Scottish and UK Labour are “singing from the same hymn sheet” when it comes to scrapping the two-child benefit cap, Keir Starmer has said....It comes after Starmer said a UK Labour government would not scrap the policy if it won the next election – the opposing view to the one shared by Sarwar. STV News

This is just so depressing on so many levels.

You almost wonder what kind of moral accommodation a guy like Sarwar, who clearly doesn’t agree with this and is seemingly a bright enough kind of guy, has to make to put up with this.

Alex Salmond said something interesting about this recently. He said that, when he was FM, and if something important (and the scrapping of the two child cap isn’t just affordable but is thought to have significant societal benefits) and it was costed at 3% of less than the overall annual spend, then you found a way to fund it.

You’d always find the money if you needed it. This scrapping of the benefit tax falls well below that threshold at about 1.5%.

To say it isn’t possible is just dishonest and immoral. Even if you can’t find savings in the overall budget, just do what normal governments used to do: borrow and then tax it back from folk who can well afford it but on whom their patronage these guys depend.

These guys exist to look after people like themselves. It says behind them: “the change Scotland needs”. It is nothing of the sort. That Sarwar is happy to sell his soul here means that there will be no change.

All that nonsense about being a beating heart of a new UK. It’s another vow, another “lead us don’t leave us”. I want to be at the heart of a new Scotland that wishes nothing to do with the heartless opportunism of people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Scotland needs to demand better. Not just of Labour but of all those who wish to represent us. If today is what is on offer, I wish no part of it.