Hello and welcome to The Midge, the e-bulletin that takes a bite out of politics in Scotland and elsewhere.
Today
- Scotland to lead way on gender identity reform
- Cameron in nuclear security call as fears grow over Scots role
- Staff shortage jeopardising named persons scheme
- UK Business Secretary visits threatened steel plant
- National Living Wage arrives
06.00 BBC Today headlines
National Living Wage … UK Business Secretary visits Port Talbot … More adults now obese than underweight … Greater Manchester first English region to take control of health budget … Protests in Rio over presidential impeachment moves … England to train more armed police … Bowie memorial concert in NYC.
07.00 BBC Good Morning Scotland headlines
National Living Wage ... Growth in Scottish economy slows ... Parties campaign on prescription charges, buses, taxes, and small business ... Heath and social care merge ... Brussels airport to partially reopen.
Front pages
In The Herald, political editor Magnus Gardham details Nicola Sturgeon’s pledge that Scotland will become one of the first countries in Europe to give legal recognition to people who are neither male nor female.
The National pictures young Lachlan Brain, Australia-born, Dingwall-raised, whose family faces deportation after their visa application was dismissed.
The Mail is among many to picture the late comedian Ronnie Corbett and asks, “Why wasn’t he knighted?” and calls the omission a “terrible indictment of our hopelessly corrupted system”. The Telegraph says he was due to be knighted in the Queen’s 90th birthday honours.
The Times splashes on the steel crisis, saying Business Secretary Sajid Javid is facing calls to resign for flying to Australia with his daughter while crunch talks were looming. European officials tell the FT that the UK blocked efforts to reduce imports of cheap Chinese steel.
The New Day says doctors are warning the UK is set to be the fattest country in Europe.
The Record looks at the national stadium’s pitch and asks, “Has Hampden had its day?”
Camley’s cartoon
Need to know
David Cameron finished his crisis meeting on the steel industry before 10am yesterday with nary a decision made. The VIA, Very Important Appointment, he had to get to was in Washington DC where a nuclear security summit begins today. Conversations took place over dinner last night on North Korea, with the US and other nations urging China to step up the pressure on its neighbour to halt missile tests. What many see as the summit’s real business will be dealt with today - how to keep the ever growing stockpiles of nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists. Adding impetus to the talks is the discovery that two of the Brussels suicide bombers had been tracking a senior official at a local nuclear waste facility. In Scotland, there is mounting concern over another nuclear safety matter. To herald the start of the DC summit, Downing Street has already announced that the biggest ever swap of radioactive material will take place between Dounreay and the US. As UK political editor Michael Settle reports in The Herald today, SNP MP Paul Monaghan, whose constituency includes Wick airport where US planes transporting the material could land, is to demand assurances from the PM about safety. Will any more be heard on that in DC today?
Afore ye go
"Hadid was a woman who had dared to enter a man’s world, and took no s*** from anybody, though plenty was offered. She had to be twice as smart and three times as tough as her male counterparts in order to get anything built."
John Seabrook, The New Yorker, on the late Dame Zaha Hadid, architect and designer of Glasgow’s Riverside Museum. Above, Dame Zaha at another of her buildings, the Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
"The photo was the perfect demonstration of this strange new urge to be the star of your own social media show, even in a situation when minutes earlier people thought they were going to die.”
Broadcaster John Humphrys on THAT picture of Aberdeen-based Ben Innes with the hijacker of the EgyptAir flight. Below, the Late Late Show’s James Corden’s take on events.
“I don't know about you, but to me it looks like someone forgot to check his emotional baggage.”
"I describe myself as a liberal feminist. I definitely think we live in a system of patriarchy.”
England rugby star Maro Itoje, 21. ES Magazine
“The weather here in New York was sunny, but chilly. Or as meteorologists call it, ‘The Hillary Clinton’.”
The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon
"I've been playing nice with Vote Leave for months. It’s just that's not been reciprocated. I think they view many of the people here as members of the lower orders and not really fit to sit round the same table as them.”
Grassroots Out (GO) member Nigel Farage says he is happy to work with Vote Leave (whose members include Boris Johnson and Michael Gove) if it wins official group status.
"I'm not going to take it off the table.”
Donald Trump is asked if he would use nuclear weapons in Europe. Chris Matthews, MSNBC
“Trident is already horrific enough without Donald Trump's finger on our trigger.”
SNP defence spokesman Brendan O’Hara
£80,000 plus
The amount raised by listeners to The Archers in response to the Helen and Rob domestic abuse storyline. The money will go to the charity Refuge.
"If it smells a rat we'll expect it to catch it.”
Inspector Richie Allen, of the Dog Support Unit, Durham Police, says the force will consider using cats following a suggestion by Eliza Adamson-Hopper. The five-year-old sent the chief constable a picture of her cat and dog, Mittens and Susie, who live together happily. No, it is not an April Fool.
"That is the policy for this parliament, absolutely.”
Scottish Tories leader Ruth Davidson (above, launching her party's rural plan in the Cairngorms yesterday) says her “graduate tax” would stay at £1500 a year. Fees in England can now reach £9k a year. BBC Good Morning Scotland
“There is a new tell-all book coming out about the Kardashians. It contains shocking allegations about them secretly reading books and wearing clothes.”
Conan O’Brien
"It was revealed in a government survey published today that the Prime Minister is doing the work of two men, Laurel and Hardy."
One of many zingers from Ronnie Corbett, whose death was announced yesterday. He managed to unite David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn in paying tribute, with the PM describing the Scot as “one of the all-time great comedians” and Corbyn calling him “a giant of British entertainment”. Above, the famous “class” sketch from The Frost Report, 1966.
Former Deputy PM John Prescott’s tribute. Twitter
One last Corbett gem? ”A cement mixer collided with a prison van on the Kingston by-pass. Motorists are asked to be on the look-out for 16 hardened criminals.”
Diary
- National living wage of £7.20 an hour for adults over 25 comes into effect.
- Stamp duty increase for people buying buy-to-let properties comes into place.
- Finals: The Co-operative Bank.
Thank you for reading. See you on Monday.
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