In nerdy Holyrood election news, looks like Russell Findaly will stand just on the list "to free him up to campaign across Scotland" - understand most likely West of Scotland region Douglas Ross did the same in 2021 and it worked - but will ruffle a few feathers internally

EXCLUSIVE: Cops were called to Holyrood after a mug used by Michael Matheson went missing - sparking fury with it labelled a waste of police time Comes after no police action over Mr Matheson's £11,000 iPad roaming bill for footie he charged to taxpayers... www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1579300...

Happy New Year everyone! Remember, if you haven't bombed a strategically important nation and seized its authoritarian head of state and effectively it's government and industrial economy by January 5, you'll have bad luck all year

Ex-Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun has Lunch with the FT and in one of those instances so rare that you know he didn't sign an NDA, says exactly why as.ft.com/r/e503690d-8...

People think I'm joking when I say I think Scottish Labour will try to run a minority government if they finish second. I'm really not, and I think they'll try it even if there is a razor-thin pro-union majority. It'll be chaos, but who doesn't love a bit of that?

Extremely fed up of politicians refusing to admit fault over obviously false statements. It leads directly to how a minister stays on despite blatant misrepresention as the bar is so high for quitting. Total self-destruction of standards in public life over the last decade

"But the overall impression continues to be of a system loaded against younger workers, paying more to fund older citizens with assets" A fundamental truth here about our politics as demographics favour short-termist policy designed to win/keep older voters and shaft the younger working population

EXCLUSIVE: John Swinney should face a probe into whether his own budget “lies” have breached the ministerial code, critics have said The FM has refused to admit the SNP has breached its election promise to freeze income tax, despite hiking the levies twice www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1564145...

At no point in the process did the OBR have the government missing its fiscal rules by a large margin. Leaves me baffled by the months of speculation and briefing. Was the plan to lead everyone to expect a big income tax rise, then surprise them on the day by not doing it..?

There was no state. Who does she think crucified him, an anarchist collective?

The closest bit of polling I've seen which explains why voters are a) pissed off at existing/historic political parties (failure to deal with cost-of-living) and b) moving to Reform (who are owning a high-salient issue on immigration w/explicit link to cost-of-living, i.e. people being "worse off")

The long and short of this YouGov polling is you are going to struggle to win an election by trying to make it a referendum on the incumbent's record, when your own party has no approval for its own - far more salient - record Rightly or wrongly, it's Starmer who is tanking Sarwar, not the SNP.

We think we've found the source of the briefings against Wes Streeting...

NEW: A senior Scottish Labour source says of the Starmer/Streeting briefings... "This is an entirely self-inflicted wound today and there's no need for it. "It is a massively unhelpful and ill-disciplined briefing. It could come from the PM's own mouth and still be that.

Why a 2p increase in UK income tax will cut the Scottish Budget by £1 billion: read our first budget preview and find out more:

Sums up Scottish Labour's challenge next May Nat support down on 2021/22 highs but Labour are not benefitting enough from straight switchers *or* from Westminster incumbency and Tory tanking Instead Reform are nicking votes Labour need to win next May. A massive vibe switch needed to reverse that

NEW: Holyrood 2026 will NOT have an overnight count Instead, votes will be counted on the Friday after the polls close Nervous waits all round and, critically, more time for spin/narrative setting for winners and losers...

The SNP's record on child homelessness is appalling and unforgivable, but this is *yet another* example of how all they will have to do during the Holyrood 2026 campaign is point at Sir Keir Starmer's record It's completely sinking Anas Sarwar

Ash Regan quits the Alba Party and with that decision, the spectre of Alex Salmond finally recedes from any meaningful impact at next May's election Alba now surely dead and buried.

A few days after Labour Conference, here's my take on what it means for Scottish Labour They're a party that feels high on copium, dragged down by a party chief they know is a bust but can't change

EXCLUSIVE: Snooty Tory MSPs forced party chiefs to order upmarket pizzas — after they moaned about Domino’s ones. The politicians staged a revolt over the takeaway meals delivered to Holyrood during a debate that went on for hours longer than usual. www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1540029...

Anas Sarwar's argument at Labour conference is for the party not to be "shy" on their achievements It's effectively a belief that comms, not policy or vision, is what's dragging the party down Not sold.

Reason No. 1 not to call the UK's new digital ID a "Brit Card"

At some point, other political parties will clock that Farage's policy announcements are not about anything other than driving British politics in a generally favourable direction *for him*, so that by 2029, the sort of relatively 'unpopular' and extreme policies are the opposite

Brilliant from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com Benefits and social care spending in Scotland is to pensions in the UK - politically difficult, ruinously expensive, and ever-increasing policy decisions which ignore fundamental failures of post-2008 governments and economies. www.ft.com/content/d419...

EXCLUSIVE: The SNP have quietly changed how no-shows and cancellations count towards waiting list targets, artificially reducing the number and length of long waits The change will make it easier to hit election promises and was last night branded "sleekit" www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1533841...

Meaningless whiffle.

Cat, meet pigeons EXCL: Political parties should be subject to freedom of information laws to help unearth their “murky” inner workings, Scotland’s transparency tsar will say. www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1524301...

Unclear what the potential fallout for the Lochaber Smelter deal with GFG Alliance and the Scottish Government is But in terms of a general health check of GFG's assets, it's hardly a ringing endorsement.

Labour and the SNP both circling the same "how do we hold on to power by not annoying more people than we already have" drain Which ultimately leads to total policy paralysis and, therefore, lack of any meaningful progress on any policy issue that does actually matter to voters

The Scottish Government have said their use of social media is under constant review after the anti-Semitic controversy surrounding X's AI chatbot Grok Officials said the gov doesn't use the tool, but refuses to commit to stopping the use of the platform

That's Humza Yousaf and now Anas Sarwar who have *both* had speeches made in the same Holyrood debate after the death of George Floyd in 2020 - in which they both ape Muhammed Ali's "why is everything white" chat on Parkinson - decontextualised and weaponised against them

There are many things you can blame various Scottish Labour individuals for, but introducing sectarianism into Scottish politics is not one of them. www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1484989...

A plea for some regular Scotland-specific polling from a reputable pollster, please

Stephen Gethins appears to be broadcasting live from a 1940s vampire film

My colleague yesterday was horrified at the news I have 247 tabs open on my work laptop Surely I can't be the only tab hoarder out there? I know where everything is!

EXCLUSIVE: StephenFlynn’s allies have drawn up a “hit list” of sitting Nats MSPs they want to replace with ex-SNP MPs, sources claimed. All are women He has been accused of wanting key allies in place for an eventual bid to lead the SNP outright. www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1431534...

Dead cat strategy

We are absolutely desperate for a YouGov or Ipsos to counter some of this, *ahem*, interesting, polling.

Same for Holyrood. FMQs particularly bad for social media clip-offs, rather than actual debate.

"Do I move to London for my career or do I settle for earning less and actually owning a house, and having a potentially better quality of life?" I'm pretty sure every ambitious under-30 in the last decade has asked themselves that at some point, I know I have

Scottish Budget special of CMQs.. in which I describe Scot Gov's 2-child cap bombshell as bollocks, given it's nothing to do with the 25-26 Budget, & @conormatchett.bsky.social and I explain the reality of the supposed income tax break... saving Scots 1.4p a day t.co/xlviUc7sJ7

Few exclusives over the weekend and into today as well; First up: Major update on income tax ahead of the Scottish budget as SNP sources say there is "no appetite" for changing bands www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/politic...

The NICS increase is a killer for Scot Gov coffers - Treasury are doing it on a Barnett Formula basis, but problem is higher public sector spending and higher wages in Scotland means higher tax bill after the increase SNP will cry foul, but it's arguably devolution in action.

EXCLUSIVE: Fat-cat quango bosses are set for an “crassly insensitive” 20 per cent pay rise despite straining public finances, the Scottish Sun can reveal. Those paid the most getting at least a 20% hike from £113,621 to £136,500 www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/1371003...