COMMEMORATION of Remembrance Sunday was observed with dignity across East Lothian and it was a privilege to represent the county – I was at the event in Haddington.

This year, the silence observed by the young, as well as veterans of past conflicts, also reflected the wars in both Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

The Israeli government bans foreign journalists from entering Gaza but Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, has told of traumatic slaughter and destruction in unprecedentedly harrowing terms. Recalling the world’s outrage when civilians were under siege in Syria, he asks: “Where is that anger now?”

A small country, Norway is using its moral authority to stir the west’s conscience. Holyrood cannot be complicit in the annihilation of the Palestinian people. Is Labour’s Douglas Alexander calling on Starmer to bring pressure to end this war?

Mr Alexander concluded that the Iraq War, which he supported, “did more harm than good”: it’s already crystal clear to many in East Lothian that arming Israel is unequivocally doing more harm than good to civilians in Gaza.

Labour is also preoccupied with defending its Budget. Analysis by the Resolution Foundation, the independent think tank and charity working to improve the standard of living of those on low to middle incomes, finds that Labour’s budget doesn’t stop Britain being a “stagnation nation”. Labour’s choices result in continuing financial pain for the lowest paid in the “hope” of longer-term growth.

The foundation calculates that, while all households will lose out, the poorest half of households lose more,  as a percentage, than the richest. Labour’s policy means the rich stay richer; Labour’s MPs and MSPs should find that indefensible.

Labour has been buttering-up Donald Trump, whose re-election will be welcomed by Scotland’s 25 per cent who support him, more than in any other Western European country.

I abhor Trump’s politics but would never denigrate voters who express their views through the ballot box. As Winston Churchill said in 1947: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried."

Trump’s cheerleaders include proponents of Europe’s most dangerous political extremes and Trump’s 2.6 per cent popular vote winning margin was one point less than the narrow Brexit ‘Leave’ vote. PM Starmer now fears that the impact of a US trade war will be “bigger than Brexit”.

East Lothian’s and Scotland’s voters rejected Brexit’s monumental act of national self-harm; East Lothian can add its voice to those who warned of the inescapable Brexit fallout, reminding Sir Keir that “you were telt”.