THE BIG STORIES
Could Scotland have Europe’s lowest energy bills? | End of an era for Canada & US | McKelvie remembered

📣 Britain remains exposed to another energy crisis with a “worryingly high level” of customer debt and “very high electricty prices” compared to many other countries, according to a report out today.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee says the Government “has more to do” to convince Parliament it has a robust plan for ensuring security of energy supply, and is critical of uncertainty around reforms to the market to allow consumers to benefit from the lower costs of renewables. Read the full report (PDF)

• Could Scotland have Europe’s lowest electricity bills? Greg Jackson, founder of Octopus Energy, says it could - if the market was reformed to introduce zonal pricing. Because of Scotland’s abundance of renewable energy, prices here would fall, he says. (BBC)

• In Sweden, district heating - communal hot water for homes - pools resources and has environmental benefits. (Guardian)

📣 It’s the “end of an era” for Canada-US ties, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said, with President Trump so upending relations there would be “no turning back” to the ever-closer ties the countries had previously been pursuing. “Our response to these latest tariffs is to fight, is to protect, is to build,” Carney said. (Guardian)

📣 There were tears in Holyrood as MSPs remembered Christina McKelvie, who died yesterday aged 57. The popular SNP minister was diagnosed with secondary cancer last June and been on medical leave since August.

Her long-term partner, fellow MSP Keith Brown, said he and her sons Lewis and Jack were “heartbroken”.

First Minister John Swinney led tribues in Holyrood, describing her as “one of the kindest and most generous people I have ever met”. (Keith Brown’s statement) (BBC) (Herald) (Daily Mail) 

• “Bold and bolshy and funny and she believed in stuff” - Stephen Daisley in The Spectator

IDEAS
From the weekly magazines

🗣️ What is Vladimir Putin’s endgame? Katie Stallard offers some suggestions in the New Stateman’s cover story this week, in a story rich with colour and broad strategic overview of Russia’s position. Putin, suggests Stallard, is not necessarily desparate for an end to the war. Russia’s war economy appears sustainable. Pay for Russian soldiers - drawn in large part from the country’s poorest regions - “have contributed a grim form of stimulus”. Factories and industrial cities are alive again. Moreover, Putin faces a fractured west and an easily manipulated US President. For the first time, his strategic goals might be within grasp. (New Statesman £)

🗣️What is Donald Trump’s endgame? OK - it’s not quite what The Spectator is asking on its cover this week, but it’s close enough: they’re wondering aloud if the US President will “join the strongman club”, which is their code for becoming an autocrat in the form of Putin, Xi and Kim. Trump, notes the magazine, has often mused on having a third term, for various reasons. His old chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, “says his old boss will run and win in 2028”. The problems of the constitution, specifically its 22nd Amendment, is no problem: “We’re working on it,” he’s quoted as saying. “I think we’ll have a couple of alternatives”. Opposition groups say Bannon, and Trump', should be taken seriously. (The Spectator £)

🗣️Americans are right to hate us, says Rod Liddle. Not all do - “not the affluent and culturally diverse New Yorkers, Los Angelinos and San Franciscans”. No - “The ones who can’t stand us are the heirs to Scottish, Irish and English settlers in the South and the Midwest […] They hate us because we seem to them, and perhaps actually are, effete, cowardly, inert, affected, debauched, presumptuous and, latterly, insignificant. More importantly, we seem to stand for everything which is in essence the antithesis of the American Dream, to which many of them still cleave.” (The Spectator £)

🗣️Is Elon Musk remaking government or breaking it? “Next to space travel, remaking the government sounds easy,” reflects an Economist leader this week. Despite the newspaper looking forward to what Musk might do to government, it writes, his DOGE programme has smaller-than-advertised scope to save money. “Worst is that DOGE’s actions so far look as if they are designed not to make government work better, but to expand the president’s power and root out wrongthink.” (The Economist £)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Unions are calling for MSPs to summon Edinburgh University managers to explain their plan to cut £140 million from costs. Unite, Unison and UCU claim there are “many parallels” between Edinburgh and Dundee University in their “failures of planning, governance and transparency and accountability”. The Scotsman has the exclusive.

📣 Police insist they are tracking down the criminals who are causing mayhem in Edinburgh in a drugs-related gangland “war”. The National Crime Agency is now involved. (The Sun)

📣 We now know the cause of that horrific crash on the M6 last year. An inquest heard Richard John Woods deliberately took his own life when he drove his car the wrong way down the northbound carriageway. He killed four members of a Scottish family who were in a car coming the other way. (STV)

📣 The shortlists are out for this year’s Scottish Press Awards: congratulations to all the nominees, more than a few of whom are Early Line readers. I’m delighted to be a judge this year, and the standard of the shortlisted work has been very high, often outstanding. The awards are handed out in Glasgow on May 22nd, in what is traditionally a big night for Scotland’s media. (Scottish Press Awards)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 Vladimir Putin says he isn’t surprised by Donald Trump’s push for control of Greenland, saying “it would be wrong to believe that this is some sort of extravagant talk by the current US administration”. He noted the United States first considered plans to win control over Greenland in the 19th century, and then offered to buy it from Denmark after World War II. (AP)

• Vice President JD Vance and his wife will tour an American military base in Greenland today, in an uninvited visit that has been scaled back after uproar in Greenland and Denmark. (AP)

• Greenlanders prepare for an uncomfortable visit (BBC)

📣 Germany said it would “not give in” to Trump’s car tariffs, saying Europe must respond firmly. Its car industry will be particularly badly hit by the 25% levy on vehicles imported to the US, due to be imposed from April 2. (BBC)

📣 Rachel Reeves is on course to be less popular than Liz Truss’s ill-fated chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, with only one in five people thinking she’s doing a good job. That’s still not quite as bad as Kwarteng, but the trend is bad. (Independent)

📣 The King was admitted to hospital and had to cancel his engagements for today after suffering from “temporary side-effects” from his cancer treatment. (Daily Mail)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 Scottish businesses are gloomy over profitabilty and exports for the next 12 months, with 60% believing Trump tariffs will hurt the Scottish economy. Asked which party “best represents the interest of Scottish business” the SNP was the top choice, with Labour second and the Scottish Conservatives a distant third. The Herald has the exclusive.

• That support for the SNP from business might surprise many, notes Ian McConnell (The Herald)

💰 Sky is investing in its Livingston site but plans to close three of its 10 UK customer service sites, with operations in Dunfermline affected. (Daily Business)

SPORT

⚽️ There’s great excitment around Dunfermline this week as Victor Wanyama returns to work with Neil Lennon, and the pair take on Scott Brown’s Ayr United this weekend. It’s quite the reunion. Wanyama might not have played since July last year, but was on the bench for a Champions League final and “is one of the most glamourous to set foot in the second tier of Scottish football.” (The Scotsman)

⚽️ As a stadium nerd I enjoyed this piece remembering a long-forgotten initiative: a £100m plan to move Celtic to a new stadium in Cambuslang during the club’s dark days of the 1990s. Images show something that looks a little like Arsenal’s Emirates: a big bowl, but with only 52,000 seats - fewer than the revamped Parkhead today. (Daily Record)