NOW that we are past ‘Burns nicht’ and full pelt into the spring, I hope we see a let-up in the volume of storms.

Over the last wee while, I have been involved with circulating Scottish Government papers on how we intend to go about building a new Scotland.

For those who can, I recommend visiting the Scottish Government website and typing in ‘Building a New Scotland’, as all six papers let you see our view on how the work behind the scenes is progressing and how we will continue it after we vote to rid ourselves of this horrendous Westminster circus.

I was delighted to see current Westminster representative Carol Monaghan reselected unposed to continue the fight as the SNP candidate for Glasgow West, to make Scotland’s voice both heard and relevant in the forthcoming bun fight for how far both right-of-centre ‘English’ registered parties want to take us in pursuit of their ‘Shire versus Red Wall votes’ while denying us the right to follow a simple democratic path to see if the people of Scotland want to remain in this union.

Locally, I had the privilege of putting the Lincoln Inn forward for a community pub award for all the great things it does for its regulars and community so fingers crossed for them.

I also visited Arthur and the fantastic Yoker Pantry, run in conjunction with the DRC Youth Project, whose members help to provide a dignified way forward for various groups across the age demographics while assisting with employability, mental and physical health, and drug and alcohol misuse.

There is also affordable food provision, digital inclusion and a cross-community initiative aimed at reducing crime, anti-social behaviour territorial issues and unhealthy lifestyles, through a five-stage youth work programme.

It was inspiring and I overstayed my visit to take in as much as possible.

In parliament, I was delighted to visit a Scottish Whisky Association exhibition to speak about their issues but with one eye on our local bottling plant Edrington, in Drumchapel, and its contribution to the £7billion per year worldwide sales of ‘the water of life’.

It’s always good to know their contribution is stable while the world around their markets can be volatile.

On the subject of volatility, I have also tabled a question for next week regarding what criteria the Scottish Government considers when determining how to allocate funding for humanitarian aid in situations such as Gaza after some aid from the UK is withdrawn in what we all know is a situation that has turned into genocide and needs an immediate ceasefire.