As the fallout from the Hamilton by-election continues, First Minister John Swinney might want to comfort himself with the thought that worse things really do happen at sea. Take, for instance, the movie Jaws, which has its 50th birthday this month.

Steven Spielberg, just 28 when he made the film, would later describe the experience as “horrendous”. It was his second big movie after Duel, and the pressure was on to repeat his success. Alas, everything that could go wrong went pear-shaped. Budget: doubled. Shooting schedule: out the window. Two of his stars (Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw) did not get on, and the three mechanical sharks (all named Bruce, after Spielberg’s lawyer) were about as scary as lemon meringue pies.

But what do you know, the kid stayed on the picture, the shark scared the popcorn out of audiences, and the score by John Williams will live forever. The picture won three Oscars. It deserved double. Spielberg went on to his next project, a modest something or other about aliens, and the rest is probably being discussed on a podcast somewhere in the distant universe.

The moral of the Jaws story is that things can be turned around. What earns brickbats one day can come up roses the next. There endeth the lesson, or so it seemed. As I watched the film again the other day, it occurred to me that Jaws had more to teach us about modern politics and those who swim in its waters.

Let’s be topical and start with Rachel Reeves. In the Commons today, just after PMQs, the Chancellor will deliver her spending review. Having U-turned on pensioners’ winter fuel........

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