By Wee Hamish

It’s often said that Scotland couldn’t govern itself properly because of the second-rate calibre of our politicians. Considering how low the bar has been set by the self-serving, greedy numpties at Westminster, that’s saying something, but every so often one of our MSPs comes out with a statement that forces us to agree with the claim.

Yesterday, it was Kezia Dugdale who tried to defend Scottish Labour’s decision to have their Election leaflets printed by a firm in England rather than use a Scottish printer.

When you listen to Kezia she often sounds like a wee lassie just out of school. OK, she can’t help how she sounds but when she makes a public statement that isn’t worthy of a schoolgirl, you really have to wonder about her.

You see, her response to the complaints from SNP supporters was to take to Twitter to point out how pathetic Scotland is because the steel being used to build the new Forth Bridge is imported from China.

Needless to say, there were some rabid Unionists prepared to back her up and gleefully point out how poor and inadequate Scotland is but, as you’d expect, there were plenty of people who were able to remind her that Scotland doesn’t have a major steelworks any more, thanks to Westminster, although it does have a number of firms able to print leaflets.

It’s very worrying that a senior Scottish politician couldn’t foresee that sort of response but there’s another strand of stupidity behind her statement.

The thing is, what she was really saying is that Scotland is pathetic because it needs to import things to help it operate. Well, Duh. It must have escaped her notice that Scotland, like every other country in the world, imports things that it doesn’t produce itself. We also import a lot of food, don’t you know? Then there’s things like mobile phones, fridges, cars, computers, furniture, clothing. You name it, we probably import it. You can even get Japanese whisky in Scotland if you search hard enough.

Scotland isn’t any different to anywhere else in the world when it comes to imports. In fact, it must also have escaped Deputy Dug’s notice that the UK is a net importer which is why the country runs a deficit. It’s only one of the major issues in the General Election campaign so Kezia doesn’t really have much of an excuse for not knowing about it.

Let’s hope Scotland can improve the quality of its politicians. Labour, in particular, needs people with rather more vision and thoughtfulness than Kezia Dugdale. But then, who in their right minds would want to represent a failing dinosaur Party like Scottish Labour? They have nothing to offer except blind hatred of the SNP and Deputy Dug’s inane statement about imported steel shows just how ingrained that mindset is.

Let’s hope the people of Scotland give Scottish Labour a good kicking in the General Election and then the same again in next year’s Holyrood Election. As they say on Twitter, #RedToriesOut