As we all know by now, Keir Starmer’s dad used to be a toolmaker and Anas Sarwar used to be a dentist and I bet he was a good one as well. We all realise there’s pain to come whoever wins the election, but on Question Time last night, Mr Sarwar told us, with the friendly reassurance he’s practised in dental surgeries, that it wasn’t going to hurt.

Why not? Because, he said, the increase in taxes would only be on the really rich and the really, really rich, and there won’t be big cuts because Labour will grow the economy, and there’ll be investment from a new investment body called GB Energy. Mr Sarwar was keen to mention GB Energy and worked it into, GB Energy, most sentences.

Kate Forbes for the SNP was not impressed. There will £18bn of cuts, she said, and five more years of Tory austerity wrapped in a Labour banner. She also said there was a conspiracy of silence in the Labour party in Scotland and the UK about the realities of their spending plans. “All roads lead back to Westminster,” she said. “All excuses lead back to Westminster for the SNP,” said Mr Sarwar. Good line.

Kate Forbes

 

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Strangely subdued was Douglas Ross, who is about to become an MP and/or an MSP, or isn’t, and is leader of the Scottish Conservatives, and is about not to be, I’m not sure, it’s been quite hard to keep up. He had the look of a man who knows it’s over but at one point the camera scanned across the audience and look! a man is nodding at what you're saying Douglas, there's still hope.

Mr Ross did get a bit more excited when the next question came up which Fiona Bruce said lots and lots of people had asked about: VAT on private school fees. Really? That’s what people are getting worked up about? Ah but yes, this Question Time was coming from Edinburgh, where 25% of the kids go to private schools. Would this have come up if the programme had been from Dundee, or Glasgow, or anywhere else? Not likely.

But fair enough. A very nice lady from Edinburgh in a very nice blouse said VAT on private school fees would really hurt people like her. But bravo to the woman two rows behind her who said “we keep talking about the middle class and we’re not talking about children in poverty”. Mr Sarwar also said  Labour would put the money from the VAT on private schools into state schools so that every child could reach their potential and everything would be fine. So why do I hear the sound of drills?

But let’s hear from Ms Forbes because her lips are moving. I wonder if she’s answering one of the questions. No, because she clearly hasn’t been told the title of the programme she’s appearing on. Would she support VAT on private fees? Words from Ms Forbes. I'm not sure. Would she support new licences for oil and gas? Words from Ms Forbes. I'm not sure. Eventually, someone in the audience – it’s always someone in the audience – told her to answer the questions rather than avoid them. Still waiting.