THIS week, the abhorrent two-child cap on benefits is back in the news due to efforts in the House of Commons by the SNP and other MPs to the left of the Labour Party to force a vote on the issue.
When asked whether the cap should be abolished, Kezia Dugdale, the former leader of Labour in Scotland told Times radio this morning, "Of course it should," adding: "Scrapping the two-child cap is the single biggest thing we could do to alleviate the number of children living in poverty in this country."
An analysis carried out by the House of Commons Library at the behest of the SNP has found that 87,100 children in Scottish households are affected by the cap, with almost 1.5 million children across the UK affected by it.
Another former leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Richard Leonard, has also called for the immediate abolition of the cap.
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Yet notably silent this week is the current leader of the Labour Party in Scotland Anas Sarwar.
During the recent general election campaign, we were told, not least by BBC Scotland, that the Labour Party in Scotland was campaigning on a distinct "Scottish Labour" manifesto and that it was opposed to the two-child cap.
However, BBC Scotland's Good Morning Scotland does not even appear to have sought either Sarwar or the new Scotland Secretary for an interview, far less has it given airtime to either Dugdale or Leonard.
There are clearly divisions on this issue within the Labour Party in Scotland but dissent is being stifled by the Starmer loyalists.
BBC Scotland is maintaining the fiction that "Scottish Labour" wants the immediate abolition of the cap even as Labour MPs from Scotland vote against debating the amendment to the King's Speech that could see it removed.
The SNP are set to bring an amendment to scrap the cap, the SNP amendment is backed by MPs from Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, the SDLP, the Alliance Party, and independent MPs including Jeremy Corbyn (below).
(Image: PA)
SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn MP is urging Labour MPs from Scottish seats to back the amendment, arguing it is "the bare minimum required to tackle child poverty - and to begin to deliver the change that people in Scotland were promised at the election".
Flynn said: "The Labour government's two-child benefit cap is pushing thousands of Scottish children into poverty - and every day this shameful policy remains in place, more children will suffer the consequences.
"Keir Starmer must not fail his first major test in government by refusing to scrap the cap. It is the bare minimum required to tackle child poverty - and to begin to deliver the change that people in Scotland were promised.
"Labour MPs have a choice today. They can lift children out of poverty by voting for the SNP amendment to abolish the cap - or they will push children into poverty by keeping it in place.
Yet we already know what is most likely to happen.
Some Labour MPs who have principles will rebel and vote for the amendment but for the most part, Labour MPs from Scotland will meekly trot through the voting lobbies in support of Starmer.
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Sarwar will continue to berate the Scottish Government for not doing enough to tackle poverty and social deprivation and will be platformed by BBC Scotland as they do so.
It's all so drearily predictable.
How many times do independence supporters have to scream - "We told you so!" before people in Scotland realise that the British Labour Party is not their ally, it's just less appalling than the Tories.
It appears that BBC Scotland is engaged in a campaign to protect the Labour Party in Scotland from its own duplicity.
Good Morning Scotland covered the developments in Wales where a new Labour First Minister is expected to be installed tomorrow following the dethronement of Vaughan Gething, but the programme failed to mention that when John Swinney (below) replaced Humza Yousaf as First Minister, Sarwar and the Labour Party in Scotland were loudly demanding an immediate Holyrood election.
Meanwhile, over in the shambling wreckage that passes for the Conservative party in Scotland, they are getting the recriminations in early as the party gears up for what looks set to become a bruising and bitter leadership election, following the immolation of Douglas Ross on a funeral pyre of his own hubris, arrogance, and entitlement.
The delicious irony is that had Ross taken his chances in his former seat and had not muscled in on David Duguid's he would most likely have been returned to Westminster and would still be the leader of the Scottish Tories.
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His downfall was entirely of his own making and revealed to all of Scotland - including the Scottish Tories - just how nasty and unpleasant he is. In the immortal words of the Simpsons’ Nelson Muntz: "Ha! Ha!"
The contest has yet to formally begin, but is already mired in bitterness and mud-slinging.
Ross (below) may be gone, but his nasty spirit very much remains.
(Image: PA)
Some members feel that the party hierarchy is engaging in a stitch-up to ensure the election of their preferred candidate, MSP Russell Findlay, who on Sunday became the first to announce his candidacy.
MSP Murdo Fraser has told the Telegraph newspaper that he is "aghast" about the planting of "smear stories" in the press against Findlay's likely rivals, fellow MSPs Meghan Gallacher and Jamie Greene.
Fraser made the comments after negative stories about Gallacher and Greene appeared in the Scottish Daily Mail.
Findlay previously worked as a journalist prior to becoming a Tory MSP and has extensive contacts in the anti-independence and right-wing Scottish media.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Fraser said it would be “impossible” for any candidate to unite a party filled with MSPs and activists who “behave in this way,” and added: "This sort of behaviour is entirely self-defeating and destructive."
Anyone who thought that the Scottish Tories might start to behave in a more adult fashion after the departure of Ross looks to be very mistaken.
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.
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