CHAIN gangs in high-vis jackets certainly appeal to a base desire to publicly humiliate wrongdoers, if nothing else.

Boris Johnson made the most of his first post-quarantine foray outdoors to stand shoulder to shoulder with Priti Patel and publicise a vacuous yet headline generating array of tough-on-crime policies.

Social media increases the thirst for public shaming, the modern fulfilment of the urge to put criminals in the stocks, and the prime minister perhaps thinks this base desire spills sufficiently over to real life to make eye catching uniforms for community payback sentences a ratings winner.

"If you are guilty of antisocial behaviour," Mr Johnson said, "And you are sentenced to unpaid work, as many people are, I don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t be out there in one of those fluorescent-jacketed chain gangs visibly paying your debt to society."

The Beating Crime Plan - apparently named by Wilfred Johnson - hadn't even been discussed with police chiefs, who were scathing in their response to it. "Weird and gimmicky," said one.

Mr Johnson doesn't see any reason to refrain from a dose of dehumanisation, not when his new plans will predominantly affect working class people who are more likely than those from higher socio-economic backgrounds to end up in the justice system.

He also described giving enhanced stop and search powers as "a kind and a loving thing to do". Again, it's not young Etonians who'll be frisked.

The right wing press was delighted, with one paper running the headline: "Priti: I’ll make yobs clean the streets".

Let's hope Rishi Sunak has a better time in Scotland than Liz Truss, who was last week caught short of facts and figures on new jobs for Scotland as she launched a new report on the green economy here.

Ahead of his visit he was urged to think again on the decision to rescind the £20 Universal Credit uplift that has been so vital to people during the past year. Whether he'll pivot is anyone's guess.

Will there be a pivot on the new Royal Yacht? On Wednesday the defence secretary let slip that the cost of renewing the ship - a Boris Johnson pet project - could cost £50 million more than initially mooted.

Look, we could go on. In short? You'd need the neck of a brass monkey to be a Conservative politician and criticise an opposition member for not representing the working classes.

Enter stage left Douglas Ross, who could have landed a solid point about Nicola Sturgeon's performance at this week's covid briefing but instead took a squiffy tack.

The First Minister recently said that 100% of Scots adults aged 40 to 49 years old would be "given" a vaccine by July 26. Those listening to the Scottish Parliament chamber that day might have wondered when universal compulsory vaccines were being introduced.

No one wondered this. Either it was taken as given that Ms Sturgeon misspoke and meant to say "offered" a vaccine or opposition politicians and journalists were biding their time until July 26 to raise the missed milestone.

Asked at the briefing about vaccination numbers, the First Minister could - should - have simply held her hands up and admitted the slip. Instead, she went on the defensive.

"When I communicate, and I apologise if this is an error, I kind of communicate at a level where I assume a certain level of intelligence on the part of people listening to me," she said, "Because I think that’s justified, and I assume a certain ability to attach context and common sense to what I am saying." Ooft.

Largely depending on party affiliations, the FM was dubbed patronising by some and credited for speaking to people as equals by others.

Mr Ross went for the former. "Arrogant, elitist, patronising," he tweeted, and could have left it there.

Instead he went with a telling non sequitur. "This is not a First Minister who represents working class Scotland anymore." A minor Twitter spat pat patted back and forth. She suggested she had "touched some raw nerves". He countered "when you talk down to normal working people across Scotland, that does touch raw nerves."

Ms Sturgeon had said nothing about the working classes. Mr Ross alone made the leap from "I communicate with an assumed level of intelligence" to "patronising the working classes".

The Moray MP was raised in a working class household. Unlike many of his Westminster colleagues, he is not privately educated.

Yet he seems to have forgotten his roots, making this link between working class and assumed lack of intelligence. It is, though, unsurprising.

The Conservatives dismiss working class voters as uninformed and racist, putting forward policies they believe will have popular appeal, such as this week's performative crackdown on crime and the recent punitively harsh controls on immigration.

Mr Ross fits in well: remember his wishlist were he PM for the day? Harsher punishments for Gypsy Travellers.

Yet the working classes are more liberal than they have ever been, shifting on topics such as social attitudes on gay marriage, immigration, sex education. The Conservatives underestimate working class people while creating increased financial precarity and uncertainty.

Previously simple class distinctions are no longer current, they no longer work hard enough to make sense of how people see themselves now, how class is about self-identification as well as material circumstances and education and avocado preferences.

Making assumptions about vast swathes of society based on outdated terminology is the surest way to appear out of touch with voters. Who are today's Scottish working class? Who has the right to speak for them? I doubt Mr Ross would be able to give a satisfactory answer.

Mr Ross can hardly claim to speak for the working classes so why is he taking offence on their behalf? It is because he, not Nicola Sturgeon, perceives a group that is ill informed and easily manipulated, a soft target.

He could not, he will find, be more mistaken.