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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 11 April 2026. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.
📣 You’re reading the weekend edition of The Early Line. Paying subscribers get the full version, with six talking points and film, TV and sporting recommendations for the weekend.
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Have a wonderful weekend!
☀️ The weekend’s weather: make the most of today because it’s going to be drier than tomorrow. Glasgow will see showers through today too, but Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness will have mostly dry days, bracketed by rain first thing, and this evening. London is set for a fine weekend, until Sunday evening. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
SNP set for a landslide - while two big names lose their seats | Artemis II splashes down | The worst corporate retreat? | Your AI doctor won’t see you now | Mariah puts her flat up for sale | A fine Fife conversion
🍸 The SNP isn’t just going to win next month’s Holyrood elections… it’s going to win a landslide, according to YouGov.
The respected pollster is projecting a huge win for John Swinney - 67 seats, against 64 in 2021 - with Reform UK becoming the main opposition with 20 seats (none in 2021). Labour would win 15 (2021: 22), the Greens 11 (8), the Lib Dems 9 (4) and the Conservatives 7 (31).
That sort of win, of course, brings consequences: John Swinney, safe in Bute House for another five years, would demand the powers to hold a new independence referendum, which he’d like to see as soon as 2028.
And some well-known faces would go: Labour’s deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, would lose the Dumbarton constituency she’s held since Holyrood’s formation in 1999. And - in a rare upset for the SNP - Angus Robertson is projected to narrowly lose Edinburgh Central to Lorna Slater of the Greens. That would be the Scottish Green’s first ever constituency seat.
Is there any sort of path to Bute House for anyone else? It’s very unlikely. These numbers come despite the fact only 27% of Scots think the SNP are doing a good job. That’s the level of disdain voters have for their alternatives, especially Labour. Keir Starmer’s government in London is destroying its chances here.s
But Anas Sarwar may take solace from the high number of undecided voters - Labour, along with the SNP, launches its manifesto next week. Pro-union tactical voting could also sway things away, somewhat, from the SNP.
But it would take an unprecedented swing to stop John Swinney and team’s celebrations in early May. (The Times)
Upgrade to read the full Party Line, including news of Artemis II splashing down, details of possibly the worst corporate retreat you’ve ever read about, an alarming - or hilarious - tale about how easily AI has been spoofed by a fake disease, a chance to see Mariah Carey’s spectacular New York apartment, now up for sale, and inside a fine Fife church conversion.
PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks on a busy weekend for the sofa-bound sports fan.
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