This seventh session of the Scottish Parliament has made a somewhat stuttering start. That is an inevitability, I suppose, due to the scale of 'newbie' MSPs, but much of the talk inside the building has been on where MSP offices should be located (largely focused on the Tories and Reform not wanting to be near each other), and on the new process of electing conveners to Holyrood's committees, which was finally done earlier this week with a not insignificant amount of angst.

In amongst all that, though, Parliament has sat, and in the last 10 days it has hosted two debates which rather reassuringly highlight the key dividing line in political and economic philosophy.

One was last week - a motion for debate entitled Wealth Taxation for Public Services - extolling all the left wing virtues of wealth taxes and bemoaning the fact that the Scottish Parliament lacks sufficient fiscal powers to introduce even more of them. Current powers allow for two quick hits on the rich folk, in the form of a mansion tax (or as people in Edinburgh call it three bedroom semi-detached tax), and in the form of a hefty landing charge for the dastardly private jets.

Why Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell should not face a public inquiry

Unionists can’t see how close independence actually is

Enough is enough - we need new political parties

Whomever wins, we’re all in this together

The contrary philosophy was debated this week through a motion entitled Growing Scotland's Economy, in which the proposer made clear that the only way to improve public........

© Herald Scotland