ACROSS the border from the Wee County, the Conservatives recently celebrated yet another by-election victory, this time in Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay in Fife.

Just like what happened in the Clackmannanshire North by-election earlier this year, we increased our vote share as both Labour's and the SNP's shares of the vote fell.

The Conservative councillor elected in the by-election replaced a Labour councillor, which now means that former prime minister Gordon Brown, who lives in North Queensferry, is not represented by a single Labour councillor. It just goes to show that the Scottish Conservatives are the only party that can and do beat the SNP.

It is no wonder that the SNP are struggling more and more electorally. Their recent announcement of their Programme for Government left a lot to be desired.

Perhaps it would be described as a re-announcement given that only two of the fifteen bills the first minister pledged to enact last year have since been passed by the Scottish Parliament.

Despite this, the first minister called her Programme for Government her 'most ambitious' yet; although she could not let the moment pass without getting her excuses in early for when things go wrong. The first minister said that the UK's departure from the EU put 'all of [her] progress at risk', which the SNP now seem to blame for anything that goes wrong with their policies.

Within the additional bills that have been pledged were, in fact, a number of Scottish Conservative ideas such as Finn's Law, which protects police dogs who are attacked while on duty, and the creation of a South of Scotland Enterprise agency. This is clearly a government that has run out of its own ideas and out of steam. It is a government on borrowed time.

There were, however, some positive announcements in the Programme for Government, particularly in relation to the additional investment in young people's mental health. This is to be welcomed. Audit Scotland has recently highlighted concerns about the ever-increasing number of young people being referred to mental health services in Scotland and increasing waiting times.

For NHS Forth Valley, less than half of young people were seen by a mental health professional within the Scottish Government's 18-week target. People should not be made to wait so long for such important appointments. While, of course, we support the extra funding, it is concerning that it has taken the Scottish Government this long to act to address the situation.

Perhaps the reason that the Scottish Government has failed to tackle this and many other problems is that they continue to take their eyes off the ball.

Just this week, local Clackmannanshire and Dunblane MSP, Keith Brown, announced a day of action for Scottish independence. Mr. Brown would do well to take note of the fact that his constituents clearly rejected separation four years ago. There is no appetite for another referendum and the SNP urgently need to get back to the day job of running the country.