THE dust was still in the air post-election when the Nationalist politicians, fuelled by their Labour-augmented performance, started making their ever-predictable calls 'ad nauseam' for yet another damaging and divisive independence referendum.

The prime minister has said no and the Queen even rubber stamped this in her speech to parliament on Thursday, labelling it, quite rightly, as a 'damaging distraction'.

The Scottish Conservative Party is absolutely crystal clear where we stand on this whole issue, and that is in cast iron opposition to another independence referendum. It would be a betrayal of those who voted for us if we were now to go back upon that promise – as others are doing with their 'promises.'

There is also no real mandate for it. Despite their much-lauded result; the nationalists achieved – not entirely coincidentally – 45 per cent of the vote again in Scotland. More people in Scotland voted for Unionist parties and certainly this time round, on the phones and on the doorsteps, people are absolutely overloaded with referendums and want no more than only to be left alone now to be able to get on with their lives.

So it is maybe time now to rein this in and concentrate on the SNP's track record in Scotland.

654 cancer patients are still waiting longer than the 62-day standard for their first cancer treatment according to the latest statistics published recently. According to ISD Scotland, the SNP government is failing their own target by over 10 percent, as they should ensure that 95 percent of all patients wait no more than 62 days.

Hundreds of children have been waiting for more than a year for mental health care as the SNP government continues to miss its treatment targets spectacularly.

In a letter to transport Minister Michael Matheson, the Scottish Parliament's own Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee stated the repairs backlog for trunk roads currently stood at £1.2billion, with an additional £1.8billion for local roads. This coincides with a 26 per cent decline in local roads funding over the last five years, the letter stated.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey reveals that Scotland's results in maths and science are now lower than when Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister. The result for maths has dropped in every single PISA survey and we are now behind Latvia and Slovenia in Maths performance.

Nicola Sturgeon asked to be judged on education but this summer saw the fourth consecutive year of decline in Higher pass rates and now the SNP is presiding over the worst ever PISA results in both maths and science.

In the recent Audit Scotland report, which specifically mentions Clacks Council as one of those most in danger; under the SNP, councils are increasingly raiding their rainy-day fund just to keep things going.

This is unsustainable, and before long these reserves built up over decades are going to be gone. It is patently obvious what happens when you have a government such as our SNP one, which has cut local authority funding to the bone.

Now we know that Brexit will be delivered, this is a time for constitutional stability and rebuilding. We do not need further uncertainty.