WHILE most have only had to endure one leaders’ debate so far, here in Scotland, we have had two already.

On Monday, four middle-aged men, representing Labour, Tories, SNP and the Liberal Democrats, took to television, feathers fully fluffed, to display their utter lack of ideas of even basic debating skills in a bizarre courtship ritual with the electorate that didn’t offer them so much as a twig.

I missed it, but came back to it later for the purposes of science and this paper. While it was going on, I was at St Luke’s to see a different kind of display.

If ever a doubt should enter your mind that the trade union movement isn’t doing enough moving and shaking, look up Unite’s hospitality branch. I’m lucky enough to have spent my working life so far in places where unions were recognised by the employers, and had mass membership and some genuine clout, long before I got there.

The majority of other workers aren’t in that position of relative strength, however, and workers in hospitality — an industry infamous for its low pay, long hours, poor conditions and insecure employment — have it worse than most.

All the more remarkable then that they have organised, and are winning recognition agreements and improvements to their lot day by day, venue by venue. It’s hard not to be inspired by the striking workers at Glasgow’s 13th Note, taking on an employer who was happy to bask in the pub’s reputation for ethical food and great live music, but just as happy to have staff working in unsafe conditions, instigate a lockout, and liquidate her firm in a failed attempt to dodge her responsibilities to pay redundancy.

The workers could have walked away from that scenario having won their compensation, and moved on to the next job, but this predominantly young workforce has developed a taste for the power of solidarity.

As you read this they are working to take on the lease on their old workplace from the council and run it as a workers’ co-op. If they pull it off, not only will they bring one of the city’s finest live venues back to life, but it will stand as a powerful reminder to industry bosses of worker power and a beacon to other workers in struggle in the sector and beyond. There’s undoubtedly a great deal of work to be done to get there, but I wouldn’t bet against them.

If anyone out there had any doubt about the talent, determination, and — crucially — the political consciousness of these workers to achieve, then Monday night should consign it to the dustbin.

They could have been sitting at home laughing at the spectacle of Scotland’s political “elite” trying to do politics, but instead, they put their experience to work in doing the real thing. At St Luke’s — an old church on the edge of Glasgow’s Barras market — they organised a gig in aid of and in solidarity with the people of Palestine.

It was an event that would have been a good night out in its own right, or could have raised thousands to help the workers realise their dream of taking on the 13th Note; but instead, they answered the call of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions for solidarity, raising more than £10,000 to send medics to Palestine in the process.

I came home on a high, but any concerns that it would be difficult to sleep were put to bed when I watched the Scottish leaders’ debate back. Highlights? The adverts.

The following night we were subjected to the Starmer/Sunak face-off. If it weren’t for their mutual predilection for starving kids at home and slaughtering them by the thousand on what used to be the streets of Gaza, I would almost have felt sorry for them.

One wants change without a plan, the other has a plan to change nothing. I’ll leave you to decide who is who.

Somehow they each managed to work themselves up into a frenzy of excitement over this. If real, it was tragic; if not, and politics is indeed showbiz for ugly people, then these were some of the hammiest actors ever to draw breath.

The inevitable, and agonising, moment aimed at making them appear human was a botched question on England’s men’s football team. It’s telling that it was needed at all.

Surely talking about rebuilding the NHS and social care systems to make sure all of us can live in comfort and dignity with whatever conditions we have or will acquire over our lives could do that?

Perhaps an abandonment of this country’s beggar thy neighbour attitude to housing might have struck home with the more than 300,000 other humans homeless in Britain today, or maybe a pledge to end the inhuman rape clause might have done the trick?

Perhaps in lieu of any chance of that, there was little option for the host but to prompt musings on Gareth Southgate’s team selection?

I can honestly have never backed the idea of leaders’ debates. It plays to a presidential system we don’t have and panders to the lazy urges to dispense with the back benches and voices of dissent by large swathes of the political class and right-wing media in equal measure, and neither need pandering to.

There was never any danger of that happening on Thursday night, though, but unless you were from in or around Clydebank you are unlikely to have seen the best debate of the week.

On June 13 there will be a council by-election in Clydebank, and on Thursday the local trades council held a hustings. A family emergency meant the Labour candidate couldn’t make it, and the Tory sent their apologies, but any disappointment that neither had sent substitutes was quickly forgotten in the cut and thrust of an actual debate that involved actual differences in ideas, outlook, and yes, ideology too.

Held at The Hub, the aptly named and under-threat community centre in the town, around 50 people and a very friendly dog packed into the hall to test the candidates to the echoes of football being played next door.

Subjects covered ranged from the state and supply of local housing, social care for the elderly, cuts to community facilities for young and old in the community, and even a question on the candidate’s views on the demise of Ceefax and Teletext.

An independent candidate, Andrew Muir, found himself in trouble when he blamed immigration and single parents for the shortage of housing, the Sovereignty candidate and ex-SNP member Kelly Wilson declared her former party was no longer listening to the people; while the SNP candidate Marina Scanlan focused on the ills of Westminster, before admitting she had never joined a trade union.

At 22, the Communist Party of Britain candidate Nathan Hennebry did not have much to say on Ceefax or Teletext, but won support in an inspiring opening speech declaring the principles on which all his answers would rest, telling the meeting: “As a shop steward, as a YCL member, as a Communist Party member, as a Fans Supporting Foodbanks member, every single day of my life is committed to making sure working-class people have the tools to liberate themselves.”

Not for the first time this week, I left a room inspired by young trade unionists determined to put words into action.

We could do much worse than listen to Hennebry and begin by liberating ourselves from politics by the TV show, embracing gatherings of substance and even unscripted humour in our workplaces, our communities, and in local hustings.

The tragedy is that In the end the showbiz debates The Hub hustings had only one thing in common: neither the Tories nor Labour turned up. Turn off your TV set, and do something less boring instead.