Every few days, as predictable as the tides, the SNP and Greens try to force a fight with the UK Government.
Their latest grievance of the week is over their shambolic Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) plans.
In principle, a DRS could work. But as we see so often, the SNP have taken a positive and turned it into a negative.
Their plans are a mess, which is a real shame.
Because we actually agree that climate change must be tackled. We agree with setting ambitious targets to reach net zero. We even agree with the principle behind a Deposit Return Scheme.
But the plans put forward by the SNP and Greens are unworkable. They would risk jobs, damage businesses, and hold back Scotland’s economy.
My party recognised that and warned the nationalists that they must go back to the drawing board. But all the SNP and Greens really wanted was another manufactured grievance with the UK Government.
They sought an exemption from the UK Internal Markets Act at the very last minute, long after it should have been requested.
Now, they are protesting because the UK Government has raised perfectly valid concerns about the scheme. It is all so typical of the SNP and Greens.
This debacle has shown once again that the extremist Greens prioritise the constitution over the climate.
They are more interested in nationalism than environmentalism.
They are trying to create a trade barrier at the border.
It’s as if they don’t realise that they decisively lost the 2014 independence referendum.
Their pathetic attempts to increase division would be amusing if it wasn’t for the fact that we still don't know what all this means for businesses, who have been left in the dark about the future plans for the DRS.
They're being made to wait to find out when, or even if, the SNP's plans will go ahead. It is not good enough.
Businesses need certainty to plan and to enable them to keep supporting and creating Scottish jobs.
At the moment, all they are getting from the SNP and Greens is more childish, petty political arguments designed to cause division across Scotland. The nationalist parties should be ashamed of themselves.
I hope that soon, the SNP and Greens will stop putting independence above everything else and start to focus on what really matters. They could begin by ditching the attempt to create constitutional chaos over the DRS and instead listen to the serious concerns of businesses.
But I don’t hold out much hope that they will do the right thing because the DRS scheme has shown that, yet again, the SNP and Greens only have one real priority - splitting up Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom.
