Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer's debate was a waste of time

THE main takeaway from the ITV debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer is that we are all screwed no matter who becomes prime minister. There was not one mention of Brexit.

Neither was there a single mention of Scotland, remember that when you go and vote on July 4. That's really how important it is to either of them and how much attention Scotland will get once this election is done and dusted.

Sunak makes up figures and non-existent Labour policies, which was fair enough since Starmer was doing the exact same thing.

At one point Starmer claimed that his new PFI investment vehicle GB Energy would generate energy. Well, that's news.

READ MORE: A 'presidential' debate is an affront to Scotland's democracy

The debate was an unedifying waste of time.

We'd have learned more if they had turned the microphones off.

But to summarise for those who were using the debate as a substitute for sleeping pills, or who had wisely decided to watch something far more cerebral and informative on another channel - like re-runs of Love Island - Starmer and Sunak confirmed that there's basically no difference between them on economic policy.

Neither is there any significant difference on Brexit, immigration, and much more.

Scotland deserves so much better than this cosy Westminster consensus which panders to the basest instincts of English nationalism.

What we got was two vacuous drones talking over each other with little difference or clarity on how their plans will reduce the massive food, housing, and energy price rises normal people have seen over the past few years.

The winner by a country mile was the SNP's Stephen Flynn (below), and he wasn't in the same studio, being relegated to an afterthought interview once Starmer and Sunak had concluded their exercise in fatuity.

Still, he effortlessly proved he is a better politician than both put together. He's a breath of fresh air after decades of plastic politicians with their practiced non-answers or toxic populist rhetoric.

But you can be sure he'll get flak from the usual suspects for answering "No" when asked if he'd support England in the Euros when Scotland aren't playing.

I'm not entirely sure why the interviewer felt the need to ask him that question in what was supposed to be a political interview.

Well, actually, we all know why - it was in order to provoke a "You hate the English, gotcha, moment."

But asking politicians random questions about entertainment what's next Asking Douglas Ross if he wants Plastique Tiara to win on Drag Race All Stars, so you can call him an anti-Asian homophobe if he says no?

At least Flynn gave an honest answer, Ross would just respond with an attack on the SNP's "obsession with independence".

The BBC has gone full gammon today with the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, which is actually tomorrow, so expect a two-day gammon fest.

Both BBC1 and BBC2 were given over this morning to British nationalist WW2 nostalgia.

British nationalists love WW2, this is not unrelated to the fact it was one of the few wars in history when the British were unequivocally the good guys, but that was only because Britain was up against actual Nazis.

As Nigel Farage announced the other day that he is the only person in British politics who are allowed to change their mind, he bewailed the fact that a recent survey by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission found that a majority of young people aged between 18 and 34 don't recognise June 6 as the anniversary of D-Day.

Why should they?

If you are 20, D-Day happened a full 60 years before you were born.

For 20-year-olds today neither their parents nor their grandparents are likely to have had any first-hand experience of WW2.

READ MORE: The Scottish Highland infantryman who didn’t ‘dodge’ D-Day

Young people today are as far removed in time from D-Day as Nigel Farage, born in April 1964, is from the Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France in April 1904, a treaty which put an end to centuries of enmity between England and France, although you might expect that Farage wouldn't want to remember that.

He's spent his political career trying to stoke up enmity between England and everyone and anything who's vaguely foreign, or indeed who doesn't choose to support the England football team.

Perhaps belatedly aware that the Labour Party in this election has a distinct dearth of Scottish policies, Ian Murray (below), the Labour MP for the socialist bastion of Morningside, announced that a future Labour government would create an "offshore skills passport" to allow workers to move between fossil fuels and renewables.

Speaking to workers and businesses in Aberdeen on Wednesday, the shadow Scottish secretary has pledged to work with the Scottish Government to introduce the policy, if Labour wins the election on July 4.

However, Murray was quickly left embarrassed - or rather he would have been were it not for his massive brass neck - when the SNP's Flynn quickly pointed out that the Scottish Government are already bringing in such a scheme.

The SNP Westminster leader said: “In news that will shock thousands, the Labour Party pay so little attention to the north east that they don’t even seem to know that the Scottish Government is already funding the development of a skills passport."

He added: “Given that what the Labour Party should be announcing today is a withdrawal of their destructive energy plans that would see up to 100,000 job cuts – the SNP will continue to oppose those plans and put Scotland’s interest first.

“We need the economy of the north east to thrive for decades to come and that only happens if we utilise the skills and wealth of talent within the oil and gas sector to power and develop our huge renewables potential.

But Labour's promise is assuredly different, it comes with added jam and union jacks.

This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.

To receive our full newsletter including this analysis straight to your email inbox, click HERE and click the "+" sign-up symbol for the REAL Scottish Politics