General election campaigning is back under way and it’s like things didn’t stop after the Manchester atrocity.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, flapped under pressure about the Conservative U-turn on the dementia tax when interviewed by Andrew Marr, polls showed the gap between Labour and the Tories closing to just a mild skelping and there has been a bit of chat about independence.
After the murder of Jo Cox, those at the top of Vote Leave realised the horrific act would not impact on the campaign itself, with the electorate smart enough to separate barbaric acts from policy debate.
Something about that is refreshing. It shows that those who seek to shut democracy down have their work cut out for them.
So, what is happening on this cloudy Monday?
The Scottish Greens will launch their election manifesto for their three whole candidates in Glasgow.
The UK Tory election campaign has gone off-script and is apparently rather bumpy.
As such, I’ll be catching up with Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson when she visits Perthshire, which might just be ready to turn partially blue, to drive off-road vehicles.
UK Labour campaign director Ian Lavery is in Fife today. Before I go off road, I’ll be asking him a few questions about how things are going with the polls narrowing.
Continuing his quest to have the most entertaining photo call of any given day, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie is visiting South Queensferry to take a ride in a DeLorean, the Back to the Future car.
The SNP unveils its manifesto in Perth tomorrow and today they have gone back to one of the party’s favourite tunes – complaining about one of its own mistakes.
You see, back when Police Scotland was being formed, the Scottish Government was warned by the Treasury that the structure it was proposing was not tied enough to local scrutiny bodies to qualify for VAT exemption.
They went ahead with it anyway and are now complaining that Scotland’s are the only emergency services that pay VAT in the UK.
The SNP are saying the “Tories owe £140 million” when they knowingly set up the system that deprives those people on the front line this money.
It’s a ridiculous situation and the Treasury would do well to find a way of writing off the money owed but being a grown up government means taking responsibility for your own actions, not screaming at the big kids to mop up your mess.
