It has been quite a week for news, once more - and that's even before we consider the drama being played out at Westminster.

 

So we might as well start with the obvious: The Scotsman is carrying a rich package of Scottish perspective on events at the top of the UK Government to try and make some sense of the last week or so.

 

Political editor Alistair Grant runs the rule over the race to replace Truss. The media chatter is all of Boris Johnson - what an extraordinary mess we're in if we find ourselves looking at his time in office as any kind of happier time - but don't rule out former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who may be less popular among party members, but would be more likely to win votes in the rest of the country.

 

 

The choice is hugely important for the country, of course, as we face uncertain times economically and globally. But it's existential for the Conservatives. Scotsman columnist John McLellan - a former Scottish Conservative media chief and Edinburgh city councillor - believes the next throw of the dice is the last for the Conservatives. Even before the Truss-managed meltdown of this week, "conversations amongst Scottish party members were of least worst options", he writes.

 

Also on The Scotsman today, Joyce McMillan offers a typically powerful column on how the Tories are adding great weight to the Scottish independence case. Joyce makes a point that I think is vitally important, and too often lost in the circus of coverage around Westminster's machinations: "As millions in Britain have learned to their horrifying cost in recent weeks," she writes, "political game-playing can have shocking real-life consequences, in the shape of weakened currency, soaring interest rates, and threatened pensions; and when I contemplate that real political battlefield, this autumn, I cannot help feeling humiliated and grief-stricken, by the shameful shambles the politics of this country has become."

 

As for The Scotsman's view... well, we called for a general election earlier in the week, but that seems unlikely given Conservative MPs would have to vote for their own electoral wipeout. On that basis, Rishi Sunak seems the best choice for some stability and - whether you approve of his policies or not - a sense that there's a serious figure at the helm. But if you sense a lack of enthusiasm there, you would not be mistaken, and we suspect many of our readers feel the same way, judging by our letters and online comments.

 

 

Away from Westminster, and I mentioned at the start that it had been quite a week for news. We had some strong exclusives in The Scotsman - including poll data showing one in three Scots would be put off independence by the threat of a higher cost of living, and the revelation that Scotland's ferry bosses closed ranks in an attempt to avoid scrutiny in a BBC documentary.

 

Meanwhile, the SNP unveiled its plan for an independent Scotland, the "perfect storm" of problems battering Scotland's cultural and natural heritage sector.