THIS is not the column that I would have liked to write this month.

The First Minister’s announcement, however, has brought independence to the fore of the Scottish political debate once again.

Nicola Sturgeon assures us that circumstances have forced her to offer the people of Scotland the opportunity to have another say on the constitutional questions but, in fact, it is a choice that the majority of people do not want to have to make.

Poll after poll show that only a third of Scots want another referendum while around a half oppose another plebiscite.

The referendum in 2014 came about by mutual agreement between the UK and Scottish governments. This was formalised in the Edinburgh Agreement to which the now first minister was a signatory.

The SNP did indeed win an overall majority in the 2011 Scottish parliamentary elections but, in that instance, putting the constitutional question to the people had the backing of all political parties in Holyrood and widespread public support. That referendum was described by those on all sides of the debate as once in a generation and once in a lifetime.

The proposals that have been put forward by the Scottish Government for another plebiscite, however, are quite different. The first minister wants to hold a referendum between the Autumn of 2018 and the Spring of 2019 but, despite her rhetoric on the issue, the impact of Brexit on Scotland and the wider UK will not then be clear.

This would mean that Scotland would be asked to make a choice between two outcomes that are far from clear. Moreover, the SNP’s entire logic for calling a referendum - if one can call it logic - is fundamentally flawed.

The First Minister wants to secede from the UK simply to hand competences that will soon be repatriated to Holyrood and Westminster straight back to Brussels.

Our Prime Minister, Theresa May, was absolutely right to rule out another referendum while negotiations with our European partners are ongoing.

Such a campaign would not only be divisive but it would weaken the prime minister’s hand at the negotiating table and incentivise those on the continent to give us a bad deal. Despite the fact that a referendum on the first minister’s time scale has been categorically ruled out, the Nationalists continued with their two-day debate for which both the outcome of the vote and the UK government’s response were already known.

We should be discussing the issues that really matter to the people of Scotland and not rehashing the constitutional debate that most thought should have concluded two-and-a-half years ago.

Scotland’s education system used to be the envy of the world. Now we not only lag behind the rest of the UK in terms of educational attainment but also behind countries like Estonia and Latvia.

This is just one example but similar things are happening across the policy areas for which the Scottish Government is responsible. The First Minister’s obsession with Scottish independence means that our vital public services are being neglected.

It just is not good enough. The SNP need to get back to the day job.