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In your briefing today:

• Inflation has remained unexpectedly flat, in good news for the economy - and Rachel Reeves.

• Labour has launched a strong attack on the SNP’s defence plans for an independent Scotland

• Columns of note: Mackay’s lament for social mobility | Why young fans become Ultras | Why Scotland’s quangos need to go

• Rangers unveil their new manager Men’s First Team Head Coach. Even the job title is a break with tradition, laments one observer…

📣 Thanks, everyone, for your Future Netflix votes yesterday!

We asked: which imaginary documentary about a real-world story would you commission? And your verdict was…

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 💎The Louvre Job (44%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ 🍼The Baby That Wasn't (38%)

🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗝️Sarko: The Fall of a President (18%)

📣 The SNP’s plans for independence would be a “win for Vladimir Putin” according to UK defence minister Luke Pollard, in what amounts to one of the strongest attacks on the SNP’s defence policies since Labour came to power.

He said plans to remove nuclear weapons from Scotland post-independence would put national security at risk, and play into the hands of Russia. But the SNP have hit back at the claims, with defence spokesman Dave Doogan calling the attack “unbelievably crass”. (Mail) (Herald)

📣 Only two months after refusing to resign, the chair of the Sheku Bayoh inquiry has quit amid questions from the Scottish Police Federation about his impartiality.

Lord Bracadale had private meetings with the family of Mr Bayoh, a father of two who died, aged 31, after being restrained by six police officers on a street in Kirkcaldy.

The inquiry had been looking at how police handled the case, its investigation, and whether race was a factor. (BBC) (Scotsman)

📣 The latest inflation figures came in at 7am this morning, and they were a surprise - staying at 3.8% for September, rather than surging to 4% as had been expected.

It had been thought that rising fuel prices and increasing second-hand car prices would cause a rise. Economists still believe inflation will peak now and start to fall sharply in the months ahead. Today’s numbers may encourage the Bank of England to reduce interest rates sooner.

That will matter: consumers are viewed as being hesitant to spend at the moment, holding back growth. (FT £) (BBC) (Sky News)

Email Was Only the Beginning

Four years in the making. One event that will change everything.

On November 13, beehiiv is redefining what it means to create online with their first-ever virtual Winter Release Event.

This isn’t just an update or a new feature. It’s a revolution in how content is built, shared, and owned. You don’t want to miss this.

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AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Former Scottish government minister Lorna Slater offered an “unequivocal” guarantee that the doomed bottle return scheme would go ahead, the Court of Session heard yesterday. Biffs Waste Services is suing the government for more than £166 million over the decision to halt the initiative in 2023. (Scotsman) (BBC)

📣 Two formal grievances have been made about the behaviour of John Swinney’s special advisers - one in 2022, another this year - but the Scottish Government is refusing to release any details of their nature. (Herald)

📣 The “mum” at the centre of the fake baby scandal has confirmed she made it all up, faking scans, messages, the story of the child’s birth and then using a lifelike doll to dupe family and friends. Kira Cousins, 22, from Airdrie, said: "I wasn't pregnant. There was no baby. I made it up and kept it going way too far.” (Daily Record)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 Planned talks between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have been called off, with Trump saying he did not want a “wasted meeting”. (BBC)

• It’s great news, says Sam Kiley: “What a relief Vladimir Putin is more of a bully than a strategist,” he writes. (Independent)

📣 The effects of antidepressants on physical health has been measured for the first time, revealing a huge difference between different drugs. Some cause patients to gain weight rapidly; others cause big variations in heart rate. (BBC)

📣 The European Commission is facing a mounting crisis over an alleged Hungarian spy ring operating out of the country’s embassy in Brussels, with MEPs demanding to know what the Commision knew about the country’s attempts to recruit EU officials as spies between 2012 and 2018. (Politico)

📣 A police officer was injured in a second night of violent protests outside an asylum hotel in Dublin, during which a police helicopter was targeted with lasers. (Sky News)

📣 Pressure is mounting on Prince Andrew to give up his grace-and-favour Windsor mansion and “take himself off to live in private”, with MPs urging the government to formally strip him of his dukedom. (Independent)

SPORT

⚽️ Rangers unveiled German Danny Rohl as its new Men’s First Time Head Coach - not manager, you’ll note - at Ibrox yesterday. Keith Jackson takes that mouthful of a job title as further evidence the club’s new owners just don’t understand its traditions, or what fans really want. (Daily Record)

• Rangers chiefs were grilled on fan discontent, £10m striker Chermiti and why Kevin Thelwell’s son was recruited as a senior scout (he’ll apparently work “25/8 to prove to fans he’s an excllent appointment”) (The Sun)

⚽️ Aberdeen face a tricky away tie to AEK Athens on Thursday night: ahead of that, Nicky Devlin is backing former AC Milan striker Marko Lazetic to make his mark on the European stage. (Daily Record)

⚽️ It was, as the BBC puts it, a “relentless” night of Champions League football: 43 goals, five red cards and six penalties, with some surprising routs. (BBC)

• You’ll find all the night’s video highlights here: (📣 TNT Sports)

• There’s more tonight: Real Madrid v Juventus looks the tie of the night. All the games kick off at 8pm, and are on TNT Sports.

IDEAS
Columns of note: Mackay’s lament for social mobility | Why young fans become Ultras | Why Scotland’s quangos need to go

🗣️The idea that working class people are willing to back Reform UK because they’re racist “needs torched”, writes Neil Mackay.

The real reason 38% of working class people want to back Nigel Farage and co? The death of social mobility, says Mackay. “Folk can see that the chance of bettering their lives and their children’s lives is now all but gone,” he writes. “If you cannot make the life of your children better than your own life, then you’ll lose hope.”

Mackay points to jobs being sent overseas, neighbourhoods being gutted of libraries, community centres and sports pitches, while if you “live in a nice area […] the council keeps it clean; live in a poor area and wade through rubbish.”

“Idiot politicians claim kids should be apprentices not studying for English or History degrees,” he writes. “What they really mean is: poor kids should be doing apprenticeships as the arts are for their children.

“The mantra is: tax cuts for the rich to grow the economy, and more misery and cruelty attached to social security to whip the feckless poor into shape.” (Herald £)

🗣️ Why are young football fans drawn to “ultras” groups? They’ve traditionally been part of foreign football culture: the ultra-loyal, highly-organised and sometimes criminally-tainted groups which create colourful and noisy spectacles on the “curvas” of the big clubs.

These days, notes Karyn McCluskey, they’re a big deal in Scotland too, with ultras groups at every level of the game. “They bring colour, energy, and spectacle,” she notes. “But alongside that, there have been instances of disorder, violence, and the use of pyrotechnics. [..] These self-identified groups have their own rules, dress codes, and identities.”

So are they are a good or a bad thing? McLuskey, who is chief executive of Community Justice Scotland, recognises a few traits in these groups - those of gangs: “I once asked a young man why he joined a gang. He said, ‘Without it, I’m nothing,’” she writes.

They bring challenges, she argues, but we also have to understand where it all comes from, and that being part of something can be a positive, too. (The Scotsman)

🗣️Graham Grant takes aim at Scotland’s quangos, “those supposedly arm’s-length organisations which do the government’s bidding,” he writes.

He says it’s now “impossible to ignore the rampant dysfunction in these bloated bodies, as ministers look on from the sidelines.” He cites NatureScot - famous for its advice to paint googly eyes on takeaway boxes to deter gulls - spending millions on consultants and allowing remote working from Iceland, Chile, Hungary, Spain and India.

And he flags allegations of “civil war” in the upper ranks of Historic Environment Scotland, which pays its top team handsomely while “one of them is languishing on suspension, another is on a work ‘time out’ and a third was hauled over the coals for a crass racist slur.”

The problem is, writes Grant: “It’s far too useful to use quangos as scapegoats. If their work was brought in-house and done by the legion of civil servants already on the payroll, government itself would be directly responsible for the blunders that would doubtless ensue.”

And that means they may well live on. (Mail)

👍 That’s your Early Line for the day

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