Today’s news summary – Paper Talk
There’s a variety of stories leading Thursday’s papers. Several papers report on the Supreme Court’s decision that the Scottish government cannot hold another independence referendum without the consent of Westminster – a setback for Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign for Scottish independence.
Elsewhere: 30,000 drivers are hit with parking tickets every day, a Conservative peer secretly received £29 million from a ‘VIP lane’ PPE firm and around 70,000 Britons may have fallen victim to the biggest ever phone fraud. 120 people have been arrested so far.
Supreme court rules against indyref2
The Herald says Nicola Sturgeon has now rebranded the pro-independence campaign as “Scotland’s democracy movement” while the Scotsman says her decision to make the next general election a de facto referendum is the “final roll of her political dice.”
The National spoke to some pro-independence supporters who gathered outside the Scottish parliament yesterday. One of the supporters said: “The world knows now we are not in a union of equals”.
The Times says Nicola Sturgeon will now stake her political career on winning more than half of votes in Scotland at the next general election while campaigning on the single issue of independence.
The FT says the Supreme Court’s decision won’t be disappointing for the SNP politically because it will bolster supporters of independence. Lawyer and commentator David Allen Green writes in the paper that the SNP will maintain that Scotland is locked into a supposedly “voluntary” union with no way out.
Morale low among MPs
The FT writes PM Rishi Sunak faces big challenges with his party as morale is low among the MPs and many now have accepted the next general election is already lost.
The i says the Tories aren’t as mutinous as they were under Boris Johnson or Liz Truss but they are unhappy with the economy and the PM’s plan to fix it.
Qatar World Cup 2022
Many of the front pages run pictures of the German football team – who ahead of their shocking 2-1 defeat to Japan, posed together with their hands over their mouths in an apparent protest at Fifa’s decision to ban armbands supporting LGBT rights.
The Telegraph says the FA has instructed its legal team to look at whether Fifa can be challenged over the ban.
The i speaks to Lionesses’ captain Leah Williamson, who tells the paper this World Cup goes against everything she believes in.
Whilst the Daily Star reports on the loss, asking: “How do you spell schadenfreude?” The paper says following Argentina’s shock loss to Saudi Arabia, and then Germany’s shock loss to Japan, it is already “the funniest World Cup in history.”
