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Telegraph
12-08-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Nicola Sturgeon – a victim or a hard-nosed, humourless harpy?
Nicola Sturgeon is far from unique among politicians in hoping that her memoirs will help redefine her, both as a politician and as a human being. But she might find the task more challenging than most. However frank Frankly is, it will struggle to reconcile the image she is now trying to present with the one most of her readership will recognise from years of familiarity: that of a ruthless, strong, though flawed woman. Frankly is well written and easy to read. It skips along at an easy pace, not dwelling over-long on the more contentious elements of her 'journey' (as she chooses to call it). But at the centre of this effort is Sturgeon's almost obsessive need to reinvent herself, to assure her critics that everything they thought about her was wrong, so wrong. That far from being the 'nippy sweetie' of Scottish political legend, a hard-nosed, humourless harpy obsessed with independence to the exclusion of all else that might be considered 'hinterland', she is in fact a vulnerable, shy, bookish woman filled with self-doubt, permanently on the brink of tears and painfully vulnerable to the criticisms of her opponents. It takes a certain degree of gullibility – or, to be more charitable, generosity – to believe that the woman who led her party and the Scottish government with a rod of iron for nine years, who out-argued, out-manoeuvred and out-classed every political rival during her long career as a member, and then leader, of the Scottish Parliament, was actually a victim all along, a vulnerable target of other people's misogyny and cruelty. You pays your money and you takes your choice. For the first third of the book, Sturgeon's tactic works and the reader is drawn into a sympathetic view of the protagonist. But the warning bells start to sound when a pattern emerges of a person who is quick to blame other people's faults for her own difficulties. Even when her patron, friend and mentor, Alex Salmond, came to her defence after Sturgeon was accused, in 2010, of seeking inappropriately to influence a court on behalf of a constituent who was guilty of benefit fraud, she describes his defence of her as 'disingenuous': 'Alex made my situation significantly worse.' This seems to be part of a deliberate trend to lay the groundwork for the rupture that eventually materialised between the two, one that dramatically imploded in the midst of allegations of sexual impropriety made against Salmond in 2018 and of which he was acquitted in court in 2020. So Sturgeon recounts how, as far back as the late 1980s, she had harboured doubts about Salmond's character and judgment. A speech he made at an SNP National Council meeting in 1989 was, according to Sturgeon, 'ill-judged' and 'dishonest'. She is similarly scathing of Salmond's attempts to broker a deal that would have seen Holyrood's only two Green MSPs support the minority SNP administration's budget in 2009: 'The Greens found his 'charm' patronising. Alex being Alex, though, he had convinced himself and the rest of us that his magic was working, and that they would vote with us.' They didn't. When the scandal involving the allegations against Salmond are discussed at length, the book does not deviate from the narrative that Sturgeon has stuck to in the past: namely that she acted in good faith at every point and that she was sad that Salmond blamed her for his predicament. Her controversial appearance at the Holyrood committee investigating the Scottish government's own internal inquiry into the complaints against Salmond – an appearance characterised by numerous claims of memory lapse – found that she had misled the Scottish parliament (though a separate, independent inquiry cleared her of breaching the Ministerial Code). The MSPs' verdict is dismissed by Sturgeon in Frankly, as is the inquiry itself, which she describes as a 'witch hunt'. Sturgeon even threatens to undermine Salmond's own commitment to independence, and it is perhaps lucky he is not around to challenge her. Having resurrected a demand for a second independence referendum in the wake of the EU referendum result, she recounts how, in the run-up to the 2017 general election, Salmond, campaigning for re-election as an MP, was 'stung' by the negative response he was getting in his constituency. 'He called me to suggest I find a way of ditching the referendum commitment before polling day.' This is an explosive accusation against the man whom many in the independence movement still see as the hero of their cause. From her modest, working-class upbringing in central Ayrshire to the moment when, as a 16-year-old, she gathered the courage to knock on the door of the local SNP parliamentary candidate to offer her help in the coming general election, Sturgeon's revelations about her early life are affectionate but not out of the ordinary. She reveals that early, sadly typical, experiences at school 'instilled a visceral dislike of bullies' and gave her 'a natural affinity with the underdog', as if both sentiments are unusual rather than virtually universal. Sturgeon's own faith in the economic case for independence is revealed to be on shaky ground. Sturgeon now claims that she recognised – privately, of course – that the 2008 financial crash struck a potentially fatal blow to that case. 'We had long described the economic success of Ireland, Iceland and Norway … as an 'arc of prosperity' that an independent Scotland would join. With Ireland and Iceland both laid low by the crash, it was an argument that went from being a trump card to an albatross around our necks.' The long run-up to the Scottish independence referendum of 2014 is energetically and enthusiastically recounted, but it is only when Sturgeon takes the reins from Salmond in its aftermath that the reader's appetite is whetted. Not being a particular fan, or even observer, of irony, Sturgeon writes: 'One of my early priorities [after being made first minister] was helping to achieve gender equality on public and company boards.' Yet it was this specific piece of legislation, which allowed trans-identifying men to take places on boards that had been reserved for women, that led directly to the Supreme Court decision in April – to veto self-ID for trans people. In doing so, it has undermined one of Sturgeon's core principles. In fact, given the amount of space she gives over to the case and the passion with which she writes on the subject, this is a subject about which she feels more strongly than independence itself. It was this battle, towards the end of her time in power, that signalled a rare but important political defeat, and is thought to have quickened her departure from office (though she explicitly denies this). But she cannot bring herself to reflect on those events by accepting even a measure of the necessary responsibility for the division, anger and harm it caused women campaigners, except to suggest that if she had engaged earlier in the debate she might have won it. She still refuses to describe the male double rapist Isla Bryson, whose incarceration in a women's prison provided a dramatic coda to the controversy over her Gender Recognition Reform Bill, as a man (in promotion for the book, she has since described him as a 'biological male', but refers to 'they' rather than 'he'). Sturgeon's repeated and apparently sincere assertion that she was ever the victim of misogyny and bullying will be greeted with ironic laughter by the many women, in Sturgeon's own party and beyond it, who suffered years of abuse and threats of violence for opposing Sturgeon's single-minded promotion of transgender rights, and to whose defence Sturgeon never came. Even her greatest critics will accept that, at least from a public relations perspective, her performance during the Covid pandemic was the highlight of her time in Bute House, chairing daily TV broadcasts to the nation whether it needed them or not. Sturgeon is proud of her own achievements during this period, even if she is not entirely honest about what those achievements were: 'We moved more quickly than the other governments to ban mass gatherings and close schools.' Scottish schools were closed on Friday March 20 – exactly the same date that schools everywhere else in the UK were. And for a book whose title teases the prospect of the author's willingness to be refreshingly honest about her career, it is extraordinary that her account of her appearance at the UK Covid Inquiry in January 2024 makes no mention at all of the biggest revelation arising from her evidence: that she and her ministerial colleagues had deleted crucial WhatsApp messages sent and received during the crisis. Instead she spends much time recounting how upset she was by the whole experience. For some independence-supporting Scots who allowed themselves to believe that Sturgeon was the nationalist messiah sent to lead her people to freedom, Frankly will quickly become a sacred text. For the substantial number of middle-class English people who see her as Britain's equivalent of Jacinda Ardern or a female Justin Trudeau, the book is worth a read, if only to confirm their superficial adoration of a leader they never had to endure at first hand. But Frankly is too replete with omissions, too manipulative of its readers, to be a serious addition to the current crop of political biographies. As a narrative of Scottish politics since 1987, it is engaging and entertaining enough. As an honest account of an admittedly impressive individual, it is, frankly, disappointing.
Yahoo
31-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New to sports betting? Here are 13 tips to help you this football season
You're on the first tee at the golf course, and meet your playing partners. The most common question after everyone gets comfortable: 'What do you do?' When you work in sports betting, the answer can be complicated, and usually ignites follow-ups surrounding the inquirer's own experience in betting, often wondering aloud what they have been doing wrong. Like golf, there's no simple guide for how to get better at betting, but when asked for tips on how to get the readership started, it seemed like an opportunity to put advice that I'd give on the golf course on virtual paper here. Ideally, we would have the time an 18-hole walk provides to break it all down, but at least we can cut out the shanks, duffs and 3-putts, and simply chat about betting — getting you set up with 'The Front,' make a move after 'The Turn,' and see if we can't finish strong with a good 'close-out,' all while handing out some tips along the way that might work better than 'keep your eye on the ball.' Here are 13 betting tips to help you get prepared for football season, whether it's your first time wagering or you're a little more advanced. The Front Even if you made your first sports bet 20 years ago (legally in Nevada, of course), it doesn't mean you can't restart your betting life. When you unlock a new skill or process, it can feel like a new beginning. Each summer, in the sleepy part of the calendar, you can take stock with the various sports seasons on the horizon. In that vein, let's look at some of the basics to instill some new-found confidence. Putting the 'dispose' in disposable income Your bankroll is the total money you set aside for sports betting, in the same way you budget for a standard vacation relative to what you can afford. You're going to take that all-inclusive holiday to the tropical beach location, or you'll gather the crew for a bucket-list golf trip, knowing that all you'll be tangibly left with is the memories of the highs and lows of the experience. If you have that same attitude toward sports betting — knowing you'll probably get a little burnt and the money spent will be a drop in the bucket of your life's income — that's a good place to start, because the reality is, you're probably going to lose your initial bankroll over time. The key to improving your experience will be to make that money last exponentially longer than a trip to Jamaica or Pinehurst. Price out the cost of your standard annual vacation, and make that your sports betting bankroll. Shop 'til you drop 'Shop 'til You Drop' was a thoroughly mediocre, turn-of-the-millenium game show in which contestants wildly flailed around a pretend store. If they were good at knowing the correct retail price of certain goods, they would earn a shopping spree. In sports betting, you need to have a solid idea of what the correct price is for a bet, and shop at numerous 'stores' (sportsbooks) for it. There are two ways to shop for the best price: Time: Make your bet when the best price is available (aka 'market entry') Place: Have as many sportsbook accounts (or 'outs') as possible Take your initial bankroll and spread it out across at least three sportsbooks. Odds and lines move from the time the market opens until the game starts. If you have a good grasp on what the price should be on a bet, you can either beat the market to a good bet before the price moves, or wait to get the price you want. Be Ichiro Legend has it that newly inducted Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki, despite never hitting more than 15 home runs in a season, would take the last portion of batting practice to just crank dingers. Even though he made a point to prove that he could swing for the fences, Ichiro built a Hall of Fame career on knowing he should rack up singles and doubles (and steal over 500 bases), hitting .321 during his prime with the Mariners. As bettors, we could go to the batter's box looking to go yard (in the form of long-shot parlays and Same Game Parlays), but the chances of extending your bankroll and enjoying the sports betting experience go way up when you bet one outcome at a time. Even if you didn't parlay them, you'll never be disappointed by going 6-0 on a standard NFL Sunday; plus, going 5-1 or 4-2 in your six picks no longer wrecks that grand slam parlay. Instead, it's the betting equivalent of Ichiro going 3-for-4 with a stolen base and two runs scored. It will add up to a legendary career. Leave the parlays to the bad bettors. Shoot for hitting 53-55% on single outcome bets to accumulate profit over the long term by betting 1-2% of your bankroll as your unit's value for each bet. Pic or it didn't happen The social-media age has turned personal moments into a communal experience. While it's best to keep your bets to yourself — society doesn't need to see your bet slips on Instagram — it's important to track results for your personal records. There are plenty of sports betting apps that allow you to log your bets, crunching the numbers for you, or you can do it yourself — using the type of spreadsheet we all have access to. Coming into the season with a plan to be honest with yourself about how you do is crucial to managing your bankroll and your long-term expectations. If you're interested enough in sports betting to make the bet and watch the game, you should enjoy the process of record-keeping as well. By dividing your units won/lost into your units bet, you can determine your return on investment for the day, week, month and/or season. You can also uncover the sports that are best and worst for your bankroll — and adjust accordingly. Here's what a simple tracking chart could look like on a 4-3 Sunday. The Turn Ok, we've created our bankroll, found a handful of sportsbooks to shop at, built a framework for our expectations and a way to track our betting to see how it goes. In golf terms, while we didn't go low on the opening nine holes, we set ourselves up to believe we can score a personal best — just as soon as we grab a hot dog. Here are some things to think about as you go on the next step of your betting journey — actually making the bets. Read the room Understanding what the market (oddsmakers and other bettors) thinks of a team or individual player is a crucial starting point for knowing what a good price (odds, point spread, etc.) is on a bet. If everyone loves the Los Angeles Lakers, it's going to be hard to argue that they're undervalued in the betting market and worth a wager. In turn, if no one wants to bet on a backup quarterback, maybe his team has been devalued to the point where it's worth a bet. The most uncomfortable bets are often the best, as it can mean there's value in going against the grain. : You can track the market by creating your own power rating list of every team in the league before the season. Compare that list to a league-wide odds market like championship futures or regular-season win totals to see what the market thinks of a team compared to you. On a game-by-game basis, guessing the point spread of a game or a yardage total for a player prop is a good starting point for what you think the correct number should be. Knowing a team or player's recent record against the number (spread or prop total) helps to gauge how they're performing relative to expectations. Home … sweet home? Don't forget about home-field/-court/-ice advantage, but don't overvalue it either. In the NFL, the uninformed will tell you that home-field is worth three points. That's an antiquated perspective. In recent seasons, sportsbooks have been assigning 1-2 points for home-field advantage (around 1.7 on average) and certain home fields or arenas can be worth a little more or a little less. Weather can also factor in, especially if it's a warm-weather team traveling to play in the cold (think, Miami Dolphins at the Kansas City Chiefs in the postseason last year) or vice-versa. : Here's the approximate average value of playing at home for the major sports. Home-field advantage's worth to the spread (in points): NFL: 1-2 CFB: 3-4 NBA: 2-4 CBB: 2-4 NHL: 3-4% to ML win probability MLB: 2-3% to ML win probability 'Hope is not a strategy' Movie-goers will recall the summer of 2025 as one where Brad Pitt was doing Brad Pitt things in the creatively titled blockbuster, "F1: The Movie." Its tagline was an auto-inclusion in the trailer and is something we can apply to our betting. Most bettors mistake analysis for opinion, but opinion is little more than gut instinct. Gut instinct turns into little more than hope when the game starts, and, as Sonny Hayes says in the APX meeting room in the film, 'hope is not a strategy.' Like the movie's made-up F1 team, it's best to respect the science or math involved in what we're doing instead of fearing it just because we've never thought of a game as a matchup of two entities that carry a numeric valuation. The money line (a bet on a team to simply win the game) is a function of each team's win probability after sportsbooks take their hold (the money they make on offering a safe and legal betting service). For example, two equally valued teams (good, average, or bad) playing on a neutral site, creates a 50/50 bet which is lined at -110/-110. The sportsbook is pricing that 50/50 bet at 52.4% (the implied win probability) on each side. From the perspective of the sportsbook, a $110 bet on either side pays the winner(s) $100 with the house holding $110 — profiting $10 of every $110 bet on each side. Like being Brad Pitt, that's a good way to go about life. When sports betting was invented, it meant that each team would be assigned a valuation for every matchup. Being open to the idea that sports betting is about comparing team values and turning any result into a mathematical probability will give you an advantage over the vast majority of bettors who don't realize this. Find a good odds calculator/translator, so that you can understand what the implied win probability is for something with odds like -300 (75%) or +9500 (1%). Bet what you believe in Close your eyes and pick a sport you like to bet on. Got one? Good. What do you believe are the three most important elements to success for a team in that sport? This will help to narrow your focus. If you picked hockey, maybe you think creating offense at even-strength, a good penalty kill and a hot goaltender are the keys to winning an NHL game. Use the key metrics around those categories to create a rating for the two teams in the game you're thinking about betting on. Compare the differences in each team's key elements. If they're drastically different than the implied win probability for each side, there's likely a valuable bet to be made, regardless of whether that's on the favorite or the underdog. If they're similar, but one team's a sizable underdog, it might be time to take a shot on 'dog. The close-out Ok, so you're getting a handle on what it takes to get better at sports betting, but even the best bettors win just 55% of the time. Like in golf, things won't always go your way, but putting the finishing touches on your overall score comes down to your frame of mind when the going gets tough. How do we get into the right mindset to be one of those bettors? By winning the psychological battle that betting on sports can be. Have a short memory In football, a good cornerback is said to need a short memory. They have to be aggressive, even if they just got burned on the previous play. Bettors must have the same point of view. Bettors love to take what they saw from the most recent game, applying that recency to bet on the next game. Considering how many teams finish their season with a winning percentage of between 36% and 64%, there's a lot of win-loss-win-loss-win-loss stretches among those in the meaty part of the curve. The standings are tight before we factor in point spreads and moneyline odds that level the playing field even further. Dig deeper into why the teams won or lost their most recent game. Focus on key plays and outlier results that might have skewed the final score. But also have a long memory As it does in regular society, history does have a tendency to repeat itself. The bigger the sample size of a team's strengths and weaknesses, the better. The 2025 Indiana Pacers surprised those who follow the NBA closely by making the NBA Finals and pushing the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games, but the Pacers had been in the 2024 Conference finals and had experienced making the final of the inaugural in-season tournament in 2023. While Indiana's regular-season record was 50-32 (good for just fourth in the conference), there were at least a handful of data points to show the Pacers were capable of raising their level in bigger games. Things like matchup issues between teams don't just go away because one team had success in games or series with other teams. Plus, whether it's a tough stretch in the regular season, or an easier playoff path, long-term context should be applied to the handicap of any matchup. While it's good to have a baseline rating for a team, don't treat players and teams like they're in a video game where their skills will always be consistent. Understand that we're all day-to-day, and that all humans have a range within which they're capable of performing. There's more than one way to pet a cat Defining value is much harder than many let on. In the NFL, because a high-profile result lingers on repeat for days after, there can be a very clear change in valuation of a team by the betting market in the short term. In basketball, the market might have the point spread correct, but there's a crucial mismatch in personnel. In hockey, the starting goaltender can drastically change a team's value in one game. In baseball, momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher. There are many ways to argue that a bet is worth making. Some have statistical backing, others feature a more qualitative case. However, to get to a bet, make sure you're able to make the case that there's something being missed by the market at large. If you know Lamar Jackson is good at home at night, the betting market likely does as well, but if you know the Browns' offensive line is run-blocking at the best rate in the NFL, you might have a leg up on the market that's worried about Cleveland's quarterback situation. Value is defined by the difference in the number (point spread, moneyline price, etc.) you're willing to bet and the number being offered in the market. Value is not exclusive to underdogs. A favorite can be valuable if you deem it should be an even bigger favorite. Don't be the judge, be the jury A judge determines what arguments a jury is allowed to hear. If you limit your knowledge consumption to what you want to hear, you're doing yourself a disservice. A good juror should be hungry for information and salient arguments from both sides. Particularly for big games, there is no shortage of opinions on why each team makes for a valuable bet. It's your duty as a consumer of content to be the jury, picking which argument makes more sense to you. Your bet should align with your beliefs about the event, and once you click 'submit,' take ownership of that decision. You're not required to bet on every game, nor every game you watch. Being selective in your wagering is one of the biggest advantages that we have over the sportsbook. Oddsmakers are expected to provide a line, but bettors aren't forced to make a bet. Consume arguments for each side of a bet. If both cases are just as compelling, exercise your right to pass on betting a game. Have fun At the end of the day, responsible sports betting is about increasing your acumen of how betting works, and then applying your knowledge level of the sport. Things like creating a betting bankroll budget, assigning an appropriate unit value to your bets, understanding why you've invested in the wager and taking personal ownership of your decisions are all elements to being a good bettor. However, the key to responsible betting is to treat it as a fun hobby that's augmenting the experience of watching a game. There will be lip-outs — unimaginably wacky losses you'll never forget, while the shocking wins somehow don't resonate the same way. However, it's all part of the experience and the sports betting industry is a large community that will share it with you in a way that will augment your involvement in sports betting, as long as you don't take it too seriously. Find pleasure in the process of finding valuable wagers and learning more about sports betting, while treating the results of events and bets as the recreational hobby it is supposed to be. You can find valuable bets and analysis from Yahoo Sports betting contributor, Matt Russell, at THE WINDOW.
Telegraph
24-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Mirror publisher to put up paywall as AI hits readership
The publisher of the Mirror and Express newspapers is to start trialling paywalls as the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) sparks a sharp decline in readership. Reach, which also owns regional titles including the Liverpool Echo and the Manchester Evening News, said it will roll out digital subscriptions across its outlets this year as part of a pilot. The company said it would not put all its articles behind a paywall but would experiment with different models, including tiered subscriptions that charge for some stories. Readers could also be offered the opportunity to pay to view stories without intrusive adverts. Piers North, the chief executive of Reach, said the company would remain predominantly an advertising-funded business targeting 'mass-market Britain'. But he added: 'I'm confident we have enough in our content set to offer value. That might be a value exchange in advertising or it might be a value exchange in some kind of payment ... but I think generally there's the support for us to do it.' It follows similar moves in recent years by both the Daily Mail and GB News, which have made some of their online stories, pictures and videos exclusive to paying subscribers. Google driving down readership It comes as Reach and other online news publishers are grappling with changes to Google's algorithm and the introduction of AI functions that have dented reader numbers. Recent research by Enders Analysis found publishers' visibility on Google has declined sharply over the last five years, with the trend accelerating since April, when the tech giant launched AI Overviews. This service summarises search results, leading to fewer readers clicking through to articles. Enders said the Mirror had suffered the biggest impact, with visibility dropping to just 20pc of January 2022 levels. Mr North said a further Google update earlier this month that hurt traffic had been 'on the worse side', but insisted the company was adapting to such changes. Falling traffic contributed to a 3pc fall in revenues to £256m in the first half of the year. A decline in print, which still accounts for the majority of the group's revenues, offset slight growth in digital revenue. Operating profit remained flat at just under £45m. In addition to rolling out paywalls, Reach outlined plans to boost its video and podcast output in an effort to attract larger audiences. The fresh revenue drive comes even as the publisher continues to slash jobs. The National Union of Journalists said it was 'deeply concerned' after Reach placed more than 100 roles at risk of redundancy this month. It follows sweeping cuts at the news group under previous boss Jim Mullen, who stepped down abruptly earlier this year after slashing more than 800 roles at the end of 2023. Mr North declined to provide assurances that the latest changes would not lead to further cuts. The Reach boss said: 'Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for our business, as we launch the priorities that will fuel our growth. These include initiatives to reach new audiences, increase our video content and accelerate our tech and AI capabilities. 'Crucially, we'll do more work to diversify our revenues, putting a serious focus on adding subscriptions to our revenue mix.'
Bloomberg
05-07-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
The US Military Is More Strained Than It Looks
This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion publishes each week based on web readership. New subscribers can sign up here; follow us on Bluesky, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads. Read the whole thing.
Bloomberg
17-05-2025
- General
- Bloomberg
Mortgaging Your Retirement Is Now an Option
This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion publishes each week based on web readership. New subscribers can sign up here; follow us on Bluesky, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn and Threads. Read the whole thing for free.
