We’ve too much to worry us. This is a fight we don’t need

Nicola Sturgeon began this election saying she wants a referendum in the next two years. For some people leaving the

UK is more important than anything else. For most of us, though, the idea is the wrong priority at the wrong time.

With so many businesses closed and jobs lost, our economy will need years to repair and reopen. Our kids need time to catch up on everything they’ve missed. Our NHS needs to fight the next crisis: everyone who hasn’t been treated during the virus. Our priority needs to be recovery, not referendums.

If there’s one positive in what has been a terrible year, it’s that we’ve broken down those things that separated us. As communities, we organised to look after each other. When we clapped for the NHS the noise of our applause didn’t stop at an imaginary border. We saw solidarity across the whole UK as so many of us had our wages paid by the state. We developed and distributed the vaccine together.

When social distancing ends, we can’t immediately start to divide against each other again. We can’t go right back to the old arguments.

Sturgeon is only planning to hold a referendum during recovery because the SNP is so deeply split. She’s putting the impatience of her own party members before the interests of the country.

In her rush to divide us into Yes and No again, the first minister hasn’t done her homework. She can’t say how a new border with England will work. She can’t say how we’ll fund the NHS now that oil taxes have evaporated. She still can’t say what currency we will use and when.

We all had too much to worry about in the last year. Yet another divisive political fight is a headache none of us needs.