It was a weekend when some comforting myths were challenged with difficult truths.

The UK Government was presented with a leaked report, dubbed Yellowhammer, by its own civil servants on just how bad a no deal Brexit would be.

Scotland's makar, Jackie Kay, warned her fellow Scots that they were far from as welcoming to people of colour as they liked to think.

The Guardian

It was a phrase coined during the indyref and first revealed in The Herald. But the phrase "Project Fear" - initially how Better Together staffers dubbed their efforts to raise concerns over independence - has had a second life as quick putdown any Brexit worry.

Matthew d'Ancona reckons the term "must be expunged from the respectable political lexicon".

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Mr d'Ancona was struck that a government minister referred to "scaremongering" when he was asked about Yellowhammer leaks. But he saw a new line: that Boris Johnson will blame others when his Brexit project comes undone.

"As the Project Fear slur diminishes in impact, it is intriguing to observe the Prime Minister and his acolytes preparing its successor, the 'Great Betrayal' narrative."

The National

Former Scottish Socialist MSP Carolyn Leckie, meanwhile, attacked the 'plasticine generals' of Remain as the she looked a the prospects of a parliamentary alliance to oust Mr Johnson and his Brexit government. Singling out the Liberal Democrats for refusing to work to put Labour's Jeremy Corbyn in No 10, she said: "If we end up crashing out of the EU....Jo Swinson, Chuka Umunna, Tom Watson and the rest will be complicit and will deserve every particle of the infamy that will befall them." In contrast Ms Leckie said the the SNP had acted "as Aristotle sort of said, like a sober person among drunkards".

The Financial Times

There was another dose of reality in the FT, again about Brexit. Irish economist David McWilliams set out why the current UK Government risked shooting itself in the foot over Ireland. "In 1953 when Winston Churchill was PM, 91% of Irish exports went to the UK. Today the figure is 11%. Far from being the poor, dependent outpost relying on British largesse - as depicted by Brexiters - the Republic of Ireland is an outward-looking, dynamic entrepôt. Today Irish firms employ more people in UK than UK firms in Ireland."

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Mr McWilliams was not arguing that a no deal Brexit would not hurt his country: farm exports to Britain are still important. Instead, he was suggesting Britain had a lot to lose too. "Ireland has been far more successful at diversifying from the UK than the UK from Ireland. Little Ireland is the UK's fifth largest export market. Ireland buys more from Britain because Ireland is much richer."

Mr McWilliams believes Brexit could be positive for his country as mobile capital and talent goes west.

The Times

Veteran editor and writer Magnus Linklater welcomed Ms Kay's puncturing of Scotland's self-image of tolerance.

Citing a long legacy of bigotry against Irish Catholic migrants, Mr Linklater said: "If Jackie Kay has performed one service it is this: that we need to be reminded of our history if we are to understand it, and that there is in Scotland a layer of complacency when it comes to racial attitudes that may conceal a darker prejudice beneath it. Having that out in the open is the first step to tackling it head on."

The Scotsman

This weekend The Herald revealed that southern European regions were lobbying for a "Scottish solution" to depopulation, their own version of the Highlands and Islands Development Board.

This came as figures show the region had recovered to its 1850s population peak.

Columnist Lesley Riddoch took a very different view than than campaigners in Spain, Croatia and Greece who want independent agencies to mitigate against political short-termism.

Citing the Arctic north of Norway, Ms Riddoch said: "The relatively high population of remote northern Norway has been achieved not by the action of specific quangos but by the fact it escaped feudalism and therefore has the most diverse number of landowners in Europe and land prices that are a fraction of those demanded for the tiny parcels available in Highland Scotland." Ms Riddoch also stressed the role of "ultra-local democratic control" in Norway.