Sturgeon welcomed Scottish Green Party co-Leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater to Bute House this afternoon to announce the full details of their new power-sharing agreement. A copy of the agreement is also now available on the Scottish Government’s website. Two Green MSPs will become ministers, whilst the Greens have committed to supporting the SNP on confidence votes and annual budgets provided there is “appropriate funding for the shared policy programme“.
Sturgeon said:
“The Agreement also sets out the processes of co-operation and consultation that will enable a stable parliamentary majority for the delivery of the Scottish Government’s legislative and policy programme…It recognises that business as usual is not good enough in the times we are living through. It grasps that – out of great challenge – a better world and a better Scotland is capable of being born…it understands that achieving it will take boldness, courage and a will to do things differently. That is what we offer.”
Two minority parties propping each other up…
Winning entry gets a copy of Lord Ashcroft’s latest book, “Red Knight: The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer”. Entries in the comments only…
Much amusement in Tory MPs offices as an email has just this afternoon arrived in their inboxes from none other than Dominic Raab, asking for their support. Their financial support for a charity parachute jump by him. Guido senses that puns are too easy here…
“Dominic Raab’s skydive for Shooting Star Children’s Hospices” next month will, it says, benefit childrens hospices. Raab has so far raised £10,000 and is halfway to his £20,000 target. If you want to see Raab jump you donate here.
The Foreign Office has released a statement from Raab responding to what he describes as “inaccurate media reporting over recent days.” He claims advice that he call the Afghan Foreign Minister was “quickly overtaken by events”, and while the foreign minister did agree to talk to Raab’s deputy – as Raab was prioritising security and capacity at the airport at the time – he was “unable to because of the rapidly deteriorating situation”:
“The whole of Government has been working tirelessly over the last week to help as many people evacuate from Afghanistan as possible. The UK Government’s overriding priority has been to secure Kabul airport so that flights can leave.
On Friday afternoon, 13 August, advice was put to my Private Office (around 6pm Afghan time) recommending a call to the Afghan Foreign Minister. This was quickly overtaken by events. The call was delegated to a Minister of State because I was prioritising security and capacity at the airport on the direct advice of the Director and the Director General overseeing the crisis response. In any event, the Afghan Foreign Minister agreed to take the call, but was unable to because of the rapidly deteriorating situation.
The Government’s approach to prioritise security at the airport was the right one. As a result, 204 UK nationals and their families, Afghan staff and other countries citizens were evacuated on the morning of Monday 16 August. Since then, 1,635 have been evacuated. I pay tribute to the excellent team we have in place, and we continue to prioritise what is required to evacuate people to the UK safely.”
As Reagan said, if you’re explaining, you’re losing…
Millionaire musician and professional protestor Lily Allen has uncharacteristically slammed public nuisance group Extinction Rebellion for wasting the Metropolitan Police’s time and money. In the now deleted tweet, Allen questioned how many crimes or cases “could have been solved with all [the] money and man power” wasted by XR. How unexpectedly level-headed…
This comes after it was revealed that policing XR had cost police a staggering £50 million (enough money to fund the annual salaries of 1,600 police officers) and that costs of the latest protest due to begin on Monday are likely to run “into the millions”. Guido wonders if Allen’s (albeit short-lived tweet) is a sign of things to come…
UPDATE: Looks like Lily didn’t articulate herself very well and was in fact pushing a utopian anti-police argument. Presumably Lily deleted her tweet over The Fear it would be misinterpreted – admittedly on Twitter Everyone’s At It. Who’d Have Known…
what kind of mad spin is this ? if i’m slamming anyone it’s the police for wasting resources on peaceful protesters. https://t.co/pp2cRQqeTb
— Lily Allen (@lilyallen) August 20, 2021
Guido hopes Lily can just Smile and accept life in political commentary’s Not Fair…
Over the past couple of days, Labour councillor Peymana Assad has appeared on the BBC, Sky News, and Channel 4 to discuss her experiences in Afghanistan. Of course, Assad is perfectly within her right to do this, it’s just incumbent upon broadcasters to be explicit about the context of their guests’ politics for the sake of transparency. All three broadcasters should be commended, rightly, for mentioning Assad’s role as a Labour councillor, though none made reference to one particular detail from her past…
Back in 2019, Guido revealed that Assad had once claimed she would “100% take up arms against the government and its allies” if she were an Afghan villager. The Afghan government’s allies at the time were, of course, the US and the UK. Still, Guido is pleased to see that his campaign to get political activists identified as such during media appearances is picking up steam…
