Hello and welcome to The Midge, your first bite of the day’s politics in Scotland and elsewhere.

The Herald:

Today

  • Mundell: Scrap fiscal powers deadline
  • UK and Scots skills ministers in Trade Union Bill showdown
  • Syria aid conference starts as peace talks stall
  • Principal attacks university reforms as “incoherent”
  • Is God a woman? Salmond open-minded

06.00 BBC Radio 4 Today

UK to double aid to Syria … Poll shows support for migrants falling … Assange will leave Ecuadorian embassy if UN rules against … Lord Bramall criticises police over inquiry … Age UK energy deals questioned.

07.00 BBC Good Morning Scotland

Syria aid doubled … Record number of Scots apply to university … Update on Forth Road Bridge repairs due … MSPs to debate alcohol ad ban near schools … Cameron meets Tusk again … Police out in force for Cologne festival … Plea to simplify election rules … Van Morrison becomes knight. 

Front pages

The Herald:

The Herald splashes on the Scottish Secretary’s plea to scrap the February 12 deadline for a fiscal framework deal. On the wing, Tom Gordon reports that entrepreneur Michelle Mone has changed the status of her company, ending the need to file public accounts. 

The Sun, meanwhile, reports on a “bitter” fall out between Ms Mone and her former PA, Mark Hassan-Ali. 

Exclusive: In The National, Billy Briggs reports that police are investigating Scottish links to a neo-Nazi march in Dover.

The Herald: The Evening Times declares “pothole pandemonium” after recent storms, with complaints running at more than 150 a week. 

The Scottish Daily Mail and the Times hail a “revolution” in cancer care, with death rates falling nearly 10% in ten years. 

The Telegraph and Scotsman picture the new Earl and Countess of Lucan. A judge ruled yesterday that the peer, who fled in 1974 after the family nanny was murdered, was dead. 

The makers of Swiftkey, the predictive text tool, are celebrating today after being bought for $250m by Microsoft, reports the FT.

The Guardian says Boris Johnson is getting ready to swing behind David Cameron on his EU deal.

Camley’s cartoon

The Herald:

Camley casts his net wide in the search for a fiscal deal.

Need to know

The Herald:

February 12, Valentine’s Day, February 22, the Twelfth of Never? A blizzard of deadlines are now swirling around the deal to settle on a fiscal framework that will underpin the new powers coming Scotland’s way via the Scotland Bill. After a debate in the Commons yesterday, all sides would appear to agree that there must be enough time for Holyrood to scrutinise the deal and approve the legislation, but how much is the question? As the clock ticks ever louder, the last word yesterday went to Treasury Chief Secretary Greg Hands, due in Edinburgh on Monday for a day of talks. "I'm ready to deal,” said Mr Hands. And so the poker game rolls on. 

Diary

  • Holyrood: FMQs
  • Glasgow: Visit my Mosque Day launched by The Muslim Council of Scotland.
  • London: Conference on Syria crisis co-hosted by the UK, Germany, Kuwait, Norway and the United Nations.
  • London: Bank of England quarterly inflation report and interest rate decision. 
  • Scotland’s Skill Secretary Roseanna Cunningham meets UK Skills Minister Nick Boles to seek exemptions from parts of the Trade Union Bill.

Talk of the steamie: comment sections

In The Herald, Iain Macwhirter reckons Labour’s penny on tax proposal is the wrong levy at the wrong time. Helen Puttick considers the decision not to fund face transplants in Scotland.

Owen Jones in The Guardian writes in praise of young voters, the force behind Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. 

David Aaronovitch in the Times has watched Spotlight, the movie about the Boston Globe’s investigation into child abuse by the church, and says society should not feel smug about the scandals of the past as we don’t know what is going on today. 

In the Mail, John MacLeod writes from his home in the Western Isles, the happiest place in Britain according to the Office for National Statistics. 

Afore ye go

The Herald:

"The great thing about being a Presbyterian is the one-to-one relationship you have with your maker. One of the aspects of the one-to-one relationship is that it is between you and him or her.”

Alex Salmond, asked if had ever prayed for guidance, leaves open the possibility of Him being a Her. LBC

The Herald:

"The people of Scotland will know that his refusal to act means that every single cut to public services in Scotland is a John Swinney cut.”

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie (above, in more cordial times) on the Scottish Government’s no to an income tax rise.

The Herald: Scottish Tory leadership contender Murdo Fraser has officially launched his campaign

“To coin a phrase we are happy to be better together with the SNP on this issue.”

Murdo Fraser, Scottish Tory finance spokesman, on the vote against an income tax rise, as proposed by Labour and the LibDems. 

The Herald:

"This project will create a culturally-inspired message in a bottle capturing global perspectives that will travel into space for eons.”

The University of Edinburgh and the Royal Observatory of Edinburgh are joining forces on a project to send a communique into space. Before you ask, it will be sent via radio waves, and not an Irn Bru bottle, as carried by a certain tennis player (above).

The Herald:

“The fella has just asked a question and he's beetled out of the chamber. Quite extraordinary behaviour.”

Speaker John Bercow (above), also in tennis mode, proclaims his flabber duly gasted at the actions of Drew Hendry, SNP MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. 

The Herald:

“Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!”

Within 24 hours of the Iowa result, Donald Trump dispenses with any notion of being a good loser. Twitter

The Herald:

“The most expensive Uber service that anyone has ever thought of.”

David Cameron mocks Jeremy Corbyn’s proposal to use Trident subs, sans warheads, to ferry military forces around the world. 

The Herald:

“You get that in Sainsbury's in Chichester. You see them using paper plates and cups and you wonder what else they're cutting back on.”

Tale of two nations: They're up in arms in West Sussex over a Waitrose cafe swapping china plates and cups for paper ones.

Thank you for reading. See you tomorrow.