‘THERE is nothing more important than independence,” I wrote on Saturday in a tweet announcing I was joining an internal SNP selection process for the candidacy for Edinburgh Eastern at next year’s Holyrood election. A tweet I thought would mainly bounce around the echo chamber of SNP/indy supporters.

But, of course, I’m a councillor, and Tory councillors follow me, and a couple of them quote tweeted me with shock and dismay. And before long @ScotTories had quote tweeted me, and Tory MSP Dean Lockhart was appalled and sickened.

And then the pile-on began. But as the housing, homelessness and fair work convener at Edinburgh Council – and a woman and a (relatively) young councillor – I’m not lacking in experience of public criticism – especially from Tories.

In the council chamber, I’m used to this kind of simplistic reductionism. Wilful misunderstanding is a common trick used by opponents. It plays to the populist gallery that dominates contemporary politics. Never leave a thread hanging, because your opponents will tug it. Especially when they are feeling so threatened.

I’m using the words vile abuse, because that’s what some (most) of it was. Misogynistic, patronising, angry. I feel genuinely sad that politics has become so polarised. This isn’t unique to Scotland, but because we are on the cusp of fundamental constitutional change, it feels particularly shrill.

So to my comments about nothing being more important than independence. How I probably should have put it is that, right now, the challenges we face as a country, from Brexit and from the coronavirus, are so great that we need a government that is agile and able to react quickly to the myriad different challenges that present locally. We need a government that has all of the levers that only independence can bring – primarily that has absolute primacy over spending choices.

Governments across the world are borrowing now to invest in public services and the pandemic response. But Scotland has to wait until Sunak and Johnson decide what to give us, and when.

In Edinburgh, we’ve seen the highest new benefits claimant count in Scotland, and that suggests that many more jobs are under threat. The risk of serious damage to our economy, and therefore to people’s lives, is enormous. And terrifying. And those new claimants must now rely on a punitive welfare system with all the problems and barriers to support, from Universal Credit, the benefits cap, the two-child cap to the disgusting and shameful rape clause.

Many jobs in Edinburgh are in hospitality, tourism, the arts and creative industries. We need to protect those jobs and local businesses. But right now we’re waiting to see if Sunak deems them as “viable’” enough to qualify for the job support scheme. A Chancellor in a far away city with little knowledge of the balance of Edinburgh’s economy.

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An independent Scotland would set our own priorities and focus support on sectors and businesses that have a strong record of fair work, skills development and sustainability. We would also decide for ourselves not what is viable, but what is valuable. I’m thinking particularly here about the arts and creative sectors – recovery is likely to be slow but they are so fundamental to our culture, our ability to reflect on ourselves and our society and the sounding board for how we build back a better, fairer more inclusive Scotland. They have meandering tendrils into so many other sectors, enriching them all.

BUT it’s important that we also look at rebalancing our economy. This is the opportune moment for a Green New Deal. The pandemic means all countries need to borrow to support their economies and to support people whose livelihoods are at risk.

And with the desperate need to take action on climate change, an independent Scotland could, for example, borrow to invest in green infrastructure – building carbon neutral homes, transport and energy solutions – creating jobs and developing the skills that will be needed for the future.

This would not only keep people in work and develop the infrastructure we need to meet our net zero targets – it would also create a skilled workforce in Scotland. When the global economy starts to recover, we could be the go-to country for sustainable, green infrastructure with the engineering expertise to design, and the skilled workforce to build and maintain, projects across the world.

We need independence more than ever because we don’t have the power to do these things and jobs and livelihoods are at risk. And the UK Government is showing a complete disregard for our needs and making decisions that are actually damaging to Scotland.

It has shown it is prepared to act against our will, whether it’s our vote to remain in the EU, or refusing to acknowledge there is majority support for independence and therefore it’s our right to have a referendum.

Only with the full powers of independence will we be able to take the best decisions for our people and our economy and truly build back better, so that Scotland is not just able to recover, but to flourish. The Tories may not like it, but the polls are showing that the majority of people in Scotland know it’s true.