Hello and welcome to The Midge, the e-bulletin that takes a bite out of politics in Scotland and elsewhere.
Front pages
Exclusive: In The Herald, chief reporter David Leask spotlights a report saying an independent Scotland could be a full member of the EU by 2023 - but it could also lose its share of the UK rebate.
“Where’s your vow noo?” is the headline in The National reporting on Alex Salmond’s rally in Ellon, where he urged supporters to ask Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems what has happened to The Vow.
The Mail leads on the death of a two-year-old boy in Perthshire. The toddler was found in a river near the family home.
The Times says people could be charged for basic items such as walking sticks and special toilet seats because new care boards are facing a funding gap.
The Telegraph says Kraft Heinz abandoned its bid to take over Unilever after Downing Street took a close interest.
The Guardian reports that the Home Office is to look again at asylum applications from child refugees in France.
In the Evening Times, Vivienne Nicoll reports on a plan to transform one of Glasgow's most famous streets.
Camley’s cartoon
The EU negotiators in the See You Jimmy hats will see Scotland now. Read the story here.
FFS: Five in five seconds
What’s the story? Donald Trump has been explaining himself over the Swedish terror attack that never was.
Is this the plot of a new Scandi noir?
No. At his rally in Florida on Saturday, the president said: “You look at what's happening in Germany, you look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden.” Which led some people to think there had been a terrorist attack. There had not. This is now the second incident that never was.
What was the first?
Trump aide Kellyanne Conway referred in an interview to a “Bowling Green Massacre”. That didn’t happen either.
Reaction?
From officialdom, a demand for clarification. The newspaper Svenska Dagbladet said the Trump administration was becoming “completely facts-resistant”, while the Twitterati, including former Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, the BBC's Jon Sopel and Chelsea Clinton, had a field day.
Sweden? Terror attack? What has he been smoking? Questions abound. https://t.co/XWgw8Fz7tj
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) 19 February 2017
You must be joking. Too dangerous after #swedenincident pic.twitter.com/10Vx73S5gW
— Jon Sopel (@BBCJonSopel) February 19, 2017
Scenes of appalling despair #LastNightInSweden pic.twitter.com/qpKPPtJdd0
— Julian Power (@JueRobWilPo) February 19, 2017
After last nights shambles #ikea has introduced a new product. #lastnightinsweden #MakeAmericaSmartAgain pic.twitter.com/C12NU7SOL6
— eugene layton (@akaeugenius) February 20, 2017
#swedenincident Main suspect in Bowling green massacre captured by Swedish police #lastnightinsweden , thanks to tip from @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/O9XAPElcdk
— Madra David (@madradavid) February 19, 2017
In response to #lastnightinsweden, Sweden has deployed their elite force of Super Troupers. pic.twitter.com/Qk4cdWriwz
— Courtney (@CHydeDesign) February 19, 2017
Response from the US President? He turned out to be referring to something he saw on the Fox News Channel about Sweden taking in 160,000 asylum seekers last year.
Afore Ye Go
"We are only weeks away…”
… from indyref2 being called, according to Business for Scotland’s Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp in an email to supporters to launch a fundraising drive. Sunday Herald. Jane Barlow/PA Wire
“Can someone tell the Blair creature that his support is worse than the kiss of death to any cause? He could make people hate fluffy kittens if he was photographed with one.”
Peter Hitchens is unimpressed with the former PM’s return to the political arena on a stop Brexit platform. Mail on Sunday. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images.
"If God decides to take him, then we would rather field him as a corpse.”
Grace Mugabe, wife of President Robert Mugabe, 92, says her husband should fight the forthcoming Zimbabwe general election even if he is dead. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
"These are difficult by-elections, they're going to be quite tight.”
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott dampens expectations ahead of the Stoke Central and Copeland by-elections on Thursday. Even if Labour loses, she said, Jeremy Corbyn will stay. Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday. Ben Birchall/PA Wire
“When you're mates with somebody, when you've got a special relationship, of course you are side-by-side with them in times of adversity but when they are wrong you call them out.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan says Donald Trump should not be given a state visit to Britain, calling his travel ban “cruel and shameful”. PA Wire
“One Republican source told me that even one of Trump’s closest friends says there is a good Trump and a bad Trump, before adding: ‘The trouble is that while the good version is like Ronald Reagan, the bad version is Richard Nixon’.”
Ian Birrell, Mail on Sunday. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Thanks for reading. Twitter: @alisonmrowat
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