Hello and welcome back to The Midge, the e-bulletin that takes a bite out of politics in Scotland and elsewhere. 

Today

  • NHS staff ‘too scared to speak out’
  • Dugdale takes on Corbyn over Scottish seat on NEC
  • May camp denies lack of support for Cameron in EU vote
  • Who is the proudest Scot in Mayfair?

Front pages

The Herald:

Exclusive: in The Herald, health correspondent Helen Puttick speaks to Paul Gray, the chief executive of NHS Scotland. Kate Devlin, political correspondent, reports on a clash between Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and Jeremy Corbyn over a Scottish seat on the NEC.

Exclusive: The National has found the “missing link” between Hugh MacDiarmid and Mary Poppins.

The Mail says speeding drivers are to be offered training courses in place of fines and penalty points. 

The Herald:

The Evening Times reports on a police operation to trace a missing Clydebank teenager.

The Times leads on claims in a new book that Theresa May urged David Cameron not to push for tougher migration controls. May supporters have denied the suggestions. “Top Tories knife the PM” is the i’s take on the story. 

In the Telegraph, former SNP minister Alex Neil says Scotland could gain “neo-independence” by using Brexit to accumulate powers and cash from the EU. 

Motherwell, Greenock and Arbroath are Scotland’s most affordable commuter towns, according to a Bank of Scotland study reported in the Scotsman. 

The FT says the City fears Downing Street is moving towards a “hard Brexit” - taking the UK out of the EU’s single market and customs union.

Camley’s Cartoon

The Herald:

Camley drops in on a celebration to mark Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election.  

TTS: Ten in ten seconds

If it’s party conference season it must also be memoir month. Nothing says “selling opportunity” to a publisher more than a captive audience of political anoraks. Besides the insightful memoirs of former Downing Street communications director Craig Oliver (see Afore Ye Go), and Nick Clegg’s life-sappingly dull Politics: Between the Extremes, former Newsnight anchor Jeremy Paxman is punting his autobiography, A Life in Questions, serialised in the Times. To mark the occasion, here are 10 of Paxo’s most notorious attempts at stuffing his interviewee:

1. "Did you threaten to overrule him?”

To Michael Howard on then prisons chief Derek Lewis. 

2. “Why don’t people like you?”

To Gordon Brown

3. “Do you know what a Slippery Nipple is?

Trying to catch a young David Cameron out with a cocktail question as he ran for the Tory leadership in 2005. 

4. “You ever think you are incompetent?”

To junior Treasury Minister Chloe Smith, who was trying to defend a U-turn on a fuel duty rise. 

The Herald:

5. "People think you are not tough enough."

To Ed Miliband (above) during the 2015 general election, prompting the response, “Hell yes, I’m tough enough.”

6. “Russell Brand, who are you to edit a political magazine?”

On the comedian’s guest editorship of the New Statesman

7. “Does it bother you that everyone I’ve talked to in preparing for this interview has said, ‘I hope he’s sober’?

To Charles Kennedy. Paxman says he was justified in asking because “if - as subsequently became clear - he had a drink problem, then as party leader it had public policy implications”. 

8. “Is it true that you called Angela Merkel ‘an un****able lard-a***?”

To Silvio Berlusconi

9. “Do you ever feel uncomfortable, travelling between your various homes on various continents at enormous carbon cost?”

To Sting on his environmental campaigning

10. “You don't pray together?”

To Tony Blair on his relationship with George W Bush. Blair’s answer was no.

Afore Ye Go

The Herald:

"If dopey Mark Cuban of failed Benefactor fame wants to sit in the front row, perhaps I will put Gennifer Flowers right alongside of him!”

Donald Trump threatens to invite a former lover of Bill Clinton to tonight’s live TV debate - expected to attract an audience of 120 million - after the Democrats reportedly asked a billionaire rival of his to attend. A Trump campaign spokesman said later they had not invited Ms Flowers “formally” and did not expect her to be there. AP Photo/Steve Helber

The Herald:

“Media experts say [tonight’s] presidential debate will have a Super Bowl-sized TV audience. Of course, the Super Bowl audience drinks for fun, but Monday’s debate audience will be drinking out of sheer terror.”

Conan O’Brien. Above, the 2016 Budweiser Made in America music festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Lisa Lake/Getty Images for Anheuser-Busch

The Herald: GettyImages-532203434.jpg

“I’ve been accused on Twitter by the SNP of turning my back on Scotland … Yes, I do live in Mayfair, but I am extremely proud of my Scottish roots.”

Baroness Michelle Mone. Event magazine.  Justin Tallis - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The Herald:

“Most people in Britain have not heard of her and frankly what she said is wrong after Jeremy won a convincing leadership election twice in a year. She should get behind Jeremy and stop whining.”

At Labour's conference in Liverpool, Ken Livingstone, currently suspended from Labour over Hitler remarks, tells off Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale for questioning whether the newly re-elected Mr Corbyn could unite the party. Sunday Herald. Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

From Spectator editor Fraser Nelson

Labour MP Jess Phillips takes a glass half full attitude to conference

The Herald:

"It's not about me, it's about the team - but I did score the winning penalty.”

Comedian John Bishop on leading a team of Labour MPs against the press in a football match in Liverpool. Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Also at the Labour conference, Ed Miliband addresses a fringe meeting. From the FT's Jim Pickard

The Herald:

First Lady Michelle Obama hugs former president George W Bush at the opening of the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington DC. Astrid Riecken/Getty Images

And there was time for selfies, too.

The Herald:

"Labour may be increasingly divorced from its traditional support, but under my leadership the Scottish Conservatives will be there to speak up for those decent, moderate voters.”

Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson makes a pitch for the Labour vote. Sunday Times. Scottish Labour said the idea Ms Davidson wanted a socially just country was “laughable”. Jane Barlow/PA Wire

The Herald:

“Well, that didn’t go to plan!”

Former PM David Cameron to his Downing Street director of communications, Craig Oliver, the morning after the Brexit vote. As revealed in Oliver’s book, Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story of Brexit. Mail on Sunday. Toby Melville - WPA Pool /Getty Images

The Herald:

“Better luck next time, darling.”

Strictly Judge Craig Revel Horwood to former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls after his debut waltz to Are You Lonesome Tonight? Balls said later it was “a base to build on”. Like quicksand, Ed? Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire

If The Midge is back, ditto Larry the Downing Street cat. Courtesy of @PoliticalPics

Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. Twitter: @alisonmrowat