THIS week I had the pleasure of joining the Sauchie Community Group at their Celebration event in the Sauchie and Coalsnaughton Parish Church Hall.

The event welcomed a range of people of ages to enjoy a night of songs, live music and general entertainment.

As I listened on to the various performers, I was reminded why the Sauchie Community Group won the Not For Profit category at the Clacks Business Awards 2017; the group's mix of events, ranging from choir to toddler groups, really does give everyone an opportunity to get involved.

This example of community working and goodwill was a stark contrast to some of the political debate I experienced in parliament earlier in the week, where I asked a question to the prime minister about broadband and pushed on how Edinburgh and London could work constructively together to improve roll-out in Scotland.

This question was met with loud shouts from SNP members in the Chamber and a barrage of social media hits telling me I was "wrong" to have asked the question.

For everyone's benefit, broadband policy in the UK is set in Westminster, but roll-out (implementation) is specifically the responsibility of the SNP executive in Edinburgh.

What was most disappointing about the SNP response to the question was not the shouting/jeering (this is often standard in parliament), but the fact they did not use the opportunity to push Westminster for more resources or better ways of working together for all of Scotland.

Devolution is now 20 years old and although it has fantastic potential to empower local communities and enhance public services, we have seen education slide behind England and Northern Ireland, whilst in health, we still have the lowest life expectancy of all four nations of the United Kingdom.

Holyrood is meant to stop Scotland being left behind, but in so many of my dealings with the Scottish Government since being elected four months ago, political point scoring trumps delivery. At the end of the day, most people I speak to don't care whether a project or service is delivered by the council, Holyrood or Westminster – they just want it to work and work well.

I have previously written about the Clackmannanshire and Stirling City Deal and the potential benefit for our county. To make this deal work Westminster and Holyrood must work together in a transparent and positive way to get maximum value for Clacks.

Over the next few weeks I will be meeting with councillors, officials and MSPs to try and nail down projects and terms for the deal, I hope we can use the example provided by the Sauchie Community Group who have successfully put politics aside for the good of Clackmannanshire.