AT 11pm tonight, Scotland will cease to be part of the EU after almost half a century. That is a moment of profound sadness for me, and for countless others across Scotland, and indeed the rest of the UK.

NICOLA Sturgeon has been urged by one of her predecessors to make a direct request to the European Union for a Scottish-only extension to the current transition period in order to protect the country from dealing with a No-Deal Brexit while fighting the coronavirus pandemic and an economic recession.