Sturgeon: I'm still listening on second vote, Cameron no plan B after Brexit vote, fury over Penn drug lord interview, and Tebbit for indy (in Europe)

Today

• I'm still listening on indy ref 2 says Sturgeon
• UN convoy set for starving Madaya
• Cameron: no plan B if Brexit vote lost
• Storm costs to reach £1.3 billion, insurers say
• New era in politics declares Scottish Secretary
• Actor Penn feels heat over drug lord interview

06.00 BBC Radio Four Today headlines

Sexuality to divide Anglican Church meeting … UN ready to deliver aid to Madaya … Labour fears £6m loss … Mexico begins extradition proceedings over Guzman … Winslet, Wolf Hall and Spectre song win Golden Globes. 

07.00 BBC Good Morning Scotland headlines

David Bowie dies ... Madaya convoy ... Mundell speech ... Flood protection plan launched ... Scots cities failing to use anti-pollution powers. 

The front pages

The Herald splashes on David Cameron’s insistence he will not quit if he loses the EU in-out vote, and his admission that the UK government has no contingency plans if people vote in favour of leaving. 

The National leads on Nicola Sturgeon’s dismissal of claims that the SNP’s manifesto for May’s Holyrood election will not contain a second referendum commitment. “News to me!” she tweeted after a Sunday Herald report. “Manifesto not finalised yet.”

A Lamborghini worth £200,000 was among the cars seized by police in Glasgow during a crackdown on street racers, reports the Evening Times.

The Scottish Daily Mail says says 1,100 compensation claims against British troops who served in Iraq are on the way. 

The FT reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cancelled her trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos to deal with rows over the New Year’s Eve sex attacks in Cologne.

The Independent has a picture of actor Sean Penn shaking hands with Mexican drug lord El Chapo prior to their interview. The White House is “maddened” over the Rolling Stone article. 

The Times reports on Ian Murray, Scotland’s only Labour MP, telling his party’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to “ramp down the rhetoric”.

The Daily Express says NHS Lothian has been accused of cancelling the appointments of seriously ill patients to avoid missing Scottish Government targets. 

Under the headline “Boxic”, the Daily Record says “munchie boxes”, containing a selection of fast foods including kebab meat and chips, are bad for your health - because of the packaging. 

Labour fears it could lose £6million a year because of changes to its funding being pushed through under the Trade Union Bill, reports the Guardian. 

Camley's cartoon

Camley takes a peek at Cameron's Brexit strategies

Need to know

With a day to go before delivery, President Obama’s state of the union address will be going through its umpteenth draft. As the last such speech of his presidency, commentators are expecting an address that looks further than the next day’s headlines. As USA Today, The Herald’s sister paper, puts it: “With a Republican-controlled Congress and a presidential campaign in full swing, Obama would be unlikely to get much of his legislative agenda through Congress anyway. And so Tuesday, aides say Obama will use the reflect on not just the year ahead, but his entire presidency - and the generation that grew up in it.” One topic is certain to make the final cut. Having tried to confront the NRA directly over gun control, only for a representative not to turn up at the public meeting, the President look Congress in the eye over gun control and dare opponents to jeer his plans. 

The diary

• Glenrothes: FM Nicola Sturgeon visits school to make funding announcement. 
• Edinburgh: Scottish Secretary David Mundell makes speech on “The Year Of A New Scottish Parliament”. 
• Glasgow: Tory leader Ruth Davidson at BAE Systems. 
• Kingsbarns: Willie Rennie, Scottish LibDem leader visits distillery to call for more support for new businesses.
• Edinburgh: Labour leader Kezia Dugdale speaks at the David Hume Institute's Politicians and Professionals winter seminar series.
• Commons: Home office questions, Armed Forces Bill.
• Lords: Trade Union Bill.

Talk of the steamie: the comment sections

David Torrance in The Herald tells the SNP to ditch the dogma so Scotland can be next schools success story, while Rosemary Goring takes a sober look at strict new drinking guidelines. 

In the Guardian, Dutch journalist Joris Luyendijk is tiring of Britain’s  “bullying” over Brexit.

Ahead of the junior doctors’ strike in England tomorrow, Boris Johnson in the Telegraph accuses the BMA of having “Corbyn fever”  and being more interested in politics than patients. 

Melanie Reid in the Times has her eye on a T-shirt with the disabled symbol which declares: “I’m in it for the parking.”

Chris Deerin in the Scottish Daily Mail says the rest of us have more to lose over the Tories’ EU civil war than the party. 

Afore ye go

“I grew up in council houses, part of what made Britain great. There are some here who are hell bent on the destruction of the welfare state.”

Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook (above left), performing feet away from David Cameron on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, changes the lyrics to Cradle to the Grave. 

"A child of 15 today is more likely to have a smartphone than a father at home.”

Baroness Stroud, former adviser to Iain Duncan Smith, who says family breakdown costs the UK government £47bn a year but only £19m is invested in reducing it. Sunday Times website

“Look, all I do is defend myself, nothing more. But do I start trouble? Never.”

Escaped Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, aka El Chapo, during a seven hour interview with actor Sean Penn in October. El Chapo was captured by police on Friday. Rolling Stone.

“El Chapo, meet El Jerko”

The New York Post takes a dim view of Sean Penn’s journalism. The White House was also unimpressed.

“We have been successful as an independent nation for hundreds of years; we have seen off the Spanish Armada, Napoleon and Hitler.”

Lord Tebbit backs indy - but only for the UK leaving the EU.

The Al-Zebabist Nation of Oog

Just one of 135 political parties, including the Monster Raving Loony lot, who could field candidates for the Holyrood poll in May says the Electoral Commission.

"The police told me my act could send Kyrgyzstan to war with the UK.”

Safely back in Perthshire, Scots mine worker Michael McFeat (above) reflects on the furore caused by his likening the Kyrgyzstan national dish to a horse’s penis. The Sunday Post

"I've said you're not a very gifted broadcaster, and goodness you go on, and sometimes you don't make any sense, but I wish you all the best with it wherever you are going.”

The BBC’s Eddie Mair says cheerio to Robert Peston, who starts his new job as ITN political editor today. 

"You are bringing down the whole of womankind”.

What Commons Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing (above) reportedly said to pregnant Tory MP Tulip Siddiq, who left the Commons chamber to get a snack just after delivering a speech.

“Communism”

Pop star Noel Gallagher’s description of Jeremy Corbyn’s politics. Sunday Times.

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