You may remember we had a GE two years ago…although it feels like 10! You may also notice nothing has changed, apart from the nation’s debt.

The reason for this, in my view, is that although a new party comes in with a few new ideas, the root of the problem and how to tackle it never changes. Their answer is, to borrow more money and chuck it at the same old problems.

Money alone will never solve Westminsters problems and it won’t solve Scotlands either. Not even the black gold under the sea will solve it. There needs to be a fundamental change in the way we do things. At the moment, Holyrood is operating as a mini Westminster, it’s ‘rinse and repeat’, and we wonder why it all feels like déjà vu!

Systems keep failing when people fail to recognise the root of the problem and are too inflexible to change.

It is the same with new political parties, people when starting up a new party tend to forget why they left their old one in the first place. They then go on to build a new one copying the model of the one they have just left. A party doesn’t fail just because of money, it fails because of its structure, internal policies and lack of due diligence.

When Alba was formed, it soon became clear and was indeed referred to as SNP2. The model was the same, and the mindset was the same. In other words, they forgot why they had left the SNP in the first place. New, means new, not copy and paste! AS made a strategic error when he started Alba, he built it using the old SNP business/ political model knowing it was crumbling.

Tried and trusted only works when the ‘tried and trusted’ continues to work!!! Holyrood is failing, not through lack of money, but through the ethos of the ruling party. What they say they believe in and the road they walk do not match, much like Westminster. Devolution and more powers are the easier road for them…independence…well that’s too difficult!

When someone slams a door in your face, you do one of two things, you either walk away or you find another door.

We know there’s another door, it’s not a door to direct independence, but it is a door that opens other doors. Swinney won’t even stand at the door and knock! No discussions, nothing, just a report from someone who also won’t discuss or defend their case. They have built their wall and nobody is getting in.

What a way to run a country, where is the vision?