As a Scotsman I, like so many of my fellow country folk, was surprised by Nicola’s resignation as First Minister and this has got me thinking about where her replacement will take the SNP party and the country.

I do not want to get into the politics per se but have considered about how I would be thinking if I were a candidate – which for the record I can say with absolute confidence that I will never enter politics!

Given the current economic and social problems in Scotland, should the focus be on independence or what is best for Scotland? Although of course many will say that independence is best for Scotland, I am interested to hear other views. Is it possible to remove ‘independence’ from the debate and focus on economic factors rather than political ones?

Is a continued long term fight with Westminster over holding another referendum good for us or would the country benefit more from energy and time being spent on improving the trade and employment opportunities for Scotland and addressing the major issues with health, education and social care?

My concern, irrespective of my own position on independence, is that an organisation that is focussed on fighting for something is not focussed on developing the organisation. Take a business analogy – a company that is involved in a legal dispute will be spending time with their lawyers developing a strategy and collating evidence to try and win their case. But the management time taken up on this (which is always considerable) means that the development of the business will be suffering as less time will be being devoted to that most important task of BD.

Surely common sense says this applies to politics as well?

It feels to me as though the political climate is changing in Scotland with the Lib Dems and Labour gaining popularity. We all remember the criticism that a mere 200,000 people got to vote on the next British PM, or more accurately the last three in short succession. Well up here in Scotland it will be just 100,000 folk that decide on the next leader. Let us hope that common sense prevails and whoever leads our country will think about what businesses and households need to get through this period of economic uncertainty.

Without getting into a political ‘us versus them’ debate I would love to hear your views and don’t forget that we are here to help any businesses or households in need of advice.

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