Another day, another strike because overnight the Royal College of Nursing has set the date for two 12 hour nursing strikes in December that will affect most of the UK. Pat Cullen, the RCN general secretary, accused Steve Barclay, the health secretary, of being intransigent. She said something.
If Barclay wants to meet me, get round the table and stop the spin, and start to speak, he can avert these strikes. My door is wide open night and day. I will make myself available on behalf of our nursing staff. He has chosen to speak to me because that option isn't available to me at this time.
In tweets this morning, Barclay said he was available for talks.
He also defended the pay offer already on the table as fair, and I will post more on this shortly. 10 am: Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister, addresses the Poverty Alliance conference in Glasgow.
I try to monitor the comments below the BTL line but it is impossible to read all of them. If you have a direct question, include Andrew somewhere and I'm more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line ATL, although I can't promise to do this for everyone.
If you want to draw my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.