THE BIG STORIES
Swinney and Sarwar set out their stalls

📣 First Minister John Swinney and Labour leader Anas Sarwar set out their New Year agendas yesterday. Swinney, speaking in Edinburgh, was focused on getting his budget through parliament and warned of an array of dire consequences - “playing into the hands” of Elon Musk and “feeding the forces of anti-politics and populism”, damage to the NHS, damage to services - if it was blocked. (Few think the budget won’t be passed: it was a politically-savvy effort that contained enough for other parties to offer support, and enough to make it mad for them to get in the way). (Herald) (Times) (Read the full text)

📣 Sarwar, speaking in Glasgow, filled in some policy blanks as he looks to distinguish himself from Labour in London. His comments on child poverty gained the most attention: he said it was not possible to “end poverty with welfare alone”, which fits his consistent message about expanding the economy. But in a Q&A after, he also hinted he’d not support increasing the Scottish Child Payment to £40 because of the cost. His comments on the number of Scottish Quangos - there are more of them than MSPs, he said - will also grab attention. (Holyrood)

📣 People who cover up or fail to report child sexual abuse could face sanctions under a new offence to be introduced this year. The announcement was made by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in the context of a growing controversy over child sexual abuse sparked by a flurry of inflammatory online comments by Elon Musk. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer attacked those “spreading lies and misinformation” on grooming gangs, accusing opposition MPs of “jumping on a bandwagon” to gain attention. That was interpreted by some as a “smear” on those demanding a new public inquiry on the issue. (BBC on new laws) (Beth Rigby on why the PM decided to take on Musk)

IDEAS
The case for Starmer playing politics

🗣️ The line, above, in a Bloomberg report about Keir Starmer’s Downing Street, caught my eye and then stuck in my mind over the weekend. (Bloomberg links here are gift links: you can read the article on The Early Line’s tab 😉. And you should - it’s a good read).

Does the PM really think he doesn’t need to play politics? Do the people around him really think that’s his underrated quality? It would be like me saying I don’t like to read.

Starmer’s trouble with Elon Musk in recent days has thrown that reluctance to “play politics” into sharp focus again. In the New Statesman, Andrew Marr defines the malaise elegantly as “the government’s apparent inability to argue vigorously or passionately on its own behalf – a strange backing away from the very arguments from its enemies it most needs to refute.”

What, then, to do about Musk? Marr actually thinks Starmer’s instinctive response - not to play his game - is the right tactic. “Some problems cannot be resolved,” he says, “They must be endured”.

But, he adds, “this is not an argument for silence more generally. Exactly the opposite.” There is much about British society to defend, he says. “The other way is hell […] And you can never win an argument by failing to engage in it.”

🗣️ Other views are, of course, available, and plenty of people think Musk is right to speak up. Ed West in The Spectator (he also has a Substack) offers an explanation for Musk’s involvement and a (perhaps more convincing) set of reasons for why the sex abuse scandal was ready to blow up in the way it has.

🗣️ The New York Times, however, sees “less as a joke than a flex by a powerful man relishing his ability to roil the politics of another country”. (New York Times)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Weather warnings remain in place today after thousands of schoolchildren got an extra day off yesterday, and commuters failed to make it back to work after the holidays. Flights to Aberdeen airport were also diverted to Edinburgh. Temperatures overnight were expected to be as low as -17C overnight in snow-bound areas. (Mail)

📣 The “real life Martha” of Baby Reindeer is unimpressed by the show’s Golden Globes success: she dismissed the show as “drivel” that had put her life on hold for a year. (Daily Record)

📣 A woman needed skin grafts after spilling her Costa Coffee at a drive-through in Glasgow. She says the cup she was handed was so hot it melted her fingertips, and now she’s suing. (Scottish Sun)

AROUND THE UK

📣 Flooding has sparked a major incident across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The fire service said 59 people had been rescued so far. (BBC)

📣 A “key architect” of the summer riots has been jailed for seven and a half years. Andrew McIntyre set up a Telegram channel called “Southport Wake Up” to encourage people to take part in the disorder. Officers later found weapons and a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf at his home in Ormskirk, Lancashire. (Guardian)

📣 Trains were cancelled on Sunday after a union told its members not to walk on snow. Services between Liverpool and London were disrupted for several hours. (Telegraph)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 A powerful earthquake hit Tibet overnight, killing at least 53 people. The magnitude 6.8 quake struck near the holy city of Shigatse, and around 50 miles from Mount Everest. 1,500 people had been deployed in the search and rescue operation, Chinese authorities said. (AP)

🌎 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned, the latest victim of the global struggle with inflation and a tilt to the right in his nation’s politics. “One thing seems certain,” reports Bloomberg: “An economy centred on record immigration, expanded government spending and green ambitions is set for a dramatic reshaping.” (Bloomberg gift link)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 The British Retail Consortium has warned its members may need to cut thousands of jobs this year after a weak Christmas, and higher taxes and employment costs (Guardian)

💰 UK City Minister Tulip Siddiq has referred herself to the government’s adviser on ministerial standards after reports in the Financial Times that she became the owner of a flat in London in 2004 without paying for it. In her letter to the adviser, she said she had done nothing wrong. (FT)

💰 McDonalds is pulling back on diversity initiatives in the US after a US court decision, in 2023, that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions. It joins a number of US companies rolling back the measures, in moves which are also being interpreted as reflective of the changing US political atmosphere ahead of Trump taking power. AP takes a broader look at the rollback of DEI initiatives. (AP)

SPORT

⚽️ A judge has ruled that a black footballer was “victimised” by his own club after complaining about racial abuse. Rico Quitongo, who was playing for Airdrieonians when he suffered the abuse, must now receive compensation. (Mail)

⚽️ In-demand Scotland winger Ben Doak won’t leave Liverpool for less than £25m. Both Crystal Palace and Ipswich are keen, but are offering around £10m less than Liverpool’s valuation. Doak is currently doing well on loan at Middlesbrough. (Football Insider)