LAST week’s poverty statistics revealed the shaming reality that, far from ‘levelling up’, Tory policies have resulted in the fastest rise in UK child poverty for 30 years.

Around 300,000 more children and 600,000 more adults were dragged into absolute poverty when inflation hit 10 per cent; 12 million people were in absolute poverty, including 3.6 million children (2022-23).

Nearly four million people experienced the extreme hardships of destitution, unable to afford essentials, such as food, energy, bedding and clothing.

Nearly one in 10 pensioners struggled to have regular meals, stay warm and pay essential bills, the first rise in physical hardship for the retired since 2014 – not what Scottish pensioners were promised if they voted No to protect their pensions.

Catastrophic betrayal of the most vulnerable results from the cruel, self-defeating programme of Tory austerity since 2010 which crippled public services. In 2023, children’s charity Unicef calculated that, between 2012 and 2021, the UK came bottom of the list of 39 OECD and EU countries making efforts to address child poverty. Scotland deserves – and urgently needs – the powers to do better.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s out-of-touch claim that “£100,000 is not a huge salary for Surrey” underlines a dis-united kingdom.

England’s affluent south-east Surrey and West Sussex has a GDP (total economic output) over a third higher than East Lothian’s, and well over double the west of Scotland’s. Surrey’s male life expectancy is 81.7 years for men, 85 for women.

In East Lothian it’s 78.9 years for men and 82.6 for women. Glasgow City’s life expectancy for men is 72.9 years, nearly nine years less than in Surrey; for women it’s seven years less. Stark, quantifiable inequalities which Labour and Tories, who prize the Union, have been failing to ‘level up’ for 100 years.

Ireland Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s unexpected resignation recalled other unanticipated departures – Nicola Sturgeon and New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern – a year ago. Each achieved high office young, their energy and principles commanding international respect for three small countries linked together by historic patterns of migration.

Each said it was ‘time to go’: did toxic social media contribute? From hounding the Royal Family via intrusion, wild conspiracy theories and bullying, to tormenting vulnerable young people, the irresponsible and unaccountable use of digital communications is causing widespread harms.