First minister should be focused on the real issues affecting Scots

Today’s statement from the first minister was a waste of energy and focus at a time when there are so many more important challenges facing the people of Scotland.

Sturgeon’s speech was typically long on rhetoric and short on specifics but it shouldn’t even have been the most important announcement of the day

At 9.30 every Tuesday, Scotland publishes statistics showing the state of the nation’s health care system and this week, as with most every other week, the figures were brutal.

More than 8,000 people in a week waiting more than four hours in A&E, the second-highest on record.

Over half a million hospital days lost due to delayed discharges.

The worst waits for cancer treatment since records began.

This is where the focus of our parliament should be.

Even beyond the healthcare system there are crises aplenty: war on European shores, the climate emergency and the biggest fall in living standards since the end of rationing.

Yet once again it is independence that sits centre stage.

It’s an obsession of nationalist politicians and a few wannabe Bravehearts that simply does not translate to the average Scot.

There are so many things that our parliament could be doing but for the next year or more, it is likely that all the oxygen in the room will be sucked up by independence.

Those children suffering long Covid, left disappointed after they waited to meet the first minister in the cold outside parliament this afternoon, will not thank her for her fixation with breaking up the UK.

“Today’s statement from the first minister was a waste of energy and focus at a time when there are so many more important challenges

Islanders desperate for fresh ferries, the Ukrainians stuck in hotels and the victims of violent and sexual crime left waiting for justice can all think of better uses for our time.

The first minister has consistently put the need to quieten the outer fringes of her party ahead the needs of this country.

That’s why she is racing to the court to test a referendum bill that even she seems to suspect will be shot down in flames and promising the ugly spectacle of casting a future general election as a de facto referendum if she predictably fails to get her own way.

Scottish politics can be so much more than it currently is.

But it is being held back by a nationalist party with a one-track mind.

Nicola Sturgeon may have found a way to soothe her erratic troops for a day but in doing so she has let down the country she is supposed to serve.