Should only first borns become leaders?

The monarchy and aristocracy have the principle that all privileges should be bestowed upon the first born only; all other siblings should get nothing and be denied everything.

For the rest of us - including the Miliband family - we have the principles enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights. Although it doesn't quite state it this way, its principle is that we all have the same rights as each other no matter in what order we are born. That is, being first born gives you no more and no less rights than the second born or the third born and so on.

Try telling that to Michael Fallon, the Conservative defence spokesperson who earlier this week  accused Labour leader Ed Miliband of stabbing his brother in the back when he stood against his elder brother David Miliband for the leadership of the Labour party back in 2010.

According to Fallon, because David was born in 1965 and Ed wasn't born until 1969, that means Ed has no rights whatsoever. All privileges must go to first-born David. Presumably, Fallon thinks that the Miliband parents should have brought Ed up to believe that he is inherently worthless because he was born second? How dare Ed rise above his station! He should have lived in the gutter and been proud of his lowly, second-born status.

How superstitious must the Conservative party be to still believe that the first to inhabit a woman's womb is a magical person that can do everything? After that first birth, the magic of the womb dissipates. What is left is a second-hand container with all its resources gone.

Science, of course, says otherwise.

The human body is a dynamic system, constantly fighting against the environment to keep itself optimal against extremes in temperature, nutrients and so on. A woman's womb is part of this 'fighting' system. As part of the menstrual cycle, the inner lining of the womb is created afresh each month; if no pregnancy occurs, this inner lining is broken down and shed over several days as a woman's period.

So a second pregnancy gets the same treatment as the first: a freshly-lined womb that is crucial for the pregnancy to continue. The woman eats fresh nutrients daily and supplies the second pregnancy with all the nutrients it needs, just as she had done with the first pregnancy. Thus, the second born is just as magical as the first born.

David Miliband was the first to put his name forward as a contender for leadership of the Labour party but his brother Ed followed suit just two days later, soon to be followed by the likes of Ed Balls and Diane Abbott. Putting your name forward first doesn't mean you get an automatic right to win (if it does, let me be the first to buy this week's lottery ticket). All of those contenders are European citizens with the same rights and access to opportunities as each other.

If you believe in human rights, you will believe Ed did not stab his brother in the back. However, if you are a Conservative party member, it is clear you don't believe in human rights. (Just ask Theresa May, who in 2011 and then in 2013 called for the human rights act to be abolished.) Instead, you believe in an outdated, aristocratic system that says all rights belong to the first borns only.

Michael Fallon's attack on Ed Miliband has shown that the Tory party is not a party of the ordinary people but one that works purely in the interests of the monarchy and the aristocracy. Is it any wonder that the Tories are so toxic in Scotland?