HAPPY New Year everyone and in case you hadn’t noticed we are straight into the election campaign.

I know, we are barely out of the last one, but every year is an election or referendum year these days.

And they are merging into one and the same, because if anyone thought the referendum debate was over then think again, it is about to be a huge factor in the Holyrood election in May.

While health, education, austerity and crime will, as is usual, play an important role, the battle lines and the divisions created last year will be all to evident again.

Just take a look at the speeches made so far this year.

In Holyrood Nicola Sturgeon listed the achievements of the SNP in Government and Labour refuted them and instead branded the last eight years a failure.

Ms Sturgeon will take a similar approach to that which was successful in 2011 and delivered a majority for the SNP, when it campaigned on “record, team and vision”.

Labour would welcome that as it gives them something to challenge and persuade people all is not rosy.

Ms Sturgeon will have a tougher job than her predecessor when she is defending what will be nine years instead of four.

Kezia Dugdale will be right to point out the problems in the NHS over staffing levels and waiting times no government should be satisfied with the level of poverty and the educational attainment gap which exists in Scotland.

Where Ms Sturgeon differs from her predecessor is she is more ready to accept the problems exist and argue she is working to tackle them and her leadership is the most effective choice.

However the bottom line is after the referendum and General Election result the First Minister and the SNP know where the votes lie.

If once again the SNP can get the overwhelming majority of the 45% who voted yes to vote for it they will take almost all of the 73 constituency seats and a guaranteed majority again.

So when Nicola Sturgeon says there will be a “renewed debate” on independence, of course it is with the ultimate aim of, sometime in the future, achieving the 50.1 percent required.

But the immediate goal is to maintain the momentum the party built up during and after the referendum campaign.

The “once in a generation” quote will be thrown at the SNP again and again each time independence or the subject of a second referendum is mentioned.

The more pertinent quote is the one from Alex Salmond when he said “The dream shall never die”.