THE BIG STORIES
Reeves set for “biggest cuts since austerity” | Uni’s funding crisis laid bare | The world’s happiest country

📣 Rachel Reeves will not raise taxes again next week, it’s being reported this morning, but will instead announce billions of pounds in further cuts - “the biggest cuts since austerity” - to public spending and benefits.

The Department for Work and Pensions is consulting on moves including merging jobseeker’s allowance with employment support allowance, abolishing the work capability assessment, and stopping young people from claiming incapacity benefits. Cuts to spending would inevitably impact Scottish spending. (Guardian) (i paper £) (Times £)

• Former Scottish Labour frontbencher Neil Findlay quit the party yesterday accusing it of “vindictive” welfare reforms. (Holyrood)

• Labour’s welfare reforms could end up being “all pain no gain”, a study says. (Daily Mail)

• If you’re producing your own Spring Statement briefings at work, or if you’re just interested in what’s coming down the line, The Early Line can help… I’ll be producing two subscriber-only newsletters to supplement the regular coverage. Upgrade now, and you’ll get a roundup on Sunday of the pre-announcements, predictions and debate, and another on Wednesday evening rounding up the announcement and reaction.

📣 The state of the University of Dundee’s financial crisis was laid bare in Holyrood, as the Scottish Parliament’s education committee grilled the institution’s interim Principal, acting Chair of Court and interim Director of Finance. The University’s leaders - appointed in a hurry after the departure of a number of key staff in recent months - admitted it could run out of money within months without further aid. Senior figures said they were unaware of the University’s financial problems until five months ago. (Scotsman) (Herald)

📣 Finland is, once again, the happiest place in the world, according to new research from the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford. Denmark, Iceland and Sweden round out the top four (again). The UK is 24th, its lowest placing since 2017, and the US 25th, its lowest placing ever.

The full report highlights the importance of living with others and sharing meals, and has a chapter on how unhappiness explains populism. (AP) (Read the full report)

IDEAS
Frankly: five noteworthy political memoirs

🗣️ On the occasion of the naming of Nicola Sturgeon’s forthcoming memoir, Frankly, I’ve been leafing through a few of the political memoirs on my shelves.

They are, of course, hopelessly one-sided and often unfair books: the author’s version of a truth that involved many, with a splash of score-settling and post-hoc justification for good measure. And yet the best also bring clarity and new detail to the thoughts and emotions of the time. I hope Sturgeon’s tends towards the latter.

Who’s done it well? There are so many to choose from, and proper enthusiasts will likely despair over my selection (please do feel free to hit reply and send me your suggestions for compelling alternatives, which I’d be happy to share with The Early Line community).

But, for normies wanting to whet their appetites, here are five places I’d start.

Living History, by Hillary Rodham Clinton (2003)
Sturgeon could do worse than follow in the literary footsteps of Clinton, who has managed (to date) three political memoirs for multi-million-dollar profit. Unlike some critics, I enjoyed Living History, published just as she became a senator - especially the parts describing her early life with Bill. Clinton took stick, at the time, for glossing over her husband’s infidelities, but it still sold well. Her later book - What Happened - came after her defeat to Trump, and got a warmer reception. Sturgeon may note that Clinton’s fiction effort State of Terror did very well…

Tony Blair: My Journey (2010)
The former First Minister may want to imitate the sheer scope of Blair’s memoir: the scope of his influences, the scope of all he had to deal with. Perhaps because of that, My Journey was a surprisingly difficult read - Blair darts around, distractedly. But bits of it still read as very relevant even today (I’m looking at the chapter on domestic reform as I write). It’s remarkable to think that, when he came to power, critics derided him for being lightweight.

Margaret Thatcher: The Autobiography (2013)
This combines The Path to Power and The Downing Street Years: the latter caused quite the row when it was published in 1993, but was hailed as a faithful and insightful record of her time in office. It’s now a staple for anyone wanting to understand that tumultous period in British, and global, politics.

George Tenet: At the Center of the Storm (2007)
I’ll play my wild card now: George Tenet was director of the CIA during the 9/11 attacks and invasion of Iraq, and his surprisingly spiky autobiography did a lot to shed light on the decision-making of the time.

Alan Clark Diaries (various years)
Long before Simon Hart’s unexpectedly salacious political diaries of this year, or Alan Duncan’s of 2021, there was Alan Clark, who wrote diaries that were a useful account of the downfall of Thatcher, occasionally scandalous, often richly obnoxious, and riotously well-written.

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Reform UK has leapt into third place in Scotland on vote share, according to a new poll by Survation for Quantum Communications.

The party has been riven by infighting in recent weeks. But it’s still overtaken the Scottish Conservatives, and would win 14 seats at Holyrood on its current level of support.

It appears the party is drawing support from across the political spectrum: nearly 40% of Conservative voters have switched to back them, alongside 10% from the SNP, 12% from Labour and 8% from the Lib Dems.

(Seat predictions: SNP 55 | Labour 19 | Conservatives 17 | Reform 14 | Lib Dems 13 | Greens 10 | Alba 1) (Survation)

📣 A notorious Holocaust denier who was caught living a double life in Anstruther has been sentenced to 12 months in prison in France, after he was extradited to face charges of denying war crimes, denying crimes against humanity and inciting racial hatred. (Herald)

📣 The 2027 Tour de France will start in Edinburgh. The exact route won’t be known until the autumn. (Scotsman)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 Donald Trump said he and Volodymyr Zelensky shared a “very good telephone call” over an hour yesterday, in their first conversation since that disastrous meeting in the White House. The Ukrainian leader also described the call as “positive, very substantive and frank.” It came amid confusion about what - if anything - Moscow had agreed to after a call between Trump and Putin earlier in the week. (Guardian)

📣 Interest rates are expected to remain at 4.5% today when the Bank of England’s policymakers announce their latest decision at midday. (BBC)

📣 Cat cafes should be phased out, says the RSPCA, because they can’t meet the animals’ needs. (Sky News)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 Plans to turn Grangemouth into Scotland’s green energy hub will need £3.5 billion of public investment to create 800 new jobs. That raises concerns about how feasible the “Project Willow” plan is. (Scotsman)

• There’s a realistic chance the plan can be enacted, John Swinney says (Guardian)

💰 The new Scotland director of the CBI is calling for urgent action to address the country’s skills shortage, telling the Herald “most of the jobs people have now won’t exist in 20 years.” Michelle Ferguson says we’re short of apprentices, especially in work supporting net zero, while AI will create both disruption and opportunity. Scotland must “continually up-skill the workforce,” she says. (The Herald £)

💰 The former economic secretary to the Treasury, Tulip Siddiq, has accused Bangladeshi authorities of mounting a "targeted and baseless" campaign against her, after she was faced with “false and vexatious” allegations of corruption. (BBC)

SPORT

⚽️ Steve Clarke’s Scotland go into battle tonight to retain their elite-level status in European international football tonight, with the first of their two Nations League play-off games against Greece. The manager says he’s minded to rely on experience for this first leg, in the first game against the in-form Greeks in 30 years. (Scotsman) (The Sun) (7.45pm tonight, BBC One Scotland & iPlayer)

⚽️ Rangers slammed part of its fanbase for “senseless and criminal” behaviour during last week’s European tie against Fenerbahce, and the weekend’s game away to Celtic, telling some supporters: “Rangers is not the club for you.” (STV)