Ah, Tam! ah, Tam! thou’ll get thy fairin’!

In hell they’ll roast thee like like a herrin’!

POLITICIANS should prepare for the coming fury. Fuel bills, power bills, council tax bills, the weekly shop, national insurance rises, Universal Credit down, everything else going up – and going up fast.

Except of course wages, which, outside the Brexit pinch points, are struggling to keep pace with the fastest price rises for 30 years.

As ever, the consequences of these inflation levels are likely to be most severe for the most disadvantaged sectors of society – women, the poor, ethnic minorities.

Such are their amazing predictive powers, many economists forecast that at the beginning of last year the worry was not inflation but deflation – not that prices would rise too fast but that they would fall too far.

READ MORE: What food prices are rising in the UK due to inflation?

As the inflationary reality dawns, the political impact will be huge. As Wilkins Micawber from David Copperfield almost put it: “Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19 pounds, 19 shillings and six pence, result happiness. Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds ought and six, result – you kick out the Government!”

The political whirlwind will make the Downing Street parties brouhaha look like the Teddy Bears’ picnic. Indeed, if bungling Boris has any sense he would get out now while the going is bad.

Indeed, he could follow the fine example this week of his former treasury minister Lord Agnew and resign today in a blaze of ignominy on the job at the dispatch box during Prime Minister’s Questions. And least it would put him out of his misery and spread just a brief moment of happiness around the hoi polloi.

A mildly inflationary economy can be a good thing, not least of which because it favours the borrowers over the lenders of money, the investor over the financier.

However, sky-high prices at the supermarket or the petrol pump, as well as higher rent and heating bills, become constant reminders of an uncertain future – especially among the poor who are least able to protect themselves against unforeseen events. Since all politics is local and people feel the impact directly in their pockets, it is not surprising that inflation is notorious for hurting political incumbents.

And the unfortunate news for the Scottish Government is that they will not escape this incumbents curse. Yes, of course they will pan off as much of the blame as possible (quite justly) onto Westminster where macro- economic policy is made and unmade. But that alibi only runs so far.

In the last big squeeze on family incomes, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Scottish Government had a ready and proactive answer. Alex Salmond stressed the “social wage” introducing free education, free prescriptions and abolishing bridge tolls. Above all there was the talisman Council Tax freeze protecting households from the most unpopular and unfair Council Tax.

That, plus the fact that key public services were performing at a much higher level than now. Health service waiting times were falling, higher education was booming and the ferries were running. All of this helped the Scottish Government prosper while the Brown Labour government sank without trace. Now things are very, very different.

READ MORE: This Scottish city has seen the biggest rental price rise in the UK

The Scottish Government have doubled the Scottish Child Payment to £20 but it is not enough to meet child poverty targets and doesn’t help enough people in the current cost of living crisis.

In contrast, councils across the country are preparing for Council Tax rises of 3% plus and in many cases, plus-plus.

By all means, call on Westminster to ante up. Of course the Chancellor should park the Covid debt, suspend the National Insurance rise and take VAT off fuel.

But if the Scottish Government want to dodge the odium of the governing party in a cost of living crisis, then they will fully fund a Council Tax freeze this year to help hard-pressed councils help hard-pressed Council Tax payers.

If they don’t, then when the question is asked (as in the most successful SNP broadcast ever) “But what have the Scottish Government ever done for me?” the answer will come back: “Not much and not enough.”