The party’s insistence that problems must always be laid at someone else’s door is exhausting, and politics at its worst.

Susan Aitken is right. All cities do have rats. Margaret Thatcher’s economic reforms did cause immense and enduring damage to the west of Scotland’s economy. Glasgow’s tatty streets are indeed in need of a “spruce up”.

It’s worth noting that the “spruce up” comment came during an interview in which a journalist repeatedly pressed Aitken, the leader of SNP-run Glasgow City Council, to admit her demesne was in fact “filthy”. Her phraseology was a reasonable attempt to wriggle out of what was becoming a Paxman/Howard situation, and my recent travels confirm that you’d hardly eat your dinner off the pavements of Edinburgh or London either. As for Weegie rodents, it doesn’t help that a video has been circling on social media showing one popping out of a bin and scaring the life out of a bulky refuse collector.