WITHIN a minute of new Prime Minister Theresa May beginning to address the media for the first time, it became clear that Scotland had no chance of receiving Number 10’s support for remaining in the European Union.

When May says the word Unionist is very important to her and that she sees a “precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”, it doesn’t mean that her premiership will be begin with a respect for the democratic decisions taken by each of these nations, but rather it will be Westminster calling the shots. In her mandatory praise of her predecessor, May declared David Cameron to be a “great, modern prime minister”. What sort of leader puts their party’s interests before the country and gambles with something so valuable as EU membership, putting in danger everything from workers’ and women’s rights to the very stability of the economy?

That would be the same sort of leader who created a crisis where foodbank use is at record levels and who believes a cruel sanctions regime against the most vulnerable is a better path to “economic recovery” than taking power away from the big banks who caused the crash in the first place.

Cameron failed to take the opportunity to ban zero-hours contracts, leaving more than 800,000 people with limited workplace rights and protections. What makes this worse is that he knows this is wrong, especially because he admitted in an election debate that he couldn’t live on a zero-hours contract.

Pretending to be a motivational speaker, Cameron attempted to give some words of wisdom to any young folk watching his final PMQs. He told them “you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it”, but, the truth is, that’s not possible in Tory Britain.

We weren’t all given the same head start in life, we didn’t go to Eton and we weren’t part of a university society that gets its kicks from dead pigs and burning money in front of homeless people. David Cameron’s Britain is one utterly alien to 99 per cent of the people who live on these islands.

On the day Cameron left office, a report by Citizens Advice Scotland made clear that social security is failing the most vulnerable in our country and that the bureau has experienced a steep increase in foodbank enquiries. That is the legacy of May’s predecessor and she has a duty to set it right. I’m not holding my breath though.

The task faced by the new Prime Minister will require her to work constructively with opposition parties and the devolved bodies. However, voters in Scotland will be troubled by her record on issues from civil liberties to climate change, and from the bedroom tax to intervention in Iraq and Syria.

There is a wartime mentality within this new Government and May will be desperate to pull in the reins of those rebelling Brexiteers. No defiance will be tolerated, including any from Scotland.

Indeed, just yesterday, on his first day in the job, our new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond (famed for his concern about an independent Scotland’s space defences), declared there will be no separate deal for Scotland in the Brexit negotiations. The problem with this, of course, is that we voted for a different deal, to keep our EU membership, our European citizenship and all the benefits which come with it.

The Scottish Government has a cross-party mandate, crossing the Yes-No divide and with the exception of only the Tories themselves, to pursue every available option to keep Scotland in the European Union.

And it is only right that it is given the chance to explore and potentially exhaust all of the options which would keep up in both the EU and the UK, but we all know where this is going by now.

The only way to guarantee Scotland’s future in Europe and to ensure that decisions about that relationship lie in the hands of the people of Scotland alone, is for us to win a second referendum on independence.

If you’d asked me three weeks ago when I thought the next referendum would be, I’d have been adamant that it wouldn’t come in this session of parliament (2016-21).

It would have been too soon, the case for independence would not have been improved enough to win a majority, and there are no third chances.

That has all changed now though.

A second referendum is coming much sooner that I’d thought.

And while the vote hasn’t been called yet, the campaign must start this summer. Plenty of commentators expect this new level of support for Yes to fall away. Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen by getting out into our communities once again to tell our neighbours why we must put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands.