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The SNP leadership race has been dominating the headlines in recent weeks, with the contest becoming increasingly bitter.

Appealing for a bit of calm, Andy McIver has called on the Yes movement to combine the best of Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf.

He stated: "All political parties are said to be broad churches of opinion, but the SNP has always been the broadest of all churches, held together in spite of the weight of their contradictions by the power of their belief in independence.

"But the church roof is in danger of collapsing, now. Mr Yousaf would not dissent if called a socialist. Although he has accepted a role for economic growth, he is heavily supportive of the coalition with the Greens, a party which does not, and is pushing a so-called "well-being economy". He is focused on money, rather than reform, when it comes to public services, and is proposing little or no change to the agenda set by previous administrations under the governance of Ms Sturgeon. And he has put independence at the top of his priority list.

"Ms Forbes, not so much. Her top priority is economic growth and the cost of living. Her intentions for the health service and for education focus on reform, not on simply ploughing more money into them. One gets the impression it’d be quicker to count the government policies that she’d keep, rather than the ones she’d dispense with. Her policy on independence is that there is no prospect of it until she shows people who voted No in 2014 that she can govern completely and give them confidence that an independent Scotland can work.

"This is not an SNP leadership election. This is a de facto General Election being run by the SNP."

Meanwhile the Head of Policy at WWF Scotland of called on the climate to be put front and centre in the debate.

Taking on the major UK-wide political talking point of the past few weeks, Catriona Stewart described the Conservative government's strategy on small boats as "cruel and unusual".

She wrote: "Coyly referred to as the Stop the Boats Bill, this legislation was announced only recently and is speed walking past any due diligence. It is highly unlikely to deter small boats carrying asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel and so fails its core purpose.

"The bill pledges that anyone who arrives in the UK by small boat will be detained for 28 days before they are deported but there is no clear system for processing deportations of the people arriving and limited capacity for detention."

It's not all heavy on The Herald though. Just this week we've had Susan Swarbrick on the return of Challenge Anneka and Alan Simpson on fear of buses.

And, of course, The Herald is the only place in Scotland you can read Dani Garavelli, who on Sunday wrote about Mick Lynch's barnstorming Glasgow speech.

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