Hello and welcome to The Midge, your first bite of the day’s politics in Scotland and elsewhere.

The Herald: Council has no shame as it cuts back more finaces

Today

  • Scrap prison sentences of up to a year, reformers urge
  • D-day for councils to accept Swinney deal
  • Scots Tory leader: “There is such a thing as society
  • Organ donation opt-out system moves closer
  • Scots universities being “Anglicised” says ex-SNP chief
  • Search over for America's highest paid chief - he’s at Google

06.00 BBC Radio 4 Today

NHS England told to stop moving mental health patients hundreds of miles for treatment … Turkey fears new refugee numbers could reach 600k … Experts in tanning warning … Voting begins in New Hampshire … Three quarters of 10-12 year olds on social media despite age requirement of 13. 

07.00 BBC Good Morning Scotland

Deadline for councils to accept cash deal … Minister signals moves on opt out organ donations … Google chief given multi-million share package … Discarded orange peel blighting Ben Nevis. 

Front pages

The Herald:

Exclusive: Her Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons and groups including penal reform charities want a more liberal approach to sentences to cut reoffending rates and the prison population, reports Daniel Sanderson in The Herald.

“The £150k lie” is the headline in The National, which reports on a judges’ ruling that LibDem MP Alistair Carmichael must pay all of his legal bill. 

The Herald: The Evening Times pictures the spherical malfunction (a variation on a wardrobe malfunction) during the Scottish Cup final draw.

In the Telegraph, France dismisses David Cameron’s claims that the Calais “Jungle” could come to Kent if the UK pulls out of the EU. 

The Scottish Daily Mail reports new expert guidance which says there is no such thing as a “healthy” tan. 

The Daily Record warns readers to prepare for “Storm Osbo”. Figures show the economy worsening, says the paper, so tax hikes and more spending cuts are on the way. 

The Guardian is of a similar mind, while the Times says the Chancellor might have to unfreeze fuel duty. 

The Independent pictures Bill and Hillary Clinton breakfasting in New Hampshire, where voting has begun to select Republican and Democrat presidential nominees. 

The Sun pictures Beyonce and says she has “strutted straight into a Black Power race row” following her Super Bowl routine in which her song referred to police violence against African-Americans. 

Camley's cartoon

The Herald:

Camley inspects the undercarriage of the migration debate. 

Need to know

The Herald:

The location might have been different, but there was no doubting the intention of Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson yesterday when she told the Joseph Rowntree Foundation: “There is such a thing as society and government can be a force for good.” 

It sounded like a radical departure from Mrs Thatcher’s famous Women’s Own interview of 1987 when she declared: “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.” 

Yet David Cameron broke that particular mould long ago when he ran for the party leadership in 2005 and again in 2009 when he said: “There is such a thing as society, but it’s not the same as the state.” 

The original Thatcher quotes (there were two of them) have dogged every Tory leader since she uttered them. Yet her biographer, Charles Moore, writing in the Telegraph in 2010, insisted the former PM had been misunderstood. “She cared passionately about social order and social obligations, and was hostile to the egoistic hedonism of the Sixties. In inspecting the use of the word “society”, she was behaving like the scientist which, by education, she was. “What is this substance made of?” she was asking, and she tried to supply the answer. Once people understood that society was made up of them, rather than having some mysterious independent existence, they would have more sense of their obligations, more care for their neighbour.” 

Ms Davidson (campaigning in Scotland, above) has made her point though, that she is different from what has gone before. Cometh the hour - a Holyrood election in which she is trying to occupy the centre ground - cometh the new spin on an old Thatcher quote. 

Diary

  • Holyrood: Stage 1 Debate: Transplantation (Authorisation of Removal of Organs etc) (Scotland) Bill. 
  • Commons: Opposition debates on timing of EU referendum (DUP) and Housing (LibDems). Committees: Business Secretary tables Sunday trading amendments to the Enterprise Bill. Immigration Minister James Brokenshire before Home Affairs Committee. 
  • Lords: Question on the viability of oil and gas exploration; Welfare Bill.
  • London: ONS publishes UK trade figures for December.
  • Blackpool: First appeal in fracking case begins. 
  • Westminster: Parliamentary pancake race in aid of the Rehab disability charity. 

Talk of the steamie: the comment pages

In The Herald, Rosemary Goring looks at the art of the obituarist, while Iain Macwhirter reckons elected rectors in universities is an idea worth voting for. 

Ed Conway in the Times says watch out for your pensions, there’s a Chancellor in need of cash about. 

Cat Boyd in The National is cheered by Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders’ progress. 

Siobhan Synnot in the Mail bids a fond farewell to the BBC’s six episode War and Peace. “Remarkably you were shorter than some trips to the bottle bank.”

Afore ye go

The Herald:

585

The number of “successful” airstrikes by British planes and drones against Isis in Iraq and Syria, International Development Secretary Justine Greening (above) told the Commons. 

The Herald:

"Mr Osborne's new fiscal charter is much more constraining than his previous fiscal rules. Uncertainty in the fiscal forecasts means that he may well have to cut spending further or raise taxes to get to surplus in 2019/20.”

Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson

The Herald:

£350,000

The asking price for a car park space near Hyde Park Gardens, London. How does your driveway compare?

The Herald:

“George W Bush is now appearing in a campaign ad supporting his brother’s presidential campaign. Jeb says he hopes it will help him win over a very specific group of undecided voters: his parents.”

The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon

The Herald:

"Prisons aren't a holiday camp – not really. They are often miserable, painful environments. Isolation. Mental anguish. Idleness. Bullying. Self-harm. Violence. Suicide. These aren't happy places.”

David Cameron commits himself to prison reform 

The Herald:

“We’ve been trying to get that straight for the next group of folks, because it is an old building, and so there’s a lot of dead spots where Wi-Fi doesn’t work.”

He might be the most powerful politician in the world, but even President Obama grumbles about the wi-fi. CBS News

The Herald:

“All wrong, far too untidy.”

The initial verdict of Kathy Etchingham, ex-girlfriend of Jimi Hendrix, on the recreation of his London bedsit, which opens to the public tomorrow. Hendrix was a neat freak, said Ms Etchingham. The Guardian

The Herald: Google Plus

£140 million

The value of shares given to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, making him America's highest paid boss. 

The Herald:

Private training sessions, a first class trip to Israel, and a coupon for a cleavage enhancement treatment. 

A few of the items being popped into the Academy Awards goodie bag. Estimated worth: $200,000. The Daily Beast

 

Thank you for reading The Midge. See you tomorrow.