Hello and welcome to The Midge, the e-bulletin that takes a bite out of politics in Scotland and elsewhere.
Front pages
In The Herald, political correspondent Kate Devlin reports on a study looking at what will happen to 7000 families in Scotland when the benefits cap is lowered from next week.
“Westminster indecision risks £1.3bn in islands renewables” is the splash in The National. Projects are being held up by funding uncertainty, says the paper.
The Mail says the Committee on Standards in Public Life wants MPs to follow the same rules as MSPs and not employ family members. The paper says seven SNP MPs employ family members.
Exclusive: In the Evening Times, Hannah Rodger reports on a spate of close fires in the city.
The Times, Guardian, Telegraph and FT picture Bank of England Governor Mark Carney as he departs Downing Street after telling the Government he will be going in 2019, not 2021 as Mrs May had wanted.
The Telegraph also has an op-ed piece from the Scottish Conservatives leader, Ruth Davidson, in which she says the UK has a “moral duty” to turn its face to the wider world and talk up its achievements. “Living in Scotland,” she writes, “where a nationalist government criticises and condemns the UK every single day, I want to see us talk ourselves up for the force of good that we are.”
In the Guardian, MI5 director general Andrew Parker warns of the growing Russian threat to the UK.
The Sun says Fifa is blocking England and Scotland players from wearing poppies when they play a World Cup qualifier next week. Fifa has ruled that the wearing of poppies is a political statement.
Camley’s cartoon
Camley drops in on a great escape.
FFS: Five in five seconds
What’s the story? The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign will hold a press conference in Barnsley following the refusal by Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, to hold a public inquiry into the 1984 clash between miners and police.
Why has she refused? Rudd told the Commons yesterday that it had been a difficult decision but "ultimately there were no deaths or wrongful convictions”. She has further written to campaigners saying any inquiry would be hampered by the amount of time that has passed, and the fact that most of the officers involved are no longer employed by the police force.
Campaigners’ response? “We've just been custard-pied,” Kevin Horne of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign said. Campaigners say both Ms Rudd and Theresa May, when she was Home Secretary, had led them to believe an inquiry would take place.
Halloween 2016 will go down as the day that the Nasty Party returned with a vengeance.
— Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) October 31, 2016
Reaction in the Commons? Damning. Labour's former shadow home secretary Andy Burnham, a prominent campaigner for an independent investigation into the Hillsborough deaths, accused the Government of an "establishment stitch-up”. SNP MP John Nicolson was similarly scathing:
This government gets ever more repugnant. https://t.co/4CqcUyg4lO
— JOHN NICOLSON M.P. (@MrJohnNicolson) October 31, 2016
Next moves? Expect the matter to surface at PMQs, when MPs will have the chance to take Mrs May to task.
Afore Ye Go
“It’s ludicrous, insulting, baffling and risible.”
Glasgow Tory MSP Adam Tomkins on the Fifa ruling against England and Scotland players sporting poppies at next week’s game. International football's governing body says the wearing of poppies is a "political statement". The Sun
"I think we hit the mother lode.”
Donald Trump on the FBI’s renewed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“I think most people have moved on.”
Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump supporters 'arrest Hillary Clinton' during Halloween rallyhttps://t.co/d1YFf2gZEW pic.twitter.com/aSa9KrBxDU
— ITV News (@itvnews) October 31, 2016
Good enough for next year's Fringe?
This Halloween... a true horror Tory. pic.twitter.com/8TFlj6ZfrS
— HaveIGotNewsForYou (@haveigotnews) October 31, 2016
Showing my fangs before I go trick or treating tonight #HappyHalloween pic.twitter.com/mkvB0IFmim
— Palmerston (@DiploMog) October 31, 2016
What the Foreign Office cat got up to last night.
"It is a decision I have not taken lightly, but following meetings this weekend I realised the path to victory is too narrow.”
Raheem Kassam, outspoken former aide to Nigel Farage, on quitting the race to become Ukip leader. A series of derogatory tweets by Kassam, including one aimed at FM Nicola Sturgeon, emerged last week. Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Former Deputy Prime Minister @Nick_Clegg, on Parliament Square having his photograph taken. pic.twitter.com/pG9IWg4Zid
— Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) October 31, 2016
From our "Where are they now?" files
Not for the fainted hearted - Foreign Sec Boris Johnson takes an early morning Jog from his new London Home !! pic.twitter.com/c5L8WALTlU
— Political Pictures (@PoliticalPics) October 31, 2016
Thanks for reading. See you tomorrow. Twitter: @alisonmrowat
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