Colin

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧🇫🇮 Stated views are my own.

[Colin @ColSMal]

Watching this back, also amazing that Stephen Jardine doesn't pull her up on this clear garbage...

[alexmassie @alexmassie]

One of the great moments in Scottish political history.

[Rowland Manthorpe @rowlsmanthorpe]

Today I went to a select committee hearing on AI. A few interesting things came out of it, but what really stuck with me was the behaviour of the MPs

They weren’t paying attention

At one point I counted 6 of the 13 MPs on the committee looking at their phones. And not in that way you do when you’re quickly checking something - two stared at their phones for over half an hour. Several others left before the end

Many people think AI is the most important thing in the world. The MPs were warned there was a 50/50 chance it might destroy humanity! You’d think that’d be enough to make you take your chance to listen to experts and key players on the topic - apparently not

[Colin @ColSMal]

And this is why I never joined the PCS in government. Not reasonable or serious at all.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: Civil servants will vote next week on whether to strike for a 4-day work week on full pay and a 10% pay rise

[Colin @ColSMal]

@Telboyshow @RobAllen1981 Seen a few folk saying this. Obviously we don't know but IMHO unlikely, life is rarely so exciting.

[Colin @ColSMal]

An email half an hour before the committee? Sorry, as a former PS, unless you verbally tell your boss at that point it's not going to be ingested. I don't think this is the 'gotcha' being claimed. Key point is he didn't spot it on the BBC, and nobody thought to tell him... (1/2)

[Conor Matchett @conor_matchett]

EXCLUSIVE: Wannabe FM Stephen Flynn signed off on a “cover-up” to save his own skin over a Holyrood ferries blunder.

Documents reveal aides conspired to claim he had NOT been briefed about a gas leak on the scandal-hit Glen Sannox – even though he’d been emailed TWICE in advance

[Colin @ColSMal]

@barneymcg999 I agree.

[Colin @ColSMal]

@SYSOUYAYKE Haha! but in all seriousness I think Conor Matchett is one of the most impressive journalists in Scotland right now. Play the ball not the man.

[Colin @ColSMal]

@TheRustler83 No that would be silly. Do you write down everything you say to your boss? Haha

[Colin @ColSMal]

@JackSch28763211 This ain't House of Cards. Much more likely his office are just not on the ball.

[Colin @ColSMal]

@LucyHunterB Yes.

[Colin @ColSMal]

@RobAllen1981 Canny argue with that.

[Colin @ColSMal]

@KennyCo03949267 Let's hold ourselves to a higher standard.

[Colin @ColSMal]

@1edmountain By the way I hope you are well Sir!

[Colin @ColSMal]

@1edmountain I agree with you if he was verbally briefed, which is how to do it if an issue arises that last minute. If they only emailed him, it's very fair to not be in your inbox in that time window. There's a reason SCS and ministers have (and you as an MSP had!) staff managing inboxes.

[Colin @ColSMal]

@staylorish There is certainly something to this. You have documented plenty of evidence of the Scottish civil service colluding with politicians to essentially lie to the public (eg. on standing charges!) It's a scandal. Right enough could have said "he didn't have time to read the email"

[Försvarsmakten @Forsvarsmakten]

Yesterday Finnish and Swedish Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) fighter jets were scrambled to intercept and identify Russian military aircraft in international airspace over the Gulf of Finland. This was the first joint operational identification mission our air forces.

[Sam Freedman @Samfr]

The extent of the PISA gap between England + other western European countries is extraordinary.

In reading, the 25% most disadvantaged pupils in England outperformed the average for *all* students in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Norway etc...

A decade ago there was no gap

[Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 @DefenceHQ]

The UK doesn't seek confrontation.

But together with our allies, we stand ready to defend every inch of @NATO territory.

[alexmassie @alexmassie]

This is magnificent. A reminder that in debating terms, Holyrood is a permanent bin round.