Michael Simmons

So now we know: Scotland will get its new leader on 27 March. The rules that will determine how Sturgeon’s successor – and Scotland’s sixth First Minister – will be chosen, were thrashed out by the party’s National Executive Committee on Thursday night. Nominations are now open and will close a week today. The ballot will then open to members on 13 March followed by a fortnight of voting. The election will take just over five weeks – half the length of the SNP’s last contested election when Alex Salmond returned to power in 2004. Candidates will need to win the backing of 100 members from at least 20 branches in order to make it onto the ballot.

Today is being dubbed 'Walkout Wednesday': thousands of schools are shut as teachers go on strike – and civil servants and lecturers are also on the picket line. Railway staff continue their strike today too and there is little sign of the strike deadlock being broken. We’re losing more working days to industrial action than at any point since the 1980s. A large chunk of industrial action is made up by rail strikes, and the government fears ‘a generation’ of passengers will be put off train travel for good. Might the strikes prove terminal for Britain's railways? The RMT, which is responsible for the latest walkout, is at the forefront of the action. The union is still holding out on a pay offer worth 5 per cent, then 4 per cent over the next two years.

Keir Starmer's diagnosis of the NHS is correct. 'If we don’t get real about reform, the NHS will die,' he says. The Labour leader, and odds-on favourite to be next PM, has called for an ‘unsentimental’ shake-up of a service that is undeniably failing. Millions are waiting for treatment, ambulance waits are so long they are stretching the axis on graphs and good luck even getting your GP to answer the phone. ‘The idea that the service is still “the envy of the world” is plainly wrong,’ he wrote in the Daily Telegraph. Two thirds of us now consider the NHS to provide a bad service So why have we not seen meaningful reform yet? Starmer points to the esteem in which the health service is held.

Crime hit a 20-year-high in Britain this year, yet more of these offences than ever are going unsolved. The stark reality is that, if you’re robbed, mugged or a victim of fraud, it’s less and less likely the police will catch those responsible. This year, in England and Wales, just 5 per cent of reported crimes resulted in anyone being charged or summoned to court; it’s a big drop from the 15.5 per cent of suspects charged in 2015, when records began. The criminal justice system’s inability to catch and punish criminals has effectively decriminalised many crimes. Villains now operate in broad daylight with little fear of being caught.

The NHS has a crisis every winter, but this year’s is on a different scale. Before a wave of strikes puts patients and care at risk, stats released by NHS England this morning show a health service already on the brink. Last month, the number of 12-hour waits in A&E departments in England exceeded 37,800, having hit almost 44,000 the month before: a decrease, but a worrying number still. Waiting lists for consultant-led treatment have grown by 74,000 cases and now stand at 7.2 million. Ambulance waiting times are still far higher than they should be too: now at 48 minutes. All of this before the going really gets tough. Here’s what this morning’s monthly NHS statistical release tells us: 1.

Ian Blackford has resigned after five years as Westminster leader of the SNP. In a statement he said the time was right for ‘fresh leadership’ and that he will not be standing for reelection at the group’s AGM next week. The announcement comes just a fortnight after the Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP survived an attempted coup. He is continuing as an MP. Just weeks ago Blackford survived a challenge from the Aberdeen South MP, Stephen Flynn, who attempted to overthrow him. SNP backbenchers had grown unhappy with Blackford’s leadership after several scandals during his tenure. Flynn had been on manoeuvres against Blackford for months.

For Scotland to stay at its current levels of health in 20 years’ time it would have to entirely eradicate cancer. That’s according to the Burden of Disease study published this morning by Public Health Scotland.   The report found that although the country’s population is projected to fall in the next two decades, its annual ‘disease burden’ – the impact of morbidity and mortality on population health – is forecast to increase by some 21 per cent. ‘In order to achieve a similar level of disease burden as 2019’, they say it would need to be reduced by 17 per cent by 2043 – ‘which is equivalent to eradicating the entire disease burden of cancer in 2019.

Last night was shaping up to be a night of the long sgian dubhs for the SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford. SNP backbenchers have grown unhappy with Blackford's leadership after several scandals during his tenure. Yesterday a challenge briefly emerged from Aberdeen South MP Stephen Flynn, though Blackford has managed to survive the attempted coup.  Flynn has reportedly been on manoeuvres against Blackford for months. Yesterday he made his move, informing the party’s compliance officer Ian McCann he planned to challenge Blackford at the Westminster group's AGM in December. The next step of the plan was for a gang of so-called men in grey kilts, led by culture spokesman Brendan O’Hara, to tell their leader he had to go before the meeting.

More people are dying every week than during Covid’s peak years. Last month there were 1,482 more deaths than average each week – known as excess deaths – compared with just 315 two years ago and 1,322 last year. In the week to 21 October (the most recent week of data) ONS figures reveal there were some 1,646 excess deaths alone. As has been reported before, excess deaths are most stark at home: with deaths in private homes nearly a third above average. Meanwhile in hospitals and care homes they’re just 15 and 10 per cent above average. The shift to dying at home, and the health service ceasing to function, continues.  What’s causing these deaths? It isn’t Covid: just 27 per cent of excess deaths in England for the most recent week have Covid as the underlying cause.

Gone in a flash, Liz Truss becomes the shortest serving prime minister in British history. As it stands, she’s 75 days short of George Canning, who lasted some 119 days in office before dying from tuberculosis. If Truss’s successor wants to avoid joining her and Canning at the lower ends of the Wikipedia, they’ll need to keep a close eye on these seven metrics: 1. The value of the pound Kwasi Kwarteng’s (and Liz Truss’s) mini-Budget caused the pound to fall to its lowest ever level at just above $1.03. At the time there were fears it may even pass parity with the dollar. Since then it regained its losses and stands at $1.13. Much of the pressure against the pound was really due to a strengthened dollar.

NHS waiting lists have exceeded seven million people for the first time since records began. That means nearly 12 per cent of people in England are waiting for consultant-led treatment. A&E waiting times broke records too: nearly 33,000 people waited more than 12 hours from decision to admit to admission. The target is four hours. This all adds to a difficult week for the health service. Staff shortages affecting the whole economy – a record 2.5 million people are not working due to long-term sickness – are now being felt in the NHS too. Recently some hospitals have experienced a shortage of blood because of donation centres having to close due to problems getting enough staff.