Scottish Questions and carrier jobs alert

A trudge in through the snow for my last but one day on the Herald. And it's going to be quite a busy one.

Lord Turnbull is at the Iraq inquiry, there's Scottish Questions followed by Prime Minister's Questions, the first since the failed coup which seems like more than a weeek ago.

With only a pause for a cheese sandwitch that is followed by the Scottish Affairs Committee grilling City Minister Lord Myners on banking and Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy on Calman proposals.

Also Richard Norton-Taylor is throwing fresh doubts on the two huge aircraft carrier projects that are so important for Scottish defence jobs on the Clyde and Rosyth.

Norton-Taylor of the Guardian reckons the MoD will slash the order for Joint Strike Fighters from 140 to 70, bad news for Lossiemouth I would imagine. There would be a knock on for the two carriers - the Queen Elisabeth and the Prince of Wales - in that there would be less aircraft to fly off them. So at a cost of £4bn a piece why build two.

Labour would find this a difficult decision to make even under the most stringent strategic defence review but the Tories would lose no votes by cutting ship building jobs. A suitable topic for Scottish Questions which is in a little over an hour.

One piece of good news, my colleague Mike Settle has just walked in the door off his delayed Surbiton train. "What was it this time Mike, snow on the line?"