People need hope. Labour promised hope with its mantra of "change". Anas Sarwar told us: “Read my lips: no austerity under Labour.”

Well, that was lies. Austerity is back - and as it walks in one door, hope leaves by the other. There will be no change under Labour, just more pain. This time suffering comes with the salve of caring smiles, rather than the stiletto of cruel Tory sneers; that’s the only difference.

Keir Starmer’s speech this week was a study in despair. The Budget will be “painful". If he’s telling the truth, Starmer claims “those with the broadest shoulders” will “bear the heavier burden”. However, we’re all going to buckle under the weight of public service cuts, especially the poorest, weakest, and sickest.

Pursuing non-doms, and raising capital gains and inheritance taxes must happen. The rich should suffer like the rest of us. But the listing ship of state will still sink. Labour is trying to keep one plank of the hull in tact, as seawater pours in from every direction.

Read more Neil Mackay

We need momentous change to reset our course and steer towards an horizon where the sun is at least visible, even if it doesn’t shine. This country cannot continue in the darkness and winter of austerity.

The fabric of our society has already come apart. Child poverty would make Dickens weep. The far-right snarls, smelling blood amid the collapse of trust in politics and the drastic decline in living standards.

We cannot fix this mess until the UK Government acknowledges the principle problem. Even more than Tory chaos, stupidity and venality, the cause of our woes is Brexit. It smashed us........

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