Scotland's future according to politicians sounds bleak

From a lack of bold visions to talks of increasing misogyny, politicians weren't exactly awe-inspiring at an event on Scotland's future yesterday.
Scotland 2050. An event you may think promises chat about flying cars and robots taking over our jobs.
In earlier discussions there were certainly mentions of AI and technological change but the pull for Scottish political correspondents like me was politicians setting out their visions for Scotland in the future.
This offered the likes of the First Minister and the Scottish Labour leader a chance to set out bold and ambitious plans.
The need for politicians to do so is becoming all the more pressing.
Recent studies such as the Youth Poll show that young people are losing faith in the political systems and are worried about their future.
Yet, listening to politicians yesterday I was left more fearful and depressed about where we will be in 25 years.
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In conversation with Cherie Blair, Kate Forbes told us the "destructive nature" of social media "cannot be overstated".
The deputy First Minister branded actor Rupert Everett's recent description of Nicola Sturgeon as a 'witch' as 'abhorrent' and 'totally misogynistic'.
Ms Forbes went on to say that we have been talking about the issue of misogyny for the last six or seven years and 'it's only got worse in that time'.
As commendable as it is for Ms Forbes to speak out against this, this reality may push more women, who fear the ever-growing threat of online abuse, away from public life.
How we prevent this still remains uncertain with a preventative measure- the Online Safety Act - yet to be fully implemented.
It's not as if political leaders are cloth-eared when it comes to paying heed to issues such as youth apathy.
When Anas Sarwar began his keynote speech with talk of what sort of Scotland he wants to see for his 16 year-old son, he understood the assignment.
The future is the younger generation.
But then a myriad of questions followed.
'What does a prosperous, hopeful and thriving Scotland mean for the NHS, housing, workforce, skills, education etc?' he posed.
'Care to tell us, Mr Sarwar?', I thought.
(Image: staff) Tickets for Unspun Live at the Edinburgh Fringe are available now — click here to book your place.
Five minutes in, he spoke of using Scotland's 'maximum levers' to 'make it fit for future generations'.
He's also said we need to 'do things differently' to achieve 'positive outcomes', as he mentioned cutting taxes.
'Tinkering around the edges is not going to work', he insisted.
And I agreed but my brow furrowed as I tried to work out what his plans for a future Scotland were, away from abstract language...
Setting out his vision, the First Minister spoke of the growing risks to democracy because of misinformation, more frequent conflicts, increasing inequalities and climate change.
Although an impending reality it's not exactly the most stirring way to begin a speech on our future.
'The Scotland of 2050 will be shaped by a series of unpredictable forces', he warned as if leading an intergalactic space mission into the ominous unknown.
For Mr Swinney, a prosperous future will ultimately be achieved through Scotland becoming an independent country and rejoining the EU.
Yet with no clear strategy to achieve this, I cannot imagine his words are setting the heather alight amongst Indy supporters and others.
After the speech, a former SNP MP told me the First Minister needs to be given space to set out his plans for a future Scotland.
But with 11 months to go till voters head to the polls, politicians really need to unveil plans to inspire future generations soon.
Although important to raise, nobody will be inspired by talk dominated by a 1984-esque dystopian world view full of Andrew Tate-bots that awaits us.

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Deborah  Andrew Learmonth ​ Kathleen Nutt; ​ Hannah Brown; ​ Rebecca McCurdy ​ ​ Deborah Anderson; ​ Catherine Salmond ​ undefined 60% of recipients have opened this mail. undefined Hello, Can we start adding this source code to the bottom of every politics article? It will bring up an advert and a link to Unspun Live. To add it you need to click this button on Martini. That will take you into HTML mode. And then scroll down to the bottom of the article and then copy and paste the code below. If you click on the source button again you should be able to see if it's worked. @Deborah Anderson Can we get colleagues to do this when they're working on politics tales?