IT’S impossible for a politician not to get it wrong on occasion. But Jeremy Corbyn dropped a clanger last week while touring Scotland when he suggested that it would be “difficult and problematic” for Scotland to have a separate legal system from the other parts of the UK.

The Labour leader’s remarks reveal an incredible ignorance of Scotland as a nation. It is inconceivable that someone who has worked in Westminster for nearly 30 years, never mind the leader of a major party and would-be British PM, cannot know that Scotland has it’s own legal system. That has been the case since the Act of Union in 1707 so it’s not a recent phenomenon brought on by devolution.

What else does Corbyn not know about Scotland? Quite a bit, if his statements while visiting are anything to go by, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous on matters such as accusing the Scottish Government of refusing to mitigate Tory austerity and its detrimental affect on young people. I suggest one of his advisers reminds him that, since 2013, the SNP Government has spent more than £100 million a year to protect people from the worst aspects of Tory welfare cuts, let alone abolishing in 2008 the very tuition fees that Labour themselves introduced 10 years before. All this on a ludicrously tight budget from Westminster, cut down by £2.9bn in the name of hard-right austerity.

Is he also rather fuzzy on details on the other devolved administrations, or did he just forget to mention the Welsh Labour government not fully mitigating the Tory Bedroom Tax as well as raising tuition fees after the election? You’d have to be living on the moon not to know that the SNP have completely mitigated this abhorrent tax, as well as protecting disability benefits and preventing private companies from profiting from assessing the vulnerable – anyone remember the Concentrix tax credits fiasco? And there’s the small matter of how the Welsh Labour Party are asserting their own political agenda outwith the larger party, standing side by side with the Scottish Government on protecting devolved matters from a Westminster power grab during the Brexit process.

The list goes on and I haven’t even mentioned Trident or Labour abstaining on austerity votes in Westminster. Still, at least not that many Scottish people were listening if the numbers at Corbyn’s organised events were anything to go by. But political jibes aside, it is astonishing that a leader who prides himself on his authenticity and principled stance, can make such inaccurate claims about a devolved administration. If our elected representatives don’t know about these important matters and historical context, then how can the electorate rely on party manifestos when it’s their turn to make informed decisions at the polling booth?

Two events over the past few months have brought this lack of awareness into sharp focus.

Just a few weeks after the General Election, Theresa May signed her Faustian pact with the DUP in order to secure power in Westminster after a far from successful election result for her party. Many MPs in Westminster and voters on mainland Britain who had never paid much attention to the DUP before then were shocked to hear for the first time about their core beliefs and policies, not to mention how an alliance with the Conservatives would threaten the important peace process in Northern Ireland that we all now take for granted. It was a wake-up call to voters not fully versed in the politics of another country. This peace was hard won, and needs to be nurtured and maintained, not jeopardised to bolster a Government hoisted by its own petard.

Closer to home, we saw the devolution waters muddied during the televised General Election debates. Instead of discussing reserved matters and highlighting the work of Scottish MPs’ in Westminster, the debate was shifted squarely on to the Scottish Government and devolved policies, when the Scottish people had already decisively voted for the SNP at the Holyrood election just the year before. This lack of focus on reserved issues played into the hands of the pro-Union parties, who ran with the televised agenda, fielding MSP and party leaders to take part, most of whom weren’t even up for election. It was a complete farce to watch but highlighted how much some of our own broadcasters lack clarity on the difference between devolved and reserved matters, causing confusion for the voter.

It’s ever vital that Holyrood, Stormont, and the National Assembly for Wales make sure their voters know exactly what their devolved governments are doing for them, how they represent their people and what powers need protected as the Brexit drama unfolds. As for Corbyn? When he returns to his Westminster bubble, he’ll need to do some soul-searching on Scotland before he thinks we’ll forget this major faux pas.