Theresa May has survived weekend rumours she was about to face a stalking horse leadership challenge and remains, at least at the time of writing, Britain’s prime minister.
There has not been much good news on the education front in Scotland recently, as even John Swinney, the beleaguered minister responsible, might agree.
Theresa May’s throwing down of the Brexit gauntlet on Sunday caused the pound to plunge, brought Remainers in her party to the point of rebellion and prompted the usual bellicose noises from the Scottish Nationalists.
Dundee’s disappointment in having its City of Culture hopes dashed will have been mirrored by four other UK cities, also in the running for the 2023 Europe-wide accolade.
The SNP government has at last caved in to pressure from the Scottish business community over extortionate rate increases but only after mounting criticism within its own ranks.
Nicola Sturgeon will have been pleased, on the whole, with the headlines that greeted her decision to ban the smacking of children in Scotland. While her government presides over a crisis in primary health care and plummeting education standards, the debate about physical punishment provides a handy distraction.
After all the tricky customers the Prime Minister has had to endure recently, the Scottish First Minister must have seemed a minor distraction.
This week marks the third anniversary of the Scottish independence referendum and, on the surface at least, the country still bears the scars of that divisive campaign.
If MPs could turn back the clock a few months I wonder how many would now vote for Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement, painstakingly yet thanklessly negotiated with Brussels.
The recruitment problem in Scottish schools reached crisis proportions last year, with tales of desperate heads in Perth and Edinburgh begging parents to teach maths classes.