YOU could be forgiven for thinking Scottish and UK politics were out of touch with the reality of most people’s lives.

The price of food staples has rocketed far above the rate of inflation. The cost of milk is up by 33%, potatoes and bread 28% and eggs by 37%.

For those on lower wages and/or universal credit the harsh reality of everyday life means missing meals or going without essentials, mounting bills, unmanageable debt and no light at the end of the tunnel.

Meantime back in the Holyrood bubble what are the priorities? Climate change is a serious emergency but it won’t be helped by hair brained schemes.

The Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) is the equivalent of inventing a wooden cart with square wheels to ferry cans around for recycling. It’s overengineered, overly clunky and worst of all it hikes up prices for ordinary people.

I appreciate the rationale for buying a single use container and paying an extra 20p as a returnable deposit – but the reality is you’ve just increased the price of a can of juice by 20p in a cost-of-living crisis.

We currently recycle glass at 67% which isn’t good enough as glass is 100% recyclable.

I don’t understand the desire to phase out household purple bins for glass as surely we need to provide more opportunities to recycle, not less.

Empowering and funding local councils to do more recycling seems an obvious part of the solution but in Scotland everything has to be centralised as Holyrood acts as a power magnet.

Self-evidently any DRS should be aligned with other schemes across the UK if you want to see frictionless trade.

The UK Government has set out its conditions for a Scottish exemption to the Internal Market Act – so farewell to the good ship DRS.

Like our ferries it is unlikely to set sail as another party-political exchange over democratic mandates ensues. The DRS will take its place in Holyrood’s ever-growing deep freezer of failed bills and policies.

Back in Glasgow, the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) comes into force on Thursday. All vehicles entering the city centre zone need to meet new emission standards or face financial penalties. There’s a court challenge to the scheme on the contention that air pollution levels have already decreased and the LEZ may not be necessary.

It will be interesting to follow the outcome of that case.

I can’t help but think the LEZ is another disproportionate imposition on those with lower household incomes and older cars. It’s as if the workload of Holyrood is aligned with middle class priorities and preferences.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that destitution in the UK rose by 54% between 2017 and 2019. That figure can only have risen in the last few years yet consider the UK’s present monetary policy.

The underlying rate of inflation has come down from 10% to 8.7% in the last month, but the Bank of England (BoE) is still on its mission to make all of our household bills bigger.

The BoE has increased the base interest rate 12 times since December 2021, when borrowing stood at 0.1%. The base is now 4.5%.

Economists predict the base will keep rising to at least 5% this year. The next hike is expected at the end of June.

Monthly increases are insidious. A quarter percent might mean an extra £24 per month on an average tracker or standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage. But add all of these increases together and many people’s mortgages have doubled or tripled in the last 18 months.

Rate changes result in credit card and personal loan interest going up too.

The growing cost-of-living crisis is clearly on the Financial Conduct Authority’s radar as last week it announced it was making its temporary forbearance guidance to lenders permanent.

This means considering a person’s financial vulnerability.

In practice this includes offering a range of options to support customers beyond arrangements to repay arrears, such as temporarily accepting reduced payments of interest and/or capital, waiving or freezing interest and extending loan terms.

There are obvious things the Scottish Parliament could be doing to help people in financial difficulty.

Alan McIntosh is an approved money adviser at advicescotland.com and believes we should improve our debt laws: “One thing that is being overlooked at present is the Scottish Government currently has a ‘debt’ bill going through the Parliament in the form of the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill.

“This presents an opportunity to amend our law, so Scots who go bankrupt don’t have to pay for four years when people across the rest of the UK only pay for three years.”

As debt is devolved there are many things that we could be doing to alleviate the cost-of-living crisis.