Scotland Bill, Corbyn in new Trident row, election case resumes

David Mundell, Scottish Secretary, will bring the Scotland Bill back to Commons today

Today’s top stories

• SNP in Scotland Bill referendum move 
• CBI: global outlook gloomier but UK steady
• Carmichael election court hearing begins
• Corbyn fires warning shot to general over Trident
• Aung San Suu Kyi poised for election win in Myanmar

06.00 BBC Radio Four Today headlines

Chancellor George Osborne to announce four government departments - transport, local government, environment, Treasury - will cut budgets by 30% over course of parliament … Nine new prisons to be built in England … World Anti-Doping Agency report due on alleged corruption in athletics … David Cameron will tomorrow describe in-out EU vote as “the biggest choice we will make in our lifetimes”… Myanmar’s opposition party on course for plus 70% vote … Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets President Obama in DC today … EU ministers hold emergency meeting on protecting steel industry from cheap imports … TUC says people are travelling further to work. 

07.00 BBC Good Morning Scotland headlines

MPs to vote on Scotland bill … Osborne to announce departmental spending cut pledges … Scottish economy returned to growth in October, driven by service sector … Aung San Suu Kyi greets cheering supporters as election results delayed … Judges hear latest stage in election case involving Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael … Edinburgh University says thousands of lives have been saved in Africa by a project to tackle sleeping sickness … And Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead says the recipe for haggis could be “tweaked” to get the dish into the USA.  

The front pages

The Herald has an exclusive from health correspondent Helen Puttick on prostate cancer patients seeking NHS funding for robot surgery in Germany. The technique, which reduces the risk of post-op incontinence, is also used in England and America, but in Scotland the first robot is not yet fully operational, with just 20 patients treated so far in Aberdeen. 

The National has a picture of David Mundell with the headline “Mr Cutter”. A spokesman for the First Minister describes the Scotland Bill  as “far from perfect”.

The Evening Times exclusive shows drug dens yards in Glasgow’s Merchant City, yards from a public artwork celebrating last year’s Commonwealth Games. 

The Scottish Daily Mail slates the “greed of the public sector fatcats”, with an investigation revealing a Police Scotland deputy chief being paid £737k last year and an NHS boss on £850k plus expenses, which in one case included £1.40 for bus fare. 

The Sun reports criticism of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn for nodding in respect rather than bowing at the Remembrance Day service in London. Sir Gerald Howarth, former Tory defence minister said: “He is an embarrassment.”

The Financial Times leads on Saudi Arabia pledging to continue pumping oil despite prices collapsing from $115 a barrel to $50. The move, aimed at protecting market share, will pay off in time say Saudi officials. 

The Times says David Cameron will go to the polls on EU membership next June.

The Daily Telegraph and The Independent go on the row over the Chief of Defence Staff’s comments on Jeremy Corbyn. General Sir Nicholas Houghton said he would “worry” if the Labour leader, who has said he would not press the nuclear button, became prime minister. Mr Corbyn accused him of bias and is to complain to Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. He is unlikely to have much luck with that, reports The Independent, which quotes an MoD source saying officials were satisfied the defence chief’s comments “were not inappropriate”. 

The Guardian splashes on a report due today from former diplomats, intelligence officers and academics which warns Britain is losing clout abroad as a result of successive administrations “shying away” from foreign policy engagements. 

The ‘i’ says flights to Sharm el-Sheikh still being sold despite ban.

The Scotsman reports that Sir David Murray, former Rangers owner, is in talks to buy the closure steelworks at Dalzell and Clydebridge. 

The Daily Record reports on a doctor’s view that the “Death Star”, the name given by locals to Glasgow’s new super hospital, is more like the death trap with the Immediate Assessment Area “a disaster area”.

Finally, the Daily Express predicts a tax windfall for millions after new tax benefits, including a rise in the personal allowance to £11k, come in next April. 

Camley's cartoon

MSP suggests changing the name of Inverness airport to Loch Ness Airport.

Behind the news 

Decision day: Trailing more than 80 amendments, the Scotland Bill returns to the Commons today for a key vote. Despite Scottish Secretary David Mundell’s claim that the Scottish Parliament was “on the cusp of becoming one of the most powerful devolved parliaments in the world”, the SNP says the bill gives Westminster “effective vetoes” in many policy areas, and Holyrood would have responsibility for just 14% of welfare spending.

The main focus in the Sunday papers was on an amendment being tabled by the SNP permitting the Scottish Parliament to decide whether and when to hold a referendum on independence. Pete Wishart, the party's shadow leader of the house and one of the six MPs behind the new amendment, told the Sunday Herald: “It’s in response to all the conversations going on about a second referendum, how that could be triggered and who has responsibility.

"This is a power that should rest with the Scottish people and if they decided the moment and the conditions were right, that would be a matter for Scotland and the elected representatives of the Scottish people, not Westminster. That call should be made by Scotland.”

On manoeuvres: As English government departments feel the heat from Chancellor George Osborne ahead of the Autumn Spending Review on November 25, attention in Scotland falls on the effect of new tax powers on higher earners.

John Swinney (above), Finance Secretary, asked on the BBC’s Sunday Politics yesterday whether Scotland would match the rUK rise in the 40 pence threshold, said: “We believe that people on higher earnings should pay their fair share of taxation. Where they are going to receive a substantial tax cut, as George Osborne has set out, there is an issue to be addressed as to whether that is the right thing to do.” Political editor Magnus Gardham has the story. 

Talk of the steamie

In the comment pages today: 

• David Torrance in The Herald says although the SNP remains in its imperial phase, the ground has shifted. 
• In The National, Kevin McKenna strokes a white cat and ponders what would happen if James Bond became became an operative for a newly independent Scotland’s security agency. 
• Also in The National, SNP MP George Kerevan says David Cameron has had his bluff called on Europe with an “unnecessary and divisive” referendum. 
• Boris Johnson in the Telegraph extols the virtues of independence - from the EU by the UK - and Charles Moore says Jeremy Corbyn “comported himself appropriately” at the Cenotaph yesterday. 
• In the Mail, Chris Deerin celebrates having a room of one’s own. 
• Andrew Nicholl in the Sun is convinced that following Labour’s north-south Trident split “Labour in London is not so much treating Scotland as a branch office any more but more like a mad auntie”. 
• In the FT, Edward Luce performs a pre post-mortem on Jeb Bush’s presidential bid. 
• Matt Ridley in The Times calls for a re-think on wind power. 
• And in The Scotsman, Lesley Riddoch wants the Scottish Government to give its Land Reform Bill some welly. 

The Diary

Scotland

Alistair Carmichael election court hearing begins, Court of Session, Edinburgh. Expected to last for four days.

Lecture by Lady Susan Rice lecture, former chief executive of Lloyds TSB Scotland and a founding member of the Banking Standards Board, to deliver the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries' autumn lecture in Edinburgh entitled:  Exploring The Role Of Banking And Business In Society. 

Westminster

MPs debate and vote on Scotland Bill

CBI annual conference begins 

Afore ye go

“In memory of the fallen in all wars, let us resolve to create a world of peace.” 

Message on wreath laid by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the Cenotaph yesterday

Press release from 2010, Financial Times from 2009, radio audience figures from 2005 …

BBC political reporter Chris Mason tweets his finds from home clear-up yesterday. 

Fresh from his crowning as newcomer of the year at the Speccy awards last week, SNP MP Tommy Sheppard submitted to a three minute quick fire grilling by John Pienaar on BBC Radio Five Live yesterday. Excerpts:

Have you made friends among English unionist members of parliament?

“You betcha. We’ve got friends all over the place John.”

Who are your mates on the Tory side?

“I don’t know about mates. I’ve taken a very warm shine to David Davis. Quite like Edward Leigh. Quite like Colonel Bob [Stewart].”

Would you be happy for your daughter to marry an English conservative unionist?

“Yes of course I would … I live with an English woman.”

Snog, marry, avoid. 

Sharleen Spiteri of Texas? 

Snog

JK Rowling?

Avoid

Nicola Sturgeon?

Snog. No, marry, maybe. She’s married! 

Ruth Davidson?

Snog. She’s great fun. She comes to my club. 

Have you ever used illegal drugs?

Yeah. 

Which one?

When I was younger amphetamines. I tried cannabis but it’s not really for me. Don’t like it. 

Have you ever been arrested?

Yes. Once. For protesting against the construction of the Torness nuclear power station in 1979.

Would you bow and kiss the queen’s hand if you were ever made a privy counsellor?

“If I thought it was necessary to get on to the privy council to discharge what I believe in or what I was elected to do then I would. I wouldn’t enjoy it but if you have to do it you have to do it.”

You own a comedy club. What’s your favourite one line gag?

There was a guy, Hovis Presley, from Lancashire, a one line act poet. He was the king of the one liner. Sample: ‘We got to the B&B and they asked if we had reservations and I said yeah, we’d be better off in a hotel.” 

Thanks for reading The Midge, your first bite of the day’s politics from Scotland and elsewhere. See you tomorrow.