Hello and welcome to The Midge, the e-bulletin that takes a bite out of politics in Scotland and elsewhere.
Today
- New PM May to complete ministerial team
- Minister reassures Open travellers facing rail strikes
- Interest rates held at 0.5%
- New Act of Union Bill published
06.00 BBC Today headlines
Theresa May to finish forming Cabinet … Speaks to Merkel and Hollande … Labour MPs call on Johnson to apologise for Obama comments … Property surveyors report drop in house sales and prices … Isil commander killed in Iraq … Hungarian government rejects claims of excessive force against migrants … Chinese man sentenced to four years in US for hacking … Bronze Age dig gives glimpse into life 3000 years ago.
07.00 BBC Good Morning Scotland
May's new Cabinet ... Johnson "proud and humbled" by Foreign Secretary appointment ... Scotland's Brexit advisory council meets for first time ... House sales dip ... Formal transfer of welfare powers to Holyrood begins ... ScotRail says trains to Open will run.
Front pages
In The Herald, Kate Devlin and Michael Settle say Theresa May began her premiership with a heartfelt commitment to maintaining the Union at the same time as appointing leading Brexiteers to key roles.
The National pictures Mrs May as Cruella de Vil with the headline: “The De Vil is in the detail.”
“Boris is back as Osborne fired” is the Mail’s summing up of last night’s Cabinet appointments, while the Times says she executed a clean break from the past which “left Westminster stunned”.
“Mayhem!” cries the Sun, noting SNP MPs’ refusal to join the ovation for Cameron as “Nat MPs’ silent demo at Cam exit”.
The Guardian says Mrs May’s Downing Street speech staked a claim to the middle ground but her appointments signalled a rightwards shift.
The Express hails David Davis and Boris Johnson as the “team to battle Brussels” and the Telegraph is happy too, declaring: “May brings in the Brexiteers".
The FT’s take on new Chancellor Philip Hammond is that he is “a low-key fiscal hawk” who will bring business and ministerial experience to the table.
In the Evening Times, Catriona Stewart reports that volunteer search operations for a missing widower have been called off.
Camley’s cartoon
Camley drops in on the first meeting between the Queen and new PM May.
Five in five seconds: Boris as Foreign Secretary
1. What’s the story? One could almost hear the sketch writers purr, Ferrero Rocher-style: “Oh, Mrs May, with this appointment of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary you are really spoiling us. We can look forward to acres of easy copy as he bumbles across the world like a cross between Mr Bean and Paddington Bear.”
2. A surprise appointment, then? Not half. Previously, Mrs May’s only linking of Boris and foreign affairs was the joke she cracked when she announced her leadership bid: “The last time he did a deal with the Germans he came back with three nearly-new water cannon.” As Home Secretary, she promptly banned him from using them.
3. Why appoint him? As former Tory MP and Times columnist Matthew Parris told the BBC World Service this morning, it was one of those ideas that initially seems so outlandish but when you think about it you wish you’d had it first. As London mayor, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson travelled the world drumming up business. He has Turkish ancestry, speaks at least three languages (including Russian), and he was born in New York.
4. And being Foreign Secretary keeps him out the country? How very cynical of you. It does, in theory, keep one of the Leave campaign’s most prominent leaders away from Brexit, which David Davis has been placed in charge of negotiating. And as Parris also pointed out, being Foreign Secretary is not the job it used to be when the map of the world was awash with pink. These days, it is about selling a notion of Britishness and Johnson, with his Hugh Grant style, should fit in well enough.
5. So a perfect move by May? Mmm. The media this morning cites plenty of instances when the new Foreign Secretary has been less than diplomatic, including referring to Barack Obama as “part-Kenyan” and someone who harboured an “ancestral dislike of the British empire”. Labour MPs are calling on Johnson to apologise for that (see below from Chuka Umunna MP), and it’s only day one. And while Mr Davis is indeed in charge of Brexit negotiations, journalists will run every move he makes past Johnson and ask, “What would you have done?” Can Johnson resist telling them?
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's first official meeting with President Obama will be interesting. Suggest it starts with the word "sorry"
— Chuka Umunna (@ChukaUmunna) July 13, 2016
Afore Ye Go
"Not everybody knows this, but the full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist Party, and that word unionist is very important to me. It means we believe in the union, the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”
Theresa May, above with husband Philip, takes the helm in Downing Street.
Say what you like about May, she's got incredible core strength. I couldn't muster a demi-lunge in a kitten heel.. pic.twitter.com/GrlQYFW2TG
— Sue Perkins (@sueperkins) July 13, 2016
Tremendous statement of intent from @theresa_may - the Union, equality of opportunity and social justice. Blue collar Conservatism is back.
— Ruth Davidson (@RuthDavidsonMSP) July 13, 2016
Well done!! She ignored the media calls for a kiss. Do your own thing. Be your own woman. Good speech. Labour in even more trouble I'd say
— Alastair Campbell (@campbellclaret) July 13, 2016
A former Labour press secretary tweets.
Brexiteers will note that Theresa May arrived at Buckingham Palace in a German BMW.
— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) July 13, 2016
@Peston - nice touch! Really like the wave :-) pic.twitter.com/aSCLKSY56U
— Jim Sims (@jimsims100) July 13, 2016
Sorry sorry sorry. Thought they were off air. I am such a klutz https://t.co/lzK51Ts7xy
— Robert Peston (@Peston) July 13, 2016
"Are you telling me that the nuclear launch code is just 'password'?" pic.twitter.com/cDDUqercSs
— David Whitley (@mrdavidwhitley) July 13, 2016
"Nothing is really impossible if you put your mind to it. After all, as I once said, I was the future once.”
David Cameron at his valedictory PMQs. He first used the line in 2005 against Tony Blair.
"Sadly I can't take Larry with me, he belongs to the house and the staff love him very much - as do I.”
Before he went, Mr Cameron sought to quash rumours he and the Downing Street mouser were not close by holding up a picture, above, of Larry on his lap.
Florence Cameron - clearly a master of parental guilt-tripping and/or avoiding air fares pic.twitter.com/StBrcdltz7
— Tara Mulholland (@tara_mulholland) July 13, 2016
Mr Cameron also recalled how his daughter Florence once sat in his ministerial box and urged her dad to take her with him on a foreign trip.
'now gentleman, would you like to take out the unemployment insurance?'
— General Boles (@GeneralBoles) July 13, 2016
'no I think we'll be ok' pic.twitter.com/rtwaiAWZeu
“The Prime Minister's legacy will undoubtedly be that he has taken us to the brink of being taken out of the European Union so we will not be applauding his premiership on these benches.”
Angus Robertson, SNP leader in Westminster, also sent his best wishes to the departing PM and his family, who were watching his final PMQs as premier from the Commons gallery. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.
What a miserable bunch of greetin faced sods / nats at Cameron farewell. No class no policies. A national embarrassment. What a shower!
— Alan Cochrane (@Alan_Cochrane) July 13, 2016
Things you learn from the credits of Four Weddings: Tory MP Amber Rudd once worked as an "aristocracy co-ordinator". pic.twitter.com/i4udflTK
— Jim Waterson (@jimwaterson) June 17, 2012
Ace spot by BuzzFeed News' Jim Waterson
“We should indeed send a message to the BBC that calling organisations 'so-called' creates entirely the wrong impression.”
Home Office minister John Hayes agrees with Labour’s Andy Burnham about the undesirability of calling Daesh the “so-called Islamic state”. Mr Hayes has written to the broadcaster. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.
“The presidential debates have been announced and, guess what, the final one is gonna take place in Las Vegas. Trump and Hillary will have a 90-minute debate and then be married by Elvis.”
Conan O’Brien. Above, the famous shot of when the King met Nixon. National Archive/Getty Images.
"They have been plotting and conniving. The only good thing about it, as plotters they're f****** useless."
Shadow Chancellor John Mr McDonnell, speaking at a pro-Corbyn fundraising event, makes clear his displeasure with some critics of the Labour leader.
"We don't want to have a debate that is disfigured by bullying, intimidation, threats, or the kind of language that John McDonnell used last night. This is my clean campaign pledge and I hope all the other candidates in the leadership election and their supporters will sign up to this pledge.”
Challenger Angela Eagle
“Due to the British pound losing value in the Brexit, Serena Williams' Wimbledon prize went down from being worth $3 million to just $2.6 million. Or as Serena put it, ‘Ugh, just forget it then!’”
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Julian Finney/Getty Images
.@ScotParl you must be joking
— Declan (@AllHandsOnDex) July 13, 2016
Thank you for reading. See you tomorrow
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