My hope for 2019 is that the Conservatives finally throw the towel in and admit that they can’t govern at Westminster. The Brexit impasse can only be broken by calling a General Election.

I am certain that West Dunbartonshire will elect Jean Anne Mitchell, the Labour party candidate, and help ensure Jeremy Corbyn and a Labour government takes office, for all our sakes.

The alternative is a depressing prospect, with the Scottish Government now crippled by division between the Salmond and Sturgeon camp within the SNP. That internal warfare is only set to get worse in 2019.

The First Minister’s only offering to us in this New Year is another tiresome tease about ‘indyref2’. This is the last thing the Scottish people want.

Why not just try getting on with the day job? Instead we must brace ourselves for more swingeing cuts to public services and the first national teacher’s strike in Scotland for a generation.

So, First Minister, instead of your nationalistic obsession, why not pay long-suffering teachers what they deserve and stop this damaging industrial dispute before the exam season kicks in.

But no, let’s instead divide a nation again with talk of yet another referendum – proving the Scottish Government is as out of touch with the public’s concerns as the Tories in Westminster.

Until we have a Labour Government, society is left to just get on with their own self-help projects. Here in West Dunbartonshire I would like to congratulate all at Dalmuir Barclay Church who this Christmas raised an incredible £1265.00 for West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare. Every penny will be needed as the effects of the rollout of Universal Credit are felt in our community.

Hundreds of children in West Dunbartonshire go hungry during school holidays. I would like the Scottish Government to follow the lead of the Labour council at North Lanarkshire who became the first in the UK to offer free school meals all year round. The SNP in West Dunbartonshire should introduce a similar scheme, or a ‘holiday hunger’ payment to improve the life chances of our poorest children rather than sit back and see them go hungry. Now wouldn’t that be a great start to 2019!