Newsweek Scotland - A week in news

I'm still hoping to present the programme tomorrow although my daughter's cold has gripped my throat. I sound like a cemetery gate creaking open. Still, it may have matured into a George Clooney drawl by 8 tomorrow morning, although I still won't look like him.

We've some interesting stuff for you starting with the budget. We'll analyse just how difficult it is to implement cuts with a man who has had to do it as a former civil servant and council executive, Bill Howat. He can separate the rhetoric from the reality. We have a hot disco too. (Disco is what we in the media business call a debate with two protagonists, each with a differing view). Angus Macleod and Hamish Mcdonnell try to outdo each other on the SNP decision to allow the income tax variation to lapse. Constitutional crisis or mere technicality?

Thinking about it... wouldn't it be great if Westminster also let lapse the right to increase tax? We get the Brussels view on Ireland's bail-out from an Irishman who lives over there, although, confusingly, he will be in London!

We have a report on Scotland's pathetic showing in the life expectancy league. How can it be that a highly developed, rich country like ours has people dying younger than in eastern European countries barely fully emerged from soviet rule? Do we need to get serious about the nanny state instead of soft pedalling? It seems that those most at risk from poor "lifestyle" choices are most resistant to health messages. We seek a solution.

We're in Singapore where wealth mixes with draconian government... a British author has been jailed for criticising the regime. If that was the rule here, there would be no Newsweek.

And finally we have a world exclusive... there's a wedding planned for next summer and we speak to the happy couple about their plans and how they'll cope with the publicity.

The producer says I have to remember to be deferential! Wedding bells on Newseek... next there'll be a photographer from Hello magazine. Join me tomorrow at 8.