But yesterday she was on home turf, speaking to an Edinburgh audience of business leaders, charity bosses and decision-makers. Here was her opportunity to explain how her Government will drag the nation back from the brink of recession, or close the shocking attainment gap in schools, or tackle the shortage of GPs, or help to end the rail strikes causing misery for passengers.

Instead, the First Minister fixated exclusively on the constitution – setting out five key Brexit tests that are destined to fail before she reaches the inevitable ‘conclusion’ that independence is the answer.

As Graham Grant argues on this page, this is the politics of delusion. While she performs a political charade, this Nationalist Government is turning its back on struggling businesses, desperate patients, and a generation of schoolchildren.

It’s time for her Government to start governing.