THOUSANDS of innocent children, women and men have been killed – and they deserve so much better than the omnishambles that took place in Westminster on Wednesday.

On a night when the entire political focus should have been on stopping the killing and dying, what was being talked about was the shambolic disgrace that is this broken Westminster pantomime.

At the centre of it all are the reports that Keir Starmer’s Labour pressured the House of Commons Speaker to accept their amendment to the Gaza ceasefire – which breaks with years of parliamentary convention. But this type of behaviour shouldn’t actually come as a surprise.

The National: Sir Tony Blair (Victoria Jones/PA)

Starmer is constantly echoing Tony Blair (above) as if he is attempting to restore his “legacy”.

He even defended Blair’s knighthood – despite public opinion being overwhelmingly against it – and named a room after Blair in his offices.

So it shouldn’t be seen as a surprise his party is copying the bad practices of Blair’s government.

READ MORE: Joanna Cherry: Rules will be set aside when it suits the establishment

Even after one term in office, two female Labour MPs stood down in 2001, disillusioned with their experience and citing bullying over the previous years as a reason. Later that year Labour MP Paul Marsden called Blair’s whips “attack dogs” and “thugs” because he questioned the invasion of Afghanistan.

Even as Blair demitted office, another two female Labour MPs complained about “bullying” whips.

There’s little doubt Blair’s government came to office in a wave of optimism. “Things can only get better”, went the song.

While that optimism may have lasted for most people for five years, when he threw his lot in with George W Bush’s dubious Iraq invasion – it had soured with many people long before that.

Even before a year was out Blair’s government were following the agenda of the right-wing press by scapegoating single parents as they cut their benefits.

Eight years later he was still paying homage to the right-wing press agenda by blaming single parents for problems in inner cities; and two years after that he was again signalling that they would face further benefit cuts.

Also, within two years of taking government “New” Labour were targeting the disabled by cutting their benefits too.

Two years after that Blair was vowing to make the disabled undergo medicals checks to be fit for work and by 2005 he was again set to cut disabled benefit.

READ MORE: Richard Walker: Hoyle’s position is untenable, and so is Westminster’s

Then there was the 10p tax fiasco of 2008 when Gordon Brown increased tax on the lowest paid – an initiative reported as an attempt by the then chancellor to woo Rupert Murdoch.

Not even the NHS was safe from “New” Labour’s Tory-U-like policies. In 2005 Labour’s health secretary was accusing the NHS of being too resistant to private sector provision. A year later Blair was welcoming private firms into the NHS.

As for pensions, in 1999 Blair’s government angered pensioners with a 75p pension rise. One pensioner was so outraged he sent Brown a cheque for 75p – he cashed it.

Also on pensions, Brown abolished tax relief on dividends for pension funds estimated to have cost an additional £230 billion.

And prominent pensions campaigner Ros Altmann blamed Brown’s vendetta with Blair for blocking proposals to simplify pension reforms by improving the state pension and scrapping means-testing.

So, this is the world we will return to with Starmer’s Labour and there is a mountain of evidence that they will.

But Scotland has a choice in this election. A route out of repeating Westminster governments with the same agendas.

By voting SNP for independence, Scotland can escape the cynical corrupt grip of Westminster.