Neil McIntosh Editor of The Scotsman

Good afternoon Voornaam,

Hello from the team at The Scotsman. We hope you're having a good week. Can I offer a special welcome to the many new subscribers joining us at the moment: it's great to have you on board.

We have a special subscriber treat available today, if you move quickly: we'll be having an exclusive, in-person Q&A with the world-class Scottish violinist, and Edinburgh International Festival Director, Nicola Benedetti next week. And there are still a few tickets left for subscribers.

It's taking place on Thursday, at 6pm, at The Hub (on the Royal Mile) in Edinburgh. With Benedetti having just announced a compelling, and interestingly themed, Festival programme, it should be a fascinating event. Head to scotsmanqanda.eventbrite.co.uk to secure your free tickets.

Looking to the last week or so, the SNP finances row has continued to dominate fellow subscribers' attention. We have an exclusive development today on scotsman.com: our Westminster correspondent, Alexander Brown, reports that the party faces a desperate race to appoint auditors before a May 31 deadline, with House of Commons authorities saying they cannot offer an extension to the deadline. That would be a huge blow to the party in Westminster, with the loss of £1m likely leading to support staff losing their jobs. The party says it still hopes to appoint auditors, and have their accounts signed off, in time.

Earlier in the week we asked our reporter Martyn McLaughlin to take a look at suggestions that the SNP's travails could lead to a new pro-independence party (or, indeed, parties): his subsequent report got a lot of attention. There are certainly political and geographical fault lines emerging in the SNP. But it's also very difficult to launch a new political party - or, at least, make a success of one.

It appears that even running ones which have been around a while is a tricky business. The Scottish Conservatives are meeting in Glasgow today for their conference, and it should have been a free hit for the party as they rail against the SNP's financial and policy troubles. Rishi Sunak was expected to tell delegates it was time for a government at Holyrood "that focuses on Scotland's real priorities, not constitutional abstractions."

But then the party's public relations managers decided this morning, at the last minute, to try and shut out a good section of the Scottish media - including The Scotsman - from a post-speech Q&A with the Prime Minister, and things got a little awkward, as our reporters decided just to turn up anyway (they don't take no for an answer, I'm happy to say).

The managers have had a rethink, and the Prime Minister will now be speaking to The Scotsman, and other Scottish titles: just a shame we couldn't have got to that sensible conclusion earlier in the morning.

Is politics that tricky, or do the incumbents just make it look really difficult? I'll let you decide...

Looking ahead to the weekend - and I think we all need a break - don't miss the Saturday Magazine' beautiful Food and Drink Special Edition. Rosalind Erskine tells you what to expect at Scotland's whisky festivals (beyond the, ah, obvious) and Gaby Soutar looks for some road trip treats, among many other mouth-watering pieces on show. We hope you enjoy it.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Neil McIntosh

Editor, The Scotsman