WHAT a dreadful week. Dread-ful, as in full of dread.

I saw a tweet before the election saying something like “whatever happens tomorrow, we’ll all still be friends”.

This is fridge magnet pseudo-wisdom and it’s dangerous, privileged nonsense.

Of course I can be friends with people with whom I disagree. I’m not seven.

The problem is that if your viewpoints reinforce a political status quo that is actively harming people then you’re part of the problem.

It’s not about being friends – it’s about the consequences of our actions.

I don’t find the Tories challenging because I disagree with them; it’s that their policies of austerity, disability assessments and the hostile environment are killing people.

Our Prime Minister has normalised hate crime. If he actually gave a damn about “healing” then there are clear places to start – but this rhetoric is just another lie.

It’s infuriating when this same rhetoric paints the idea of independence as sowing division. I get that people are tired of binary choices – lord knows we’re all tired – but independence is not the cause of division. Division is already here.

If you want healing, Mr Prime Minister, then I suggest you tackle the divide of income disparity, of precarious work versus bonus culture; of people with addictions unable to get help they need because the Home Office keeps refusing to let Glasgow go ahead with treatment.

The divisions created by your government, pitting immigrants against other poor people; of “scroungers” versus “savers”.

My husband, a youth worker in an area of Glasgow facing many challenges, came home last night in despair. For the young people he works with, Christmas is a black hole.

There will be no youth sessions on – where they get a good meal, in from the cold, with people who look out for them – many of them are dreading three weeks with families under extreme pressure. They are hungry, for food and more than food.

The factors that underpin our hugely unequal society didn’t just happen – they are the result of Government policy. And so they can be resisted. Starting where we are, despite the overwhelm.

Building community, supporting people in crisis, working to get to know people, to reduce our fear of the stranger.

The Conservative manifesto said scary things about restricting the rights of Roma, Gypsy and Traveller communities – they’ll be the first targets of this new government; they won’t be the last.

So one of the things I want to reflect on over the holidays is how best to work in solidarity with the communities in Glasgow that will be bearing the brunt of this newly confident Boris brigade.

Christmas is when the carols sing of “peace to all on earth”. Martin Luther King said peace is not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice.

I think dread will be a guest at the dinner table from now on, but I’m also going to look for some peace over Christmas, and work out how to grow it into next year.