Jamie Halcro Johnston: SNP candidates more interested in independence than the day job

As predicted, Nicola Sturgeon has quit and SNP MSPs now scrabble to fill the power vacuum.

But while the people of Scotland suffer cuts to public services, a health service in shambles and a failing education system, the three candidates to be next SNP leader and First Minister are more interested in banging on about independence than sorting out the problems facing our country.

We have Kate Forbes who, as Finance Secretary, slashed funding for local councils and for the local public services people rely on. There’s Humza Yousaf, the Health Secretary who has presided over some of the worst waiting times in NHS history and a running-down of local health facilities. And lastly there is Ash Regan, the indy-zealot former minister who has spent the entire campaign trashing the SNP’s own record and who wants to make every election a de facto referendum.

After 16 years of increasingly failing SNP government, Scotland needs leaders who will focus on improving services not pushing for independence at all costs. But it's clear that, no matter who the SNP picks as their next leader, their divisive campaign to split up the UK will continue and Scotland’s real issues – the issues that matter to you – will be forgotten.

The SNP have forgotten what politicians – regardless of party - are elected to do. We're elected to make Scotland a better place to live, work, to raise a family and to live a comfortable retirement. We're elected to make sure that our public services are there for people that need them, that our children get the education they deserve, and that our NHS is properly funded and staffed. We’re elected to make sure key infrastructure like roads and broadband and ferries are delivered.

Independence is not Scotland’s priority. So whoever the next First Minister is, I hope they will concentrate on the issues that matter to Scots, and that they will work together with all parties to build a better, fairer and more prosperous Scotland.

I simply cannot understand the no-show by local nationalist MSPs during the recent Holyrood debate on the A9. Not even one of the region’s SNP or Green MSPs attended.

But despite this, all except one made the effort to show up to vote AGAINST the motion criticising the Scottish ministers' appalling handling of the road project and FOR the SNP’s amendment claiming that everything was just fine.

The people of the Highlands and Islands deserve better. SNP MSPs put their party before their constituents, suggesting they couldn’t care less about the pressing need to get the A9 dualled as promised or the SNP’s shameful failure to do that.

They should hang their heads in shame.

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