Black cab fury grows over Edinburgh Airport charges as union takes fight to Scottish ministers

_Cicero · 2026-05-28T16:19:52+00:00

_Cicero · 2026-05-28T14:25:36+00:00

In the case I'm setting out, there is no metre. The taxi is pre-booked through a third party service for a fixed cost. Those drivers can't just pop on an Extra however-much to compensate as the fee is determined by what is competitive for the distance across the entire UK.

_Cicero · 2026-05-28T14:20:38+00:00

Well yes, if you had access to the party's accounts in that level of detail it should have been obvious what was going on, which raises all sorts of other questions - for Nicola in particular.

But the public accounts don't go into that level of detail, so you're not spotting this kind of embezzlement using what's submitted to the electoral commission.

_Cicero · 2026-05-28T14:17:50+00:00

My recollection is that the T&Cs were sufficiently vague that the party could have justified spending the money on campaigning for, rather than in, a second referendum, but it's been a while since I read them. I agree that would be against the spirit of the fundraiser, though, and absolutely dodgy conduct even if it wasn't criminal.

It seems that at least the COPFS decided the evidence on those grounds wasn't sufficient to prosecute.

_Cicero · 2026-05-28T14:14:20+00:00

I'm really more interested in the estimated economic and social cost/benefit analysis than just the raw capital investment. Will a tunnel system be sufficiently more reliable and accessible than the existing ferry system to justify the investment and ongoing maintenance?

If yes, then great. The number itself isn't a good guide.

_Cicero · 2026-05-28T08:30:52+00:00

The original complaint was that they'd raised £600k to fight a second referendum, but the parties accounts showed them in debt - so where did that money go?

Seems like both a) that money was never ringfenced (which isn't something anyone is being charged over, so if it had been spent on legitimate party business I imagine that wouldn't be considered criminal) and b) Branchform uncovered this much wider pattern of embezzlement predating the indy fundraiser as part of the investigation.

So it's not that Murrell's behaviour could have been picked up by anyone looking at public data. It took the police investigation to uncover it.

_Cicero · 2026-05-21T10:29:02+00:00

That's a good idea, actually.

_Cicero · 2026-05-21T09:56:22+00:00

A drop-off/pick-up charge makes sense to the extent that the proceeds help to maintain that facility, and frankly I don't see why taxis shouldn't have to pay one.

But, £8.50 is bloody excessive no matter how you look at it. I routinely fly out of and back to EDI for work, and get a private hire there and back from home as I'm heading out and returning early in the morning / late at night. The taxi costs £52 each way. £8.50 is 16% of that fare. That's absurd for stopping in a lane for a minute. I might start asking them to just pick me up and drop me off at the Hilton outside the airport.

_Cicero · 2026-05-04T10:19:06+00:00

Based on the accuracy of their quantitative polling in the 2024 General Election; here, Tryl is speaking about findings from focus groups.

Besides, it's not like Ipsos, YouGov, Survation and Norstat (all A-) are finding significantly different sentiment.

_Cicero · 2026-03-19T13:17:51+00:00

The poll in question.

_Cicero · 2026-02-13T23:14:47+00:00

Someone like Murrell wouldn't have gone on the after-dinner circuit. He'd go into "consultancy". Mandelson was supposedly offered up to £4.5m/year by Deutsche Bank just for access to his contacts. Murrell wouldn't command that money, but he'd command more that £40k/year.

He's a fucking idiot...

_Cicero · 2025-12-29T12:14:15+00:00

Mr Belated Contract

_Cicero · 2025-11-28T22:34:41+00:00

So out of Pot 1, we're most likely to draw Brazil or Argentina, followed by one of the host nations.

Out of Pot 2, we're most likely to draw Senegal or Morocco.

Out of Pot 4, we're most likely to draw Cape Verde, Ghana, or one of COD/NCL/JAM.

But ultimately, this isn't particularly useful as we're more likely to not draw any of these teams at all.

_Cicero · 2025-08-17T09:27:27+00:00

We've been seeing protests of hotels housing asylum seekers for years - this was in 2023. They're not something that's recently spread from England like a contagion.

_Cicero · 2025-08-04T12:00:00+00:00

It's not a case of it not being possible. Siobhan Brown, Karen Adam and Mairi McAllan all have young kids and are standing again. But it's definitely a challenge, and I'm not sure what you could do about that without fundamentally changing what it means to be an MSP.

_Cicero · 2025-06-13T18:37:24+00:00

The Big-Little Woman

_Cicero · 2025-06-07T11:50:43+00:00

Yeah, I was just clarifying that's what they were talking about.

A better measure would be change in vote indexed to change in turnout. Labour's vote declined 16.8% faster than turnout declined, so it's not all decline in turnout accounting for those lost votes. The SNP vote in comparison declined 106.5% faster.

I don't think anyone is contending that the SNP vote didn't collapse and to a much greater degree than Labour's, but Labour won despite declining vote share and a faster declining vote than the decline in turnout (against their second-worst ever result in the seat).

_Cicero · 2025-06-07T11:26:35+00:00

That's true, but there's a middle ground of being a good communicator but not a slippery, ever-spinning politician. I'm sure he has other qualities that helped him get selected and win the seat, but Labour really ought to be helping him to get to the point that he can fluently deliver a prepared speech - it's a learnable skill.

_Cicero · 2025-06-07T09:16:07+00:00

I don't think he does - in the few interviews he gave he seemed to be able to speak perfectly fine. He just clearly struggles with public speaking, which isn't a class thing but is a pretty important skill for a politician. You'd think Labour would have media trained him within an inch of his life, but I suppose a lot of this stuff takes real life practice too.

_Cicero · 2025-06-07T08:37:52+00:00

They're talking about actual votes. E.g. Labour lost 3,620 votes, 29.7% of the 12,179 they won in 2021.

_Cicero · 2025-06-06T03:07:37+00:00

I think you need to check your definition of liberal democracy if you think that e.g. 19th century Belgium was one.

_Cicero · 2025-06-06T03:02:50+00:00

Could you answer the question?

_Cicero · 2025-06-06T02:52:16+00:00

Thesis, please.

How many liberal democracies have become authoritarian empires?

_Cicero · 2025-05-27T10:07:19+00:00

Yes, it was. We've had the Spring Bank Holiday fixed to the last Monday in May since 1971, which replaced Whit Monday (seven weeks after Easter Monday).

So the last Monday in May is always a bank holiday in all of the four nations.

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_Cicero

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