THE recent political chaos at Clackmannanshire Council will have been unsettling to the many hard working staff who provide our everyday services.

The commitments made to no compulsory redundancies are welcome, but the prospect of cuts in unsocial hours payments to some of the lowest paid workers in the council is worrying.

These cuts would affect women disproportionately and a de-moralised, underpaid workforce means services will be put under increasing strain. The people who deliver our services are our council's greatest asset and we need to put them first when options come to the table.

Scotland’s future is in the balance now as Brexit is triggered and we face a long and torturous process of negotiation ahead.

Nobody knew what would happen after Brexit. But it’s now clear that the UK’s position of moving outside both the EU and the single market will be disastrous for the economy and could lead to the slashing of protections for workers and the environment.

A Westminster Tory Government with one MP in Scotland has not got the moral mandate to remove us from the single market, especially when their election manifesto promised the UK would stay within it.

The final Brexit negotiation will be between a Westminster Government we didn’t elect and 27 European states. Even sub-national governments like Flanders will have a say on the final deal, Scotland and its Parliament will have none.

So where does that leave Scotland’s options? The referendum results of 2014 and 2016 now cannot be reconciled. The independence referendum result was in favour of a status quo that no longer exists. Then last year Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain within the EU while most of the rest of the UK voted to leave.

It’s right then that Scotland re-visits the constitutional question again when the time is right to do so and the options are clearer. Holyrood has now triggered that request for a second independence referendum to Theresa May, but it’s her call as to when and whether to grant it.

For some the thought of yet another referendum is a headache, but we may regret in decades to come not making a choice when that window was briefly open.

Politicians of all parties now have a responsibility to provide as much clarity as possible in the lead up to a further referendum, whenever it happens.

The outrageous promises and bus slogans of last year where highly misleading. The independence referendum of 2014 was much better informed, but there are still many questions that linger in voters’ minds that will need to be addressed by both sides before we can make an informed choice.