📺 Watch @Ianblackford_MP and your SNP MPs at #PMQs as they hold Boris Johnson and the Tories to account on their reckless Brexit obsession.

⏰ Tune in now: https://t.co/RlaW0Pb2tx

🗣 @Ianblackford_MP: “Mr Speaker, this afternoon, millions around the world will breathe a massive sigh of relief when President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are sworn into office.” #PMQs

🗣 @Ianblackford_MP: “The democratic removal of Donald Trump gives all of us the hope that the days to come will be that little bit brighter.” #PMQs

🗣 @Ianblackford_MP: “Turning the page on the dark chapter of Trump's presidency, isn't solely the responsibility of President Joe Biden.” #PMQs

🗣 @Ianblackford_MP: “It is also the responsibility of those in the Tory party, including the Prime Minister, who cosied up to Donald Trump and his callous worldview.” #PMQs

🗣 @Ianblackford_MP: “This morning, the former Prime Minister, the member for Maidenhead, accused the current Prime Minister of abandoning moral responsibility on the world stage by slashing international aid.” #PMQs

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "I want to update Parliament on Cabinet's review of the current lockdown restrictions, which took place earlier today."

NS: "I will report on some cautious grounds for optimism, I'm pleased to say, but also set out why it is vital, in order to protect the NHS and save lives, to stick with these restrictions for a further period."

NS: "I will set out what that means for the timing of getting children back to school, which, of course, remains a priority for all of us."

NS: "And finally, I'll touch on other aspects of our response to Covid, including control of borders, the further expansion of testing, and the progress of the vaccination programme."

NS: "Firstly, I'll give a brief summary of the latest statistics and then seek to put these in some context."

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Firstly, can I thank you, Presiding Officer, for this recall of Parliament today and join you in wishing everyone all the very best for a new year that we hope, despite its very difficult start, will bring better times."

NS: "The Cabinet met this morning to assess the up to date Covid situation - which I must say at the outset is extremely serious - and to discuss what further action is necessary to minimise further spread of the virus. I will set out our decisions shortly."

NS: "However, I can confirm now, in summary, that we decided to introduce from midnight tonight, for the duration of January, a legal requirement to stay at home except for essential purposes. This is similar to the lockdown of March last year."

NS: "However, before I set out these decisions in more detail, I want to take the opportunity to explain in some detail why they are so necessary.

In the last few weeks, there have been two significant game changers in our fight against this virus."

NS: "One, the approval of vaccines, is hugely positive and offers us the way out of this pandemic.

But the other - the new faster spreading variant of the virus - is a massive blow."

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "Good afternoon, thank you for joining us. I'll give you some warning in advance - my update is going to be slightly longer than normal today because I've got a few updates I'm going to cover."

NS: "I'm also going to touch a little bit on Christmas, which I know is of huge interest to everyone. But firstly, as usual, I will cover today's statistics."

NS: "There were 689 positive cases reported yesterday, which is 5.9% of the total number of tests and means that the total tally of confirmed cases now is 108,438."

NS: "140 of today's new cases were in Lothian, 109 in Greater Glasgow & Clyde, 92 in Lanarkshire and 91 in Ayrshire & Arran, and the remaining cases are spread across 8 other health board areas."

NS: "1,031 people are currently in hospital which is an increase of 35 from yesterday. 49 people are in intensive care, which is 4 more than yesterday."

First Minister @NicolaSturgeon: "I want to update Parliament on Cabinet’s review of the current lockdown restrictions which took place this morning."

NS: "Let me confirm at the outset that - with one limited exception - I will not be announcing any immediate changes to the current lockdown restrictions."

NS: "The core stay at home requirement will remain in place until at least the beginning of March - and possibly for a further period beyond that although not for any longer than is absolutely necessary."

NS: "I will however confirm that the phased and gradual return to school that I said we were hopeful about when I updated Parliament two weeks ago will go ahead as planned from Monday."

NS: "I will say more about this - and about the importance of carefully implementing and monitoring it - later.

In addition, I will give an assessment of the current state of the pandemic."

Some quick thoughts on Sam Gyimah's resignation after conversations with various Conservative MPs: 1) the chances of a second referendum are a lot higher than I thought:

2) At this point, if you are a young and ambitious Tory MP it is now so overwhelmingly in your interest to vote against the withdrawal agreement. V v hard to see how Julian Smith can cap rebellion at under 100:

3) Really just to reiterate 1) Gyimah is the kind of "No, never gonna rebel" vaguely pro-EU Tory you'd need to get on side to outweigh Labour Leavers and Real Concerners.

Trump on climate: I don't believe it. Trump on Khashoggi: I don't believe it. Trump on Russia: I don't believe it. Idiocy? A canny game? Doesn't really matter as much as the underlying intellectual autocracy. In this administration only one opinion matters.

It's an assault on facts and reason. It's an assault on good governance. It's an assault on the bureaucracies that are being discounted. It's an assault on science and history. But it is also an assault on one of the underpinnings of democracy.

We live in a system that is grounded on the idea of collaborative government. Leaders may have a final word but even then, there are typically checks and balances. Hopefully, in this case, such checks and balances may work. But they also are being tested.

The president's position that he is smarter than all the world's scientists, than the entire intelligence community, than experts who have studied any issue all their lives, is, of course, asinine. But his belief that government turns solely on his opinion, is monarchic.

Louis XIV reportedly said, "L'etat est moi." That he was the state. Trump asserting that he knows better than all, discounts all advice, that his brain is enough to chart the course for America alone, is essentially saying the same thing.

(THREAD) The Whitaker scandal is deepening, as it becomes clear that Sessions' Russia recusal was a coordinated sham and his firing an act of obstruction—and that his replacement is a White House plant inside the Mueller probe. I hope you'll retweet and read on for more details.

1/ From 2014-17 Whitaker worked for World Patent Marketing—which during his tenure defrauded consumers out of $26 million and was successfully prosecuted by the feds. His involvement in the scam confirmed he had loose morals and that the feds would never want to employ him again.

2/ Despite the seeming impossibility of a man with Whitaker's background getting a job at Justice ever again—he'd been found to have used his former title as a US attorney to fraudulently threaten consumers with valid complaints with criminal penalties—Whitaker found an opening.

3/ Within 60 days of parachuting out of World Patent Marketing as it was being fined $26 million by the feds, Whitaker was working for CNN and telling a fellow attorney panelist that his purpose in working for CNN was to get noticed by one man—Donald Trump—and thereby get a job.

4/ Whitaker spent his time at CNN making ludicrous statements about the Mueller probe: there was no obstruction or collusion, he said; Mueller had no authority to look into any aspect of Trump's finances or to subpoena him, he said. All the while, he hoped Trump was watching him.

Andy Ngo thinks Antifa are on a level with the Nazis in terms of wanton violence. Furthermore, he says that 'even the Nazis knew to cover their tracks' and that we didn't know about the Holocaust until afterwards.

Wrong, and offensive on almost every level.

Violence had been building for years prior to the Nazis assuming power, and much of it was instigated by the SA.

In 1932 for example, 105 people died in clashes between SA and opposing groups in Prussia alone - that's one region.

SA activity - marching through 'red' neighbourhoods and fighting those who opposed them was a deliberate strategy. The spectacle of violence and the implied 'restoral of order' was the point.

Just think of how Horst Wessel was remembered following his death in 1930. He was turned into a martyr who fell 'bravely in battle' against the Bolsheviks. Violence was inherent to the message - a clash between forces for the future of Germany.

During his time as SA leader in Berlin, Goebbels worked on a strategy of provocation that almost always ended in violence, a form of trolling that would always provide the opportunity for a brawl and the implication that a menace had been dealt with.