SPITTING Image is coming back in time for the General Election and not before time.

The lack of genuine political satire in the UK at present, and it is even more evident in Scotland, is a failing of our culture.

It has been said that politicians today are so boring they can't be satirised in the way Thatcher's cabinet and Labour's opposition could be in the 1980s.

I don't agree. Many of those ministers were not as interesting as their puppets and being one dimensional and boring doesn't mean you can't be the subject of humour. It just means the writers need to work a bit harder and be even more creative.

In place of the satire of previous generations on television and in print what we know have instead is abuse, Twitter parody accounts.

It's often not funny with the odd exception, it adds little to political debate and in most cases it is just controversy for its own sake.

We are left with an internet dominated culture where spoofs are one way with people who support one party or cause attacking the others but crying foul whenever it happens to them.

This is across the board as far I can google and is not the preserve of one group, although each would like you to believe it is the others who are far worse.

I believe the new term is "whataboutery" and it's boring.

It peaked during the referendum campaign and is in danger of becoming a staple of politics and to be fair we get a bit of it in Holyrood too.

In among the engagement and enlightened grassroots campaigning that did energise sections of the population like never before, we had the on line campaigning on social media that was often peddling false or inaccurate information as truth and fact that had the opposite effect.

Spitting image was vicious, others like Rory Bremner at his peak were insightful and reduced the cleverly constructed arguments of those in power to reveal their core motivations.

The problem today is the genuinely creative people who could be producing the new generation of Spitting Image are attacked for daring to criticise and some look to take offence of behalf of others to the extend it stifles creativity.

I am not suggesting the politicians are behind this. I have a feeling that most MPs, MSPs and leading councillors would be delighted if they were considered important enough to be lampooned in this way.

Of courses there are a few who had their funny bone removed at birth, but most would laugh along with it and recognise themselves in the caricature.

I hope the new Spitting Image or whatever name it is being called lives up to its predecessor and that one day we have a regular humorous programme in Scotland, look how popular only an excuse is, which dabbles in politics as well as sport.

Until then, let's lighten up Scotland.