TODAY’S WEATHER

🌤️ A bright, mild and calm day with very little chance of rain for Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness. London will be much the same, if a couple of degrees warmer. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
BBC finds appalling care home conditions | Trump makes baseless claims about paracetamol | Farage condemned

📣 A BBC investigation has revealed appalling conditions at one of Scotland’s largest care homes, with elderly residents left in filthy conditions and languishing in their chairs through a lack of care.

BBC Disclosure reporter Catriona McPhee worked as a cleaner in Castlehill Care Home in Inverness for seven weeks over the summer: she saw some terrible things in the home. It was already under special measures because of improvement notices issued by its regulator, the Care Inspectorate.

The place is billed as a luxury home, charging up to £1,800 a week to live there. The story, I’ll warn, contains details you might find upsetting. (BBC) (🎥 Watch the documentary on iPlayer)

📣 Donald Trump has made unfounded claims that paracetamol - known as Tylenol in the US - has links to autism.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump instructed pregnant women repeatedly during a White House news conference. He also fuelled long-debunked claims that vaccines - or combinations of shots - could contribute to autism.

Medical experts said Trump’s remarks were irresponsible, with one calling it “the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumours, recycling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies and dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority.” (AP)

• Trump and Robert F Kennedy Junior say Tylenol is linked to autism. Here’s why scientific experts say that’s a lie (Independent)

• Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will call for “discount visas” to be given to US cancer scientists who want to come to the UK. He’s expected to make the call during his keynote speech to the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth. (BBC)

📣 Nigel Farage has been roundly condemned after he threatened to deport hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants by abolishing the indefinite leave to remain. His central claim - that it would save £230 billion - was called into question when the authors of a report from which it had been sourced said it “should not be used” because it was based on erroneous data. (Guardian)

• Sean O’Grady: Will the “Boriswave” sweep Nigel Farage to Number 10? (Independent)

IDEAS
Columns of note: Improving the NHS, improving Holyrood, a jobs victory and a plea to avoid a political defeat

📣 A grab bag of interesting columns from the last 48 hours.

🗣️ How would you improve the NHS? Holyrood magazine has asked a panel of experts, and the ideas that emerge make for a fascinating long read. There are a few themes.

First, that the range of ideas are so mixed, from preventative care in the community to culture change and better use of technology within the organisation itself. This is a complex problem to solve.

Second, that so many of the ideas focus on our relationship - or lack of one - with our GPs. For many of us it’s the first point of contact with the healthcare system, and it’s malfunctioning.

Third, the picture that emerges of an organisation on its knees - even if aspects of it remain very, very good.

As Annemarie Ward, CEO of Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, puts it: “The NHS has become a system designed to keep people alive, not keep them well. If you want change, stop treating it like a religion and start treating it like a service that needs radical rebalancing.” (Holyrood)

🗣️We might need a similar chat about how to improve the Scottish Parliament. Over the last few weeks I’ve been speaking to people who work in Holyrood, from backroom staff to household names. They all share a certain despair at how the institution is perceived, with some - literally - holding their heads in their hands at the conduct of some MSPs.

One agreed with me at the weekend: there’s a “final week of school” atmosphere in the place, ahead of elections next year which will see a great number of MSPs either choose to leave, or be involuntarily relieved of their duties by a cheesed-off electorate. This is not, to put it gently, great news for a nation that badly needs good government, or the institution itself.

Add to the chorus of criticism this column from the Mail’s Graham Grant, who quotes Adam Tomkins - mentioned here yesterday (£), in that piece in the Sunday Times about Holyrood’s woes - and wonders aloud about the parliament attracting “all the wrong people”. He thinks the crisis is existential for the institution.

In the Times (£), Magnus Linklater appears to broadly agree, thinking Holyrood “needs reform before Scots lose faith” in the institution. He notes that Times readers opt for the same solution every time “some Holyrood scandal emerges” - just scrap it altogether.

Not so fast, he says. Despite that, and polling showing fewer than half of Scots think the parliament is serving them well, “the idea that Scottish voters might seriously contemplate reverting to some version of the status quo, with a distant Westminster representing their interests, is absurd.”

He calls, instead, for reform of Holyrood’s much-criticised committee system, changes to the way debate is conducted to make it more feisty, and the abandonment of remote voting to bring back the place’s sense of “energy and renewal.”

Holyrood’s next intake will have their work cut out.

🗣️Roz Foyer: There’s praise for the Scottish Government from the STUC General Secretary, after it decided to spend £4 million on an intervention that prevented bus maker Alexander Dennis making 400 workers redundant. “It came because workers, through their trade unions Unite and GMB, rolled up their sleeves and fought for it,” she says. “It was union reps and organisers who first presented the furlough scheme as a workable option and it was the persistence of those unions that ensured ministers could not turn a blind eye.” (Herald)

🗣️ Owen Jones: The Guardian columnist notes “the left traditionally faces four formidable enemies: wealthy interests, the political elite, the mainstream media and itself.” On that last point, he issues a plea to Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana: “the needs of the left are greater than any of your differences”. (Guardian)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Perth and Kinross Council leader Grant Laing has resigned after being charged with embezzlement. The councillor, who has also left the SNP, is accused of the crime over a period of eight years, between 2017 and 2025. Police Scotland said a report will be sent to the procurator fiscal. (STV)

📣 Owners of second homes in Scotland could face uncapped rises to their council tax bills if a Scottish Greens amendment to the SNP Housing Bill, which goes to the vote today, wins ministers’ backing. The Scottish Greens want to discourage “hoarding” of property by wealthy people. (Times £)

📣 One in four of Scotland speed cameras are out of action, despite a rising death toll on the roads. (Daily Record)

📣 The long-running Carbuncle Award for “most dismal town in Scotland” has been scrapped by the magazine behind it after a backlash over its most recent reciepient. Social entrepreneur Kevin Green made headlines two weeks ago when he refused to accept it on behalf of Port Glasgow, calling the award a “poverty safari”. It will be replaced by a “more positive alternative”. (BBC)

AROUND THE UK & THE WORLD

📣 Keir Starmer is to launch a “progressive fightback” this week, promising the UK will reject the division and hate fuelled by the far right. The move will come ahead of the Labour Party conference, and amid growing criticism from within his own party. (Guardian)

📣 US comedian Jimmy Kimmel will return to his late night chat-show this evening. Disney, owner of the network that broadcast’s Kimmel’s show, said comments he made over the death of far-right activist Charlie Kirk were “ill-timed and thus insensitive”. But it said it had “spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy”. (Guardian)

• In the UK, the debate over free speech is also raging. Nick Robinson has a long read on “how the simmering row over freedom of speech reached boiling point”. (BBC)

📣 Donald Trump is to address the United Nations today, after France became the latest nation to formally recognise a Palestinian state. (BBC)

• At UN, world leaders meet to try to make a troubled planet “better together”. But can they? (AP)

SPORT

⚽️ Scott McTominay finished 18th in the Ballon d’Or rankings - disappointing, perhaps, after a title-winning season with Napoli in Italy, but still ahead of Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham. In the women’s version, Scot and Real Madrid star Caroline Weir also featured: she was 30th. (Scotsman)

⚽️ East Fife say their fans were attacked on Saturday before and during their game against Montrose - by Raith Rovers fans. Video of the violence has circulated online: police say enquiries are ongoing. (The Sun)