Nadine Dorries tells BBC News: “We haven’t had a sporting event like this in the UK since the 2012 Olympics” as she welcomes the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Glasgow was the 2014 host of the same event.
Quote of the day from an anonymous Tory MP, speaking to the FT about Boris Johnson’s plan to increase National Insurance: “We are asking people on low incomes to pay more tax so that privileged kids can inherit expensive houses.”
Nicola Sturgeon is refusing to explain why the boss of the Scottish National Investment Bank - who earned £235k a year courtesy of the taxpayer - suddenly resigned last week.
Ruth Davidson and Douglas Ross are out leafleting for the Scottish Conservatives in Davidson’s Mains today.
One resident promptly opened his door to hand the leaflet back. Asked if he thought the PM should resign, he said: “They should all resign”.
The First Minister is struggling to explain who exactly will pick up the estimated £33 billion bill to retrofit Scotland's many, many ageing buildings as part of her government's ambitious Net Zero plans.
The Glasgow ABC was a hugely underrated venue. It may have lacked the Barras' history, but it offered a city centre location and great acoustics. I saw everyone from The Vaselines to OFWGKTA there. It's a massive loss to the city's music scene.
Blimey. These comments from Anas Sarwar will not go down well with the SNP.
The Scottish Labour leader said it was "pretty obvious" the Russian president would be pleased with Nicola Sturgeon's renewed attempts to gain Scottish independence.
Full quote: "I don't think we've had a sense of occasion, particularly a sense of sporting occasion, like this since the 2012 Olympics. It's amazing for Birmingham."
Nicola Sturgeon is speaking at the European Policy Centre in Brussels today. Quite the event given Donald Tusk's comments on Scottish independence last week.
Key quote from Nicola Sturgeon in the opening segment of the
#STVdebate
: "Listening to the gentlemen around me tonight, I think I'm the only one saying I want to be in government and be First Minister."
Exclusive: SNP MP Amy Callaghan will today return to the Commons for the first time since she suffered a stroke in 2020.
She described travelling to London as "against doctor's orders" - but feels Commons voting rules leave her no choice.
Richard Leonard asks Nicola Sturgeon if she supports extending the furlough scheme.
I think the SNP has put out a press release calling for it to be extended every second day for the last month.
'Why don't you put the smuggler gangs on the barge and ship it to Scotland for all I care?'
Criticising the government's Rwanda plan,
@joshsimonstweet
has a solution for the 'small boats crisis' if Labour win the next election.
@IainDale
Labour MSP Neil Findlay calls on the Lord Advocate to appear before the Scottish Parliament to explain the absolute farce, sorry redactions of evidence, that took place earlier today.
STUC general secretary
@RozFoyer
has told an SNP fringe event that Nicola Sturgeon was right to say she “detests” Tories. The union leader accuses the Conservatives of launching a “class war” on working people.
COP26 delegates will be handed passes they can use on any form of public transport.
Meanwhile, in the real world, transport bosses are axing the Daytripper ticket in Glasgow which allowed unlimited daily use of most rail and bus services.
Kate Forbes in Dundee to launch the Scottish Government's 10-year strategy to boost the economy.
There's a room full of business people - as you would expect - but journalists were told they couldn't attend "due to ongoing covid restrictions".
NEW: The Scottish Greens will contest the next UK general election as "a de-facto independence referendum" if the Supreme Court rules against plans for an IndyRef2 in October 2023.
The party would aim to stand Green candidates in every constituency across Scotland.
An unelected Scottish Government advisor, Jason Leitch, sending a message to the then minister for public health calling for tougher punishment against Aberdeen Football Club in August 2020.
John Swinney is currently practicing his SNP conference speech. How do I know? The audio is playing in the media room. They've forgotten to turn off the feed.
Y'know, it's funny. There was no such front page in 2007 when Brown became PM without a vote (no GE til 2010) or in 2014 when
@NicolaSturgeon
became FM without a vote (no Scottish elex til 2016)
It's **almost** as if their pearl clutching sanctimony is actually partisanship...
Scottish Conservatives were very confident they would take Lanark and Hamilton East earlier this week. Instead, Angela Crawley has won a solid 5187 majority for the SNP.
Big news for Scottish shipbuilding: The UK Government has confirmed it will build a further five Type 26 frigates at the BAE yards on the Clyde, in addition to the three already under construction.
Scottish secretary Alister Jack says a Section 30 order won’t be granted in Nicola Sturgeon’s lifetime - regardless of whether the SNP wins a majority at next year’s Holyrood elections.
Lorna Slater of the Scottish Greens said: "Around the room we hear people who are in favour of the union not actually arguing for the union, but instead arguing that the people of Scotland shouldn’t have the right to choose.”
A "small but mighty change".
@AmyCallaghanSNP
has won her campaign to give MPs suffering from ill-health a proxy vote instead of being forced to travel to London.
The SNP pledged to extend free school meals to all primary pupils by August 2022 if it won May's election.
Yesterday, that timetable was quietly dropped.
Professor Mark Woolhouse utterly damning on needless covid lockdown rules in 2020 that prevented people from gathering outdoors or doing activities like hillwalking.
"We, in the UK, arrested people for going on solo walks in the mountains. That is utterly absurd"
The Scottish Parliament forced to issue a clarification after it was wrongly reported Humza Yousaf would be entitled to a First Minister's pension of £52k a year for life, starting now.
Reality: He will receive in the order of £2k per annum, payable from age 65.
Joanna Cherry tells Radio Scotland that many of her SNP colleagues agree with her in private over GRR but "are afraid to speak out".
She adds that some are "going along with self-ID for a quiet life".
Eilidh Mactaggart resigned last Friday but Nicola Sturgeon insisted it was a matter for the bank, not for ministers.
The bank is wholly owned by the Scottish Government.
Only one patient with confirmed Omicron has required intensive care since the variant emerged in Scotland five weeks ago, according to official figures.
From today, I take on a new role as the Daily Record’s deputy political editor.
Politicians and anyone else with a story: please do say hello. Contact details in my bio.
Meanwhile, away from the SNP leadership debate, John Swinney has just confirmed an additional £100 million for local authorities to help them settle pay disputes.
Golden tickets: Tory MSP accepted hospitality from drinks giant before changing his mind on key part of the deposit return scheme.
Exclusive in today's Record.
Nicola Sturgeon has said politics - including the SNP - is "too full of young people who have just come through the political ranks".
I wonder who in her party she is referring to.
P&O boss tells MSPs "no union would have accepted" the mass sackings he planned "so any consultation would have been sham".
This is the state of labour relations in the UK in 2022.
Derek Mackay hasn't been seen at Holyrood since resigning in 2020. The prospect of him returning to give evidence over the ferry fiasco at Ferguson Marine is something.
Spare a thought for Iain McGill of the Scottish Conservatives - number two on the party's Euro list north of the Border - who has now stood for election 13 times in the last 16 years and not been returned once.
This was a magnificent fight and a historic achievement for Josh Taylor. The fact no U.K. broadcaster screened the event was a disgrace. Scotland’s first undisputed champ in 50 years.
Josh Taylor floored Jose Ramirez twice to become Britain's first undisputed world champion in the four-belt era 👏
He now holds the WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO super-lightweight titles 👑
Breaking: Transport bosses in Strathclyde have voted in favour of local bus franchising - the first step in a long road to returning Glasgow bus services to public ownership.
.
@RozaSalih
arrived in Scotland aged 12 unable to speak English. Her family were fleeing persecution in their Iraqi homeland.
Now she’s bidding to become the first asylum seeker to go on to become an MSP.
If you ever wanted an example of how ignorant some political advisers in London are of Scottish affairs, the claim that the Court of Session is a hotbed of pro-independence supporters is right up there.
Sources in No10 now hitting back at the Scottish judges, suggesting they are politically biased: "We note that last week the High Court in London did not rule that prorogation was unlawful. The legal activists choose the Scottish courts for a reason".
The SNP now trying to rubbish the Public Accounts Committee report into Ferguson Marine. Accuses Richard Leonard of “embellishing” it to try and embarrass Nicola Sturgeon as she leaves office.
Four railway unions staging a rally outside Bute House. They’re calling on Nicola Sturgeon to reverse planned cuts to ScotRail services and resolve ongoing industrial disputes that have halted trains on Sundays.
Shona Robison, the Deputy First Minister, says the decision to freeze the council tax wasn't signed off by the Scottish Government Cabinet.
The decision was made "24-48 hours" before Humza Yousaf's speech.
Victory for campaigners who fought to save the historic Maryhill and Whiteinch libraries from closure: the Scottish Government has confirmed both are among the buildings to win funding for reopening.
Huge queues to get in to
#COP26
. Much grumbling as various delegates attempt to skip to the front of the queue to security.
One UN observer tells me: “This is a problem with COP. Everyone has a business class mentality.”
Half of Glaswegians don't own a car. So why should a motorway that destroyed so much of the city's fabric be celebrated? The only listing the Kingston Bridge should have is for demolition.
“Scottish birth does not alone a Scotsman make” - charming. Tricia Marwick is an ex-presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament. And has just deleted the tweet.
The Ayr Station hotel fire is awkward for SNP minister Siobhian Brown. She has responsibility for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and is also the local MSP.
The FBU said today the blaze proves the "madness" of cuts to the service.
NEW: Just 55 per cent of Scots who voted SNP at the last general election in 2019 indicated they would vote for the party again, a poll for the respected Scottish Election Study has found.
Dani Garavelli is one of the finest journalists working in the UK and someone I’m proud to call a friend.
The abuse aimed at her and other journalists - largely by cowards with anonymous profiles - is a disgrace.