Also: Delays in SNP fraud investigation risk impression of cover-up, senior lawyers warn.
Also: Further outrage over Ferguson Marine as embattled shipyard at the heart of the ferry fiasco is found to have paid generous bonuses to bosses – without the Scottish Government’s approval.
Also: Scottish Government’s legal regulation reforms denounced by judges and lawyers; Ross offers to work with Nationalist rebels to break Greens’ grip on government; new scandal for PSNI as High Court finds it illegally disciplined officers.
As the Nationalist/Green centre of gravity shifts leftwards to try and hold on to voters to switched to Yes in 2014, what future is there for the party’s increasingly vocal right wing?
The reason the Nationalists are suffering now is that despite a long run of uncommonly able leadership, and opponents perhaps less willing to defend the existence of their state than in any other country on earth, Scottish independence is just not a good idea.
The first ever Scottish Green MSP says he will resist any “attempt to needlessly destroy the United Kingdom”. But where is the option for green voters who feel the same?
At Westminster, meanwhile, we’ve got the latest development in what seems to be the new, less shouty iteration of so-called muscular unionism.
In the meantime, the Scottish Conservatives are gearing up to go on the offensive.
The Nationalists’ dominant position in Scottish politics was built on uniting the 2014 Yes vote. Absent progress on separation, it is fracturing.
The First Minister reportedly told mutinous colleagues to quit the party if they weren’t prepared to support his predecessor.
“One of the things the SNP profited from is that when Labour set up the Scottish Parliament, they didn’t send any of their A-listers there.”
Having run as her heir, he seems unable or unwilling to put enough distance between his regime and hers if the fraud investigation blows up.
Scottish Government also ploughs more money into Ferguson Marine despite conceding it would be cheaper to start from scratch at another yard.
Her performance at the Coronation won the Leader of the House an adoring public, and indicated that despite her many critics she is still a potential successor to Sunak.
Those who claim the Conservatives would benefit from a spell in opposition to ‘rest and detox’ are misguided. My first nine years in Parliament were spent in opposition, and it was a frustrating experience.