Through ending tiny tariffs, the Labour Party say households could save up to £21 a year – equivalent to 40p a week, but only when combined with existing tariff suspensions.

In Orkney, where more than half of households are living in fuel poverty, a few pence off a jar of marmalade will not cut it.

With forecasts suggesting a 27% rise to the average household energy bill from January, with further hikes in April, real action is needed to bring down soaring energy bills.

The Scottish Government has called for the introduction of a social tariff, which would provide discounted energy rates for low-income and vulnerable households. Modelling has suggested that around 660,000 households across Scotland could see their energy bills reduced by an average of £700 under such a scheme. Though, I am not full of optimism that the UK Labour Government would be prepared to step forward with a bold approach like this. This is a government that appears content on tinkering around the edges. Take Andy Burnham’s removal of VAT on electricity bills as another example – the grand total of savings for households? Less than £1 a week. If this is the scale of Labour’s ambition, voters have every right to feel let down by the party that promised change.

Petrol and diesel costs also continue to climb. Research by the House of Commons Library, commissioned by the SNP, shows that when Andy Burnham became Prime Minister in July average petrol prices were 150 pence per litre and average diesel prices were 165 pence per litre. At the most recent count on 19th October, average prices for petrol and diesel had risen to 175 pence per litre and 199 pence per litre respectively.

Affordable public transport has never been more important for this very reason.

Communities across Orkney already benefit from the £2 bus fare cap since its introduction in March, but now the SNP has committed to going further, by bringing Scotland’s bus network back into public control through franchising and regulation. A publicly owned bus network helps ensure services are planned around the needs of communities, rather than profits. That is particularly important in areas facing population decline, as vital rural and island routes can be among the first to come under threat. Public ownership makes it easier to protect these lifeline services, while keeping fares fair and affordable.

This month, the BBC confirmed plans to close the BBC Scotland channel. For those working in journalism, broadcasting and the wider creative industries across the region, the channel has provided valuable opportunities and investment. Its closure raises big questions about the BBC’s investment in Scotland, and its commitment to its Scottish audience.

Even before these cuts were announced, licence payers in Scotland were already being shortchanged with BBC expenditure here only equivalent to 88% of the licence fee income raised in Scotland. We pay more than our fair share, yet it is our industry that is seeing the most brutal cuts taken by folk in London.

The Cabinet Secretary for Culture has rightly highlighted the already unjustifiable funding gap between Welsh-language and Gaelic broadcasting. The BBC should be taking steps to address these longstanding inequalities, rather than swinging the axe on Scotland’s already limited representation on linear TV.

It’s time to devolve broadcasting powers. Our creative industries should not fall foul of decisions made elsewhere that fail to recognise the value of Scottish broadcasting.

This is a regular column by SNP MSP Maree Todd. All Highlands and Islands MSPs who wish to feature in The Orkney News with a regular column should email news@theorkneynews.scot