Hello and welcome to The Midge, the e-bulletin that takes a bite out of politics in Scotland and elsewhere.
Today
- Sturgeon accused of breaking pledge on anti-poverty plan
- Labour attacked for dropping £100 tax rebate
- Cameron holds crisis meeting on steel industry
- Council urged to settle equal pay claims
- National Galleries of Scotland acquire a bonnie £1m portrait
06.00 BBC Today headlines
PM calls emergency meeting on Port Talbot steel crisis … Record shipment of nuclear waste from UK to US … End of life care in England criticised … Amnesty slates treatment of Qatar World Cup labourers … Trump U-turn on abortion.
07.00 BBC Good Morning Scotland headlines
Mosque figures in terror link… Nuclear waste shipped … Cameron steel meeting … Trump … Guantanamo detainees transferred… Care homes fear closures from National Living Wage … 600,000 birds logged in RSPB Scotland bird watch.
Front pages
Daniel Sanderson in The Herald discovers that the FM’s response to a report by its poverty tsar, due today, will not now be published until after the Holyrood elections in May.
The National says the left-wing Solidarity party is in “turmoil”, with co-convenor Tommy Sheridan accused of ignoring harassment allegations made against one of his key allies.
Nicola Sturgeon will come under pressure today from opposition parties to drop the Scottish Government’s named person scheme, reports the Mail.
The Daily Record says ex-Rangers players might have to pay back millions as the taxman comes after EBT schemes.
The steel industry crisis dominates the FT, Times, Telegraph and Guardian. Tata says the value of its UK steel plants is “almost zero”, reports the FT.
Camley’s cartoon
Camley sees boom and bust ahead for UK industry.
Need to know: up in the air
After days of disarray, including the media chasing Business Secretary Sajid Javid (above) across Australia, PM David Cameron held a crisis meeting in Downing Street this morning over the future of the UK steel industry.
The primary focus was on the Tata-owned Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, now up for sale. The same firm also owned the Clydebridge and Dalzell plants in Lanarkshire. When their closure was announced last October, placing 270 jobs at risk, the Scottish Government bought the plants and sold them to metals firm Liberty House. Both sides hailed the deal as not costing the taxpayer a penny.
Port Talbot will be a substantially different proposition because of its size - 5,500 people are employed at the Welsh site, and 15,000 in total across the UK, with many thousands more dependent on the works staying open.
A Labour petition calling on the UK Government to step in has 75,000 signatures. But UK ministers have been sending mixed messages, with some saying state help is an option, and others, including Mr Javid, dismissing any talk of nationalisation.
Might a Scottish option, whereby the plants are bought by government acting as a caretaker, be on the cards? While this would keep the plants open until a buyer is found, the cost is unknown, the commitment would be open-ended, and a buyer could be difficult to find given the troubles in the global steel industry, principally the glut of cheap Chinese steel. Add to this the chance that any deal might fall foul of EU rules on state aid.
Those expecting firm answers from the Downing Street meeting were to be disappointed. It was over by 10am, with the PM agreeing with his Business Secretary that nationalisation was not the answer. After recognising that steel workers and their families were going through "a worrying time", he added that he was "committed to working with the Welsh government and Tata on a long term sustainable future for British steel making.” With that he was off to Washington DC for a nuclear security summit, leaving others to supply any details to be had. Mr Javid, now flying back from Australia, will visit Port Talbot tomorrow.
Also: inside The Herald today: Iain Macwhirter says if the UK state can rescue the banks, why not the steel industry?
Afore ye go
“The answer is there has to be some form of punishment.”
Donald Trump, when asked by MSNBC if he believed in punishment for abortion.
“The doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman. The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb.”
As his comments are condemned by left and right, Trump later issues a “clarification”.
“Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. Horrific and telling.”
Hillary Clinton reacts
“Maybe they call it English aplomb?”
Italian Andrea Banchetti, one of those trapped on the hijacked EgyptAir plane, remains amazed at Aberdeen-based Ben Innes asking Seif Eldin Mustafa for a selfie. Jessica Elgot, Guardian
“Move over Putin: Trudeau for most athletic world leader?”
CNN headline after this picture of the new Canadian prime minister doing the “peacock” yoga pose emerges.
£100 million
The amount the Scottish Tories say would be raised by the end of the next parliament by a “graduate tax” of £1500 per year.
"When tuition fees were introduced in England they were set at just £1,000 per year before rising to £9,000 before the Tory government removed the cap altogether last year - Ruth Davidson has made no guarantee that they won't do the same in Scotland.”
SNP campaign director and Deputy FM John Swinney
Lady Gaga and US vice-president Joe Biden announced yesterday they will hold a rally at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on April 7, to raise awareness about sexual assault on campuses.
"If it really is the case that feminists have got nothing more to worry about than where the presenters sit on the sofa for breakfast programmes, then I suppose we can safely wind up the Equality Commission.”
Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe on the row over whether it is sexist for male presenters to be on the left, “dominant”, side of the screen.
"Is the microphone working? Turn your mic on bro! Hello?”
Just some of the messages sent by japesters to UKIP’s David Coburn on Tuesday night as he attempted to livestream his reactions to the STV leaders’ debate via Periscope. He later told BuzzFeed: “I don’t think it went too badly.”
“Was the bottle made of real gold?”
A Twitter user responds to Sky News anchor Kay Burley’s complaint that she had paid £130 for a bottle of wine at a London restaurant but was not allowed to finish it at the table.
"I come from a council house in Wigan where my miner grandad slept in the front kitchen, you silly moo."
Burley (above with David Cameron) hits back. She also predicted the tale would be splashed all over newspaper websites in a few hours. Hey presto, it was.
Diary
- Paris: Chancellor George Osborne attends meeting of G20 finance ministers.
- City: Office for National Statistics publishes UK national accounts for fourth quarter of 2015.
- London: British Polling Council/Market Research Society publish inquiry into 2015 general election opinion polls.
Thank you for reading. See you tomorrow.
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