Because I inhabit the space hosting the Götterdämmerung between there being nothing new under the sun and every day being a school day, I often muse on our governments and how they impact us.

This may be for the good on occasion, however it is usually not. And here in Scotland we can repose in the Valhalla of having not one but two keeping us straight.

As a Scottish taxpayer, I pay scant attention to the political goings on south of Gretna services because the decisions that really matter to me are taken at Holyrood. And the main Westminster parties’ policies on big issues like defence, foreign policy and immigration are such that you couldn’t get a fag paper between them.

Which makes me realise how colossal have been the errors of judgement made by Labour after only a few weeks in office, as one imperious regime seamlessly replaces another.

To axe winter fuel payments for the elderly in order to give, not nurses or doctors or teachers, but train drivers, already on £70k for a four day week, a pay rise is repugnant. For a knight of the realm to wear clothes and glasses and enjoy holidays paid for by party donors, is immoral.

These decisions show a shocking lack of judgement and contempt for the very people who voted him in. But plus ça change, as we say here on the flood plains of the Millig.

Labour came to power in a landslide victory in July after it quite rightly highlighted gross incompetence during 14 years of Conservative rule. But for Starmer to so quickly and brazenly act in similarly egregious a manner, is staggering. It’s as if he doesn’t care.

Well, perhaps he doesn’t care. He’s safe. He has a huge majority. The Tories are dying and he will only have to look over his shoulder in five years time to keep an eye on the Reform Party. With the migrant crisis ongoing, Nigel Farage is getting more and more air time and, like him or loathe him, he is a master of messaging.

in light of this, and as ever I am interested more in messages than manifestos, the Prime Minister would do well to appoint an Alastair Campbell-esque spin doctor, and pronto, to get those headlines changed. When he envisaged starting with a bang, I am certain this is not the kind of bang he planned.

But what astonishes me more than anything else is that a decade ago Scotland had the chance to make her own mistakes, to get away from Westminster governments which for centuries, regardless of the colour of the rosette, took it for granted, nicked its energy and disregarded its citizens, and even dragged it kicking and screaming against its will out of Europe.

And said no.