I HAVE found myself crying in public twice this week, entirely overcome with emotion.

First, at the equal pay march on Tuesday as it approached George Square and secondly at Saturday's teacher's pay march as it made its way down Union Street and off along Argyle Street.

There's something about public protest that is oddly moving. The sense that all these people have come together to fight for a common cause, that people care, that they are passionate, that they are ready to fight injustice.

Michelle Ballantyne, welfare spokeswoman for the Scottish Tories, would say I was having an "emotional response".

Ms Ballantyne believes families on benefits should limit the number of children they have.

According to the MSP, the state is allowed to act as a contraceptive for the poor, who mustn't be allowed to breed as they please.

Asked about the "two-child cap", the mother-of-six (if you're well off, presumably, you can just keep firing them out), said: "It is fair that people on benefits cannot have as many children as they like, while people who work and pay their way, have to make decisions about the number of children they can have."

I'd tell you my immediate emotional response to that but it would probably involve an invite to a meeting with HR if I can make it past the sub-editor.

To recap, the Tories introduced a policy of limiting child tax credit to the first two children. Child tax credit can be worth up to £2,780 per year for each child so that's a series blow to a family's income.

The "rape clause" is also part of the limit. It states that a woman can claim for a third or subsequent child if it was conceived "as a result of a sexual act which you didn't or couldn't consent to" or "at a time when you were in an abusive relationship, under ongoing control or coercion by the other parent of the child".

There has been a great deal of talk about the "two-child cap" and the "rape clause" since the new policy was first announced, particularly due to campaigning by Glasgow MP Alison Thewliss.

Initially the public narrative talked about the rape clause being wrong. That then expanded to include the fact the two child cap itself is wrong.

It seemed that public discourse believed that the rape clause meant the Tories were heartless and cruel to include such a damaging exception to the rule of the two child cap.

I thought it was worse than that. It was a sign that Conservative policy makers had considered all the possible pitfalls of this benefit cap and tried to do something decent in mitigation of it.

It is indicative of the out of touch, Victorian moralising of the current Tory government that no one asked for input on this scheme thought, "Actually, if we have to force women to disclose rape in order to make this policy fair then... perhaps this is an unfair policy."

It is a talking point again as the roll out of Universal Credit starts to make its presence felt in a rise in foodbank use and families reporting being worse off with the new six-in-one benefit.

Meanwhile, tomorrow hundreds of workers from the "gig economy" are to stage a demonstration ahead of a Court of Appeal hearing in London about the long running argument over the employment rights of Uber drivers.

Couriers and riders will be joined by outsourced cleaners, restaurant workers and others.

What a mess. Underpaid teachers, underpaid women workers, people in precarious employment with no rights, people on benefits suffering serious deficits in their household income.

A heartless Tory government that might do with an injection of emotional response seems determined to make struggling families suffer for its own incompetence. A Labour council has left the city with a crippling bill after dallying instead of rectifying equal pay.

The SNP has powers under the Scotland Act 2016 to create new welfare benefits but has not done so.

How long will it be until we're all out marching on the streets, gathering in civic squares and making our feelings known? In the face of such unrelenting unfairness from those we have elected to protect the interests of the most vulnerable in society, it surely won't be too long.