SINCE the start of the holidays I’ve read and watched a multitude of news reviews of 2016. It’s fair to say they haven’t made particularly festive viewing or reading.

The unremittingly tragic epilogue of this year’s world events, and the catastrophes that have befallen our fellow human beings in the past 12 months, has left many struggling to take in the seismic shifts taking place in the world around us.

Thank goodness, then, for the benefit of a few days at home with my family, and yesterday’s "Hope" edition of the National. Now we’ve had a break for a few days to take stock and recharge our batteries, it’s time to dust ourselves off and look to the horizon.

If 2016 was the year of hard knocks, 2017 must be the year of the comeback.

Because the point of politics is to make positive changes and to make the planet around us a better place to live. If we believe in a better Scotland, we shouldn’t accept the current situation that surrounds us. We now need to double down and work out how we can work together to make it better.

So, when Theresa May and her government fails to bring forward a plan for addressing Brexit, the biggest challenge facing these islands since the Second World War, then we must be visible in articulating a positive, alternative view.

Even after the heartbreaking result of the Brexit vote across the UK, we should have hope in our country in the year to come. With the publication of the Scottish Government’s response to Brexit, “Scotland’s Place in Europe”, we now have a blueprint for the future, something we can argue for rather than a result that we have set ourselves against. It’s a proposal that aims for the highest common denominator, which seeks to unite rather than divide.

No-one would argue that the roadmap it sets out will be easily achieved. As with the future deal to be sought by Westminster, there are a number of political hurdles to be cleared and international partners still to be signed up. But I’ve always believed that when others say nothing should or could change because this is how Scotland is, we must counter to set out how Scotland could be. Nor will this deal be a way to solve all of the economic or social challenges that Scotland faces today. It may not even fully redress the issues thrown up by the referendum result and the Tories’ acquiescence of a hard-Brexit future. But it is the best deal possible from the situation in which we find ourselves.

While securing a deal on these terms would absolutely mean accepting an imperfect future, this Rawlsian compromise is a platform onto which we can rebuild a Yes movement to welcome in those who, for whatever reason, we couldn’t previously convince.

I fear that if we run the same arguments and campaigns in any future referendum, we’ll finish with the same disappointing result.

But if we gather enough support to make a deal to keep Scotland in Europe, even on these terms, it’s clear to me that it wouldn’t end the case for independence, it would strengthen it. It would give us a new platform on which to build an even better case for independence in the longer term.

In the same vein, rather than railing against the rise of racism and misogyny, as personified by Trump and Farage, we must hold fast to our progressive principles and look to demonstrate the political, social and economic benefits of equality and solidarity for everyone in our communities.

We need to counter extremism with tolerance. We must take the high ground in these crucial arguments. We mustn’t stoop to the level of the demagogues when the stakes are so high.

Nor should we fall into the trap of blaming those who looked to them for leadership when politics as usual seemed to let them down. We should instead approach the future with the knowledge that over time only love will conquer hate.

So in the face of the challenges that 2016 has thrown at us, what will you do to answer?

It’s not events that define you, the old saying goes, it’s how you react to them.

We can’t, we shouldn’t and we won’t take the events of the last year lying down.

Now that the reactionaries and populists are on the march, progressives must stand up and be counted. Over the weeks and months ahead, I look forward to standing proudly with you all as we seek to take on the challenges that unfold in front of us.

If not us, who? If not now, when?

Let’s stand together to make the year ahead one of hope for us all.