TODAY’S WEATHER

☁️ Waterproofs required again today: rain throughout the day in Glasgow and Edinburgh, although it will brighten later in the afternoon. Aberdeen will be cloudy but only see rain in the middle of the day. London starts with rain but ends sunny and warm, with a high of 25 degrees. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
Doctor warns: Scotland’s NHS “dying before our eyes” | Confusion over “ceasefire” | Wingsuit flyer dies

📣 The Scottish NHS is “dying before our eyes”, the chair of the British Medical Association’s Scotland Council will warn today, as a new survey shows almost a third of Scots say they - or someone from their household - has had to use private healthcare in the last two years.

More than two-thirds of that private healthcare use was driven by the NHS waiting list being too long.

Kennedy is expected to say: “I don’t believe anyone made an active choice to pursue this path towards a private health service. Rather, it is a failure to get to grips with an evolving population and its health needs. But, be in no doubt, the NHS is dying before our very eyes.” (Herald) (Holyrood)

• This isn’t the first warning about this flight to private healthcare in Scotland. This time last year, it was reported that 14,000 Scots had quit NHS waiting lists for private treatment. (Scotsman)

• In February, it was reported that more Scots search for private healthcare information online than elsewhere in the UK. (Sunday Mail)

📣 US President Donald Trump hailed a “complete and total ceasefire” between Israel and Iran overnight. “Please do not violate it!” he wrote on Truth Social in recent hours. (BBC)

• But the shooting has continued - the “storm before the calm” as the Daily Mail puts it - with the public in Israel told to take shelter this morning from Iranian missiles. (Mail coverage) (AP live coverage)

• Air travel across the world has been badly disrupted as flights are diverted to and from the Middle East. Qatar’s Doha airport, a critical hub, has been closed since Monday, causing a cascade of problems across the region. (BBC)

📣 A Scottish wingsuit flyer has died during a jump in the Swiss Alps. Liam Byrne, 24, from Stonehaven, was critically injured on the Gitschen mountain at the weekend. He had found fame in a 2024 BBC documentary, The Boy Who Can Fly, and was a “very experienced” wingsuit flyer. His parents, confirming their son’s death, said: “He chased life in a way that most of us only dream of, and he soared.” (BBC) (🎥The Boy Who Can Fly - iPlayer) (STV)

IDEAS
What sort of place is Scotland to raise a startup business?

🗣️ The level of Scottish business ambition - or absence of it - is a perennial concern for businesspeople and policymakers. And it has flared up again after comments from Chris Herd, a Scottish entrepreneur, who has taken to LinkedIn to complain that he’d been forced to move to the US to find funding for his startup, Firstbase. His comments were spotted by Graham Grant of the Scottish Daily Mail, who reported them yesterday.

“Scotland: the only startup ecosystem where ambition is FEARED,” writes Herd. “Publicly we spend millions telling the world how great support for founders is. Privately we discourage founders to be less ambitious and more realistic. Every founder who's tried to build something has one of these stories.”

Herd says he was told by one of the “leading faces” of Scotland’s startup ecosystem that if his was such a good idea, “someone in the US would have done it." They also said he was "being too ambitious” and urged him to “dial it back a little bit. Do something smaller.”

He moved to the US three weeks later, he says, and quickly raised $250,000.

His tale runs counter to the generally positive buzz that exists around Scotland’s startup scene. Only in February, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes was claiming “it’s never been more exciting to be in Scotland than right now” as she unveiled a new report from Techscaler, which aims to support Scottish startups and scale-ups.

Forbes is also quoted in the Mail’s coverage of Herd’s comments: she says that increasing investment in the startup ecosystem means the “next generation of Scottish entrepreneurs are equipped and encouraged to make their business idea a reality.” That’s a notably forward-looking comment, rather than a reflection on the support Herd’s (previous) generation of startups might have had.

I know more than a few Scottish entrepreneurs read The Early Line, and in private conversations have had plenty to say about the support they get from the ecosystem here… do hit reply and share your thoughts on Herd’s post, and your own experiences. I’d love to share them with readers, anonymously or otherwise. (The Mail story on LinkedIn) (Chris Herd’s LinkedIn post) (Mail Online £)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 More than a thousand care leavers in Scotland were in temporary housing last year, meaning the Scottish Government is at risk of breaking “The Promise” made by Nicola Sturgeon in 2020, which pledged that all care-experienced children would “grow up loved, safe and respected” by 2030. (The Herald has the exclusive)

📣 Scotland’s much-delayed NHS app has had its scope reduced to just one service, dermatology, and one health board, NHS Lanarkshire, as it contends with “significant issues” to get off the ground. In contrast, reports the Times, England’s NHS App has 35 million users and allows patients to message GPs, order repeat prescriptions and receive test results. (The Times £ has the exclusive)

📣 Former MP George Galloway has offered his support for a second independence referendum, saying the party he currently leads - the Worker’s Party of Great Britain - supports “the right of the Scots to self-determination”. (Herald)

📣 Author JK Rowling has hit back at Sir Stephen Fry after he accused her of being “radicalised by TERFS”, claiming the two were never friends, despite his claims. (Mail)

📣 If the “idyllic” Scottish island up for sale looks familiar, it’s because you read it elsewhere 10 days ago first… The Party Line, this newsletter’s weekend edition, linked to Bloomberg reports that the Isle of Shuna was on the market 10 days ago. It’s now featured prominently in various places, presumably as selling agents Sothebys works to rustle up some interest. It still looks lovely, if you’ve got £5.5 million to spare. Do invite us all along to the island-warming, should you snap it up… (BBC) (Town & Country) (Daily Record)

AROUND THE UK

📣 Labour MPs have launched a “major rebellion” in an attempt to kill off legislation that would cut benefits and could place 250,000 people into poverty, including 50,000 children. More than 100 Labour MPs, including senior figures, have signed an amendment, to be published today, which aims to pause the legislation and call for further consultation. (Guardian)

📣 Sir Keir Starmer is to promise the UK will spend 5% of GDP on national security by 2025. At a Nato summit in the Netherlands, 32 members are expected to agree to the goal, which will be split between core defence and other areas such as resilience and security. (BBC)

📣 A bat with a “rare rabies-like virus” has been found in a British back garden. (Independent) 

SPORT

⚽️ Scottish football is mourning the loss of one of its greats: John Clark, a Lisbon Lion, has died at the age of 84. He was an ever-present for Jock Stein’s Celtic team in the season they won the quadruple, played more than 300 times for the club, worked for it for years, and enjoyed iconic status among fans.

He led a life which “provided inspiration and carried lessons far beyond a football pitch,” writes Hugh MacDonald in the Mail.

“John may have quietly snorted at this statement, perhaps seeing pretension. He was never a man for the false or the pompous but it must be stated that this was a life of triumph but one of hardship, labour and consistent humility,” says MacDonald. (Mail) (STV)

⚽️ Rangers’ new owners were given a “lively introduction to Scottish football,” writes Alan Pattullo, in an entertaining colour piece written after the new owners of Rangers met shareholders for the first time in Glasgow yesterday. Conversation ranged from church parades to access to Ibrox for disabled fans.

And while there was talk of the investment they’re making in the club, there was also plenty of chat about that goal that wasn’t against Hibs, and the fine handed out by the SFA to club legend John Brown, who spoke his mind on the club TV channel. (Scotsman)