A.L.Paterson

Writer and Humanist

[A.L.Paterson @ALPaterson4]

And we’re paying for this and all those in the NHS practicing this behaviour. @JohnSwinney it’s all on your watch and you’re milking this show with your fat cat salary and pension. @theSNP have single handedly divided and wrecked a country. Be gone.

[Joanna Cherry KC @joannaccherry]

Now NHS Fife’s KC is asking what instructions Sandy Peggie gave her counsel. Judge intervenes to admonish her. Again this is legally privileged confidential information. I’ve been a KC for 16 years and sat in many court rooms but I have never seen anything like this.

[Annemarie Ward 💜 @Annemarieward]

Scotland is not in crisis. A crisis implies urgency, consequence, the possibility of change. What we face is worse, a slow, syrupy decline disguised by slogans and sustained by subsidy. A publicly funded decay where failure is not punished but process-mapped. Our institutions no longer collapse, they quietly expire in committee rooms.

[ThinkScotland @Think_Scotland]

Scotland 2025: the end of delusion, the start of recovery?
“The next chapter must be written not by consultants or committees, but by the people. No more therapy-state. Rebuild Scotland in the image of its people, not its quangos.” writes Annemarie Ward https://t.co/e0N6IKwnfG

[Rewild Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🌳 @RewildScotland]

Dull dull dull Scotland’s uplands are in a terrible state. This is the result of sheep, deer and driven grouse shooting.

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

"Thames Water boss keeps bonus despite missing target after restatement."

I used to ask a simple question. What do you have to do as a water company to have govt revoke your operating licence.

I'm gonna add to that. What do you have to do as a CEO to get your bonus taken back?

https://t.co/yhqpNmQZ82

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

Well that's odd. 24 hours ago The Westmorland Gazette posted a story about swimmers getting sick while taking part in the Great North Swim on Windermere. Apparently sewage was being dumped into the lake at the time.

1 day later the article has disappeared from their website.

I'm sure there's a perfectly innocent explanation. 🤔

[Merryn Somerset Webb @MerrynSW]

Reeves going ahead with pushing pensions into IHT net. At the same time as wanting people to save more into pensions. No point in saying most people don't pay IHT... everyone is beginning to understand fiscal drag...

[Merryn Somerset Webb @MerrynSW]

Costs of U.K. welfare state likely to rise 26% in the next 5 years. The economy not likely to grown by more than 8% tops. So... reform or crisis..

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

TODAY'S LESSON ON GETTING CAUGHT OUT AND AN APOLOGY TO @krishgm

Govt claimed yesterday that the £100 billion cost to nationalise the water industry is accurate and that the figures did not come from water companies.

Really? Let's see shall we.

On the 23rd July 2024 Baroness Hayman, Defra spokesperson in the House of Lords, told parliament that "Government have no plans to nationalise Thames Water. It would cost billions and take years". 👇

Lord Sikka @premnsikka promptly wrote to the good Baroness asking if she could "provide the details of that calculation".

Baroness Hayman replied on the 8th Aug 2024 stating "The cost of nationalisation was calculated in a report published by the Social Market Foundation titled ‘The cost of nationalising the water industry in England’. The report estimated the costs of nationalising water companies would be £90 billion," and that a copy could be found on the SMF's website.

And here it is, The Cost of Nationalising the Water Industry in England by the SMF. 👇

As SMF's website highlights the report was indeed "commissioned", bought and paid for by @AnglianWater, @stwater, @SouthWestWater and @unitedutilities the water companies.

1/3

[Laurie Macfarlane @L__Macfarlane]

I spent a year at Ofwat back in 2013 working on price controls

I’m not remotely surprised it’s being abolished - what I saw astonished me 🧵 https://t.co/ievrXFoPNJ

[Craig Murray @CraigMurrayOrg]

News from civil servants preparing Liz Kendall's pensions review.
Kendall wants to look at "phasing in" the pension starting with 25% of a pension at age 68 and getting 100% of the pension at age 72.
This will be represented as not affecting the triple lock.
It's already the worst pension in Europe.

[Wings Over Scotland @WingsScotland]

Kev doesn’t miss and hit the wall here. https://t.co/VMgrneoGct

[A.L.Paterson @ALPaterson4]

Performative and servile behaviour to the lobbyists is all @theSNP know. @johnswinney has been happily playing the system for the big bucks and pension

[Ailsa McLellan @AilsaMcL]

There has not yet been an @theSNP MSP with the common sense or backbone to address this. Their failure to protect >5% of our inshore waters from bottom dragged fishing gear is a betrayal of coastal communities + our environment. @ourseas_scot @MairiGougeon @MairiMcAllan

[Don Staniford @TheGAAIA]

Heading out to film inside @kamesfishfarm - please boycott lousy Scottish 'Loch Trout' or 'Steelhead Trout' @rspcaassured @Tesco @sainsburys

[Don Staniford @TheGAAIA]

Norwegian salmon giant Mowi may be able to ban me from their lousy salmon farms in Scotland but that won't stop me visiting their deadly feedlots in Ireland, Norway, Chile, the Faroes, Canada, Iceland etc

[Salmon Scotland @SalmonScotland]

Mowi installs AI and automates 90% of its operations.

This facility bagged £2m from the UK Gov.

The salmon industry and government “jobs for fragile local communities” mantra is a downright LIE.

@_KateForbes @MairiGougeon @HighlandCouncil @HIEScotland

https://t.co/vzCahgEW0t

[Ailsa McLellan @AilsaMcL]

If you are exposed to Roundup you should watch this.

When Glyphosate is mixed with 'co formulants' to make 'Roundup it becomes much more toxic. The research is solid, it causes cancer.
@HighlandCouncil @pesticideaction

https://t.co/GLQzP3f4hQ

[Marko Polo @markthehibby]

"It is grotesque and dangerously misleading for the Health Secretary to suggest that the average wait of 52 days shows progress, when that too is the worst on record" Neil Gray blasted for 'disgusting spin' on worst cancer wait times https://t.co/zuQyUdfTmL

[Feargal Sharkey @Feargal_Sharkey]

How to get a round govt's hopeless bonus ban version 1,762.

Severn Trent have just awarded almost £10,000,000 worth of shares to senior executives as part of a 'Long Term Incentive Plan'. Have they now.

Meanwhile millions of people across the country struggle to keep up with the cost of living crisis and rising water bills. Ho hum.

https://t.co/hW0wlQNN2v

[Salmon Scotland @SalmonScotland]

🚨 BLOOD PRESSURE ALERT🚨

Faroese salmon farmers Bakkafrost have been given £630,000 by @HIE for an incinerator to burn baby salmon to ash.

@_KateForbes @GillianMSP @ScotGovMarine @MairiGougeon @HighlandCouncil - proud of this? OUR money well spent?

https://t.co/PRz2wz5reA