There's not much that everyone agrees on in Scottish politics these days, but I hope we can all agree that our top priority now has to be recovering from the significant impact which the pandemic has had on our lives.

There were a number of positive examples of cross-party agreement and co-operation during the initial days of Scotland's response to the pandemic, but unsurprisingly - come election time - we're all back in our respective corners talking down our opponents.

After the past year our communities, our economy and often our families are under immense pressure. It is essential that we spend every waking minute in the next Parliament concentrating on recovering and building for a brighter future.

If you listen to the SNP and the Tories it's as if nothing has happened !

My day job is in environmental conservation, so it's no surprise that I'd like to use this last chance reach out to the readers of the Musselburgh Courier to say a little about how we can pass on to future generations a country in a better condition than it currently is.

We hear a lot about the Climate Crisis, but there's a global nature crisis too. In Scotland more than half of all species are in decline, and experts predict that 1 in 10 species currently face extinction. That's why I am delighted that Willie Rennie has promised that on the first day of a Scottish Liberal Democrat Government being elected in Scotland he would declare a Nature Emergency.

Poverty and inequality across Scotland remain stubbornly persistent and have been heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic.

We need strong action to tackle the deep rooted causes of this problem. These often emerge early in life and one of the starkest examples is the widening attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils in our schools. At the current rate of progress it will take 35 years to close this gap. That isn't good enough.