WHY WON’T NICOLA LISTEN?

The SNP claims it wants a national conversation... so why, time after time, does it refuse to hear what the people of Scotland are saying?

GOVERNING is about priorities. And last week we had it confirmed, as if confirmation was needed, that the priority of Scotland’s SNP Government is independence – first, last and always. It is hardly a surprise. The whole purpose of the SNP is to break up our United Kingdom. But while we shouldn’t exactly be stunned by Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement on Friday that she is to launch yet another campaign for independence, we have every right to feel aggrieved.

Not just because Scotland so desperately needs a government which is prepared to get on with the job of improving your local school, or sorting out our police force. But we also have every right to feel aggrieved at the long list of promises made by the SNP which have now been flagrantly broken.

There was the pledge given by both Nicola Sturgeon and her predecessor Alex Salmond, that the vote we had on independence less than two years ago would be a ‘once in a generation event’ – now a distant memory.

Then there was the First Minister’s promise, just before May’s election, not to threaten another referendum unless there was clear and sustained evidence that people back a split. No such evidence exists but that commitment has been tossed aside anyway.

And then there was the SNP’s earnest pledge to parents to put your local school at the top of the Government’s in-tray after it won the election in May. It now seems a long time ago.

The truth is the SNP Government was always waiting for another excuse to ditch these past promises and get back to what interests it most – splitting up the UK.

And, when the Nationalist Ministers woke up on the morning of June 24, after the EU referendum, their eyes lit up.

Here was a chance to twist the votes of Scots who voted to stay within the EU into support for leaving the United Kingdom. The campaign has dragged on all summer. The First Minister has assiduously courted as many lower to middle-rank members of European Governments as she can find.

Then she declared that instead of focusing on the interests of their constituents, Nationalist MPs, MSPs and MEPs will now spend the next few months door-stepping No voters as part of a new ‘listening exercise’.

If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is: the SNP tried the same thing in 2007 when it conducted a ‘national conversation’. Given all that effort and time, you might have thought that the SNP would have come up with answers to some of the basic questions about independence – on the currency, the black hole in our finances, and who pays for pensions, for example.

BUT it is the ultimate sign of the SNP’s hypocrisy that, fresh from criticising the Leave campaign in the EU referendum for failing to provide answers about Brexit, Nationalists are now preparing to hit a doorstep near you without so much as a fag packet on which to scrawl their plans.

All this is familiar to most people because we, as a country, spent the best part of three years prior to the 2014 referendum going through all this. Not surprisingly, most of us have had enough. Incredibly, a poll last week found that even among people who vote SNP, only one in five ranks independence as being among their top priorities. Yet, because 100,000 SNP members must be given a glimpse of the promised land, the SNP will now subject us all to the same old dreary debate we’ve had for the past few years.

It’s wrong and it has to end. This week, the Scottish parliament finally gets back to business after a long summer break. It must mark the moment when the SNP puts its unending political campaign to one side and focuses 100 per cent on the priorities of the people who pay its salaries: me and you.

Instead of launching another tedious monologue on independence, the SNP should knuckle down to the job of boosting standards in our classrooms, too many of which are leaving our young people without the basic skills of numeracy and literacy.

Since 2011, the proportion of pupils performing well in reading has fallen back across all three age groups measured by the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy. At the same time, official figures show declining numeracy standards in primary schools and six out of ten secondary children underachieving at mathematics.

Another independence referendum won’t help improve the life chances of these children or help them gain the skills they need to get a good job. A Scottish Government giving education reform its undivided attention would.

Or what about some bold action to boost Scotland’s stagnant economic growth?

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce have called for all steps necessary to be taken to support businesses at this time and help them to invest for the future and get our economy back on the path of growth.

Another independence referendum won’t help build up Scotland’s economy and create more jobs. A competitive plan on tax which backs enterprise might.

AND what about supporting the efforts of our police to make our streets safer and reassure communities? Merging Scotland’s eight police forces into a single service was meant to deliver a more effective and efficient organisation.

Yet after little more than three years, morale is at rock bottom and we have had reports that officers have been sent to charity shops to buy equipment.

Another independence referendum won’t deal with crime and disorder, but a Scottish Government that wasn’t constantly distracted by its desire to spark another constitutional debate would help. Improving our public services, building up our economy and keeping our streets safe. These are the people’s priorities, not another bout of constitutional navel-gazing.

In short, when Nicola Sturgeon and her merry band of Nationalists come knocking at your door, keen to listen to you, I suspect this is what they’ll be told: you want a conversation? Fine. But let’s have a conversation about the things that really matter; how our children are being educated, how the elderly are being treated, how a job can be guaranteed for your son or daughter about to leave home.

Scotland doesn’t need another independence referendum; it needs a government that gets back to the job it was elected to do. And, as leader of Scotland’s main opposition party, that’s what I’m committed to forcing it to do.

A referendum won’t deal with crime and disorder