A FEW years ago I found myself at a drinks do in some fancy big house in London. The (very expensive) champagne was flowing, as was the conversation. I couldn’t have felt more tangential to the tittle tattle and tipple tattle. The talk was all about second homes (in the UK), third homes for skiing and whether the new Bentley was worth £170,000. All this while austerity was biting, tearing, savaging our fellow citizens' lives. I had a great deal more in common with those struggling than with those celebrating.

My eyes dropped; I had nothing to contribute. As my gaze met the floor I realised that the amassed heels and handbags were probably worth more than the last flat I owned in London.

Then there was mention of an absent friend, Charlie. He was the nautical type and having just sold a business was rather flush.

“He’s buying himself a yacht, the b***er!”

“Darling he’s not buying a yacht. He’s buying a SUPERyacht …”

Much self-aggrandising laughter ensued. I sloped off and out to get the night bus home. That was back in 2013. And while Charlie was the first in that social set to acquire a yacht, I’m fairly sure he wasn’t the last.

Industry figures show that this has been a record breaking year for the superyacht sector of the market. A total of 52 yachts in excess of 250ft have been commissioned (close to half being longer than 330ft). Sir (hopefully soon-to-be just) Philip Green owns Lionheart. It’s the size of a football pitch (understandable really; helipads take up lots of space). There is room for a dozen guests but 40 staff.

Since 2009, the UK’s richest 1000 families have more than doubled their wealth. Meanwhile, 3.5 million children are living in poverty in the UK – with 220,000 of them in Scotland. In Glasgow, more than one in three children affected.

Think about that for a second. As a class of 30 weans play football at break time, one entire team – 11 girls and boys – will be living in poverty. The Trussell Trust alone operates 429 foodbanks, with almost a fifth of users actually having jobs. Working folk are having to rely on charity to eat and as Christmas approaches, they are having tae decide between buying either food or presents (not both). That just disnae feel right in the world’s fifth best economy.

I’m disgusted by the ever-increasing gap between the rich and poor, a gap that according to Oxfam has the top 1 per cent of the UK’s richest commanding almost a quarter of all the country’s wealth.

I have no desire to return to the bad old days of 98 per cent super-tax but surely there has to be a more equitable way to redistribute wealth? How many of the super-rich pay anywhere near the same level of tax as your weans' teacher, your postie or you? Never has the world been so gracelessly divided between those that have and those that have not.

What I find yet more interesting is the definition of poverty and how we treat those caught in its vice-like grip. Poverty is relative; the Victorian poor had it worse than today’s underclasses. But that is no sort of comfort. So long as society as a whole is doing well, the definition of poverty changes. But we seem to pour more scorn on those with the least when it comes to judgement. Apparently you cannae be in poverty if you can afford a plasma TV and a monthly subscription to loads of channels. It seems that when you are poor, the world wants to tell you exactly how to live your life. You sponge off the state, smoke fags, take taxis and watch TV all day.

We seem awfy good at judging how folk make it through the day, while being much less bothered about trying to elevate them from their circumstances. As we only too acutely know, the economy has been in stasis; wages are likely to flatline for the forseeable. While the super-rich get super-richer and have a super time with their superyachts, for those just above and just below the poverty line it’s about keeping heads about water rather than sailing them.