AS the minutes mark the imminent passing of 2020, there will be few who mourn the passing of a cursed year which has laid waste to so much in our lives that we took for granted. But rather than wallow in mourning that loss let’s celebrate instead five things which made 2020 the year which offered hope for a better future.

1: The year of selflessness

As the coronavirus took hold and we were plunged into the first phase of lockdown, we collectively woke up to the incredible work done by NHS staff tirelessly treating those afflicted by the virus regardless of the risk to their own health.

The weekly doorstep applause for those workers was an unexpectedly moving communal expression of gratitude and respect. Like many of the upsides of 2020, our new-found awareness of the debt we owe frontline NHS will fade away unless it is allowed to take root and nurtured. The Scottish Government’s £500 payment was welcome but what’s really needed is a recalibration of the value we place on work. The free market will never price a nurse’s work higher than, say, a stockbroker’s. Which leads us to ...

2: The year we saw the need for economic change

The financial structures on which our society is built were found to be hopelessly unable to deal with a pandemic which saw businesses lose fortunes, threatened widespread unemployment and potentially wiped out major industries.

Furlough helped, as did cash injections to some businesses but the cost to many of us will be huge. After the banking crash of 2008 there seemed to be an emerging acceptance of the need to refocus our economy on people rather than profit but such hopes came to nothing. In the wake of the pandemic we need to investigate challenging ideas – including universal basic income - to make our economy work for the public good rather than against it.

3: The year that toppled Trump

In the dark days leading up to the American election, it seemed that the United States had once and for all turned its back on its founding principles and instead embraced racism, violence, populism, anti-science and fake news. As Donald Trump became increasingly unhinged, we looked on amazed as there seemed to be no limits to the sheer insanity his followers would accept.

The National: Donald Trump

Then suddenly it was over. Trump ranted and raved, claimed electoral fraud and cheating and refused to concede defeat, but it was over. On election day it seemed as if Trump’s America had faded away, replaced by a nation which celebrated diversity and embraced a different future.

In the harsh light of the following days we knew, of course, that was a huge over-simplification. Joe Biden’s no radical socialist but his America will be a better path.

4: The year we learned the lessons of working from home

At first, it seemed to many of us a liberation. In those early days the sun shone. If you were lucky enough to have a garden you could have coffee outside. There was no need to climb into a suit or work clothes. As long as you were vaguely presentable on screen you could wear joggies all day. The daily commute was a thing of the past.

But the novelty wore off. It didn’t take long when you had to balance work duties with childcare, which became a nightmare for many. For those living alone it became an isolating experience, shorn of office camaraderie and water-cooler banter. Heating bills rose. Furlough was a lifesaver but income still fell.

For me, working from home served to underline that work is a communal experience. Without that human contact, without that creative interaction, it was often pretty grim. The pandemic will change work forever. But increasingly I’m finding more and more people want a balance between home work and a day or two in an office (preferably their own, but desperate times …)

5: The year (more) Scots learned to love independence

This, more than anything else, offers hope for a better future for our country. As the year progressed, opinion poll showing support for independence of in the upper 50s became the norm, with peaks of 58% not unusual. Whether driven by admiration for Nicola Sturgeon’s handling of the Covid crisis or by horror at Boris Johnson’s obsession with Brexit at any price, Scots increasingly saw taking control of their own affairs as the most attractive option. We now face 2021 as one of the most important years in Scottish history, the year when reclaiming our independence comes tantalisingly within our grasp, the year when we can at last reconnect with Europe and with the world on our own terms.

In the vital months ahead there can be only one aim: to ensure the biggest possible SNP majority in May’s Holyrood election. I joined the SNP in 2020 and I did so because I truly believe they offer the best – indeed the only - route to independence in the short-to-medium term. Even if an alliance of two or more pro-indy parties results in a pro-indy majority, it would still confuse the message to Westminster and would be described by our opponents there as a reduction in support for the SNP.

There are still big questions to be answered: what happens if Westminster tries to block indyref2; what kind of country do we want to create; how do we resolve divisive issues such as the Gender Recognition Act; even the dreaded currency issue. Those are questions for another day. We have a momentous opportunity between now and May and we owe it to ourselves to do everything we can to achieve that majority and then ensure the democratic decision it articulates is enacted.

The most important message for 2021 is that the task ahead requires unity and focus on that single purpose. Not because independence is more important than beating Covid-19 and creating a fairer society from the havoc the pandemic has wreaked but because independence offers us the only hope of doing so. Let’s work together to make it the happiest of new years.