LIKE many, I took time out last week to watch the inauguration of new US President Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris, and have to say it was more emotional than I expected. I have not felt the need to watch an inauguration before, like a football match I’ve no stake in (which is all of them other than the national team). I would usually be content to catch the edited highlights later. This time, though, I wanted to see it done, as someone on Twitter said, to mak sikkar it actually happened so we can all relax a bit.

Where the Trump presidency has been unrelenting static in everyone’s background for the past four years, I look forward to not thinking about the US president every few hours. I look forward to not hearing about major policy changes at 2am, and I really really look forward to not hearing racist and misogynist dog whistles whipping up hatred and division in my timeline as well as everyone else’s. Just not hearing his voice will be grand. Seeing him in court will be even better.

Alongside the various pending legal actions in different courts US-wide, it now seems clear that his second impeachment, over his incitement of riot, will also progress. I have to say I hope they don’t make a massive song and dance over it, giving him a platform in Washington to play the victim. But a swift trial would be a sensible response.

As SNP lead at Westminster on foreign affairs I have, of course, had extensive dealings with the US, with various meetings with the officials at the US mission in London and Edinburgh. I met with their now former secretary of state Mike Pompeo when he was last in London as we will always have open relations with the US, whoever is in charge.

Defence spokesperson Stewart McDonald and I were in Washington in January last year and we were struck by the interest in Scotland and the opportunities we have to build links, working particularly with our Irish friends. That will be easier now and we’re taking concrete plans forward.

So what is in the pipeline for the new administration, and what does it mean for us? To read some of the UK press over the past couple of days you would be forgiven for thinking Biden has done nothing but redecorate his new digs. The paroxysms of rage from the usual pundit suspects that he has had removed a bust of Churchill from the Oval Office makes me think some of the right-wing UK commentators may be needing therapy to adapt to the new regime. Not only do they think protection of statues at home should be our priority, they get worked up about statues in foreign countries too. Their deep insecurity has been palpable, as is the unease on the UK Government benches that they have backed the wrong horse.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson considered that Trump should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He allowed himself to be called “Britain Trump” and was quite open in his fanboy enthusiasm that the US was somehow going to pull the UK out of the coming post-Brexit slump with a super-duper trade deal that would make all the badness go away.

Well, no. Leaving statue angst to others, there has indeed been a ferocious gear change with the new regime, but the UK isn’t any sort of priority. In his first two days Biden signed 17 Executive Orders (it took Trump two months in office to reach anything like that number) reversing existing policy.

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Campaign taunts of Sleepy Joe are long in the past. This is a man who knows what he’s there to do and isn’t going to be slow in doing it. He has already rejoined the Paris Climate Accord; restored ties with the World Health Organisation; lifted the ban on travellers to America from several Muslim-majority countries; extended temporary freezes on household evictions; mandated mask-wearing in airports, public transport and in federal buildings; and halted construction of the US-Mexico border wall. That’s not a bad day at the office, and not a UK trade deal in sight.

Watching Biden’s picks for key roles, again there is a sense that the adults are coming back into the room. The new Secretary of State

Antony Blinken was impressive in his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday. He should be – he was deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama. The appointment also of Amanda Sloat as senior director for Europe on the National Security Council is also a good indication that the new administration takes the wider world seriously. That she holds a doctorate from Edinburgh University and her thesis was “Scotland in Europe: A Study of Multi-level Governance” will stand her in good stead in the coming months and years!

It is no secret that she, like most folk in Washington, regard Brexit as a mistake. Our business, but a mistake nonetheless that complicated their own relations with our continent. Ursula von der Leyen as EU Commission President has been clear she wants to see a rapid warming of US-EU relations, and this is reciprocated on the US side. The president who referred to the EU as a foe is long gone and the UK is adrift. Where Trump might have pretended a UK-US trade deal was somehow in the offing, Biden won’t indulge in such theatre. Trade deals are long and complex things and the US priority is the EU, not us. That’s not to say it won’t happen, but not any time soon and not in time to stave off or offset Brexit trauma for our economy.

Hopefully the UK Government will ditch the dream of exceptionalism and maintain close alignment with the EU single market.

AND on independence, and on Ireland, the change in personnel is important. Nobody is going to do us any favours, but it helps if they get us. Biden is vocally proud of his Irish roots, and post Brexit what happens in Ireland is of direct relevance to us, and vice versa.

I’m committed that our friends and allies should have no surprises from Scotland as we take the next steps on our constitutional journey. We’re clear in what we want and in how we want to do it. We believe in the sovereignty of the people of Scotland, and the rule of law, too, at home and abroad.

The Irish international efforts have proven that a small country’s heft is enhanced by active membership of international organisations, and they now have one of their own in the White House.

We’ll be an interesting part of the world for the months and years ahead, too, and I’m active already in reaching out to our friends and allies. That discussion with the US got a bit easier this week.