It feels like a perfect storm of post-Brexit implementation issues are still having serious knock-on implications for our rural communities and on our £15 billion food and drink sector.

And to have had a glimmer of hope around the visa scheme so roundly quashed in recent weeks tells us all we need to know about the kind of change that the new Labour government intends to implement – and it isn’t one that will suit Scotland.

I have talked to plenty of folk on the issue of a Rural Visa Pilot and found myself in really positive and agreeable discussions with folk who would otherwise not see eye-to-eye with me on politics. The feeling I get is that these people are desperate to support a tailored approach to immigration for this country.

When a few weeks ago it appeared that the new Labour government was considering a Scottish visa, I know I wasn’t alone in getting my hopes up for progress on this very necessary move.

Knowing that such a move would have wide support, it was frustrating to hear the very quick climbdown and clarification from a UK level that the Labour government isn’t remotely interested in thinking about change; let alone delivering it.

The picture we are getting is one where none of the London-based parties has the will to implement an immigration system that works for Scotland.

In his refusal to act on this vital issue, Keir Starmer, his Labour colleagues – and the Tories that came before him – have proved that these kinds of decisions must be taken in Scotland, by the people of Scotland.

It should be clear for other parties to see that we need different policies in Scotland to suit our different needs and our different demographics.

To maintain a state of willful ignorance to the need to address the glaring imbalance that we are experiencing is never going to result in the positive change that Scotland so desperately needs.

It is cases such as this that show so starkly that Brexit is not an historical event that is over and done with. Brexit is still badly impacting the Highlands and Islands and preventing growth in the rural economy across the board.

When you look around Orkney and see how many projects were funded by the EU, it makes you wonder how many post-Brexit developments have simply not got off the ground because that funding no longer exists.

Scotland is paying a high price for a failing Brexit that it didn’t vote for – with the full economic consequences of exiting the EU still to be realised. A UK level Brexit rethink is urgently needed to address the barriers and impacts that Scotland is experiencing.

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.