We’re used to politicians being blamed, or taking credit for, things that are beyond their control but Angus Robertson has taken this pointless ritual to new levels of absurdity:

“A furious row has broken out over claims that the Scottish Nationalists compared an impoverished area of Glasgow hosting a crucial by-election to the Gaza Strip.

Labour lambasted Angus Robertson, the SNP leader at Westminster, for arguing that life expectancy in Glasgow East is lower than in the war torn territory in the Middle East.

He suggested the legacy of decades of Labour rule is that men in the constituency live on average four years less than those in the in the Palestinian territory, which in March was subjected to air strikes.”

Govan - a quaint fishing village on the Clyde - has been won twice by the SNP. As a consequence, life-expectancy is ten years higher than the national average, infant mortality is a fraction of that for Glasgow as a whole, and the wombs of Govan women are significantly more fertile than in the rest of the country.