LAST week the UK Government stooped to a new low, even by their austerity obsessed standards.

Tele readers may be aware of the ‘Rape Clause’.

UK ministers have introduced a policy effectively limiting families to two children. For any additional child, the woman needs to prove that the child has been conceived through rape to qualify for child tax credits or universal credit.

The process involves the woman going through an assessment from healthcare professionals and social workers.

This is utterly appalling and will only seek to make rape survivors relive the trauma and brutality of the sexual violence they experienced at the hands of their perpetrator.

It must be one of the most inhumane and barbaric policies ever to emanate from Whitehall.

The idea that any woman who had given birth after such a traumatic experience would then have to relive that experience, and prove to a government official that she had been raped, should have no place in a civilised society.

The UK Government railroaded this through the Commons using a statutory instrument, preventing MPs from voting on it.

This policy largely penalises families who are already in work, so this has very little to do with reducing the welfare bill but is, instead, an ideological attack on the lowest earning families in our society.

Independent analysis shows that the two child limit alone will mean a loss of up to £2,800 every year per child for hardworking families.

This policy will result in over 200,000 children now moving into relative poverty. Governments should be working to reduce child poverty, not adding hundreds of thousands more to this miserable statistic. Unfortunately, this policy is now live and will cause untold distress.

ON a separate and positive note, our First Minister Nicola Sturgeon capped off a successful trip to America last week. While political opponents ramp up their claims that the day job is being neglected, in actual fact her trip will boost investment links, especially with regard to trade and tourism.

The First Minister recently signed a new agreement with the Governor of California to tackle climate change, and then met with US investors to confirm extra funding for women-led businesses in Scotland.

She also spoke about Scotland’s place in the world – as an open, outward-looking and inclusive nation, before speaking about gender equality and human rights at the UN – as well as announcing a £1.2 million fund to train 200 women from conflict zones around the world in peacekeeping.

ON Thursday it was also announced that VisitScotland has linked up with TripAdvisor in an exciting new tourism partnership which could boost the Scottish economy by £150m.

Whilst the First Minister was busy out there promoting Scotland, signing new deals and addressing a conference on empowering women, Theresa May was visiting Saudi Arabia, a country that doesn’t allow women to drive.

I’m sure the contrast in approach isn’t lost on readers of this newspaper.

Now that’s what I call getting on with the day job.