The SNP conference in October 2023 coincided with the outbreak of hostilities in Gaza.

The opening day of that conference included an emotional speech from SNP councillor, and wife of then First Minister Humza Yousaf, Nadia El-Nakla. Nadia pleaded for a humanitarian corridor as a response to what she described at the time as ‘an assault on humanity’. Some of her family members, who were trapped in Gaza at the time, were eventually able to leave and return to Scotland.

At that stage – a week after the Hamas attack on Israel – there had been around 2300 deaths in Gaza and around 1300 in Israel.

The latest figures from Gaza have taken the death toll there over 40,000.

Nobody that has followed the situation in Gaza can fail to be moved by the scale of human loss and we must continue to call for a ceasefire, as I know so many folk in Orkney do every weekend in front of St Magnus Cathedral. Keeping the atrocities being carried out by Israel in the minds of folk is key to keeping pressure on the parties involved to come to an agreement that would end the killing.

While domestic issues such as the eradication of child poverty are always going to be the focus of the Scottish Government’s work, we have a duty to pressurise regimes such as Israel, whose actions are killing innocent women and children across Gaza.

With no sign of a ceasefire breakthrough, I expect that the situation in Gaza will still be on the agenda as we approach this year’s SNP conference at the end of the month. As a party we need to be unified in condemnation of Israeli actions in the region.

A fortnight ago, I highlighted how the Scottish Government would have to find around £100m to keep the Winter Fuel Payment universal in this country, following Labour’s decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Payment without any consultation with the Scottish Government.

Fast forward and we now know that it has not been possible for the Scottish Government to identify funding for this mitigation of Westminster policy. It means the cut at the UK level will result in many pensioners across Orkney left unable to access the Winter Fuel Payment this coming year. It means that significantly fewer than the 4936 folk that received the payment in the winter of 2022-23 will benefit from it this time.

The austerity-driven decision by Labour directly resulted in an estimated £160m of funding being wiped from the Scottish Government’s budget. It is effectively an undermining of the devolution settlement, and it has left the SNP government with no choice but to replicate the policy in Scotland.

Due to heating regimes and energy costs, it means Highlands & Islands pensioners will suffer most from Labour’s cruel cut. I would strongly encourage Orkney folk of pension age to check whether they are eligible for pension credits in order to ensure that they still have access to the Winter Fuel Payment.

This is a regular column by SNP MSP Emma Roddick. All Highlands and Islands MSPs have been offered the same space in The Orkney News to share their personal views.