DURING the next six weeks I suspect we are going to hear a lot about inequality.

The parties all eager for votes will say they are committed to tackling it.

This week we saw statistics on wealth inequality and if you thought income inequality was bad this was worse.

The super rich, the top 2%, owns 17% of Scotland's private wealth while the bottom half own just 9% in total.

The sums are staggering. The richest 10%of households owns £314 billion while the bottom 50% owns just £64 billion between them.

And 30% of Scots at the lower end have no savings or pension provision.

Many have no pension or savings because they have nothing left of their earnings to save, if they are earning at all.

This week also saw one of the bosses of Sports Direct a big name, big profit making high street chain struggle to explain himself to MPs over how it treated employees.

Three quarters of its staff were on zero hours contracts and didn't know what they were working on a Monday until the Thursday before.

The boss, or one of them, Keith Hellawell said he was not on a zero hours contract, he was paid a salary. Of course he is but he claimed zero hours worked for the company and for the employees.

I suspect many workers would tell a different story given the chance.

Is it any wonder there is such a gap in earnings, wealth and equality when people are expected to be at the mercy of their manager how many hours they work the following week?

Sports Direct are by no means the only employer using this policy, it is widespread in retail, hospitality and many other low paid industries.

Mr Hellawell also told MPs his company had looked at the prospect of zero hours contracts being banned and said the company would adapt and "embrace" new legislation.

Of course it would because it will still make millions of pounds in profit.

Just like after the introduction of the National Minimum Wage when warnings of catastrophic job losses failed to materialise, profitable firms will continue to be profitable.

This week we also heard the three main Westminster parties attack each other over tax.

The Tories denied they would increase VAT, Ed Miliband denied he hike up National Insurance Contributions.

At Holyrood the council tax freeze continues to put council services under pressure which has the most damaging effect on those with the least wealth.

Every party will tell you they are committed to tackling inequality, as they always have done.

The fact the gap remains so wide make is all the more evident that their efforts are not enough.

Poverty is indeed a political choice.