I'm free

We've known since the summer that the Sun was beginning to knock holes in its paywall. The rationale was to allow social media sharing of news and sports stories that were largely widely available.

But since the arrival of new editor Tony Gallagher, "exclusive" has been the tag that he demands. And you'd think that bits of that sort of journalism might be used to attract readers to lash out £7.99 a month for access. But lo, this morning, at 8am, all the stories below were free to read, including three alleged "exclusives", of poor to slighty poorer strength. You may wish to accept my assurances that the full version of "Poldark sets invaded by sea of randy doggers" bears little scrutiny, and even less relationship with the headline.

Meanwhile the Scotsman, under the long-distance tutelage of thought-leader Ashley Highfield, has relaunched its website this morning, with a colour palette that can only be a fex hex codes away from that claimed by the Guardian. There's something of the Guardian, too, in the Scotsman's top stories this morning..."Gannets could face higher risk from wind farms", "Michael Fassbender in Edinburgh" and "Stale bread restaurant opened by Bake-Off winner".