BACK to work today. For many of us in Scotland, today marks the official end of the holiday period. Hogmanay celebrations are behind us. Christmas decorations are being put away, to the disappointed looks of our wee ones.

It’s time to get our heads down and earn our crust again.

Last year will be remembered in the history books for seismic changes in our politics, when the tectonic plates of culture and society started to shift, and 2017 will see the beginning of the uncoupling of the UK from the EU, and the installation of America’s first post-truth president. Time will tell if the upshot of these democratic decisions will be a series of continuing political earthquakes across the globe, or whether the world has settled into a new civic normality.

But as we consider these potentially enormous consequences, the wheels of community and society continue to turn. The day-to-day work of government and parliament continues irrespective of the wider context in which it works.

That’s why one of my new year resolutions will be to continue to work hard to highlight and address the issues that aren’t always splashed across the front pages of the newspapers or forensically analysed in the comment sections.

That’s why I welcome the action we’ve seen to support Scottish rail travellers after delays and disruption last year. The week’s free rail travel for all season ticket-holders announced won’t make amends for all the challenges faced last year, but it’s a welcome piece of recognition by the Government and rail operators that passengers always deserve the best possible service.

Another such issue is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Even with the huge advances in medical science in recent years, doctors are still unable to pinpoint its exact cause, leaving us in the heartbreaking situation where every nine days a family in Scotland loses a child to this tragedy. That’s one of the reasons why I support the introduction of the Baby Box by the Scottish Government – and incidentally, also by some NHS trusts in England in the past few months – in a scheme which was launched in my constituency last weekend.

This is a low-cost, practical, life-saving measure designed to give all children born in Scotland the best start in life, irrespective of their background. It’s what progressive governments do.

These are just two small examples of the sort of actions that are being taken each and every day by our government in Scotland to make a positive, incremental difference to the lives of everyone who lives here.

They sit side by side with announcements this week on funding for Edinburgh’s world-class festivals, new laws to combat the modern scourge of revenge porn, and partnerships with Scottish universities to drive forward research into neurological conditions such as motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. This is a government which is taking action today.

If only Theresa May’s Tory Government at Westminster, wrapped in knots over its post-Brexit direction, would commit itself to action now to address the many pressing issues it has before it at home and abroad.

In the normal course of politics, you’d expect the main opposition party to be able to take advantage of this paralysis at the heart of Whitehall. But with Labour MPs unfortunately now more concerned with perusing the job ads and arguing with each other than planning for power, the task of holding the UK Government to account has increasingly fallen to the SNP. We’ve been happy to oblige.

SNP MPs have led the way in seeking a fair resolution to the situation of the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) group, whose tireless campaigning has been an inspiration to many, and has forced parliamentary votes on the issue. We’ve put forward concrete proposals for reform of the bankrupt benefits sanctions process, while also seeking to scrap the rape clause in the new tax credit rules.

And as well as looking to hold Tony Blair properly to account for his statements in the lead-up to the Iraq war, we’ve demanded that minsters come to the dispatch box to answer urgent questions on the use of UK-manufactured arms in Yemen, and in adopting a humanitarian approach as the refugee crisis unfolded around the Mediterranean Sea. At every turn it’s Scotland’s representatives who have exposed Tory ministers as unable or unwilling to act to do the right thing on either the domestic or international fronts.

Ahead of my return to parliament, I’ll meet my team today in Alloa to discuss and agree my constituency priorities for the next 12 months.

When we do so, I’ll bear in mind the need to balance the need to address the serious, strategic issues like the fall-out from Brexit with the need for us to take direct action today to improve the day-to-day lives of the communities who elected us to serve.