IS it just me, or are we coming at difficult questions from the wrong end of the stick?

I’ve been following the coverage of the latest business venture, the supermarket that "targets the food bank customer" and at least initially promises that everything it sells will cost 25p.

All the coverage I’ve heard or read so far has been about whether this venture will work (for the owner), or whether it will fail when the prices go up to 50p for everything on sale. There has been some talk about the quality of the goods offered, how good or bad the 25p coffee tastes and some bemoaning of the absence of fresh produce. But very little to nothing about the very idea that in 21st-century Britain, we have a "food bank customer". Turn the page or twiddle the dial and I’m following coverage of the various bids about the potential use or otherwise of the April 2016 power to increase the Scottish rate of income tax. Social media is awash with comment and blogs arguing that a 1p rise affecting every income taxpayer is, broadly, progressive and worth doing; or, it is not progressive and would impact more on those earning less.

I’d read the arguments and scrutinised the various tables before it occurred to me that I was getting caught in a wee trap. A wee "dancing on the head of a pin" trap, of numbers and comparators. And forgetting to think about the effect on real people and real lives. The fact that everyone seems to agree on is that three out of every four taxpayers would be worse off by that 1p increase. That is, all low-paid and middle-income earners hit hardest – an estimated two million basic rate taxpayers in Scotland, including pensioners and the newly-qualified public service professionals we desperately need like nurses, police officers and teachers.

Even the "Labour rebate", by its very existence, recognises the disproportionate effect on low earners. A disproportionate effect because any loss of income when that income is inadequate to feed, clothe and house you and your family, is a far greater blow than a loss of income that means you forego Waitrose in favour of Tesco for your weekly shop.

Just as lifting the council tax freeze without introducing a fairer system of paying for local services would have a much greater and more disproportionate impact on low household budgets than on higher earners.

An inadequate income that is made far worse and much less reliable if it comes on the basis of a zero-hours contract job and the looming roll-out of universal credit – universal credit which, far from coping with the fluctuation in your wage, will penalise you by making you wait, prove your need and then prove it again, while all the time your basic living debts mount and your anxiety grows.

And now you face the prospect that working all the hours you are offered on that zero-hours contract is not enough to show that you are determined to take care of yourself and your family. Now you have to work those hours and go looking for more, even though the very nature of a zero-hours contract means you could end up with less than you started with. In either event, not looking for more work, or getting it but not being able to do both jobs because the employer-benefiting contract you’re on makes that impossible, will still end up being your fault in the eyes of Westminster Tories and you will be punished – again.

And All of this is set against the critical backdrop of the final shape of the fiscal framework – an agreement that could seriously erode Scotland’s financial foundations, if the Treasury gets its way. A framework that could make whatever powers we are allowed to have utterly powerless to improve our lot.

I’m certainly not saying that there is nothing we can do to make progress in Scotland with the powers we do have, and those to come. But let’s not pretend that those powers are adequate to end austerity. They may allow us to mitigate its worst effects but they will not open the door to a truly alternative approach to economic growth or the fully fair distribution of the wealth Scotland generates.

To all those offering us that pinhead to dance on, please stop trying to justify a system that is rotten to its core. Stop pretending that a tweak of tax here or there will somehow give you the right to wear an anti-austerity badge. Stop pretending that you are trying to do anything other than find ways to make the tholing of Tory ideology a wee bit more palatable – and presentable.

After all, the sheer inadequacy of the powers coming our way, the various limitations and restrictions on them, are limitations and restrictions you supported as you stood alongside Tories north and south of the Border proclaiming the great value of the political union we remain part of. There is a bigger picture here and you know it fine.

So step forward and engage in a genuine discussion about the opportunities that do exist for radical change and be honest about the limitations. If you could put point scoring to the side for a wee while, that would be a help too.