内容摘要：If the government waits until the Budget to announce the changes, it would be just before payments are typically made.

If the government waits until the Budget to announce the changes, it would be just before payments are typically made.

On Friday, the court heard it was "unusual" for Ms Patterson to host such an event at her house, and she was quizzed about her relationships with her guests.Ms Patterson's in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, along with Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, all fell ill and died days after the lunch.

Heather's husband, local pastor Ian Wilkinson, was also hospitalised but recovered after coming out of a weeks-long induced coma. Simon Patterson, the accused's estranged spouse, had been invited too, but pulled out the day before.More than 50 prosecution witnesses have given evidence at the trial, which began six weeks ago, but Ms Patterson became the first for the defence when she took to the stand on Monday.On her second day of cross-examination on Friday, Ms Patterson told the court she accepted that invites to her house were rare, but said she'd arranged the occasion to discuss a health issue and wanted to make a nice meal for her relatives to thank them for their support.

"I wanted it to be special," Ms Patterson said.She has previously admitted she misled her guests into believing she may need cancer treatment, telling the jury she did so as a cover for weight-loss surgery she was planning to have but was too embarrassed to disclose.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers, however, put to her that there was no health issue to discuss, and that she had invited Simon and his relatives over to kill them.

Ms Patterson has denied this allegation repeatedly throughout the week, often becoming emotional as she told the court she loved them like her own family.It wasn't unusual to hear them complain about the cost of living, the state of the health service, or the condition of the High Street.

Both the SNP and Labour would have to take some responsibility for those problems due to their respective positions of power at Holyrood and Westminster.And yet Reform couldn't quite beat either of them in what was quite a fertile environment for a party promising to shake things up.

There are plenty of seats across the central belt of Scotland that will be electorally similar to Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. So there may well be more SNP/Labour/Reform fights to come when Scots go to the polls next year.Reform are still a relatively unknown quantity in Scotland, and their swift rise to prominence is a factor that could make that election fairly unpredictable.