In your briefing today:

📣 John Swinney unveils his Programme for Government today, with all the signals pointing towards large-scale reform of the public sector, with a dramatic reduction in the number of health boards and quangos in Scotland.

After weekend reports that the number of health boards would be reduced, a number of newspapers suggest this morning they will be cut from 14 to between two and four.

📣 Prime Minister Andy Burnham will tell MPs today that greater public control of essential services is the way to drive growth.

Burnham’s first speech from the front bench of the House of Commons in 16 years will set out the strategy, which he says will drive investment and new jobs.

He will also promise to regain control of the cost of living. (Guardian has the exclusive)

📣 The Edinburgh Festival Fringe sold a record number of tickets this year - but controversy around the timing of this year’s event remains.

As highlighted yesterday, some performers have claimed the final week’s ticket sales were disappointing. They want the Festival pulled forward to ensure it overlaps less with the return of Scottish schools.

But the 2.8 million tickets sold was 8% up on last year. With this year’s increase in the number of shows, that means the average sale per show remained broadly the same. (BBC)

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📣 A nursery in Aberdeen has admitted health and safety failings which caused a toddler to be badly burnt by bleach and hot water. (Daily Record)

📣 Scottish councils have spent £25,000 removing flags from lamp posts as social tensions around immigration have grown. (Daily Record)

📣 A punk event on Cramond Island descended into chaos with four people hurt and two hospitalised after incidents at the weekend. (Sun)

📣 Vladimir Putin has been told by Indian PM Narendra Modi, in person and in public, to halt his war for the sake of humanity. “We need to move from an endless war to the end of the war,” Modi told the Russian President, who was awkwardly looking down and away. (Mail)

📣 A school principal’s quick thinking likely saved the lives of 900 school pupils in Nepal. (AP)

📣 The US Army’s top civilian leader Daniel Driscoll has resigned after clashes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the removal of several Army leaders. (New York Times)

📣 Donald Trump has hit out communities rejecting data centres, suggesting they wanted to remain “backwards and poor”. (New York Times)

📣 A former LA gang leader has been found guilty of the murder of rap legend Tupac Shakur, almost 30 years after the murder shook the music world. A jury took three hours to reach the verdict in a case based on Duane Keith Davis’s multiple confessions, including in his memoir. (Guardian)

⚽️ Rangers manager Derek McInnes has had his touchline ban reduced from four games to two, after he described the decision to hand Celtic a late penalty at Fir Park in their penultimate game of last season “disgusting.” (Daily Record)

⚽️ Celtic are looking likely to embark on a end-of-window transfer frensy, with moves for four players on the go: Danish midfielder Oliver Sorensen and PSV attacking midfielder Joel van den Berg look two of the most likely big names to move. (Sun)

⚽️ Could Claudio Braga move on from Hearts? Yes, but it would take a huge bid in the next three days. (Herald)

⚽️ Lionel Messi has retired from international football - serving as a reminder to watch him while you still can, warns Pablo Iglesias Maurer (Guardian)

🗣️ Is anyone willing to speak up in favour of the SNP’s blockbuster election pledge to cap prices on 50 essential food items?

It was a vow made by John Swinney that shook up a somnolent Scottish election campaign back in May: a commitment that had populist appeal and showed the SNP - in practical terms that opponents were unwilling or unable to follow - committed to dealing with the cost of living crisis.

But now, more than four months on - and with the measure expected to be in today’s Programme for Government - backers are thin on the ground.

To be clear: we lack polling on the specific policy, so have to assume it’s popular with voters - or, at least, not enough to put them off the SNP. The SNP won a thumping victory - although short of a majority - in the Scottish election only a few weeks after the promise was made, after all.

And, of course, John Swinney himself defends the policy itself heartily. Quoted in The National, he told PA yesterday: “I’m keen to make progress on an issue that is causing real hardship for members of the public.”

“He added: ‘We are working to try to ensure the proposals we bring forward are strong and robust and they can deliver the assistance we want to see in place.’”

These are not the words of a man keen to change direction, although Holyrood Kremlinologists might detect a gentle backing off from the specifics of the policy.

An unlikely array of organisations has expressed hope it does. Among their number: Edinburgh Food Social, “a social enterprise working towards food justice”, which might be exactly the sort of organisation you’d think would be excited by a price cap. Instead, it has questions - about the level the cap is sat, and for which foods. “Cheap doesn’t always mean healthy,” it warns.

That organisation is neither alone, nor first to voice its concern. Indeed, back in May, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) released a statement which was, in its way, remarkable.

That the BRC was against the policy is no surprise. That the BRC was also able to assemble an array of supportive quotes for its position, from other retail organisations to farmers - including the National Farmers Union - via a trade union, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, figures from Labour, the Conservatives, Lib Dem MPs and even a former SNP Rural Affairs Secretary (in the rebellious form of Fergus Ewing): opposition was widespread.

“It’s a half-baked idea that is doomed from the start,” said Ewing. “Price controls have been tried and failed. Take my advice: scrap the cap. If you want to help the public, work with business, don’t order them about.”

Even Michael Marra, now a Scottish Labour leader contender keen to advertise his socialist credentials, called the plan “an unworkable policy that will only put more money into the pockets of lawyers, rather than those of working people.”

That reference to lawyers relates to problems with the UK Internal Markets Act of 2020, created after Brexit to prevent trade barriers between the UK nations. It would likely need to be worked around to make the price caps legal.

Professor Nicola McEwen of the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Public Policy set out the likely roadblocks. “From idea to implementation,” she wrote, “would be a resource-intensive, lengthy process with an uncertain outcome, raising questions about whether there may be more immediate and certain policy responses to the cost-of-living crisis.”

Cynics might say Swinney wants that legal clash, where his populist policy is blocked by the “baddies” of Westminster and special interests.

That would feel a little more likely if Swinney was riding an obvious public wave of support for his plan. But if there is one, it’s far from obvious.

We should listen carefully to the language today. If the plan heads out to the long grass of consultation amid vague words on timescales, maybe all those opponents have held some sway.

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