The Scotland Office, the branch office of the UK Tory government, seems to be using Twitter and Facebook for political purposes. Ministers are using expensive promotions to target specific groups of people and they’re paying for it with public money – our money.

I thought I’d heard it all from the UK government on the pernicious rape clause. It’s now a year since it came into force, and almost three since it was announced in the July Budget of 2015. But Esther McVey, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, proved me wrong. Giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Social Security Committee, McVey called the rape clause “extra help”, “an opportunity to talk” and “double support”. It is none of these things.

Today marks a year since Theresa May made her ill-fated decision to call a General Election in an attempt to ‘strengthen her hand’.

I’m writing this week’s column having just arrived home in Glasgow from a successful official visit to China – so this is a good opportunity to share some reflections on what has been a very productive week.

Back in 2015, David Cameron brought forward a debate on military action against ISIS in Syria, following the abhorrent terrorist attacks in Paris.

That motion explicitly stated that any military action would be targeted against ISIS – and we were told time and again that this would not be a blank cheque for action in Syria . This was the precedent to be followed.