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CYNICISM killing People's Party

George Osborne set a blatant trap for Labour with his latest welfare Bill and the punch drunk party walked right into it.

Still reeling from their general election drubbing, they allowed the devious Chancellor to goad them into abstaining on measures that will hammer the poor.

The thinking is the Tories won in marginal seats in England because Labour lost their credibility on the economy. Acting leader Harriet Harman is desperate to avoid Osborne characterising them as “soft on scroungers”.

So once again Labour supporters in Scotland find themselves skewered by political decisions made on the basis of English priorities. There is one winner in that scenario – the SNP.

But is Harman right that abstaining on this despicable Bill will help the party in England?

It’s hard to see how any floating voter will really have been impressed by this shambles of infighting and indecision.

Meanwhile, those on the left across the UK are horrified that the party of Keir Hardie appears to be backing measures that will drive hundreds of thousands of children into poverty.

Turning Labour into a party of government will require compromise. A pragmatic Labour Government will always be preferable to an ideologically pure Labour opposition.

But imagine being a local MP sent out on the doorstep to defend this welfare vote to a harassed single mum.

“Yes, I know your benefits are being slashed and we couldn’t bring ourselves to vote against it but at least we put up a reasoned amendment and plan to complain about it in committee.”

It just isn’t good enough.

The cynical calculation is that the single mum in London will vote Labour anyway because she doesn’t have any other choice.

That’s no longer the case for the single mum in Scotland. That is the reality the Scottish Labour Party must grasp if they hope to ever be a party of Government again.

Ground the louts

There must be something in the air. Aggressive, drunken louts seem to be everywhere on flights.

A week hardly goes by without more footage of idiots ruining family holidays on the way from Scotland to sunny destinations.

The latest example saw unruly passengers cause chaos on the way to Turkey.

That’s why Phil Ward is right to take a hard line. His Jet2 company banned the two men and one woman but were dismayed they were able to book return tickets through another carrier.

Pubs often co-operate to ban customers, so why isn’t a similar scheme operating in airlines?

Ward’s plan would see a blacklist, which all carriers would be able to access. The hope is it would act as a deterrent.

It is a long walk back from Turkey.

Paws off, Soames

RUPERT Soames owns a vast chunk of Scotland – but he has nothing in common with its people.

Yet as Serco boss he’ll be at the helm if the firm are allowed to take control of our remaining state-run ferry services.

We doubt the millionaire toff knows, or cares for, the daily needs of islanders – never mind the Calmac workers who serve them.

Another reason why the Scottish Government should keep Soames’ pudgy paws off a vital lifeline.