Neil McIntosh Editor of The Scotsman

Good afternoon Voornaam,

With the local elections out of the way, the spotlight returned this week to national politics and policy, with The Queen's Speech, delivered by Prince Charles, the set-piece political event of the week (we rounded up the announcements of greatest significance for Scotland).

But the stories that grabbed much of our attention were away from the pomp and ceremony of Westminster, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss sparking concern that the UK Government is ready to walk away from an important part of its Brexit agreement with the EU and remove all checks on goods being sent across the Irish Sea.

As we pointed out in a leader comment, this would pose a threat to the integrity of the EU's single market - because there would not be any checks on the Irish border either. That could spark a very damaging, and distracting, trade war between the EU and the UK.

Today Joyce McMillan offers her detailed perspective on the motivations and possible outcomes of the UK Government's threats, saying the government is aligning itself with the "reactionary elements of British public opinion... the wreckers of the DUP and militant loyalism". She sees it as having far-reaching implications for the UK: whatever your view on the matter, her piece will give you food for thought.

Closer to home, the first Scottish hearing of the public inquiry into the long-running Post Office scandal, in which 736 sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting, was a harrowing day.

Martyn McLaughlin's report told of the toll that took: a "devastating" financial and emotional toll on people who had often served their communities for years, and done nothing wrong. We must never forget computer systems are only as good as the people who make them.

Looking ahead to the weekend

Looking ahead, and as I type, our team is putting the finishing touches to a very strong weekend package for you tomorrow. In the magazine, look out for Janet Christie’s interview with actor Morven Christie, who stars in a BBC fact-based drama about the sexual abuse scandal in youth football, and also in Hebrides film The Road Dance.

In Food and Drink, Gaby Soutar’s visiting a distillery on the Isle of Arran, and we have all the ideas and inspiration you could hope for in our weekly review of art, film, books, music and TV.

Speaking of TV… something unusual may happen in tomorrow night’s Eurovision contest - the UK may do well.

Aficionados of these things say Sam Ryder’s Space Man is certainly a better song - and he a better performer - than many that have gone before. But even that may not be enough to overcome the continent-wide wave of goodwill for Ukraine, even if they are putting forward what is, ominously, described as a “folk rap” group. We’ll see.

Whatever your plans for the weekend, all of us at The Scotsman hope you have a good and peaceful couple of days.

And, if you have ever considered subscribing to The Scotsman, you can currently get 25% off with the code NL25

Neil McIntosh

Editor, The Scotsman