Will there be a deal in the desert? How will countries pay for higher defence spending? And what major life test has Chancellor Rachel Reeves passed?

While Donald Trump prefers to golf on a weekend, the rest of the western world uses the time to catch its breath and collect its thoughts. Attempting to sum up the frenetic pace, one aide to Keir Starmer told the Times on Saturday: “Honestly, the mood changes with every news cycle. You think you’ve achieved something and then that falls away again. Ultimately it’s the hope that kills you.”

We are all multitaskers now, and that includes the Sunday shows and all who ply their wares on them. Doing the rounds for the government yesterday was Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden, variously described as a de facto deputy PM (has anyone told Angela Rayner?) and Starmer’s right hand man.

McFadden will give a speech this week “refocusing” the government’s attention on front-line public services. More police officers on the beat, fewer civil servants, that kind of thing. A quick search shows every government in memory has at one point punted such a policy, usually under the label of “making efficency savings”.

While press reports took this as meaning cuts to civil service numbers, McFadden did not want to be so brutal about what his policy would involve in reality. Asked on Sky News’ Sunday with........

© Herald Scotland