| Good morning, Welcome to Thursday. For those of us that stayed up through the night to watch the US election, there may well be a need for an extra-strong coffee this morning. If you appreciate our work keeping Scotland informed throughout the pandemic, please consider taking out a subscription with us. Try us out for £3 per month for the first two months, today. Our message to you this Christmas Yes, it's early November but this isn't a traditional Christmas message. Scottish retailers are in dire need of our support. Business groups have told shoppers to “use or lose” local retailers as they joined forces with The Scotsman to call for shoppers to support local companies in the festive trading period. It's hard to downplay the danger facing small, independent businesses right now as we look set to have Christmas under some sort of Covid restrictions. This year has been brutal for them. We must shop local and support Scotland. If you are fortunate enough to have spare cash to spend this Christmas, please make it count by spending it where it can have a positive impact. Time for the SNP to act on indy That's certainly what our columnist and SNP MP Kenny MacAskill believes in our opinion section today. Mr MacAskill believes "the wheels are coming off the unionist wagon. EU membership gone, the prestige of Great Britain crashing and now the strength of the Union, with its supposed pooling and sharing, disappearing over the horizon." He adds: "The UK’s falling apart, and the SNP must act. But complaining isn’t enough, nor being outraged. Scots want something done." Do you agree with him? Or perhaps you think he's way off the mark? Join the debate in the comment section of today's article and have your say. Scotland-England cross-border journeys monitored The Scottish Government is monitoring cross-border traffic flows to and from England after a Covid-19 travel ban was announced in an effort to suppress the virus. Deputy First Minister John Swinney said the Scottish and UK governments were working together to drive down cross-border journeys, reports our political editor Scott MacNab. Read more here. 'Do not forget Donald Trump has won the vote of millions of Americans' In today's Scotsman leader column (which is an opinion, to be clear), our comment editor analyses the US election so far. "The results of the US presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden should be profoundly shocking to anyone with an ounce of moral sense." In a very strongly worded article, we look at Mr Trump's effect on western democracies. "On democracy, he has called for rival politicians to be prosecuted and jailed for entirely spurious reasons, threatened to ignore the results, and claimed without evidence, in 2016 and now, that he is a victim of voting fraud. "Trump is no true Republican. Instead, he is a racist, sexist, serial liar who poses a clear and present danger to democracy itself." Read the full piece here. And finally... Do you need a break from the endless US Election coverage? Make a tea, put your feet up and try out our interactive puzzle pages here. Available to all digital subscribers. Thanks for reading. As ever, if you have any feedback please email me. Sam Shedden, sam.shedden@jpimedia.co.uk | 
