It's not often I'm in broad agreement with left wing think tanks, Stephen Boyd of the Public Institute for Public Policy research (IPPR) was onto something this week in his analysis of a new Scottish opinion poll his organisation commissioned.
With continued advances for both Reform and the Greens, Mr Boyd explained that "the growth of anti-establishment politics has its roots in voters' growing belief that government does not deliver."
It's hard to disagree, but his view that the "feeling is fed by overambitious targets and promises on the one hand and a lack of realism about tax on the other," caught my eye.
Realism about tax is not just about stumping up more to fund higher welfare benefits and public sector pay, but in the same week as Edinburgh Council stuck to its target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030, the point about overambitious targets was well made.
A report to last week's Policy & Sustainability committee said the current programme of reduction might reach a total cut of 61 per cent in the next five years, so at least 39 percent still to go.
But the same report also said that since 2018, the year before the 2030 target was sent, emissions went down 17 per cent.
If 17 percent takes seven years, it will take a miracle to pull off a 39 per cent fall in five years. it's not just pie int he sky, but a whole bakery in orbit.
