Sturgeon’s reckless politics of division

THE sun is out, the mercury is climbing and spring is in the air.

easter weekend is traditionally a time for family and reflection but this easter will be especially joyous, marking the easing of lockdown rules that have drained so much spontaneity and normality from our lives.

We should take time to smell the roses – and be thankful we finally appear to be turning the corner in this dreadful pandemic.

however, this is only a brief respite in the great task of our times: rebuilding a country that has been placed into hibernation for the past year. there is an economy that must be awoken from a 12-month induced coma. Businesses must be reopened, jobs created, prosperity generated – the ignition must be turned and the economic juggernaut placed in top gear.

the Nhs must return to full working order to treat those conditions that have fallen by the wayside as a result of Covid. schools will have to redouble efforts to help pupils catch up with the learning they have lost out on.

these challenges are daunting but none is insurmountable if everyone pulls their weight in a national endeavour that both the Prime Minister and the First Minister call ‘building back better’.

Building back better needs to begin with better leadership. at the very moment when she should be a figure of unity, bringing scots together and leading us out of the pandemic, Nicola sturgeon has chosen the politics of diversion and division. she is once again talking up another fractious referendum.

her obsession with independence even at a time like this is unfathomable, if not unpredictable, and quite frankly boring. the First Minister might like to know she is allowed to talk about other matters. Not every sentence from her mouth has to contain a clause about the constitution.

If she can be torn away from the only subject that seems to interest her, she will want to explain to taxpayers why some of the additional resources transferred by Chancellor rishi sunak to help scotland weather the pandemic have gone unspent.

this week, the Institute for Fiscal studies noted that the sNP intends to use some extra Covid-19 money to fund ‘more permanent policies’ but warned that ‘from 2022-23, the money for these policies will likely have to be found from within the scottish Government’s core funding’.

No doubt when that particular piper has to be paid, it will be spun as a Westminster cut rather than the entirely foreseeable result of the sNP’s fiscal shiftiness.

Nicola sturgeon has enough to be getting on with leading a recovery from coronavirus. she does not need any more distractions – and nor does the country.