THE BIG STORIES
Threat to Scotland’s famous galleries

📣 The National Galleries of Scotland will need to close one of its buildings unless it can secure extra funding, MSPs will be warned today. NGS operates five famous (and listed) buildings in Edinburgh: the Scottish National Gallery and Royal Scottish Academy on the Mound, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery on Queen Street and the two Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art buildings west of the city centre. But that portfolio needs investment: the NGS submission warns of a high risk of a “catastrophic incident at one of our buildings”. The organisation needs £17.4m now to address immediate, high-risk problems, and £40m more in the medium term to tackle a backlog. The story makes the lead in both The Herald and The Scotsman. (Read the NGS submission - page 28)

📣 Los Angeles faces four huge wildfires burning through its suburbs - including a new one in the Hollywood Hills, close to one of the city’s most iconic sights. Five people have now been killed, and 130,000 others are under evacuation orders, from tourists to A-list movie stars: Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton are all among those who lost their homes, although they are safe. Flames were being fanned by hurricane-strength winds, although those have now eased, making firefighting from the air possible once more. The photos are heartbreaking. (AP) (Los Angeles Times) (Mail Online)

📣 Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing a growing bond market crisis, which may force her to raise taxes as soon as March. The problem is the UK’s debt costs - they were already more than £100bn a year: even small increases in those costs have a big impact on the money Reeves has for public services or the amounts she needs to raise through tax. March 26 will be an important day: that’s when the Office of Budget Responsibility offers a forecast on whether Reeves will meet her fiscal rules. Those are taken as non-negotiable: the prospect of a miss will force action on spending or tax. (FT) (Reaction)

WHO’S SAYING WHAT
Sarwar’s impossible task, why Britain’s the wrong size, and Bindel’s blast at Goodwin

Neil’s note: I’m keen to use this slot to round up voices, opinionated ones, from various places on various topics. The only qualification is that they must be interesting… you can be the judge of that.

🗣️ Pity the medium-sized country, writes Janan Ganesh in the FT. Big enough to matter to a meddling billionaire… but not so big as to threaten his fortune. Moreover, smaller countries appear to be run better - a bit like restaurant chains, the quality of public service doesn’t appear to scale from small to big. In fact, he writes, “Britain is exactly the wrong size”. Now, many indy-minded friends might leap upon this as further evidence for their cause… but Ganesh argues the opposite. The new case for Europe would be to build a political union big enough to punch back… or not be meddled with in the first place. It’s a fascinating piece. (FT)

An aspect of the Musk/grooming scandal row that has left me very uneasy: the broad absence of women’s voices in the debate. Even worse, the vilification - to her endangerment - of safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, and marginalisation of the review conducted into the abuse, led by - you’ve guessed - a woman, Professor Alexis Jay. So I was happy to see feminist writer Julie Bindel refusing to accept some of the misinformation rattling around: she posted a thread on X rebutting claims by right-wing commentator Matt Goodwin, who claimed mainstream media had ignored the abuse scandal before 2010. Bindel wrote an early story in 2004 and said in her rebuttal: “I worked with the mothers and victim/survivors of these horrific crimes, from the 1990s. It is blatantly disrespectful to come along now on your white charger to posture and preen, painting yourself as hero of the day.”

🗣️ And finally… Substacker Caoilainn offers sensible, sane advice for people being progressively tortured by their social media feeds and connections: just delete them, she suggests, despite all the social pressure not to.

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Ash Regan is running for leader of the Alba Party, following the death of the party’s leader, and former First Minister, Alex Salmond. The Scotsman has the exclusive.

📣 The new(ish) Director of BBC Scotland was before the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster yesterday. Hayley Valentine, two months into the job, told MPs her New Year priorities were trustworthy news, homegrown storytelling and “bringing people together” around big events. She said she’d “love to” televise the Scottish men’s national football team on free-to-air TV, and said talks were ongoing (remarks which made the front of today’s Daily Record). She also defended the BBC against claims much of its “Scottish” network quota is produced by London-based companies. (Daily Record) (See the session) (Previous criticism of commissioning: Kevin McKenna in the Herald, and Bella Caledonia)

📣 It really is freezing (at risk of repeating yesterday’s warnings)… it was very cold last night, and tonight could see the coldest January day in a decade, as temperatures dip to -20C. (Mail)

📣 Edinburgh is to become the first city in Scotland to bring in a tourist tax. A charge of 5% will be added to visits booked and paid for after May 1 2025, and overnight stays from July 24 2026. (STV) (Read the council paper on the proposals and consultation)

📣 Today sees the first First Minister’s Questions of the year: John Swinney will face questions on, among other things, his government’s response to revelations that more than 1m people in Scotland are being monitored by a Chinese-government-linked tech company. Mark McLaughlin broke the story in The Times on Monday. (FMQs)

AROUND THE UK

📣 Labour saw off attempts to force a national inquiry into grooming gangs last night in the House of Commons, but appeared to step back from its absolute opposition to a second inquiry. Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips echoed the prime minister in saying she was open to hearing the views of victims. (Guardian)

📣 There was “clear racism” at Harrods during Mohamed Al Fayed’s ownership, former employees have told the BBC. (BBC)

📣 Meta’s plans to change the way it regulates content on its platform will put it on a collision course with the UK and EU, lawmakers in London and Brussels have said. (Guardian)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 Two of Europe’s biggest batteries are to be built in Scotland. The 500 megawatt batteries - one in South Lanarkshire, the other in Fife - will join one already being built, and store enough energy to supply 4.5m homes with power for two hours. The batteries are a more environmentally acceptable backup to the variability of renewable energy sources: the usual backup is oil and gas power generation. (STV)

💰 A host of big-name UK companies are ripe for takeover, says Times commentator Alistair Osbourne, as he reads through new research that says a lot of “UK PLC” is cheap, for a variety of reasons. Marks & Spencer, Tate & Lyle and ITV are all at risk, in what he calls “depressing” news “for anyone who wants a thriving UK stock market”. (Times)

SPORT

⚽️ Celtic beat Dundee United 2-0 last night, with Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate scoring for the champions in a dominant performance. Rangers travel to Dundee tonight in a TV game (8pm, Sky Sports Main Event). (The Sun)

⚽️ Aberdeen made a statement signing yesterday, with Latvia captain and central defender Kristers Tobers arriving in Pittodrie from Grasshopper Club Zurich. He joins winger Jeppe Okkels, on loan from Preston, and more players are expected to arrive in this transfer window. The Dons made a very promising start to the season, of course, before a pronounced slump. (Herald)