🐑 ICYMI: The summer transfer window is open! Wasting no time, we've made 25 new signings.
What's the catch? It's a flock of sheep to help us restore railway land near Perth in a bah-rilliant boost for biodiversity.
Here's more from Mark ⬇️
https://t.co/pfD2qaiInR
This is Callum Peacock. He battered his girlfriend with a golf club, threw bleach and paint at her, and burned a memorial shirt of her deceased grandmother but has avoided an immediate prison sentence.
The 19-year-old defendant, from St Helens, subjected his partner to a cruel three-hour ordeal inside their home.
Police officers arrived at the flat to find the victim covered in white paint and curled up in a ball on the bathroom floor.
She was audibly sobbing and shrieking through a hole in the door, which was still smouldering and smoking.
During the assault, the teenager hit her with a broom handle and a golf club before putting her in a chokehold from behind.
When she tried to hide in the bathroom, he smashed the door with the golf club and used an aerosol and a lighter to set fire to it.
He then threw dumbbells and a bottle of bleach at her, causing the liquid to splash onto her body.
In what was described in court as an extremely selfish act, he took hold of a memorial t-shirt featuring a photograph of her deceased grandmother.
He set fire to the garment right in front of her while telling her that her nan would rot in hell.
The attack came just two days after another incident where he struck his girlfriend with a hammer following an argument.
Following his arrest, he openly threatened his victim in front of police officers, stating that he was going to smash her face in when he got out.
But he has now walked free from court after a judge handed him an 18-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months.
The court heard he had already spent nearly five months in custody on remand, which the judge noted was the equivalent of a nine-month sentence for a teenager with no previous convictions.
He was also given a five-year restraining order and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 20 days.
Another kick in the teeth, metaphorically speaking to the brave young woman who endured his cowardly attacks.
The justice in this country cares more about the accused than the victims.
Marginalised identity? He’s a hugely privileged young man who has post grad degrees from two leading universities (Trinity College Dublin and St Andrews) and is now a parliamentarian in a country where he is not (yet) a permanent resident. How many working class women are hidden in the “quiet corners” with no voice?
I started doing research on prostitution in 1993. In all those years I have watched and analyzed policy changes of almost every variety. The one policy trajectory that *never* made sense to me in any context was legalisation.
This latest from Julie Bindel is a must read for anyone who wants to know why legalisation - far from empowering women - degrades, dehumanises, provides a thin veneer of employment rights that somehow are never actualised and, more than anything else, is just another charter for men to exploit women and girls.
https://t.co/4JRFDPNLLu
"Children and families were not appropriately informed of the impact of medication on fertility and options for gamete preservation... only 4 children were referred to a specialist fertility and reproductive practitioner."
Sterilising children w/o informed consent is serious.
Please share: The brilliant band @scratchcardw and the Tartan Army remind everyone of the importance of giving blood during the World Cup.
All Donors, but particularly Group O donors, are particularly needed at this time. Yes Sir, I'm a Donor! ❤️
The truth is that for 99% of MSPs for 99% of the time they vote and do what their party managers instruct them to do. Hence the fact that there was no competition for Committee convenorships. It was all stitched up by party bosses and worst of all MSPs all went along with it. I know how it works. The group is told that it is Jimmy’s turn for chairing a committee and the rest all fall in line.
Honey (honey) is a total sweetheart and is looking for love after arriving in our care through no fault of her own. At 10 years old, she prefers to have her own space to be spoiled rotten! 🥺🩷
If you've heard about her before, and wanted to know some more... get in touch! 😜🎶
A study from 1988 found that 54% of sex killers investigated were transvestites.
Other studies have found a transvestism rate of 40% among sexually sadistic murderers, a “high frequency of…gender dysphoria in sexual homicide perpetrators,” and a clear link between dysphoria and sadism.
Western law enforcement as a whole is doing its best to forget this, but the fact is that there is a good reason why we as a society feel negatively about men who crossdress. At the absolute least, a male crossdresser who violates women’s spaces is providing cover for some of society’s most dangerous predators.
Worst of all are those jurisdictions which hire trans-identifying officers. No one with a mental health condition that comes with a 41% chance of attempting suicide has any business carrying a gun at all, much less be placed in a high-pressure position of authority where lives may depend upon their ability to make good decisions in a crisis. If you can be thrown into suicidal despair or into a rage by a “misgendering,” the last thing you need is to deal with the public from a position of authority.
@NadiaWhittomeMP Feels like this didn’t get through to you the first time so I will ask again: but why are men like this more important to you than my daughters, nieces, female friends?
1/2
Scotland's AI Data Centre Gold Rush: Who Benefits and Who Pays?
Scotland stands on the brink of one of the largest industrial transformations in its modern history, yet most Scots have no idea it is happening.
According to the figures contained within the Scotland AI Data Centre Pipeline briefing, more than 9,177MW of data centre capacity is either proposed, in planning or moving through the development pipeline, the same briefing notes that Scotland's winter peak electricity demand is just over 4,000MW, if these figures are accurate and the projects proceed, the total demand from the proposed data centre pipeline would exceed Scotland's entire current peak electricity consumption by more than double.
The question every Scot should be asking is simple, who benefits and who pays?
The first group to examine are the developers themselves, the briefing identifies Intelligent Land Investments (ILI Group) and Apatura Energy as two of the dominant players, neither company is described as a traditional data centre operator, instead, both are said to operate a model based on securing land, obtaining grid connections, progressing planning approvals and then selling those assets on to major hyperscale operators, in simple terms, they secure the permissions and infrastructure rights, then profit from selling the package to larger international corporations.
The briefing states that Apatura's primary investor, Klint Ventures, has publicly discussed a strategy of selling 500MW of Scottish data centre capacity and generating approximately £300 million in profit for investors. Those investors are reported to include capital from Monaco-region, Nordic, Arabic and Spanish sources.
That immediately raises a question of public interest. If hundreds of millions of pounds can be extracted in profit from Scottish land, Scottish grid capacity and Scottish planning approvals, what direct benefit will remain in Scotland once the deals are done?
The second group are the global technology corporations waiting in the wings.
Although some end users have not been publicly identified, the briefing lists likely buyers and operators as potentially including Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Google, Equinix, Brookfield, BlackRock-backed interests and other hyperscale data centre operators. These are among the wealthiest corporations on earth.
Their interest is obvious, Scotland possesses abundant renewable energy resources, available land and comparatively cool temperatures, to a global AI company, Scotland represents an attractive location to power the next generation of artificial intelligence systems.
The third group are the public bodies and agencies that promoted the expansion.
The briefing identifies the Scottish Government's Digital Connectivity Division, Scottish Enterprise and Crown Estate Scotland as central components of what it describes as a promotional machine for large-scale data centre development.
According to the document, these organisations were involved in identifying sites, promoting Scotland as a destination for hyperscale developments and creating the policy framework that encouraged investment.
Scottish Enterprise has a statutory role in promoting economic development, while Crown Estate Scotland generates revenue from land and seabed assets, those responsibilities create obvious incentives to encourage development.
The concern is whether sufficient weight has been given to the interests of communities, environmental impacts and long-term energy security, perhaps the most worrying issue is energy.
Scotland's people are repeatedly told that electricity is scarce, that energy infrastructure must be expanded, that transmission upgrades are essential and that consumers face increasing costs as the grid evolves, yet at the same time, proposals are emerging for developments that could consume energy on a scale dwarfing existing industrial demand.
1/ I went to Parliament to watch the Women and Equalities Committee. The chair of the EHRC Mary-Ann Stephenson (MAS) and CEO John Kirkpatrick were giving evidence, the other adults in the room were Rosie Duffield and Rebecca Paul MP. Other than that it was the slow kid's table.
The £10,000 is “given to you” as an equity stake. Scottish Minsters will own part of your home repayable on sale. The scheme will also push up house prices so you may gain little practical benefit.