Good morning, Welcome to Friday. As the US Election vote counting rumbles on, in today's newsletter we turn our attention back to matters at home. 'Completely unacceptable' A Scottish fire chief has condemned attacks on his officers as “completely unacceptable” after crews were called to put out more than 500 bonfires across the country last night, reports Conor Marlborough. Bonfire Night is always arduous for our firefighters but it's shocking to hear of them suffering attacks while bringing blazes under control. Read the full story here. SNP battlegrounds to watch The SNP could secure a new majority at Holyrood in next year's elections, recent polling has suggested. With many nationalist MSPs retiring, there are several selection battlegrounds to watch. The most high profile of the selection battles will be in Edinburgh Central where the constituency's former MSP Marco Biagi will go toe-to-toe with Angus Robertson. Mr Robertson is viewed by some as a potential successor to Nicola Sturgeon and is a firm ally, but the race has highlighted some of the internal strife facing the SNP. Definitely, one to watch. Our live politics reporter, Conor Matchett, examines these five SNP battlegrounds here. The villages in the sky that transformed life for a generation They had been hailed as the great antidote to the country’s housing ills, that would transform the lives of a generation of Scots who had been subjected to living standards more akin to the previous century. In the 1960s high rise living was viewed as the way forward and every major city in Scotland committed to building their own ‘villages in the sky’. David McLean dives into our archives to explore how Scotland's cities changed in the 1960s and the effect high rise living had on people's lives. Want to work on a hit TV show set in Scotland? Outlander is one of the biggest TV programmes to come out of Scotland. As it prepares to get its sixth season underway, the production team is looking to recruit trainees behind the scenes in a variety of roles. Successful candidates will get to work alongside stars like Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe on the set of the time-travelling drama. Here are the positions available. And finally.. To get your brains switched on this morning, here is a clue from today's devilishly difficult cryptic crossword: Guide to palmistry (8). We have new crosswords, word wheels and sudoku every day on our interactive puzzle pages. If you're a subscriber, you can try them out today. Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend. Sam Shedden, sam.shedden@jpimedia.co.uk |