By Gina Davidson

John Swinney believes he has drawn a very clear moral and political line between his government and that of Keir Starmer when it comes to Israel.

Cynically you could say he also believes there are votes in doing so when it comes to taking as robust a stand on what is happening in Gaza that can be taken by a devolved government with no real international locus.

And there may well be support at the ballot box on this issue come next year's elections, but given the time he has taken to get to the point where he has announced that public funding has been paused to defence firms in Scotland with links to Israel, it's hard to put his decision solely in the box of retail politics.

Instead, agree with it or not, it speaks more of someone who has slowly come to the conclusion that........

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