The far right feels comfortable openly saying the most racist, extreme things imaginable and harassing left events in ways unseen in living memory — we desperately need an anti-fascist Labour Party to replace the current appeasement regime, writes ANDREW MURRAY

For all the talk of bright futures — or apocalyptic dystopias — which dominates the independence debate, the Scottish political scene is rather fond of revisiting the fights of its past.
Just this week, flamboyant SNP MP Tommy Sheppard, the founder of the Stand comedy clubs and a London Labour councillor in the 1980s, was put on the spot.
In a debate on “strengthening the union” at Westminster, the Edinburgh MP was reminded by Labour’s Ian Murray of how the SNP had voted to “bring about 18 years of Conservative government that decimated Scotland.”

CONRAD LANDIN offers a guide to the diverse shows at Edinburgh Art Festival