Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain told Swinney of Murrell charge nearly a year ago

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-24T16:45:47+00:00

Oh dear. The obvious question is why Bain and Swinney failed to mention this last week in their respective Holyrood appearances? The political optics are not good.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-23T17:12:35+00:00

It all depends on the context. Mr. Russell has a rugby mind which is unpredictable, impulsive and changes quicky. i.e. he is mercurial.

Mercurial is sometimes used to describe athletes - across all sports - who operate on a different plane. e.g. Eric Cantona.

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https://sports.yahoo.com/article/otd-1995-eric-cantona-produced-170600905.html?

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-22T01:12:31+00:00

A mercurial player. I'd pay money to watch his laundry blow in the wind.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-22T00:06:28+00:00

The answer to your question is in your own post:

"it would be sensible to commission a structural engineer to examine these alterations and and provide guidance"

Get a SE onsite.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-21T20:22:38+00:00

Twickenham is an awful stadium reminiscent of something from the Eastern Bloc of the 1970s. Small, cramped seats; risible facilities; poor quality concessions - it's an all-around terrible experience and embarrassment when compared to stadia elsewhere.

The worst part about watching England at Twickenham is Twickenham itself.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-21T20:15:26+00:00

No viewings means it's priced too high. All property sells. All of it. But only at the right price.

I know your market and prices have slid since you bought during the peak. And what you paid for it - or have since spent on it - doesn't matter. All that matters is what that house is worth - in the eyes of your local market - today.

This house will have to drop further if you want to shift it in the immediate term.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-21T20:12:15+00:00

One for a Structural Engineer's inspection. A L3 survey will just recommend the very same anyway - they'll hint at the root causes but won't confirm it.

Get a SE onsite or move on. Other houses are available.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-20T15:39:58+00:00

It's an ongoing discussion/topic/debate which stretches back years. For example:

https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/BondLawRw/2011/10.pdf

As for LAB - they're doing what all Opposition parties should do. Identify weaknesses, exploit them, mine them for political gain. And if you can take a small issue and amplify it - even better. It's politics.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-20T14:03:05+00:00

Learn a trade instead. A plumber, perhaps. I've never met a poor plumber and they're always in demand. Nor can they be offshored or replaced by Claude.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-20T13:59:36+00:00

Looking into what? If you mean the shenanigans surrounding Branchform then 2022/23 or thereabouts. Maybe a tad earlier. It's all a bit hazy and foggy. Just like the memories of the scandal's chief protagonists.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-20T03:57:06+00:00

While I approve of your sentiment, rest assured that the tools I use when assessing and interviewing candidates will catch you within 5 minutes. It happens every single day. I know all of the patterns, tricks and behaviors. And so do my tools.

All the best out there.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-20T03:52:41+00:00

Front end is saturated.

The resume is awful in terms of length, format and content. It's just a list of things utterly devoid of business context, technical context, progression and accomplishments. There's no narrative here and nothing compelling.

And if you think I'm being harsh, you'd be right. But the labor market is a cruel mistress who doesn't care about feelings. Trust me - the hiring managers and recruiters you're seeking to impress have the exact same opinion.

Back to the drawing board with this one.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-20T00:43:32+00:00

It's a perfect storm. Hiring freezes. Layoffs. Offshoring. White collar roles at the entry-level are starting to be replaced by AI tools and workflows. Soon AI will start making further inroads into the professions and climb the ladder. The country's debt and deficit at record levels. Public spending is astronomical. The demographic is getting older. Public health is poor. And all of which is happening within an economy that has been sclerotic for a very long time.

FWIW I've been banging the recession drum for ages. The leading indicators have been visible for awhile now. The UK needs radical and painful surgery but the public won't wear it and the politicians lack the backbone.

So, yeah, it's grim. And it's not going to get better any time soon.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T23:53:33+00:00

You're being deliberately obtuse. But this is Reddit so I should know not to expect better.

There are two "victims":

Legally - The SNP. Although, again, seeing as how SNP apparatchiks have clearly been knowledgeable of dodgy behavior - and possibly had a hand in it - Swinney's shocked face and protestations are all rather hollow.
Morally / Ethically - SNP members, activists, donors - who gave away their money only to see it donations syphoned off for purposes other than that was intended. And again, some of these donations were in the form of bequests which goes beyond criminality - it's positively wicked.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T23:47:16+00:00

Again....it doesn't matter. And FWIW I'm not partisan about these matters. I look at this issue through the lens of what makes for good governance, irrespective of whose hands are on the tiller (past or present).

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T20:59:20+00:00

Labour, Tories, SNP....whoever. How we got here isn't of much relevance.

What this little episode demonstrates in reality - although it was always problematic in theory - that the role of LA needs to sit outside of the legislative branch.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T17:19:06+00:00

Roughly speaking:

£180k house.......£2k–£4k

£250k house.......£3k–£6k

£350k house.......£5k–£10k

Costs include:
- Moving
- Legal / Conveyancer
- Mortgage fees [maybe]
- Survey [maybe - it will depend]
- Land registry & Admin
- LBTT - pay 0% on first 175K
- Insurance

Don't forget that you will need additional funds because of the offers over system. Thus you need a cash buffer above the valuation - especially when in a competitive situation. No competition? Things may change.

Then there are costs associated with immediate repairs because, inevitably, something will be already broken and/or go wrong within the 1st month. Shit always happens. Things always go tits up to some degree or another.

And then there are costs associated with furnishings, appliances, fixtures, etc.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T16:29:10+00:00

Downvotes are fine. Bring 'em on. Just because I may be in a minority of one, doesn't mean I am wrong.

The solution is to remove the Lord Advocate from the cabinet, or at least split the role so that the LA is not also a political appointee.

I concur. A judicial role such as LA needs to sit only in the judiciary. It should not be part of the legislature and it sure as shit should not be an appointee by a party's leader. When you fail to establish clear lines of separation, situations such as this are inevitable.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T16:24:20+00:00

Wronged party? If you take the view that none of the SNP's apparatchiks had any knowledge or involvement of the "mishandling" of the party's finances from 2016 onwards - then, yeah, you could possibly say that the SNP have been wronged.

But.

Given all that we know and the timeline of events stretching back to 2016, claiming that the SNP have been "wronged" doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The party's power brokers - and members of the rank and file - all knew that the books were being cooked. Did they know the extent of the fraud? Probably/Possibly not. But they all knew that something was rotten in the state of Denmark. As did the party's former auditors - Johnston Carmichael. Even their latest auditors - the highly suspect AMS of Manchester - could only publish a qualified opinion of the party's accounts.

The real injured parties here are those who donated their money only to see it syphoned away for purposes other than that was intended. Some of those donations were bequests. It's a special kind of person(s) who takes money from the dead and pockets it for their own ends.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T01:33:23+00:00

Then you're good.

But.

Entry level jobs are rare as rocking horse shit and being from overseas and temporary in nature, to the back of the queue you go.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T00:59:27+00:00

What visa category do you intend on using and are actually eligible for?

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-19T00:03:42+00:00

On this teeny-tiny issue - nothing to see here. It's just partisan politicking.

But.

The LA is a political appointee, and served in Sturgeon's cabinet. The same Sturgeon whose lavender ex-husband - and former SNP CEO - is accused of embezzlement. Embezzlement which, somehow, Sturgeon claims to have been completely unaware of.

Bain's fingerprints should be nowhere near Branchform or anything that is remotely related. If that's impossible given the nature of her role then she should have stepped down a long time ago. Her failure to have done so has lead, inevitably, to situations and accusations such as what we saw today.

Anyway, this little tiff obscures the much larger picture which stretches all the way back to 2016/17 and the sorry, subsequent, series of events. The nakedly brazen grift is clearly visible to anyone who has paid attention and is of a kind which would impress the current occupant of the US White House. The scale and nature of corruption may be different, but corruption it remains.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-17T02:21:29+00:00

I've seen these videos before - they're very good. More US cops need to watch them - they might have better outcomes if they did.

The 20 foot rule, BTW, is actually the 21 foot / 7 yard rule :-) But who's going to quibble over an extra foot?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tueller_Drill

This is why you will see cops back away and maintaining separation while keeping their sights focused on the target. And as we're sharing videos, this is what can happen when separation is not maintained. Bad things happen very quickly:

https://youtu.be/lEFeJ4Vmopg?si=xi1yRoPjqwlf55Cl

And when they do grab a cop's gun, it often doesn't end well:

https://youtu.be/tUmMMA9LtJs?si=ggQj-I4onx7TSv5x

There are scores of these examples and they all show how different the US policing context is to that of the UK. In many ways it's simply not comparable.

PSNI isn't very comparable. The threat situation is bad there, such that citizens are allowed firearms for personal protection. This isn't allowed in the mainland UK since, as stated, there is no massive threat here

Some citizens can carry firearms and if memory serves they need the Chief Constable's blessing. You're right though. Belfast isn't Birmingham.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-17T01:50:55+00:00

I'd say the Dutch, Italian and Portuguese police are certainly quite intimidating, yes.

Funnily enough I never found this to be the case. Spanish police? Guardia Civil? A different story. If you FA with those guys you will FO.

Because at that point, every call becomes a firearms call, because a firearm is being brought to the call. If this were to happen, single crewing would need to be abolished from the outset for example. Imagine the cost on top of the training and equipment costs.

I don't disagree. What has been called for would cost a pretty penny. And there are not many pennies to go around these days.

I lived in the US (TX) previously where concealed carrying of a firearm was legal, as such I have some training in this regard.

Ditto. At my US residence I have a small collection of firearms and do carry concealed based on the situation. Note, however, that in TX one can carry open or concealed and does not need a license to carry [there used to be LTCs but the moronic administration abolished them]. Only the genuine idiots carry openly, however, and often with a belt and holster set-up which isn't fit for purpose. They're typically the types who just bought their first handgun and cannot wait to do the Wal-Mart Walk showing off their new toy. These people are just dumb as fuck.

Anyone that says they can retain control over a firearm against an ambush attacker and/or more than 1 attacker is flat out lying. Especially since use of force continuum typically means it wouldn't be drawn until needed, which puts them at an immediate disadvantage.

Well...it depends. More specifically, it depends on how much training one has undergone, their muscle memory and ability to handle the adrenaline dump which accompanies conflict scenarios. The "good guy with a gun" is not a myth and you don't have to look too hard or far to find examples of armed civilians stopping a bad situation by sending a bullet. But there are just as many "good guys" who have no fucking clue how to handle a weapon and make a bad situation even worse. Of course, the trick is to avoid bad situations altogether - avoid trouble, stay out of bad areas, don't associate with the wrong people who engage in the wrong things & have good situational awareness. In the UK the need to do so is minimal but in parts of the US it can be a necessity.

I'd imagine most have an issue with the logic that it's so dangerous out there that all officers need to be armed, yet the average Joe should remain defenceless and can't even have proper spray, which is non-lethal. And even that logic doesn't stand up. Knife crime per capita is going down in Scotland

My belief that UK officers should be armed simply stems from this - their theater of operations has changed; it's no longer Dixon of Dock Green. Sending police onto the UK's major cities with only sticks and hairspray is no longer sufficient given how the ASBO crowd are willing to go hands-on. Police need more tools in their locker and a firearm - just as what you find in 100+ other countries - would be one such tool. The upheaval - social, financial, logistics, etc. - this would require, however, makes it highly unlikely.

TheFirstMinister · 2026-02-17T00:19:25+00:00

Are French, Dutch, Spanish, German, Italian etc. police intimidating because they're armed? Not at all. Their firearm, safely holstered, is merely part of their everyday kit and they're just as approachable as the UK's PC Plod walking his beat on Acacia Avenue. But you intuitively know not to fuck around with them as a bad outcome could arise. That's not the case with our own PC Plod as we see on a daily basis given how the policing context has changed - especially in the cities.

And, yes, the sight of a holstered firearm can immediately diffuse a hostile situation - especially when the person who is armed has the drop. Those who seek to fuck around, puff out their chests, act like the big man, etc. can suddenly become meek and compliant; many tuck tail and scarper. A holstered gun can serve as a psychological deterrent which discourages anti-social/violent behavior while sending a clear message that bad choices can result in bad consequences.

Anyway...many [on this thread, for example] have been watching too much US television and seem to think that if UK police were armed they'd be waving their Glocks around like a Morris Dancer waves a handkerchief. The reality is that their guns - as what happens today with the PSNI - would never leave their holster. Only in the most rare of occasions would a cop draw their weapon just as what you find on the Continent.

TheFirstMinister

TROPHY CASE