With the Holyrood election coming up, it’s a grand time of year to start thinking about how your tax-money is spent.

What better way than to visit some of the public infrastructure that your money goes to.

I was recently up in Aviemore for a visit to the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig, getting in the family fun day practice with my nephew, before I become a dad myself in June. I should have probably been concentrating on the star attractions, but one’s mind tends to wander.

Like every woke-liberal-lefty, I have conflicted feelings about zoos, seeing the benefits of both conservation and education, and the pain of feeling the animals should ideally be in their natural environments, whether that be in Scotland or abroad.

I would much prefer to see a lynx, for example, roaming around the Scottish wilderness – I’d consider myself pro reintroduction of these beautiful big cats, and I hope one day we’ll be brave enough to take that step. But the lynx enclosure at Kincraig is large, and getting to see these tremendous beasties up close is pretty neat.

This feeling is repeated across the park – polar bears,........

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