TODAY’S WEATHER

☀️ Much brighter and warmer today, with sunshine and a high of 22 degrees in Glasgow. Edinburgh and Aberdeen will both be brighter, but slightly cooler. London will be sunny and hit a high of 26 degrees later. (Here’s the UK forecast).

THE BIG STORIES
The extraordinary secrecy around Afghan evacuation | Peggie hearing restarts | Reeves plan for deregulation

📣 A secret scheme to relocate up to 15,000 Afghans, at a cost of up to £2 billion, was established by the last Conservative government following a data breach, it has been revealed. The existence of the scheme was kept secret by use of a superinjunction to gag the media.

The relocation programme was created in haste in 2023 after it emerged that personal information about 18,700 Afghans who had applied to come to the UK had been leaked in error in an email sent by a British defence official in early 2022. The injunction was only lifted yesterday. (Guardian) (Mail)

• The most expensive email in history (🎁 Telegraph - free to read)

• Frank Gardner: The key questions after data leak sparked evacuation (BBC)

• The superinjunction was intended to be in place for four months. Instead, there was secrecy on an extraordinary scale. (Times £)

📣 Nurse Sandy Peggie’s employment tribunal restarts today in Dundee, with a further 11 days of hearings to come after 10 days of hearings in February. Ms Peggie is suing the health board and Dr Beth Upton after she was suspended following a row between the pair on Christmas Eve in 2023.

The closely-watched tribunal revolves around whether Ms Peggie should have to share changing facilities with Upton, born a man but now identifying as a trans woman. Peggie said she had felt "embarrassed and intimidated" by an encounter between the pair.

NHS Fife has described Ms Peggie's case as "unnecessary and vexatious" while Dr Upton has accused the nurse of bullying and harassment. (BBC)

• The key moments from the case to date (The Scotsman)

• Live coverage from Dundee (The Herald)

📣 Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her Mansion House speech last night to promise to remove “ring-fencing” rules set up after the financial crisis.

The move comes as part of a broader effort to spur economic growth, which will also include making it easier for home buyers to borrow more money, and removing some of the rules that govern bankers’ conduct. (🎁 Bloomberg - free to read)

• Regulation is a “boot on the neck” of business, says Reeves (Guardian)

IDEAS
Taking the heat out of The Salt Path row, of Scottish politics, of playground fights and Donald Trump’s visit

I’d been squirrelling away a few columns in recent days which have caught my eye. Entirely by accident, I note this morning, they’re all - to some extent - about civility and acceptance of others’ views, and failings. I hope you find them interesting.

🗣️ Dani Garavelli catches a whiff of something in the “sheer glee” with which people have taken part in the “annihilation” of The Salt Path and its author, Raynor Winn, who’s been accused of misrepresenting the circumstances under which she and her husband began the long walk from financial ruin that lies at the heart of the book.

The reaction is “is both ugly and elitist,” says Garavelli. “The implication appears to be not only that Raynor and Moth got their comeuppance, but that the kinds of people stupid enough to take comfort in their story also got what was coming to them.

“Publishing is a precarious business; a best-seller is never guaranteed. It feels more plausible that Winn chose to write her book the way she wrote it because that’s the version of herself she wanted to believe in.” (The Herald £)

🗣️Kenny Farquharson warns we’re heading for a nasty period in Scottish politics, and mainstream politicians will have to tread carefully.

Farquharson says he was not as critical as some of John Swinney’s “democratic resiliance summit” held earlier this year. “The first minister was putting down a necessary marker,” he writes. “Everyone involved in Scottish public life had a duty, he said, to foster trust in the political system as it came under unprecedented attack from wreckers.”

But what, then, to make of an SNP “hypocrisy file” - a press release issued in recent days from Swinney’s party accusing Ian Murray, the secretary of state for Scotland in Sir Keir Starmer’s cabinet, of swapping “his principles for power”? “Criticise policy, yes. Criticise Murray for changing his mind, sure,” writes Farquharson.

“But calling a political rival a hypocrite, and publishing what purports to be The Hypocrisy File, is going too far.” (The Times £)

🗣️It’s not just our politics which could do with some de-escalation. Karyn McCluskey suggests it’s a skill that should be taught in schools. McCluskey, chief executive of Community Justice Scotland, says she is “endlessly defending young people,” yet laments their inability to defuse arguments by picking up the phone.

“Primary teachers have shown me these group chats and how toxic and explosive they can be, leading to fights in and around schools,” she writes.

“We know that many teachers practice de-escalation techniques, but it is our young people who also need these tactics. Working out how to slow down encounters that they have online, how to step back, introduce a ‘circuit breaker’ to defuse or dampen down an interaction.” (Scotsman)

🗣️Euan McColm says the First Minister should resist the urge to stick two fingers up at Donald Trump, and “do his duty” by welcoming the US President to Scotland. He recalls a speech from former US President Barack Obama, who “spoke of the complexity of political relationships and decision making. Sometimes, he said, leadership involved a degree of ‘necessary hypocrisy’.

“Politicians are not elected to give voice to our personal - or, indeed their own - prejudices but to advance the interests of the country.” Picking an unnecessary fight with Trump would not advance the UK’s interests, he says. (Mail)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Edinburgh’s tram system continues to lose money, with the latest accounts showing a loss of almost £10 million last year, despite record passenger numbers. The company is burdened with the cost of debt caused by cost overruns during construction of the system’s first phase. (Scotsman)

📣 NHS Grampian has advised Aberdonians to take precautions lest they be seduced by a “charming sailor or siren” this weekend, when 400,000 people attend the Tall Ships 2025 event in the city. The health board’s also advises sensible drinking, sunscreen, plasters and pain relief. (Press & Journal)

• One ship has been banned from the event because of sanctions against Russia. (Scotsman)

📣 The wife of a man found dead in Edinburgh’s City Chambers is demanding answers after it emerged his body had lain undiscovered for six days. (Daily Record)

📣 Charlie Miller, the famous Scottish hair stylist, has died at the age of 80. Miller, whose name still adorns high-profile salons in Edinburgh, gained fame as a stylist to the stars and was awarded an OBE in 2012. His family said “his legacy lives on”. (Scotsman) (Sun)

AROUND THE UK & WORLD

📣 UK inflation increased last month, up to 3.6% last month from 3.4% the previous month: a higher rate than expected. (BBC - live coverage)

📣 Masterchef presenter John Torode says he saw his two-decade-long career on the show end in just 24 hours, claiming he was not warned a report into the conduct of his fellow presenter Gregg Wallace would also accuse him of using a racist term. (Mail)

• Toxic behaviour in British television is jeopardising the industry, experts have warned. (Guardian)

📣 Russia may use Donald Trump’s “50 day window” to attempt to grind down Ukraine this summer. But big gains seem unlikely, say observers. (AP)

📣 Another narrow vote in Senate - US Vice President JD Vance used his casting vote - saw Donald Trump’s $9 billion package of cuts passed, including significant cuts to foreign aid and public service media. (AP)

SPORT

⚽️ Rangers have finally secured Sheffield Wednesday winger Djeidi Gassama, who is seen as a replacement for the departed Vaclav Cerny. (Sun)

⚽️ Celtic are considering a move for Crystal Palace striker Odsonne Edouard - who used to play for them, before he moved south. Wages could be a stumbling block, however. (Sun)