Rebecca McQuillan

Does Britain have to be able to control its borders? The answer, from left and right, is yes to both. But how you do it is another matter. The movement of people is a complex issue, driven by push and pull factors. You can approach it soberly, looking for solutions that are sustainable and fair to both migrants and host populations; or you can posture about, talking tough, joining an ignoble line of politicians who have mischaracterised migration and refugees for their own ends.

How concerned should we be about ultra-processed food? And if you wanted to cut it out of your diet, following a slew of worrying studies on it, how simple would that be? Not remotely simple, apparently. I wanted a loaf that was made of stuff I recognised, so I took a wander down my local supermarket’s bread aisle.

Hear that? It’s the sound of silence. Earlier this summer, talk of an independence referendum finally went quiet. Like a broken car alarm, it had been drowning out discussion of just about everything else in Scotland for years.

In some parts of the Scottish Conservative party, there is no greater insult than to be compared to the former SNP leader. There are people who would sooner be ritually humiliated by Gordon Ramsay than likened – quick, cross yourself and grab the garlic – to Nicola Sturgeon.

The Scottish Conservatives have important things to say and ought to be heard.

This year has been a time of joyously unbounded normality. Buses and trains are as full as they ever were; pubs and venues are stowed out. We can hug, shake hands, share food – all the things that in small and subtle ways bring joy to an ordinary day. Covid has become less and less intrusive in our lives. Even GP surgeries no longer require patients to wear masks in most circumstances.

Everyone seems to have it in for the Scottish Greens. Ministers Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater are disappearing under a Holyrood pile-on, the aggressors mainly fading figures from Scotland’s political past.

“It’s killing an island, the incompetence with which the ferries are run.” Nothing surprises John Daniel Peteranna any more about the ferries South Uist depends on. The businessman turned protester has come to expect the worst. With a drastically ageing west coast ferry fleet, breakdowns are frequent and, as he sees it, inevitable – “like driving a 1960s car”.

Could the SNP win the next Scottish election and continue their domination of Scottish politics into the 2030s, perhaps forcing the UK Government to consent to that second independence vote?

There’s an awful lot said and written about heat pumps. Some of it is sensible comment; some of it unfortunately isn’t. But while there’s a debate to be had about how to decarbonise heating in homes effectively and affordably, and while heat pumps aren’t suitable for every property, they will, as Patrick Harvie made clear writing in this newspaper recently, be an important part of the future mix.