IT HAS been a busy month in politics both in Scotland and across the United Kingdom.

In Holyrood, just last week we considered the latest transport bill.

One of the particularly undesirable features of this legislation is the introduction of the SNP’s hated car-park tax which could see workers having to pay up to £500 a year simply for the privilege of parking their car at their work.

This flat fee will hit the poorest hardest and, other than healthcare workers, there are no standard exceptions to who has to pay this. The Scottish Conservatives opposed and will continue to oppose this unwanted and unworkable tax on work.

A little earlier this month, we saw the passage of Finn’s law in Scotland. This came after pressure from the Scottish Conservatives who have been campaigning to introduce a new criminal offence of harming or killing a service animal.

Our petition to introduce the new law was signed by nearly 60,000 people. Working with campaigners, we have been able to secure the legal protections for our police animals that they deserve.

People who harm our police animals must be held accountable for their actions and face the appropriate punishment. This will now put Scotland in line with the rest of the UK in this important policy area.

Last month, the SNP were forced to scrap their flagship named person policy after an expert panel, set up to examine the issue said that it would ‘not be desirable’ to progress the policy.

The Scottish Government have pursued these plans for over six years despite the courts having ruled that it is unlawful.

The Scottish Conservatives are the only party to have voted consistently against this policy, which was universally unworkable and unpopular.

Millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money that could have been spent helping our most vulnerable children has been wasted on this policy. The SNP should apologise for creating this mess.

We also found out that the Scottish Government have been continuing to prepare for another referendum. Freedom of Information requests made by the Scottish Conservatives revealed that a referendum would start the clock on Scottish Government civil servants beginning ‘transitional planning’ for ‘moving to an independent Scotland’.

They showed that delivering a referendum would mean that the civil service would have to increase the ‘reprioritisation of activity’ in other key domestic priorities.

Once again, instead of focussing on our schools, hospitals and making our streets safer, the SNP are obsessed with one thing only.

And this is not a distant fantasy. It is a real and present danger to Scotland.

Following reports earlier this year that Jeremy Corbyn would not block a second independence vote, if the SNP requested the powers to hold one, the SNP have said in recent weeks that they will happily prop up Jeremy Corbyn in Number 10.

With a general election just around the corner, it is now clear to anyone that a vote for either the SNP or Labour is a vote to overturn the result of the supposed ‘once-in-a-generation’ independence referendum.

Only the Scottish Conservatives and a Conservative UK Government will stand up for all those who voted ‘No’.