THE favourite pastime of England’s media establishment – stitching up Jeremy Corbyn – is now, it seems, an intrinsic part of its General Election coverage. Often it is invisible to the naked eye or initially inaudible. On BBC’s Breakfast Time yesterday I had to deploy the rewind function to reassure myself my imagination wasn’t playing tricks. But no, there it was: subtle, semi-subliminal and insidious. In an item about Labour unveiling its plans for Brexit, the introduction included this little missile: “So far, Labour’s struggled to present its own clear message for Brexit.” It was followed a few seconds later by: “Now the party’s shadow Brexit secretary will attempt to clarify their position.”

I was unaware until then that Labour had “struggled” to clarify its Brexit strategy: after all; it’s not a task that requires a significant degree of expertise. Labour voted with the government to trigger Article 50; it criticised the hard-line approach of Theresa May to negotiations and now, with the advent of a General Election, it has outlined its alternative strategy. Nor was it now “attempting” to clarify its position; it was actually clarifying its position. You might not agree with Labour’s alternative Brexit strategy (I happen to think it’s too timid) but Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s Brexit man, made clear what it was.

It would give EU citizens a unilateral guarantee that they could remain in Britain and it would prioritise trade with the EU. Crucially, Labour would seek the continuation of EU rights post-Brexit and would consider remaining in the customs union.

Indeed you don’t need to be a Labour supporter to know that the UK Government under the direction of Theresa May has “struggled” to clarify its position on Brexit. That’s “struggled” as in “failed dismally”. It’s one of the reasons the Prime Minister feels she has to hold this snap election. Yet, in the very next item, a piece looking ahead to May’s visit to Wales later that day, the BBC said that she would be “making” her argument. She wouldn’t be “attempting” to make her argument; nor was there any hint by the BBC that the Prime Minister had previously “struggled” to clarify her government’s position on Brexit beyond the meaningless and juvenile “Brexit means Brexit”.

I really do want Corbyn to win this election. He is an authentic Socialist selling an authentically Socialist message in a country where, unfortunately for him, the media elite view the world “Socialism” with the same terror that word elicits in the breasts of America’s banjo and fiddle communities. The sheer horror with which such a triumph would be greeted by Westminster’s ruling elite would alone make it worthwhile. Sadly, I can’t see it happening and the best that’s to be hoped for is that Theresa May’s hubristic sense of entitlement will be clipped somewhat and that she’ll be denied an overall majority in Westminster. The prospect, though, of an increased majority for May is one that should concentrate the minds of reasonable Scots who are considering voting for the Tories on June 8.

Earlier this year the Prime Minister signalled that her UK Government would refuse to accept disabled child refugees fleeing war in Syria and other places, claiming that Britain can no longer cope with providing care for them. Previously this had been guaranteed under the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme. The Tories also shut down the Dubs programme under which lone refugee children in Europe would be offered sanctuary here.

Yesterday it was revealed that 1.2 million emergency supplies were handed out at food banks across Scotland in the last year. Areas where the Universal Credit system is being rolled out were those most in need of the food parcels. According to the Trussell Trust which manages food banks across the UK 440,000 of the emergency supplies were given to children. Yet the response of the Tories was to sneer and say that most food-bank users availed themselves of it on one occasion only.

The harrowing of the UK’s disadvantaged communities by the Conservatives has found its apotheosis in their changes to child tax credits and the “rape clause” provision. These will cut child tax credit and Universal Credit for third or subsequent children. They will also force women who have been raped to prove that they became pregnant with one of their children as a result of sexual violation to obtain an exemption.

For many years the civilised west condemned Communist China for its evil “one-child” policy. Yet this was less iniquitous than Theresa May’s “two-children” plan. At least in China, all strata of society were affected. In the UK run by this hard-right Government only the poorest are targeted.

The Tories have long portrayed themselves as the only party that seeks to defend and uphold traditional “family” values. It’s the main reason why many well-heeled Christians continue to vote for them. This “two-children” policy actively encourages working class people on low incomes or no income at all to limit their families. It is a form of social cleansing that seeks to ensure that only the writ of the most affluent and most powerful shall run in this land. Like the Tories’ attack on stricken refugee children it is fundamentally barbaric.

At Holyrood yesterday, Ruth Davidson casually defended these policies: “The UK Government has a duty to manage public finances carefully for future generations.” That will be the same UK government that turns a blind eye to wilful, corporate tax avoidance on the grand scale. It’s the same government which, earlier this month, ushered through a £1 billion inheritance tax cut exclusively for the benefit of some of the UK’s richest people. A mere 26,000 people in predominantly Conservative seats will be the main beneficiaries of this windfall which will see couples who bequeath homes worth up to £750,000 paying no inheritance duty.

It renders Theresa May’s words when she became Prime Minister worthless. “The government I lead will be driven not by the interests of a privileged few, but by yours,” she said last July.

Being good Christians both, Theresa May and Ruth Davidson will be familiar with the words of their Saviour from Matthew 25: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you visited me.”

Not in the UK though, and not by this Conservative and Unionist Party.