Inside Holyrood: Distressing start to the New Year means we will have to stick with the lockdown as the 'best way to stay safe'

As this is my first column of 2021, I would like to wish all readers a healthy and prosperous new year.

At the time of writing this column, people across the Highlands are waking up to their first day under new lockdown restrictions. This is certainly not the start to the new year we were all hoping for but at least this time around, an end to what has been an extremely turbulent and distressing time is in sight. For now, though, staying at home except for essential purposes is the single best way to stay safe.

Given the latest trends in Covid-19 data and the detection of a new, more infectious variant of the virus, the Scottish Government has made the difficult decision to delay the return to in-school learning until at least February 1, returning to remote learning in the meantime.

Teachers will, however, return to work and children of key workers and the most vulnerable children will return as planned. There is no underestimating the impact of school closures, and the Scottish Government will prioritise a safe return to in-school learning above all else, but we need to suppress the spread of the virus as much as possible to achieve this.

The vaccine will eventually lead us to normality, but it is not our way out of these current measures – right now, we have a collective role to play in driving down community transmission.

Whilst the virus continues to focus our minds, the actions of Westminster’s Tory government are not helping in any way. Their abdication of responsibility on the virus is shocking enough, but the damaging mess they have made of Brexit threatens to heap misery on misery.

Boris Johnson has thrown Scotland under the bus and sold out on our interests. Even the fishing industry – perhaps the only sector that genuinely believed that Brexit would deliver benefits – this deal represents a massive sell out and broken promises. The picture is no better for Highland farmers either, especially those involved in seed potato production.

The loss of the Erasmus scheme will also come as a huge blow to students across the Highlands and throughout Scotland. Proportionally, Scotland has sent more students and attracted more Erasmus participants from Europe than any other country in the UK.

Adding salt to the wound, the UK government had the opportunity to opt into the scheme post-Brexit, which true to form, they rejected. It is unforgivable that students in Scotland will suffer the loss of the Erasmus scheme, which has been foisted upon them by a government they didn’t vote for.

It’s clearer than ever that the only way to protect Scotland’s interests and our place in Europe is through independence.

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