FOR everyone in Scotland, the potential is there for 2021 to be an improvement on 2020. And it is in all of our hands to make it happen.

The latest mutation of the coronavirus has set us all back to the early days of the pandemic amid escalating infection rates in Clydebank and beyond. There have now been 100,000 deaths in the UK attributed to Covid-19 since the start of the outbreak, giving the UK the unenviable title of the country with the highest mortality rate, per head of population, in the world.

Two chinks of light. People are becoming more aware of the need to follow the behavioural restrictions – though unfortunately not all are doing so – and the vaccination programme is being rolled out as quickly as we can secure supplies. So, to enable our earliest lifting of restrictions I urge everybody to continue following the rules and, when offered the vaccination, to take up the offer.

With the Brexit withdrawal “deal” finally done and dusted, the true horrors of leaving the European Union are being exposed.

Like most in Scotland, I opposed Brexit primarily for what we would lose and the damage it would do to our core industries – but never had I imagined how bad it would be.

Because Scotland’s economic base is different from the south-east of England, it was assumed that during withdrawal negotiations the UK Government would take account of these different needs and protect Scottish industry. Sadly, despite numerous representations by the Scottish Government, in the final days of the negotiations the UK Government threw the Scottish fishing industry under the bus, after years of promising them a better future.

As well as the fishing industry, food and drinks, farming, tourism and hospitality in Scotland are going to suffer disproportionately from the rest of the UK.

Since the tragic murder of Paige Docherty, and the subsequent delay in the return of her body to the family because of defence lawyers’ second post-mortem requests, I have been working on a Member’s Bill to time-limit this process.

My bill reached stage 1 of the Scottish Parliament’s legislative process last week, but due to time constraints occasioned by coronavirus business, proper evidence-taking was not possible and the bill fell.

The one good thing to come out of my raising the issue was that the Crown Office have introduced a protocol which will minimise delay in second post-mortems and improve information sharing.

Not the result I had hoped for but certainly better than the situation inherited before I introduced my bill.