This article appears as part of the Lessons to Learn newsletter.

There is never a shortage of outrage and controversy – confected or otherwise – in Scottish politics, but the source of this week’s rammy has been a bit of a surprise.

Over the last few days the big argument hasn’t been about Operation Branchform, rising fuel bills, fish suppers, adding more fuel to the climate change fires, or even yet another demand for a referendum – instead, everyone seems to have been getting wound up about school bags.

Yes, you read that correctly: school bags.

In the run-up to the last election, the SNP manifesto promised a free school bag to all children starting Primary 1. Unlike most of their previous pledges related to education, the party seems keen to actually deliver on this one, and so it has started work to ensure that those going to primary school in August 2027 will be the first to benefit.

On the face of it, this is fine if largely uninspiring stuff.

A free school bag isn’t going to have a huge impact on, well, anything really, but it could be a nice thing to do for kids at an exciting time in their lives.

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If the bags come in lots of different designs, or if they could themselves be drawn on and coloured in by the pupils themselves, then this initiative........

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