Hello and welcome to The Midge, the e-bulletin that takes a bite out of politics in Scotland and elsewhere.
Today
- Cruz quits race for White House, Sanders beats Clinton
- SNP jitters over winning majority
- Brexit voters backing independence for Scotland
- UKIP Glasgow branch leader quits
- MPs to question Green on BHS collapse
06.00 BBC Today headlines
Trump wins, Cruz withdraws … UK Government under mounting pressure to take Syrian child refugees from Europe … Wildfires encircling Fort McMurray … Study says 5000 care homes at risk of closure due to debt … MPs slate ministers for dithering on airport decision … Stanley Spencer sketches discovered.
07.00 BBC Good Morning Scotland headlines
Last day of campaigning ... Trump ... Sanders narrowly beats Clinton in Indiana ... 60,000 told to leave homes in western Canada ... Child refugees ... Peers say EU withdrawal could take several years ... NASUWT to step up industrial action ... Broadband ad reforms delayed ... Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust to measure effect of boats on wildlife.
Front pages
In The Herald, Magnus Gardham reports on eve of poll fears in the SNP camp that a low turnout could deny them a majority.
Exclusive: The National says police are investigating claims that threats were made against a two-year-old who came to Scotland for surgery.
The Evening Times talks to the resident of a Glasgow tenement which is collapsing.
The FT says Barclays is bringing back the first 100% mortgage since the financial crash, aimed at those who would normally apply to the “bank of mum and dad”. But it must be supported by a family member or guardian.
The Mail says Kezia Dugdale is facing humiliation at the polls tomorrow. It also reports on what it calls “Dickensian squalor in Sturgeon’s own seat”.
The Telegraph spotlights an article by the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, telling Labour it has a “severe” problem with anti-Semitism.
The Guardian says Corbyn critics have been warned by pollsters that attempts to oust him will fail because he has too much support in the party at large.
The Sun and The Herald report that police are probing claims that a dead seal was thrown around at a gig on Arran.
The Express says the SNP has suspended an activist over allegedly posting anti-Semitic messages online.
The Times has been speaking to George Papadopoulos, Donald Trump’s foreign policy adviser, who says David Cameron should apologise for calling the Republican frontrunner “divisive, stupid and wrong”.
Camley’s Cartoon
Camley drops in on a coaching session for Labour’s Kezia Dugdale.
Need to know
They said he shouldn’t do it. They said he couldn’t do it. But he has done it. With his rival Ted Cruz this morning quitting the race for the White House, Donald Trump, the billionaire businessman who has never held elected office, is now the presumptive Republican nominee.
Indiana was the last stand for Cruz, above, and he stumbled badly. From there he could only to on to New Jersey and California, both places were Trump is polling well. It was over for the Texas senator, and he knew it.
"We gave it everything we've got,” he told supporters, “but the voters chose another path.”
So all eyes return to Trump, who notably called for unity in his victory speech. He and the Republican establishment have little choice now but to embrace each other gingerly. The key question now, as Reed Epstein of the Wall Street Journal pointed out to the BBC World Service this morning, is how Trump is going to pay for the rest of his election campaign. He has mostly, and famously, spent his own money, some $35m so far, but he will need at least 20 times that to even begin to take on Hillary. Will those traditional donors he has so far loudly disdained be willing to forgive, forget and pony up?
Afore ye go
“They would be dancing in the Kremlin if Brexit was to occur.”
Former Tory Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind. Harry Engels/Getty Images
"To give the Sun this photo endorsement in the week of the Hillsborough report is crassly insensitive to the Hillsborough families.”
Former SNP MEP Hugh Kerr quits the party. Read the story here.
"Even I would have helped her, ok?"
Donald Trump says Ted Cruz did not even seem to notice his running mate Carly Fiorina falling off a stage after endorsing him. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Looking forward to complaints about vast expense incurred shrinking @GlennBBC to the size of a ballot paper for this pic.twitter.com/BCubmyTsxy
— Philip Sim (@BBCPhilipSim) May 3, 2016
The BBC's Philip Sim gets ahead of the game
"It is time, quite honestly, that many in the golden circle of the media establishment actually got out a bit and listened to what people are saying.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is unhappy at questions about his leadership. He also said Labour would not lose any council seats. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
SNP 70 out of 129 seats (+1), Labour 26 (-11), the Tories 22 (+7).
Dr Chris Hanretty of the University of East Anglia spells out a likely election outcome for Kezia Dugdale, above, Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson. Matt Cardy/Getty Images
"She wishes to stand aside from all her duties until current matters are resolved.”
Home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz announces the standing down of MP Naz Shah from an inquiry into anti-Semitism following her suspension from Labour over Facebook comments. Among those the committee will call on to give evidence is Ken Livingstone, above, himself suspended from Labour for attempting to defend Ms Shah. Rob Stothard/Getty Images
It's the one year anniversary of that event in a Hastings car park in #GE2015 which became known as #EdStone pic.twitter.com/jkcK5p1Ohs
— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) May 3, 2016
Who could possibly forget?
"He's just too bloody posh to lecture people on low budgets about the amount they spend on chicken.”
Jay Rayner on fellow food expert Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, above, with an ordinary cooking couple.
“The White House announced that Malia Obama will attend Harvard University, but that she plans to take a year off before starting. Malia got the idea after seeing how much fun her dad is having with HIS year off.”
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon questions the outgoing president’s work rate.
Palmerston, the rescue cat brought to the Foreign Office, has already caught a mouse https://t.co/GekxkIb6hW pic.twitter.com/Z9qmaQgCGj
— LBC (@LBC) May 3, 2016
Success at the Foreign Office, but not for the mouse
Diary
Electoral Commission, CPS and police to meet over Conservative election expenses.
Luxembourg: European ruling on tobacco plain packaging.
Commons: PMQs
Edinburgh: Royal Bank of Scotland AGM.
Thank you for reading. See you tomorrow.
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