#Scottish election 2021

[mydaddywiki]

Alex Salmond

Physique: Average Build Height: 5'8" (1.73m)

Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (31 December 1954 – 12 October 2024; aged 69) was a Scottish politician, economist and television host who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, the first Scottish nationalist to hold the position. He was the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014. He then served as leader of the Alba Party from 2021 until his death in 2024.

Born in Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, Salmond was educated at Linlithgow Primary School, before attending Linlithgow Academy from 1966 to 1972. He studied at Edinburgh College of Commerce from 1972 to 1973, gaining an HNC in Business Studies, and was then accepted by the University of St Andrews, where he studied Economics and Medieval History. After Salmond graduated, he worked as an economist in the Scottish Office, and later, the Royal Bank of Scotland. He was elected to the British House of Commons in 1987, serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Banff and Buchan from 1987 to 2010.

Lets see… In August 2018, Salmond resigned from the party to fight allegations of sexual misconduct which he denied. In January 2019, he was charged with 14 offences, including attempted rape and sexual assault, but was later acquitted of all charges after trial in March 2020. Not the handsomest man in the world, but clearly others would have sex with him as Salmond admitted had an extramarital “sexual liaison” with one of the complainers. That's surprising as he kinda pings and was married to an older Moira McGlashan (17 years his senior) and they have no children. And they closely protected their private lives. Beard cough, cough Beard.

Anyway, Salmond's main interests outside of work and politics are golf, horse racing, football and reading. He takes an interest in Scottish cultural life, as well as watching Star Trek and listening to country music. Wait he's a Trekkie. Now I want to fuck him more. Sadly, Salmond died on 12 October 2024, at the age of 69 of a heart attack.

[scotianostra]

Flora Clift Stevenson the social reformer and suffragette was born on 30th October 1839.

Born into a merchant family in Glasgow the youngest of 11 children. Her father was a wealthy Glasgow industrialist; when he retired the family moved to Edinburgh, and Flora spent most of her adult life living at 13 Randolph Crescent in the West End with her 3 sisters. The Stevenson sisters were all active in the mid-nineteenth century Scottish women’s movement. They all supported women’s suffrage, and were founding members of the Edinburgh Ladies’ Educational Association which was founded in 1868 to campaign for higher education for women. Flora was also committed to improving education for society’s poorest children; as a child she started a class in her home to teach messenger girls basic reading, writing, and maths skills.

In 1863 Flora joined the Edinburgh Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor as a district visitor, investigating the circumstances of charity claimants and assessing whether or not they were ‘deserving’ of support. She also joined the committee of the United Industrial Schools of Edinburgh, a voluntary body that organised schools for poor children. Flora believed that compulsory school attendance was central to improving the lives of poor children in big cities.

In 1873 Flora was elected to the newly formed school board for Edinburgh. School boards were the first public bodies in Scotland which were open to women. As a result of her experience she was placed on the destitute children’s committee, where she was responsible for a scheme that gave food and clothes to poor children on the condition that they attended school. She also persuaded the school board to set up a day school for truants and juvenile delinquents, which was the first of its kind under the control of a school board. Flora’s expertise in this area was well respected; she served on several committees advising the government.

Flora’s belief in women’s rights carried over into her educational philosophy. She believed that girls and boys should be treated the same in education, and argued against the school board’s policy of giving girls 5 hours less teaching than boys every week so they could practice needlework. She believed that boys should be taught household management as well as girls, and that unmarried female teachers should receive equal pay.

Flora’s dedication to Edinburgh’s education system was respected and acknowledged. In 1899 a new primary school in Craigleith was named after her, and in 1900 she was unanimously elected to the Chair of the Edinburgh school board. In 1903 she was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Edinburgh, and two years later she was given the Freedom of the City in recognition of her service to Edinburgh’s philanthropic institutions and the school board. When she died in September 1905, thousands of schoolchildren lined the route of her funeral. She is buried with her family in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.

In August 2021 The Royal Bank of Scotland issued a new £50 note with Flora Stevenson on it, the pic shows pupils from Flora Stevenson Primary School at Cmely Bank in Edinburgh on it's launch day.

[mariacallous]

The 6th of December 2023 was a political anniversary barely anyone noticed. Election Maps UK, a data cruncher, announced that exactly two years before, on 6 December 2021, the last poll was published showing a Conservative lead. Since then, 736 polls had come and gone, and not one of them showed the Tories in front.

On that same day Paul Krishnamurty, a professional gambler, and a consultant to the betting firms, gave me a stat anyone putting money on British elections ought to remember. In 1997, Labour won with a landslide and reduced the Conservatives to 31 percent of the vote (30.7 percent to be precise). It was the Tories’ worst result in the modern era and kept them out of office for 13 years.

Ah, how today’s Tories dream of 31 per cent. As of 6 December, 2023, the Conservatives had not hit 31 percent in 168 consecutive opinion polls.

You might say that there is about a year to the next election, and that things can change. And there is truth in that. You might say that governing parties almost always make up ground before a general election. And that is undeniable too.

But turn from the polls and look at the by-elections and local elections in which Tories have gone down to extraordinary defeats, and you wonder what they can save from the ruins. It is as if about three-quarters of the public has made a collective decision to destroy the Conservative party with any and every weapon to hand. Electors voting tactically and determinedly have overturned the largest Conservative majorities. If you dig into the details of the polling, the voters prefer Labour and damn the Conservatives on every conceivable issue.

Meanwhile, Keir Starmer looks like a winner. I grant you that he hardly sets hearts ablaze. And yet, and yet, he has the enormous advantage of being a lucky leader. Through no action on his or the Labour party’s part, corruption allegations have ended the SNP’s dominance of Scottish politics, opening the prospect of Labour retaking seats in Scotland, which would transform the balance of power nationwide.

Starmer is lucky that after years of ultra-left posturing, his own party appears serious about taking power. But most of all Starmer is lucky that British Conservatism is having a nervous breakdown.

I was delighted to interview Robert Ford, Professor of politics at the University of Manchester, and one of the most thoughtful analysts around.  When Boris Johnson won the December 2019 election the Conservatives had a majority of 80 and looked set to rule the UK for the whole of the 2020s.

Yet within three years Tory hopes turned to ashes and they are staring catastrophe in the face. There is a decent chance that the 2024 general election could join the 1906, 1945 and 1997 elections as a moment of Tory obliteration.

There are four reasons why

[ingek73]

Courtier demanded assurance king could not be prosecuted under new Welsh law

Palace official secured assurance under archaic custom that requires UK parliaments to get consent of monarch to draft bills

Rob Evans, Severin Carrell and David Pegg

Thu 11 Apr 2024 06.00 CESTShare

Royal courtiers privately put pressure on the Welsh government to ensure that King Charles could not be prosecuted for rural crimes under a new law that ministers had drawn up, documents reveal.

The elected minister in the Welsh government who is its chief legal adviser was “not happy” that the king was to be given the special exemption from prosecution but agreed to it last year.

A Buckingham Palace official phoned the Welsh government to secure the assurance under an archaic custom that requires UK parliaments to obtain the consent of the monarch to draft bills before they can be implemented.

Under the mechanism, ministers notify the royal family of specific clauses in draft laws that may affect their personal wealth, their private property or their public functions. The ministers ask the monarch to approve the laws before they can be passed.

Investigations by the Guardian have shown that the late queen used her privileged access to draft legislation to secure changes that protected her private interests or reflected her opinions. In one recent example, her lawyers lobbied Scottish ministers in 2021 to change a draft law to exempt her private land from a major initiative to cut carbon emissions.

The use of the consent mechanism has been criticised as “undemocratic”. It has been in force in Westminster since the 1700s and has been extended to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

During the queen’s 70-year reign, she vetted more than 1,000 draft laws before they were approved by elected politicians. Those included bills that affected the her personal property such as her privately owned estates in Balmoral and Sandringham.

The mechanism has continued seamlessly into the reign of Charles. Ministers in Westminster, Scotland and Wales have been required to obtain his consent to 20 laws since he came to the throne in September 2022.

Buckingham Palace refused to say whether the king had asked for any changes to these laws before approving them. One was a bill that was formulated by the Welsh government to reform agricultural practices.

On 1 June last year, the Welsh government noted in an internal memo that its lawyers “had been contacted by Buckingham Palace officials who have sought an assurance that Welsh ministers will take into account conventions regarding prosecuting the crown when making regulations under this bill”.

In an email the following day, Welsh officials noted that Mick Antoniw, the Welsh government’s counsel general – the equivalent of the attorney general in Westminster – was “not happy with the exclusion”. However, he “recognises the ongoing convention and therefore” agreed to it.

This was a reference to an ill-defined convention under which criminal and civil proceedings cannot be brought against the monarch as head of state. The monarch has been given personal immunity from swathes of British law, ranging from animal welfare to workers’ rights.

However, an investigation by the Guardian has previously highlighted the extent to which this practice gives the monarch immunity for his conduct as a private citizen, affording protection to the king’s privately owned assets and estates.

More than 30 laws stipulate, for example, that police are barred from entering the privately owned Balmoral and Sandringham estates without the king’s permission to investigate possible crimes, including wildlife offences and environmental pollution. No other private landowner in the country is given such legal immunity.

In the case of last year’s Agriculture (Wales) Act, the monarch was exempted from regulations relating to the marketing of agricultural products, the disposal of carcasses and the disclosure of information to the Welsh state. Police are also unable to gain automatic entry to the king’s private property portfolio under that part of the act.skip past newsletter promotion

Do you have information about this story? Email rob.evans@theguardian.com, or (using a non-work phone) use Signal or WhatsApp to message +44 7721 857348.

According to Buckingham Palace, the royal household rang the Welsh government to ensure that “as a matter of legal correctness” the monarch could not be prosecuted under the act.

A palace spokesperson said the convention had to be maintained as the draft act contained a particular type of legislation that would not rule out the possibility of a prosecution.

The spokesperson added: “At no point were any objections raised by the Welsh government, either formally or informally.”

A Welsh government spokesperson said: “The immunity of the monarch from prosecution is a long-established principle.” They declined to comment further.

Charles approved the bill on 20 June 2023, according to the documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents do not specify which of his properties would be affected by this act.

Other laws which have been screened by Charles under the consent mechanism include legislation relating to the rents that UK landowners can charge mobile phone companies for putting up masts on their land and the management of Scottish private trusts. Trusts are widely used by the Windsors and can help the rich to shield their assets from public scrutiny or tax.

Charles gave his permission to a Scottish act that froze the rents for tenants in private properties and a Westminster act that required landlords to produce an electrical certificate in their rented homes. Charles rents out more than 300 homes across his Balmoral and Sandringham estates.

The palace spokesperson said: “King’s consent is a parliamentary process and His Majesty has granted consent on each occasion it has been requested by government.”

[partisan-by-default]

MPs and peers on the all-party parliamentary group on democracy and the constitution will publish a report on Monday saying the rules caused more harm than they prevented when they came into force in May, and will call for changes, including the acceptance of a greater range of ID documents.

The report was co-authored by Sir Robert Buckland, who was the justice secretary in 2021 when the bill to introduce the rules was first launched in parliament, and who subsequently helped vote them through.

The committee is chaired by the Scottish National party MP John Nicolson and also includes Labour MPs and peers.

The report, which has been seen by the Guardian, says: “The current voter-ID system is, as it stands, a ‘poisoned cure’ in that it disenfranchises more electors than it protects.”

The authors found that “polling clerks are more likely to fail to compare a photo ID to the person presenting that document if the person is of a different ethnicity”.

They highlighted the case of Andrea Barrett, who is immunocompromised and was blocked from entering a polling station after refusing to remove her mask for an identification check.

The report says: “Their decision in that instance was … clearly discriminatory (and potentially unlawful) because they denied Andrea Barrett the right to cast a ballot purely on the basis of circumstances which arose as a direct result of a disability.”

[unitedventurez]

New Scottish Tory Leader Russell Findlay Vows to Transform Party

Russell Findlay has been elected as the new leader of the Scottish Conservatives, pledging to revitalize the party and "win back public trust." The former journalist triumphed over Murdo Fraser and Meghan Gallacher in a ballot of party members following Douglas Ross's resignation during the general election campaign.

Findlay, who has represented the West of Scotland as an MSP since 2021 and served as the party's justice spokesman, expressed his commitment to addressing the concerns of voters who feel alienated by the "fringe obsessions" of the Scottish Parliament. He emphasized the need for unity within the party after a "bruising" campaign that saw allegations of interference from some candidates.

Out of 6,941 eligible party members, 4,155 voted, resulting in a turnout of 60%. Findlay garnered 2,565 votes, while Fraser received 1,187 and Gallacher 403.

"We must start the hard work now to win back public trust," Findlay stated. "I want to be a voice for the decent, mainstream values of hard work and self-reliance."

As the new leader prepares for a busy schedule—including a speech at the 25th anniversary of devolution and engagements at the Conservative Party conference—he aims to reshape the party's image and approach.

Findlay’s opponents congratulated him on social media, with Fraser calling for unity and collaboration. However, criticism came from SNP MSP Kevin Stewart, who accused Findlay of lacking a genuine commitment to Scotland's interests, suggesting that the party remains divided.

Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, Dame Jackie Baillie, pointed out that simply changing leaders wouldn’t suffice to halt the party’s decline, which has seen the Conservatives struggling in recent elections.

The leadership change follows Douglas Ross’s controversial decision to step down as leader while campaigning for a Westminster seat, further fueling tensions within the party as it seeks to recover from its historically low voter support.

[bisluthq]

I’m so sorry about this because it’s very long and probably messy:

As the person who sent the tweet that started all this, I then sent another message but you didn’t reply to that one so I didn’t want to be annoying and send more, but I think I made some good points there.

The original tweet called artists selfish and entitled for speaking out about this issue and not other more important issues the country is experiencing right now. I said “well yes, artists are going to be fighting for artists to get funding” because that’s his complaint. But Jack has never claimed to be an activist or anything of the sort. He used to speak about Scottish independence and posted something about free menstrual products once, but since 2021 he hasn’t really shared, said or done anything political until this. What he has been doing, which I mentioned in the other message, is support Scottish actors and filmmakers. He’s made a film in Orkney based on a Scottish author’s book. He’s a patron of the Scottish Youth Film Foundation and he’s a patron of the Edinburgh Filmhouse. Saoirse said his life work is to bring work back to Scotland and he’s talked about wanting to work in Scotland and tell Scottish stories. His whole deal is this, so it would be hypocritical of him to not talk about Scottish artists losing funding. But I don’t think he’s selfish or hypocritical for not posting about other issues that are going on in Scotland currently?

I wrote this before the Scottish anon shared some thoughts and insight on the SNP, but after reading that I would like to go back to what I mentioned about him not really posting about politics anymore. I think he still supports the SNP, but for months now I have wondered why he has stopped being as vocal about independence. My options were: he doesn’t feel like it’s his place because he isn’t living in Scotland currently or he has been disillusioned after Nicola left.

I’m not saying he isn’t a champagne socialist or that people can’t call him out. I don’t believe he’s a hypocrite for complaining about this because it’s his whole deal and I think it’s unfair to assume he isn’t blaming the SNP for this or say he doesn’t realize they have a lot of issues.

I have seen many tweets throughout the years of people calling him out for random things because he supports the SNP. Recently someone was asking if Amy Liptrot was going to denounce him at some event because, if I remember correctly, the people running the event posted some stuff against fossil fuels and one of the arguments people use for Scottish independence is that they have oil and they could use that.

I don’t believe Jack has put that much thought into how independence would work, I don’t know that he has ever talked about Scottish oil. I think he dislikes the UK and what the union stands for and thinks Scotland can figure it out once they’re gone, which is a privileged take, 100%. I think he supports the SNP because he wants independence and he liked Nicola. However, I think it’s weird that people saw that he supports the SNP and think that means he agrees with everything they say and then decide to call him out on it at random times.

Politicians from the party I support had some weird ass takes about Venezuela (they said he won the election and people had to accept it) but they’re still the best option, the one I align with the most and the one that makes sense to vote for because otherwise the right might win. That’s just an example, but I just think it’s unfair to assume he doesn’t see the issues the SNP has and I don’t think it’s hypocritical to talk about funding art in Scotland when that’s all he’s about. You can think he’s wrong or right, that he’s a privileged asshole who should shut up about politics. Whatever. But I never actually see tweets making any good points, it usually feels like they just want to attack him because he supports the SNP.

Scottish Anon and the people on this Reddit post are being reasonable, but the person on twitter seemed to just want to call out a “luvvie” who votes for a different party than he does, but maybe I’m a huge cupcake

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scotland/s/lIp7MrPL8p

I think you are a huge cupcake dude like I’m sorry but this wasn’t worth getting upset about on his behalf for imo. Sometimes people say weird shit but what Agent P said wasn’t that weird lol. Idk.

[thoughtlessarse]

Humza Yousaf is fighting for his political life as he faces two no confidence motions submitted against him and his government in the space of 24 hours. Yousaf insisted he would not resign as first minister and vowed to fight on, amid intense speculation about his leadership after he axed the SNP’s governing agreement with the Scottish Greens on Thursday morning, provoking a furious backlash that resulted in his former partners pledging to vote with the Tories against him. Holyrood arithmetic now leaves the deciding vote with one woman, Ash Regan, whom Yousaf beat to the SNP leadership last March and who has since defected to Alex Salmond’s Alba party. After two days of high political drama, Yousaf was in bullish mood on Friday, telling reporters at an event in Dundee: “I will absolutely be taking us into a general election and 2026 Scottish parliament elections.” He told Sky News: “I intend absolutely to fight that vote of no confidence, I’ve got every intention of winning that vote of no confidence.” Yousaf offered an olive branch to the Scottish Greens, saying he had “heard their anger” after he tore up the Bute House agreement brokered by Nicola Sturgeon in 2021, blindsiding supporters and opponents.

continue reading

[peoplemattertv]

Stuart's articles

In a rare, some would say unique, display of leadership and decisiveness Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf has terminated the SNP’s coalition with the Scottish Greens and expelled them from the Scottish Government. The Bute House Agreement, to give that unholy alliance its official name, was set up after the last Holyrood parliament elections in 2021, when SNP and opposition seats were…

[wushigod]

Rishi Sunak has been urged to push through new rules to block anyone convicted of a sexual offence from standing to be an MP before the next election.At least six MPs have lost their seats because of alleged sexual misconduct since the 2019 general election, and 10 MPs have been suspended from their parties pending investigations. While all political parties have their own procedures for vetting MP hopefuls, politicians and unions believe formal rules to block relevant candidates will make it easier to “weed out the bad apples”.A former minister said: “I can’t believe this has to become formal policy, but history shows how bad the working environment in Westminster has become for this to be needed. Working standards for people on the estate are at a pretty low bar.”The Prospect union said Sunak should introduce the measures before the next election, as well as accelerating the timetable in risk-based exclusion measures. “If they won’t, Labour should do so as a matter of urgency if they win the next general election,” said Mike Clancy, general secretary of the union. It comes as the Scottish parliament is expected to vote through rules to bar anyone convicted of a sexual offence and subject to a restriction order from standing to be an MSP or as a councillor.Ministers in Edinburgh published plans last year to cover council elections and said they believed it was logical to extend these controls to candidates for Holyrood, which has 129 MSPs, at the same time.Like councillors, MSPs were in a position of power and authority and often dealt with vulnerable constituents, an official briefing paper said. The controls are due to be included in the new Scottish elections (representation and reform) bill introduced last month.“The roots of this move are grounded in both protecting the public in personal encounters with elected representatives and also a more general reputational concern based on trust and confidence,” the briefing paper said.While no MSP at Holyrood has been jailed for sexual offences, and none have been prosecuted, there have been a series of controversies over sexual misconduct by MSPs, with some losing ministerial posts.Scottish ministers point out the current rules allow people to stand for Holyrood if they were jailed for less than a year: that could allow some sex offenders to do so. The rules for council elections are tougher, barring anyone with a sentence of three months or greater standing for election.A ban on sex offenders standing in council elections, including mayoral elections, came into force across England in 2022 and Wales in 2021, when a similar ban on sex offenders standing for the Senedd in Cardiff came into force.There is no specific bar on sex offenders standing for councils in Northern Ireland, other than a blanket ban on anyone with recent prison sentences of three months or more. No specific bar is in place for Stormont elections as its elections are governed by Westminster and are similar to those for the Commons. In December, the House of Commons commission published proposals for a “risk-based exclusion policy” to bar MPs who have been arrested for violent or sexual offences from coming on to the parliamentary estate.But there is no policy that stops anyone convicted of a sexual offence from becoming an MP.Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, said: “Constituents should have the same protections in relation to MPs as they would any other elected representative, across the whole of the UK. It is the least that constituents should be able to expect, but it’s quite astonishing it isn’t in place already.”The Liberal Democrats said they would “carefully consider proposals in this area, including bringing the rules for parliamentary candidates in line with those that exist already for those standing to be local councillors”.Labour has not clarified if it would roll out such measures in government, if the Conservatives fail to do so. But Lucy Powell, the shadow Commons leader, said “the government should stop dragging thei...

[owlbear33]

what level of political engagement or lack thereof constitutes dysfunction

like I generally feel that people should be able to engage with politics to the extent that they wish to and no further, but there's a point where on a national and personal level, lack of engagement with politics suggests problems

like with there being a (UK) general election this year I'm looking at past election turnouts

2019 we had a 67.3% turnout, though that ranged between 80.3% at its highest and 49.3% at its lowest

I've not looked at a full breakdown for other years, but the average hasn't risen above 70% since '97

the Senedd elections are worse with the turnout not being above 50% in the last two decades, and it briefly dropped below 40% in 2003

the Scottish parliament elections apparently had a high of 63.2 in 2021, but looks to have mostly hovered around 50% since '99

and even the great Brexit referendum only had a turnout of 72.2% just over a third of those eligible to vote didn't

now I'm not the most engaged in politics, or at least party politics, outside of voting, which I'll do at every chance I get

and I get that election turnout isn't necessarily the best metric for political engagement but I mean all that seems depressingly low

[scotianostra]

Flora Clift Stevenson the social reformer and suffragette was born on 30th October 1839.

Born into a merchant family in Glasgow the youngest of 11 children. Her father was a wealthy Glasgow industrialist; when he retired the family moved to Edinburgh, and Flora spent most of her adult life living at 13 Randolph Crescent in the West End with her 3 sisters. The Stevenson sisters were all active in the mid-nineteenth century Scottish women’s movement. They all supported women’s suffrage, and were founding members of the Edinburgh Ladies’ Educational Association which was founded in 1868 to campaign for higher education for women. Flora was also committed to improving education for society’s poorest children; as a child she started a class in her home to teach messenger girls basic reading, writing, and maths skills.

In 1863 Flora joined the Edinburgh Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor as a district visitor, investigating the circumstances of charity claimants and assessing whether or not they were ‘deserving’ of support. She also joined the committee of the United Industrial Schools of Edinburgh, a voluntary body that organised schools for poor children. Flora believed that compulsory school attendance was central to improving the lives of poor children in big cities.

In 1873 Flora was elected to the newly formed school board for Edinburgh. School boards were the first public bodies in Scotland which were open to women. As a result of her experience she was placed on the destitute children’s committee, where she was responsible for a scheme that gave food and clothes to poor children on the condition that they attended school. She also persuaded the school board to set up a day school for truants and juvenile delinquents, which was the first of its kind under the control of a school board. Flora’s expertise in this area was well respected; she served on several committees advising the government.

Flora’s belief in women’s rights carried over into her educational philosophy. She believed that girls and boys should be treated the same in education, and argued against the school board’s policy of giving girls 5 hours less teaching than boys every week so they could practice needlework. She believed that boys should be taught household management as well as girls, and that unmarried female teachers should receive equal pay.

Flora’s dedication to Edinburgh’s education system was respected and acknowledged. In 1899 a new primary school in Craigleith was named after her, and in 1900 she was unanimously elected to the Chair of the Edinburgh school board. In 1903 she was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Edinburgh, and two years later she was given the Freedom of the City in recognition of her service to Edinburgh’s philanthropic institutions and the school board. When she died in September 1905, thousands of schoolchildren lined the route of her funeral. She is buried with her family in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.

In August 2021 The Royal Bank of Scotland issued a new £50 note with Flora Stevenson on it.

[mariacallous]

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s most powerful political figure, announced her intention to resign as first minister, the head of the country’s devolved administration. It’s the end of an era in Scotland, where Sturgeon dominated the political scene for nearly a decade. Her party, the left-populist Scottish National Party (SNP), now not only holds power in Scotland’s Parliament but holds almost all of the Scottish seats in the U.K. Parliament in Westminster. Sturgeon had transcended regional leadership to take a starring role on the U.K.-wide political stage—and may have even bigger ambitions for her post-political career.

Yet the main goal of Sturgeon’s time in power has been the secession of Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom, and in this she has decidedly failed. Taking office as head of the SNP in 2014 after a decisive independence referendum loss, Sturgeon failed to move the ball forward no matter what she tried. Although the party was keen to dub local, regional, and national elections as “de facto referendums,” no second vote was ever called. A recent bid to force the issue ended with defeat in the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, which found that a new referendum run only under Scotland’s devolved powers would be unconstitutional.

Sturgeon was a supreme communicator, and her public relations team—run out of the first minister’s official residence, Bute House—effectively outmuscled all Scottish opposition. SNP spinners outnumbered the journalists sent by the national broadcaster, the BBC, to cover Scottish politics; and Sturgeon cannily used press conferences during times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, to undermine the U.K. government’s claims of national unanimity. She would either preempt British announcements, sometimes only an hour or so earlier, or publicly disagree with them—all in an always successful bid to capture headlines.

Sturgeon’s opponents grumbled at these efforts—they called them stunts. But they always worked, and she never lost an election as SNP leader.

But Sturgeon’s tenure exposed many of the shortcomings of nationalist and populist politicians after they’ve taken power. They campaign largely on the basis of a single slogan and policy. And when they return again and again to office—especially if they cannot enact their chosen policy or slogan—they begin to struggle and suffer. Sturgeon wished dearly to be Scotland’s first leader after the country seceded from the United Kingdom.

Critics alleged that she had very few plans to govern Scotland as a devolved leader, had little interest in doing so, and felt that she was an international figure deserving of a global platform accorded to a head of state or government.

As an independence advocate, Sturgeon found herself confronting long-term domestic problems that could not be solved by another referendum on independence. Scotland is a less economically productive part of the U.K. than England is; it has a worse-run health service; and its economy grows, on average, less strongly. Fewer people immigrate to Scotland than to the rest of the United Kingdom.

Its death rate by drug overdose is significantly higher than not only the rest of the United Kingdom but also the rest of Europe as a whole. In 2021, 1,330 people died of drug use in Scotland. The drug death rate in Scotland is around 3.7 times the rate in the U.K. as a whole. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction is cautious about comparing like with like, but it claims that Scotland’s drug death rate is, as measured, the worst in Europe.

These intractable problems—including in education, something Sturgeon insisted she be judged on—proved the lack of adaptability among nationalist leadership. When problems arose, a party whose members increasingly only agreed on a few pet issues—independence being one—sometimes struggled to unite around a prospectus.

The argument that most directly led to Sturgeon’s downfall was a social issue: self-identification and the legal changing of gender. Sturgeon’s party at Westminster had already seen a split when some of its members joined a new party led by Sturgeon’s immediate predecessor, Alex Salmond, who had become her hated rival in the intervening years. This issue threatened further dissension. The first minister did not change her mind. The Scottish Parliament, with an SNP and Scottish Green Party majority, passed the bill allowing self-identification.

When her gender policy ran into difficulty, first when the bill was vetoed by the Scotland secretary—the cabinet minister in Westminster responsible for Scotland and invested with broadly unused constitutional power to return devolved laws—and later when a scandal erupted over the sending of a transgender woman prisoner convicted of raping women to a woman’s prison, Sturgeon dug in.

She painted her critics as not feminists and unfeeling. She attempted to suggest that people who committed sexual violence were neither men nor women but “rapists”—almost as if it were a third gender—and when she failed to thread this needle effectively, Sturgeon blocked all movement of prisoners assigned male at birth to female prisons following an audit.

By this time, the public and the SNP were mutinous. Sturgeon had disregarded her critics internally and externally and bulldozed ahead, assuming that she could sweep aside any criticism by calling those who disagreed with her bigoted and retrograde. This did not work, and for many people in her party, it represented the failure of what had been a sure political touch.

The SNP has been in government for more than a decade. It faces elections to the devolved Scottish Parliament in a few months. If the first minister powered ahead with policies like this in the teeth of a divided public—only to reverse course with a screech of her tires, SNP insiders thought—a leader who was once a great asset could swiftly become an electoral drag.

In her farewell speech yesterday, Sturgeon described running out of energy. “Giving absolutely everything of yourself to this job is the only way to do it. The country deserves nothing less,” she said.

“But in truth, that can only be done by anyone for so long. For me, it is now in danger of becoming too long. The First Minister is never off duty, particularly in this day and age. There is virtually no privacy.”

At a time of great political heat, she said: “The nature and form of modern political discourse means that there is a much greater intensity—dare I say it—brutality to life as a politician than in years gone by. All in all, and actually for a long time without being apparent, it takes its toll on you and on those around you.”

Sturgeon has long been suggested as a global envoy or special rapporteur. She has always had global ambitions. Some reports say she wanted to be a U.N. ambassador for women. In any case, global campaigning and advisory roles are likely in her future. She will not retire.

Sturgeon has proved to be the most electorally successful SNP leader. Beginning as a gray figure behind the colorful Salmond, she unexpectedly become Scotland’s most famous politician. Yet eight years is a long time to govern on one policy and one slogan—especially one that remains perpetually in the future.

[wikiuntamed]

On this day in Wikipedia: Wednesday, 23rd August

Welcome, Benvenuta, 你好, أهلا وسهلا 🤗 What does @Wikipedia say about 23rd August through the years 🏛️📜🗓️?

23rd August 2021 🗓️ : Death - Elizabeth Blackadder Elizabeth Blackadder, Scottish painter and printmaker (b. 1931) "Dame Elizabeth Violet Blackadder, Mrs Houston, (24 September 1931 – 23 August 2021) was a Scottish painter and printmaker. She was the first woman to be elected to both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Academy. In 1962 she began teaching at Edinburgh College of Art where she continued until..."

Image licensed under CC BY 2.0? by Scottish Government

23rd August 2015 🗓️ : Death - Augusta Chiwy Augusta Chiwy, Congolese-Belgian nurse (b. 1921) "Augusta Marie Chiwy (6 June 1921 – 23 August 2015) was a Belgian nurse who served as a volunteer during the Siege of Bastogne in 1944. She worked with U.S. Army physician John Prior and with fellow Belgian nurse Renée Lemaire, treating injured soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge...."

Image by Embassy of the United States in Brussels, Belgium's official Facebook

23rd August 2013 🗓️ : Event - 2013 Palmasola prison riot A riot at the Palmasola prison complex in Santa Cruz, Bolivia kills 31 people. "On August 23, 2013, a prison riot broke out at Palmasola, a maximum-security prison in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The riot started when members of one cell block attacked a rival gang in another, using propane tanks as flame throwers. Thirty-one people were killed, including an 18-month-old child who was..."

23rd August 1973 🗓️ : Event - Norrmalmstorg robbery A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis; over the next five days the hostages begin to sympathise with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome". "The Norrmalmstorg robbery was a bank robbery and hostage crisis best known as the origin of the term Stockholm syndrome. It occurred at the Norrmalmstorg Square in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 1973 and was the first criminal event in Sweden to be covered by live television.Jan-Erik Olsson was a..."

Image licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0? by Tage Olsin

23rd August 1923 🗓️ : Event - Captain (United States O-3) Captain Lowell Smith and Lieutenant John P. Richter perform the first mid-air refueling on De Havilland DH-4B, setting an endurance flight record of 37 hours. "In the United States Army (USA), U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), U.S. Air Force (USAF), and U.S. Space Force (USSF), captain (abbreviated "CPT" in the USA and "Capt" in the USMC, USAF, and USSF) is a company-grade officer rank, with the pay grade of O-3. It ranks above first lieutenant and below major. It..."

23rd August 1819 🗓️ : Death - Oliver Hazard Perry Oliver Hazard Perry, American commander (b. 1785) "Oliver Hazard Perry (August 23, 1785 – August 23, 1819) was an American naval commander, born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. A prominent member of the Perry family naval dynasty, he was the son of Sarah Wallace Alexander and United States Navy Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, and older brother..."

Image by Jane Stuart

23rd August 🗓️ : Holiday - Umhlanga Day (Eswatini) "Umhlanga [um̩ɬaːŋɡa], or Reed Dance ceremony, is an annual Swazi event that takes place at the end of August or at the beginning of September. In Eswatini, tens of thousands of unmarried and childless Swazi girls and women travel from the various chiefdoms to the Ludzidzini Royal Village to..."

Image by Amada44

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, April 26,2023

Biden Announces Re-election Bid, Defying Trump and History (NYT) President Biden formally announced on Tuesday that he would seek a second term, arguing that American democracy still faces a profound threat from former President Donald J. Trump as he set up the possibility of a climactic rematch between the two next year. The official declaration finally ended any lingering suspense over Mr. Biden’s intentions. While he had repeatedly and consistently said he intended to run, Mr. Biden stoked renewed speculation by delaying his kickoff for months. Biden is running for re-election as the oldest person ever to hold the presidency, a subject of concern among many Democrats, though the party has publicly set aside those worries and rallied around him. Although Donald Trump is somewhat diminished in influence within the Republican Party—and facing several legal investigations—he retains a large and committed base of supporters, and he could be aided in the primary by multiple challengers splitting a limited anti-Trump vote.

Mexican navy seizes tequila bottles containing nearly 10 tons of liquid meth (Guardian) Mexican navy inspectors have intercepted 11,520 tequila bottles bound for export that actually contained nearly 10 tons of concentrated liquid meth. In total, the bottles—intercepted over the weekend at the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo, contained approximately 8,640kgs (about 19,000lbs) of meth. Mexico is the world’s only producer of authentic tequila. While there have not been any reported instances of such bottles reaching consumers, ingesting the mixture would be immensely dangerous. Mexico has become a major producer of meth and drug smugglers frequently are stopped at the border with liquid meth in their windshield washer fluid or other containers in their cars. The liquid meth is usually recovered by the smugglers and taken to specialized facilities where the water is extracted and then returned to its usually crystal form.

Mob kills 13 suspected Haiti gangsters with gas-soaked tires (AP) A mob in the Haitian capital beat and burned 13 suspected gang members to death with gasoline-soaked tires Monday after pulling the men from police custody at a traffic stop, police and witnesses said. The horrific vigilante violence underlined public anger over the increasingly lawless situation in Port-au-Prince where criminal gangs have taken control over an estimated 60% of the city since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. The United Nations warned that insecurity in the city had “reached levels comparable to countries in armed conflict.”

Scottish Island for Sale, Amenities Not Included (NYT) For sale: An uninhabited, 25-acre island with pristine views of the Scottish coastline. No one in sight for miles. Just you and the birds, all for at least 150,000 British pounds, or about $186,000. The catch: Reaching the island is challenging, and staying there for any length of time even more so. Barlocco Island is only accessible by boat or, at low tide, by all-terrain vehicle or foot over a rock causeway. And there are no dwellings or buildings on the island, which is within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a designation for land that the Scottish government considers to be of note for its flora, fauna, geology or natural landforms. The designation “will significantly limit the possibility of obtaining permission to construct any permanent structure or dwelling,” said David Corrie, the listing agent. “The only possibility for anyone wishing to stay on the island for any period of time would be off-grid solutions, such as solar power.”

Coronation gives tourism boost, but UK economy still reeling (AP) Kelly Curto is taking her first trip outside the U.S., and the die-hard fan of the British royal family is making it the one at the top of her bucket list—heading to London for King Charles III’s coronation. The coronation is luring royal enthusiasts fascinated by the ceremonial spectacle—and drama—of the monarchy and far-flung visitors eager to experience a piece of British history. The weekend of events starting May 6 will bring a cash infusion to central London businesses, especially hotels, pubs and restaurants, but it won’t do much for U.K. residents struggling with an economy on the precipice of recession and a cost-of-living crisis that has stirred months of disruptive strikes by workers seeking pay hikes. The British economy has been essentially stagnant since the start of last year as decades-high inflation squeezes households and small businesses. The International Monetary Fund expects U.K. output to shrink by the most of any major economy this year.

Ukraine Now Has More Landmines Than Any Other Nation (Les Echos/France) Walking along a rough dirt road in this eastern Ukrainian town, Trevor Kirton slowly makes his way, metal detector in hand. “Watch where you step,” warns the volunteer de-miner, a veteran of the British army. A hundred meters further on lie the pulverized remains of a Ukrainian truck, destroyed after driving over a Russian anti-tank mine. “We find [mines] every day, both anti-personnel mines and the remains of grenades and rockets,” explains Kirton, a volunteer with the organization Sons of Liberty International (Soli). According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 174,000 square kilometers of land are contaminated by mines and unexploded bombs, making Ukraine the most mined country in the world, ahead of Syria and Afghanistan.

These Countries Lined Up to Help Ukraine. Now Their Farmers Are Angry. (NYT) After more than a year of surprisingly solid European unity in support of Ukraine, grains of discord are piling up in the barn of Robert Vieru, a Romanian farmer with 500 tons of wheat and 250 tons of sunflower seeds now sitting unsold because of cut-price Ukrainian competition. A glut of Ukrainian cereals and other produce has nearly halved the value for the results of Mr. Vieru’s labors and left farmers across Eastern and Central Europe—and their governments, most of which face elections this year or next—caught between solidarity with Ukraine and their own survival. “I feel sad for them, but my heart breaks for myself,” Mr. Vieru said of Ukrainians living across the nearby border in Romania’s Danube River delta, as he opened the sliding door of a concrete barn, filled to the brim with last year’s unsold harvest. Prices have been driven so low by a flood of cheap food from Ukraine, he said, that selling would mean earning less than he paid to produce his crops. Mr. Vieru’s plight, shared by farmers in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria, flows from the unintended consequences of good intentions gone awry. Ukrainian grain, meant to pass through these countries, has in many cases remained.

A new threat rises in earthquake-battered Turkey: Mountains of rubble (Washington Post) At all hours the dump trucks arrive, hauling earthquake rubble to what has become a growing mountain by the sea—of concrete and steel and blankets and bikes and, residents worry, a stew of toxic substances waiting to be released. On one side of the spreading mound is a tent camp for people who lost their homes in the earthquakes, where the eyes of some of the occupants have begun to burn. On another is the Capa Restaurant, which serves fish on Samandag’s Mediterranean shore. Thousands of buildings collapsed instantly when two earthquakes struck on Feb. 6, killing more than 50,000 people in Turkey and neighboring Syria and leveling whole neighborhoods. Tens of thousands of other crippled buildings are in the process of being demolished. The catastrophe created up to 210 millions tons of rubble, the United Nations has estimated, the building materials mingling with the detritus of countless lives, and emitting what environmental activists fear are harmful substances such as asbestos fibers. The question of how to dispose of it all safely is a complex task, one of many critical dilemmas facing Turkey in the aftermath of the earthquakes—a national trauma that left grieving cities across the country’s south, and more than a million people homeless. In Samandag, the dump sites are another blow to a wounded town, sparking protests by residents and environmental activists, and adding to longtime complaints of discrimination in a district with a large population of Arab Alawites, members of a heterodox, historically marginalized Muslim sect. Here, and in other parts of Turkey’s southern Hatay province, there are growing complaints that the disposal effort is being handled recklessly.

China Says Chatbots Must Toe the Party Line (NYT) Five months after ChatGPT set off an investment frenzy over artificial intelligence, Beijing is moving to rein in China’s chatbots. According to the regulations, companies must heed the Chinese Communist Party’s strict censorship rules, just as websites and apps have to avoid publishing material that besmirches China’s leaders or rehashes forbidden history. The content of A.I. systems will need to reflect “socialist core values” and avoid information that undermines “state power” or national unity. China has a long history of censoring the internet. Throughout the 2000s, the country has constructed the world’s most powerful information dragnet over the web. It scared away noncompliant Western companies like Google and Facebook. It hired millions of workers to monitor internet activity.

Israel marks Memorial Day plagued by divisions, violence (AP) Israel marked its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of militant attacks on Tuesday against the backdrop of some of the deepest political divisions in its history and soaring tensions with Palestinians. Memorial Day is one of the most solemn moments on Israel’s national calendar, in honor of its 24,213 war dead and 4,255 attack victims. People came to a standstill when a two-minute siren sounded late in the morning. Motorists and pedestrians halted in the street, stopped their cars and stood with heads bowed. Bereaved families visited cemeteries and attended ceremonies while television and radio programming shifted to somber music and documentaries about slain soldiers. This year, Memorial Day is tainted by deep divisions roiling the country over a contentious plan by Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judiciary. Fighter pilots have threatened to stop reporting for duty. The nation’s leaders have openly warned of civil war, and families of fallen soldiers have called on politicians to stay away from the ceremonies. Many Israelis wonder if the deep split can ever heal.

Civilians Flee Fighting in Sudan for Troubled Neighboring Countries (NYT) Civilians fleeing the fighting between two rival generals in Sudan streamed into neighboring nations on Monday, raising concerns about a humanitarian crisis spreading to places already grappling with conflict, hunger and dire economic straits. The heavy gunfire, shelling and airstrikes that have rocked Sudan for 10 days prompted foreign countries to begin evacuating diplomatic staff and nationals over the weekend. It also has driven thousands of Sudanese and other people across borders into Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, aid workers said. The huge movement of people risks overwhelming Sudan’s neighbors, some of which already host large numbers of refugees and internally displaced people. Sudan, a country of 45 million people and the third-largest by area in Africa, is surrounded by seven countries racked by poverty and instability. Just the past few years have seen a civil war in Ethiopia; hunger, flooding and ethnic fighting in South Sudan; and a coup in Chad. “The humanitarian impact of this crisis is going to be almost unimaginable,” said Faith Kasina, the regional spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency. “The worst case scenario is unfolding right before our eyes.”

The Surprising Surge of Faith Among Young People (WSJ) About one-third of 18-to-25-year-olds say they believe—more than doubt—the existence of a higher power, up from about one-quarter in 2021, according to a recent survey of young adults. The findings, based on December polling, are part of an annual report on the state of religion and youth from the Springtide Research Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit. Young adults, theologians and church leaders attribute the increase in part to the need for people to believe in something beyond themselves after three years of loss. For many young people, the pandemic was the first crisis they faced. It affected everyone to some degree, from the loss of family and friends to uncertainty about jobs and daily life. In many ways, it aged young Americans and they are now turning to the same comfort previous generations have turned to during tragedies for healing and comfort. Believing in God “gives you a reason for living and some hope,” says Becca Bell, an 18-year-old college student from Peosta, Iowa. The Springtide survey uses the term “higher power,” which can include God but isn’t limited to a Christian concept or specific religion, to capture the spectrum of believers. Many young adults say they don’t necessarily believe in a God depicted in images they remember from childhood or described in biblical passages, but do believe there is a higher benevolent deity.

If It’s Advertised to You Online, You Probably Shouldn’t Buy It. (NYT) If you saw a Facebook ad recently for Jeremy’s Razors, which bills itself as a “woke-free” razor for men, you may well be a father of school-age children who likes ultimate fighting, Hershey’s chocolate, hunting or Johnny Cash. This is according to Facebook’s ad library, which describes the audiences to which marketers target their advertisements. Tech firms track nearly every click from website to website, develop detailed profiles of your interests and desires and make that data available to advertisers. That’s why you get those creepy ads that seem to know what you were just talking about. The ability to track people has turned out to be an unbeatable advantage for the online ad industry, which has grown to a $540 billion market worldwide, dwarfing all other forms of advertising, including TV, radio and newspapers. Last year, researchers at Carnegie Mellon and Virginia Tech studied targeted ads. The results were so surprising that the researchers repeated the study to make sure their findings were correct. The new study confirmed the results: The targeted ads shown to another set of nearly 500 participants were pitching more expensive products from lower-quality vendors than identical products that showed up in a simple web search. The products shown in targeted ads were, on average, roughly 10 percent more expensive than what users could find by searching online. And the products were more than twice as likely to be sold by lower-quality vendors, as measured by their Better Business Bureau ratings.

[crynwr-drwg]

Full text from article below:

Senior members of the SNP fear that former leader Nicola Sturgeon could be the next figure to be arrested in the Police Scotland investigation into the party’s finances.

The SNP has been rocked by the arrest of former chief executive Peter Murrell and current treasurer Colin Beattie, both of whom were later released without charge pending further enquiries.

One senior SNP figure told The Independent it was likely that Ms Sturgeon would also be arrested, given that she is one of the three names believed to be on party accounts.

Ms Sturgeon, Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie were named on the financial information presented to the SNP conference last year, the source said – but added that the police would want to “cover their bases” before any arrest.

On Tuesday, Police Scotland arrested Mr Beattie, who is also an MSP, as part of their investigation into how more than £660,000 in donations, earmarked for an independence referendum, had been used.

Some of the party’s MPs and MSPs have also said it is “inevitable” that Ms Sturgeon will be interviewed by police under caution in the weeks ahead.

One SNP politician told The Times: “Nicola must be next to be interviewed, it’s inevitable,” with another saying: “It’s obvious there’s a list and Nicola’s name is on it.”

A third told the newspaper: “They’ve interviewed witnesses, and now they are onto suspects. It was the small fry, and now it’s the big people – it’s the way the police work.”

The leader of the SNP, Humza Yousaf, who was recently elected to replace Ms Sturgeon, is facing calls to suspend the former leader’s membership of the party along with that of her husband and Mr Beattie.

Following Mr Beattie’s arrest on Tuesday, Mr Yousaf said that he does “not believe” the party is operating in a criminal way, and resisted calls to suspend Mr Beattie from his role as treasurer.

Mr Yousaf said he wanted to discuss “pertinent issues” with Mr Beattie – who was last night released without charge pending further investigation – and said: “People are innocent until proven guilty.”

Kate Forbes, one of the two defeated leadership candidates, said Mr Yousaf needs to take “decisive and quick action” or the party will be in trouble at the next general election.

She told BBC Radio 4 that claims about the party’s finances had been “mind-blowing”, adding that “people are watching with astonishment, but they want to see leadership in dealing with it and resolving it”.

She said: “I think we need decisive and quick action or we will be in trouble ... We perhaps have the next election in the early part of next year. They will vote in that election on the basis of how we have sorted out our internal problems.”

Her fellow leadership candidate Ash Regan appeared to go further, telling the BBC that any SNP members “involved” in the police investigation should be suspended – though she clarified that they would have to be found guilty of “wrongdoing”.

Police Scotland detectives investigating the party’s finances have been handed emails showing that Ms Sturgeon quashed the idea of appointing a fundraising manager in June 2021, according to Scotland’s Sunday Mail.

The newspaper also published a video in which Ms Sturgeon is seen giving officials on the SNP’s national executive committee a stern warning to be “very careful” about suggesting there were “any problems” with party accounts.

Craig Hoy, the chair of the Scottish Conservatives, said: “[Mr Yousaf] must show some leadership and suspend Colin Beattie – along with Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon.”

The Tory chair added: “Colin Beattie should also stand down from membership of the public audit committee until the conclusion of the investigation.”

The Independent has approached the SNP for comment.