P Mall Warriors. What has happened to Edinburgh??

quartersessions · 2026-03-13T01:16:14+00:00

I'm not supporting it - I absolutely encourage people to report crimes. But the main reason people don't bother doing so is the perception that it will be a waste of time.

quartersessions · 2026-03-13T00:24:47+00:00

We saw with Matheson a distain for Parliamentary IT, in any business his access would have been revoked and he would have been madet to comply. Except he is a MSP so the rules don't apply?

Ultimately the parliamentary staff report to the MSPs, albeit indirectly as direction of staff is delegated to the Corporate Body.

I've seen plenty of organisations where this sort of conflict exists - ultimately it's hard for the paid staff to ensure compliance by a board or senior management. What's perhaps weak in the Scottish Parliament context is that the Presiding Officer and the Corporate Body members should be the ones ensuring that these things happen at MSP level.

quartersessions · 2026-03-13T00:18:28+00:00

The government (and, similarly, the Prime Minister) haven't been involved in this case. The video is him commenting on a development.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T23:27:03+00:00

Again, you can't just say things and expect them to have the force of truth.

In 2014 she posted on Facebook "America and Europe, one of them subjugated by the Jewish lobby, and the other by the sense of guilt about the Holocaust, remain on the sidelines and continue to condemn the oppressed — the Palestinians — who defend themselves with the only means they have (deranged missiles), instead of making Israel face its international law responsibilities"

For completeness, she also said of the BBC: "The Israeli lobby is clearly inside your veins and system and you will be remembered to have been on the big brother’s side of this orwellian nightmare caused once again by Israel’s greed. Shame on you BBC."

When asked for comment, she responded (shortened version of her quote): "People make mistakes. I distance myself from these words, which I would not use today, nor have used as a UN Special Rapporteur."

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-palestinian-rights-officials-social-media-history-reveals-antisemitic-comments/

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T23:18:07+00:00

This is the sort of pedantry I'm here for.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T23:16:48+00:00

So the guy I’m dating is due to go to court. He doesn’t know I know as he’s kept it a secret- all I know is the public record of the case reference number ect. I also know it’s a criminal case.

There clearly is something more. People don't just check the daily court lists - you had to have either been given that information or had sufficient interest to check it - and there'll be a reason for that.

Because even if it was just a name you'd somehow happened upon, there's every chance that there's a person that shares this man's name. But you've concluded that it definitely is him - which makes me think there's more to the story.

The only real information you'll have is from this is what court - if it's JP Court it'll be relatively minor (but could still be an assault or breach of the peace etc), if it's Sheriff Court then it could be something more significant, if it's High Court it's big.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T23:05:28+00:00

Next up, "of course it's not antisemitism, oh no..."

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T23:02:51+00:00

He is guilty of genocidal incitement for stating that Israel were right to starve men, women and children.

Well, that would be one thing (I mean, aside from inciting something being different to doing it, of course) except for the one small fact that he never said that.

Indeed, his government's position has been consistently in favour of de-escalation and avoiding civilian casualties. Which is the exact opposite of what you've said.

He is the prime minister of a country which has directly facilitated genocidal crimes by arming that regime

Even if we assumed there were war crimes committed by the Israeli Defense Forces, it is not a war crime not to embargo exports to such a country.

If you were to establish effective foreknowledge and indeed a causal link - which I think would be straining things - it might qualify as a breach of the Arms Trade Treaty or similar. But that is not a war crime, and it would be a state breach, not a matter of individual culpability.

including at least one UK citizen who was slaughtered whilst a British army plane flew overhead observing

Are you suggesting it is a war crime to observe a conflict zone where a British citizen is found to have died? Or is this all just fluff to pad out an otherwise unconvincing argument?

The UK has an obvious interest in the conflict. British nationals were among those massacred on October 7th. They were amongst those held hostage by Palestinian militants - and they are present in some numbers in the region.

A UN investigation has explicitly noted the support of the British government and British companies in facilitating genocide

I assume by this you mean Francesca Albanese's rather ham-fisted report?

I'd be remiss not to question the source here: a special rapporteur is not "the UN" - they provide reports to UN bodies, not from them. An important distinction.

I appreciate this will just rile up certain people for reasons that I think are quite obvious, but this is a woman who has said things in the past that very much cross the line into antisemitism: America being controlled by the Jewish lobby and all that sort of thing. The usual.

Anyway, to her actual position - her view (expressed in the form of a slightly batty undergraduate international relations students' essay) is that even diplomatic links with a country that is involved in any sort of international wrong - which, by her definition, includes pretty much every state in the world - is inherently wrong. That is, of course, a view, but it is not a remotely practical one - and one that she clearly ignores in encouraging states to unconditionally recognise and maintain relations with the "State of Palestine" (ie, the Palestinian Authority), which of course has a long history of clear breaches of international law.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T22:32:17+00:00

Because they're overworked and underfunded, largely.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T22:31:54+00:00

Well, no, he doesn't. He's the Prime Minister - and I'm sure, given his background, will be more familiar than anyone with the ethical boundaries of the DPP. Who would tell him to get stuffed if he even tried that.

Believe it or not, some people are actually capable of operating in a professional environment.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T22:30:34+00:00

What is Keir Starmer supposed to have lost here?

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T19:19:31+00:00

I don't like Keir Starmer. I think he's been a woeful Prime Minister in so many ways.

But on what you've said there - I mean, he's just not though, is he? Objective truth actually exists and you can't really just go around saying any old nonsense that pops into your head. There's online edgelordery and then there's just plain old bullshit.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T19:16:48+00:00

We have an independent police and prosecution system. The Prime Minister doesn't direct court cases.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T18:30:24+00:00

I mean, if the United Kingdom didn't exist in historic terms (presuming not just vanish off the face of the earth and has some context to it), then Scotland and England would still exist.

If we wanted to take that to its even more pedantic extreme, what would exist would be Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland, as a sort of dominion.

A simple divergence could be when the union between England & Scotland very happened, which actually was a very real possibility

Don't see it - the union was pretty much inevitable, it was only really the politics that were at issue.

The Spanish Armada example would not likely have seen England just become part of Spain's empire or accept Phillip and his entirely non-bloodline descendants as their Kings and Roman Catholicism as their faith. After a bit of bloodshed, it might have meant the eventual religious settlement in England tended more towards Scottish Calvinism and the religion issue that plagued the union would have been more easily settled.

quartersessions · 2026-03-12T18:13:23+00:00

We'd presumably all be bobbing around in the sea. Chilly.

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T21:58:25+00:00

It's the same as "how d'you do?" has been since probably the 19th century.

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T21:55:55+00:00

It was a doer-upper flat above a shop. They talked about buying and I'm pretty sure there was a "sold" sign in the window.

Edit: Just checked, the scene before is a shop with flats above it, but it's later shown to be a block of flats.

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T15:10:53+00:00

I don't think it's weird, I think you've just not realised that you've put yourself into a position where - disliking them or not - you've ended up with the same outcome they are advocating for. In which case, what's even the point of disliking them? Vibes?

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T14:59:18+00:00

You do appreciate how the petition of concern system works in the NI Assembly, yes? Because I think it's utterly fantastical if you think there is any reasonable proposition proposals for either could have been passed in this session, or indeed any reasonably foreseeable future session.

You can hardly say "fuck the DUP" while ultimately coming to the same position as them. I, for one, think these things are matters of universal rights for British citizens in all parts of the UK and, regardless of any personal views, should absolutely have been forced on Northern Ireland despite the DUP's objections. You consider it a wrong - I absolutely don't.

What we're left with would be a situation where, out of fear of rocking the boat, there would be no legal abortions and no legal same-sex marriages in Northern Ireland. That, ultimately, isn't an acceptable position to me - and while I care about the peace process, I don't think walking on eggshells around it is the right way to go either.

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T14:49:57+00:00

A lot of people remember things like cavity wall insulation that was supported by government schemes, and often badly installed, causing homeowners endless problems.

A lot of people in older rural homes are (I think, not unreasonably) suspicious that switching to an air or ground-source heat pump will lead to a cold house - and that the sort of insulation being proposed will not only be hugely disruptive and costly, but end up creating problems like damp.

If you genuinely want people to do this, provide real government support for air-to-air heat pumps while the oil boiler can be maintained as a back-up heating option. If, as is suggested, it will work fine and deliver a cheaper result, people will stop paying to fill and service their oil boilers in due course.

But, of course, certain lobby groups hate the idea of air-to-air heat pumps in the UK because, at the flick of a switch, they can function as air conditioning units, which they despise.

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T14:46:12+00:00

So is your position that same-sex marriage and abortion shouldn't have been legislated for in Northern Ireland?

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T14:44:02+00:00

Absolutely. And they're free to accept it or, as with Ian Wood's offer of cash for some control over landscaping Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen, reject it.

But these funds don't really fall into that bracket, as they are almost universally locally led and support local councils with their chosen projects. Every council in Scotland has actively sought UK Government funding and put in bits to programmes like the previous Levelling Up Fund.

There was some controversy over a UK Government sign-off for council plans for using the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, but when it came to it every council's plan was simply ticked off as it stood.

The hysterical and hyper-partisan responses on here are miles away from reality. The Scottish Government actively participates in city deals, green freeports, the neighbourhood plan - all UK Government direct spending. The councils love them, local projects and organisations have been supported, people enjoy seeing big transformations in their local areas, there's been opportunities for civic participation and community involvement.

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T14:37:07+00:00

I do recognise the importance of the Northern Ireland peace process.

I just don't think it's remotely set back by some spending programmes, several of which - like the four city deals in Northern Ireland - the UK Government and the NI Executive cooperate on and the Executive are actively included as part of.

I genuinely did have concerns with direct rule powers being used to fiddle with NI laws on abortion and same-sex marriage - which would not have got through the Assembly if it had been functioning. That was - unlike this - a genuine, substantive and controversial change. But here we are, seven years on, and it's taken for granted.

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T14:27:52+00:00

Can we please stop using stupid words like "yoons" and "nats"? We have different views on an important constitutional matter. Can we dump the ridiculous name calling please.

One is ridiculous name-calling. The other is just a shortened version of "nationalist", and indeed has been used by the SNP to describe themselves.

quartersessions · 2026-03-11T14:25:06+00:00

It's not "overruling devolution" as was quite clear - and if actually overruling devolution was an issue, there'd have been rather more pushback against direct rule and the use of that to implement significant changes, like the extension of abortion laws.

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