THE BIG STORIES
UK and Ireland braces for Storm Eowyn | History exam sparks more questions | Russia reacts to Trump

📣 It’s really going to be quite a storm that hits us tomorrow. Storm Eowyn will bring very strong winds, up to 90mph, to the entire UK, with upgraded warnings for a big chunk of Scotland and the north of England.

• The Met Office’s warnings have been upgraded to amber from 6am tomorrow. Additional yellow warnings for snow and wind come into force in some areas from midnight. (Met Office warnings)

• Ireland is expecting one of “the most severe storms Ireland has ever seen”, with red warnings of “widespread destruction”. (Irish Times)

📣 A row over last year’s Higher History exam threatens to broaden into a bigger debate about how the Scottish Qualifications Authority is run, after an “extraordinary” committee session at Holyrood yesterday. The head of the body is to be called to give evidence again after claims the SQA is blocking the release of a survey which contained highly critical comments from history teachers. They don’t accept that students who struggled with last year’s exam had only themselves to blame. The Herald has done a fine job of the coverage.

• Ross recalls SQA to answer questions on Higher History (The Herald)

• Fresh questions for the SQA over marking controversy (The Herald)

• (From December) Teachers’ feedback dismisses ‘whitewash’ SQA investigation (The Herald)

📣 Russia gave a guarded welcome to Donald Trump’s demands for an end to the war in Ukraine. A Russian official said it would depend on what Trump thinks a “deal” to end the war means. The US President had threatened “high levels of Taxes, Tariffs and Sanctions” in a social media post if the war did not end. (Reuters)

Also from the opening days of the Trump administration:

• Congress passed a bill demanding harsher treatment for unauthorised immigrants accused of theft and violent crime. It will be the first legislation Trump can sign, and is seen as signalling a shift to the right in the immigration debate. (AP)

• Trump demanded an apology from the bishop who asked him to “have mercy” on LGBTQ+ people (AP) - she said she’d continue to pray for him (AP)

• Here’s a summary of all Trump has done in his opening days (Reuters)

IDEAS
Will the BBC’s boss face a Holyrood grilling?

🗣️ BBC Director General Tim Davie appears in Holyrood this morning at the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. It’ll be interesting to see what sort of reception he gets.
[Full disclosure: I worked for the BBC between 2013 and 2021.]

A row has been brewing in Scotland’s TV world over how many Scottish-based staff the BBC employs on its “Scottish” productions - especially hit show The Traitors, filmed here but edited in London.

A snapshot of that row: the new Director of BBC Scotland, Hayley Valentine, told Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee on January 8th: “What has happened with The Traitors is that the level of production and talent in Scotland has increased as the programme goes on […] The sense of upskilling and getting to a place is a gradual thing.”

That provoked a furious response from Peter Strachan, a filmmaker and board member of Directors UK, who wrote an open letter claiming “the percentage of off-screen talent [used on The Traitors] based in Scotland has declined over time”.

Squint and both those claims could, maybe, be true simultaneously. But many think not.

The suggestion is the BBC’s “Scottish” production numbers don’t add up. And complaints extend well beyond The Traitors.

Why does all this matter?

• The BBC collects around £300m in license fee income from Scotland, which - for scale - is around £100m more than the entire Scottish Government arts and culture budget. The BBC says it spends that much in Scotland: but that spend is now being questioned.

• The Beeb is under an obligation to hit a quota of programming around the UK, to spread the economic benefits of license fee money, encourage creative industries outside London and ensure representation of the UK’s communities. If it’s paying lip service to that, fewer of the benefits flow.

• Strachan claims times are hard for Scottish-based TV professionals, with many facing having to leave the industry. It’s a long way from the prosperous picture Valentine painted to MPs earlier this month.

It’ll be interesting to see if today’s committee picks up on any of this.

• Read the MSPs’ briefing paper for today’s meeting

• Believe in Scotland, an independence-supporting website, obviously has an axe to grind, but does a good job in taking a deeper look at the BBC’s spending, and this row.

• Deadline, a media website, reports the BBC has had to amend a submission to regulator Ofcom on crewing for season one of The Traitors.

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 Rejoining the European Union should become a “national mission” for Scotland, John Swinney said yesterday, because of the economic benefits it would bring. The First Minister’s speech in Glasgow indicated the SNP will use its pro-European policies as a differentiator in next year’s Scottish elections. (Daily Record)

• See also: EU “could consider” UK joining pan-Europe customs scheme, says new EU trade chief (BBC)

📣 Tributes have been paid to the six-year-old schoolgirl found dead in her West Lothian home with her father on Monday. The deaths of Mark Gordon, 36 and his daughter Hope are being treated as unexplained. (Daily Mail)

📣 Plans to charge a £100 annual fee to use small boats on the Clyde have angered people. Peel Ports Clydeport has jurisdiction over 450 square miles of the river, and could impose a charge from Albert Bridge in Glasgow to the island of Arran, including sea lochs including Loch Fyne, Holy Loch and Loch Long. (BBC)

AROUND THE UK

📣 A Russian spy ship is being tracked by the Royal Navy after sailing through the English Channel, as Defence Secretary John Healy warned Vladimir Putin “we see you”. (Independent)

• The same ship was found loitering near undersea cables in waters “close to the UK” in November. The submarine HMS Astute surfaced close by to warn it off. (The Times)

📣 Prince Harry settled with The Sun yesterday as the newspaper’s publisher admitted the title had engaged in “illegal practices”. He and Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, are calling for a police and parliamentary investigation into the activity and subsequent “perjury and cover-ups”. (Guardian)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 Gordon Brown has urged President Trump to reconsider his decision to leave the World Trade Organisation. “If a World Health Organization did not exist, it would have to be created to identify and prevent the spread of infectious diseases worldwide,” the former PM writes in a public memo. (The Guardian)

🌎 A “corpse flower” is due to bloom in Sydney - the endangered plant only blooms every 15 years, and creates a putrid stink when it does. You can watch a live streamed video of the flower (and presumably enjoy, from a distance, the reaction of passers-by). (YouTube)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 Thames Water faces bankruptcy with £16 billion of debt, and £2 billion annual losses, after a stand-off with the water regulator for England and Wales. The company had had its request to increase bills by 52% turned down. (The Times).

💰 Wind power in the UK was all but wiped out yesterday because of calm, still weather across the country, forcing a switch to more expensive gas power and a spike in electricity prices. The arrival of storm Eowyn (see above) will put things right tomorrow… (Bloomberg)

SPORT

⚽️ Celtic guaranteed passage into at least the Champions League play-offs last night with a 1-0 win over Young Boys, but it wasn’t easy. It’s a noteworthy achievement, though: Celtic haven’t been this far in the competition in more than a decade. (The Scotsman)

⚽️ What sort of result can Rangers get at Old Trafford tonight? A glance at the form book would suggest neither side’s in sparkling form. Rangers have been awful away in the domestic league, but are undefeated away from home in Europe this season. Manchester United, meanwhile, have been described as the worst their club has ever seen - by their own manager - but are, like their visitors, currently in a top 8 position in the Europa League. It’ll make for an interesting battle of Britain (Tonight, 8pm, TNT Sports 1)