Is Adam Tomkins a Latter Day Daniel Defoe ? His Close Links to the U.S. State Department Certainly Suggest He Might Well Be the Spy Defoe Reborn

Tories (friends of Israel) off to Israel on a fully funded jaunt. (Is that a dead rat on the pathway?)

Links with Israel

Tomkins, a Professor with the University of Glasgow, School of Law has worked with Aharon Barak,  former president of Israel’s, “Supreme Court”, who Israeli human rights group Yesh Gvul described as:

“The judicial designer, enabler and backer of the regime of human-rights abuses in the Occupied Territories.”

Often speaking of his desire to “strengthen ties between Glasgow Law School and legal scholars in Israel” Tomkins gained his reward in winning the Hebrew University’s Hailsham Scholarship for his work in promoting links between the UK and Israel.

As an MSP at Holyrood he was instrumental in setting up the Friends of Israel lobby group established with the purpose of :

” Engaging with Israel, building links based on business, culture and academia as well as exploring and countering issues of antisemitism at home and abroad.”

Edinburgh Festival

Again, in pursuit of his on-going mission supporting Israel he hijacked the Holyrood parliament tabling two motions of little consequence except that they promoted the Israel agenda. Namely:

Tory Party MSP’s, tabled two Scottish Parliament motions congratulating the International Shalom Festival on its Edinburgh Festival Fringe event, organized by the Confederation of Friends of Israel, Scotland. A day-long celebration of the cultural diversity of Israel. And emphasizing that boycotts against Israel must be opposed.

The motion stated that Parliament:

“Stands with the organizers and artists associated with the festival in advocating peace and security for the world’s only Jewish state, and applauds everyone who seeks to foster closer cultural links between Scotland and Israel”.

The second motion acknowledged:

“That the event was aimed at building cultural bridges with Israel… that this was through an cultural exhibition that demonstrated the different communities in Israeli culture.  Further stating:

“It believes that the fringe must be a festival at which culture is embraced rather than boycotted, and hopes to see the return of The International Shalom Festival in 2017 for another successful outing”.

The motions, supported by all 18 Tory MSP’s, were tabled not long after a delegation of Tory MSP’s enjoyed a controversial fully funded trip to Israel and the illegally occupied West Bank

Note: Protesters demonstrated outside the peace festival venue, reminding those entering that, “Your tickets are covered in Palestinian blood”.

Tory Friends of Israel on their all paid jaunt to Israel and the new territories

Family Ties

Gillian is the sister of Lauren Apfel, wife of Adam Tomkins, Tory MSP and constitutional affairs spokesman for the Tory party in Scotland.

She and her husband Rodney Ford are senior diplomats with the US State Department.

She was influential in deciding US foreign policy when deployed to Bagdhad, Iraq and, not to be outdone, her husband Rodney,  as a foreign diplomat actively influenced the outcome of political events in a number of countries in Africa over a period of 20 years.

This short review of their involvement in the affairs of African and Middle East nations exposes the hypocrisy of US foreign policy under the last four president’s and the callous support provided by the UK government.

Between them the the two nations are culpable in the destruction of many countries in Africa and the Middle East, all in pursuit of control of their assets.

What is puzzling is the decision of Tomkins to take up residence in Scotland, for which he has no affiliation, when he would be guaranteed a more financially lucrative career in the US where his wife’s family enjoys significant political clout.

Reflecting on his his participation in Scottish politics I am reminded of Daniel Defoe and his infamous spying role in support of England at the time of the 1707 Treaty of Union.

Rodney Ford

Rodney Ford: Diplomat. Foreign Service Institute. Department of State: Washington D.C.

Experience:

September 2017 – Present. Foreign Service Institute. Language Student – Italian

August 2016 – June 2017. Graduate Student – National Security Studies. National Defense University – National War College. Washington D.C.

August 2014 – August 2015.  U.S. Department of State. Deputy Director, Bureau of African Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. U.S. Department of State. Washington D.C. Oversee the allocation of more than $38 million in public diplomacy programming, providing daily policy guidance and program support to 49 Public Affairs Sections across Africa, and oversee public diplomacy personnel assignments for the Africa Bureau in Washington and in the field.

July 2013 – July 2014. Spokesperson. U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq. Responsible for all media-related activities advancing the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement.

August 2010 – July 2013. Information Officer. U.S. Embassy Rabat, Morocco. Served spokesperson and senior adviser for all media-related activies for the U.S. Mission to the Kingdom of Morocco.

July 2007 – July 2010. Public Affairs Officer. U.S. Embassy Antananarivo, Madagascar. Directed U.S. public diplomacy efforts in Madagascar and the Union of the Comoros. Advised the Ambassador on issues related to U.S. interests in Malagasy and Comoran media.

June 2004 – December 2006. Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer. Bureau of Afican Affairs. Managed full range of U.S. exchange programs with South Africa.

2002 – 2004. Consular Officer. U.S. Department of State.

Gillian Apfel

Gillian Apfel: Diplomat. US Department of State

Experience:

Sep 2017 – Present. Foreign Service Officer. U.S. Department of State. Arlington, Virginia. Studying Italian at the Foreign Service Institute in preparation for assignment at the US Embassy in Rome.

Aug 2015 – Aug 2017. LNA Coordinator. U.S. Department of State.

Sep 2014 – Aug 2015. Consul. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Aug 2013 – Aug 2014. American Citizens Services Chief. Baghdad, Iraq. Refugee Coordinator for Admissions. Working at the US Embassy in Baghdad resettling Iraqi refugees in the U.S.

Jul 2012 – Jul 2013. Program Officer, Working at the Operations Center in Crisis Management Support. U.S. Department of State. Washington D.C.

Kagame & Clinton

President of Rwanda – Paul Kagame

The Rwandan government’s warped historical record of massacres in Central Africa was used to provide credence to President Paul Kagame’s 25 year totalitarian rule in Rwanda.

It was also used to justify the U.S.-backed invasion, occupation and plunder of the immensely resource rich Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite many U.N. reports documenting Kagame’s army’s atrocities in both Rwanda and Congo.

Kagame was shielded by powerful friends, including Clinton, Blair and Obama. But any attempt to cling to power beyond 2017 would not be supported by the US, the UK and the EU.

Kagame is a longtime ally of former president Clinton who presented him with a Global Citizen Award in 2009. Asked about his closeness to Kagame, Clinton said that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide crime that Kagame is accused of in U.N. reports had never been adjudicated in a court of law. Critics commented that U.S. administrations made sure that Kagame was never indicted by an international court.

Cameron & Kagame

26 Jul 2010: Campaign group sues UK government for enabling DR Congo violence

Global Witness is taking the British government to court for allegedly failing to report companies trading Congolese “conflict minerals”. The organization alleged that British companies had been trading in minerals controlled by armed groups in DR Congo in defiance of United Nations sanctions introduced in 2008 and 2009.

Global Witness said groups controlling the trade in minerals such as tin and tungsten use the money generated to buy arms to fund campaigns against civilians. A group legal adviser said it was applying to the High Court in London for an order requiring the government to put forward for sanctions British firms violating the UN resolutions.

She said: “We approached the UK government in early 2009 once sanctions were passed where you could list entities supporting armed groups for sanctions. We decided to take advantage of that and requested they put forward certain names. But no action was taken.

Further evidence again came up during that period, which showed that these companies were breaking sanctions. In eastern DR Congo there are still high levels of violence. By the UK government not taking action it allowed the funding of armed groups in these areas and allowing the conflict to perpetuate.”

The UK’s Foreign Office released a statement stating, “the government expects all British companies operating in the minerals sector in the DR Congo to follow high standards of due diligence. We will continue to take reports that they are not doing so seriously, and will assess in each case whether there are grounds to consider recommending to UN partners that sanctions measures be imposed or supporting proposals for listings made by other states.”

(http://en.rfi.fr/africa/20100726-campaign-group-sues-uk-government-enabling-drc-violence)

Aug 2010: UN report shows Rwanda massacred Hutus in DR Congo

A UN report detailed the mass killing of Hutu refugees by Rwandan forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the late 1990s. The document investigated allegations of genocide and other human rights abuses in eastern DR Congo, between 1993 and 2003 when over a million Hutus fled to DR Congo in the wake of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

In a Wikileaks expose, Clinton Foundation staffer Amitabh Desai wrote:

“Rwandan Ambassador said criticism of Kagame seems to have quieted, partly due to Clinton and Blair’s unwavering support. Kagame and Rwanda very much appreciate their unflinching support.”

The report identified “systematic attacks” against Hutu refugees by the Rwandan army – and the Congolese rebel group the AFDL – in the years 1996 to 1998. Kagame spent many weeks attempting to quash the report and threatened to pull Rwandan troops out of UN peacekeeping missions over the allegations.

(http://en.rfi.fr/africa/20100827-un-report-shows-rwanda-massacred-hutus-dr-congo-says-le-monde)

25 Nov 2011: U.S. backed the invasion of Eastern Congo on Obama’s inauguration day

There was a U.S.-backed campaign to destabilize, depopulate and colonize Eastern Congo/Zaire since the first U.S.-supported invasion of 1996, which occurred under President Clinton, and which followed the U.S. destabilization and coup d’etat in Rwanda.

In 2001 the U.S. and its allies, again deployed their proxy army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), comprising many child soldiers, in a secret campaign to balkanize Congo and create a Republic of the Volcanoes in the region. The mission was to expand Rwanda through the annexation of the Kivu and Maniema Provinces.

Fellow participants Uganda also with U.S. support, set out to annex the Ituri province. The campaigns were backed by multinational corporations, and the goals were political, military and economic. So President Barack Obama invaded Congo, the heart of Africa, on his Inauguration Day?

The U.S.-backed military invasion of 20 Jan 2009 included U.S. military commanders, special forces, military advisers, technicians and other U.S. military personnel, and it involved weaponry supplied by the U.S. and Britain.

(http://sfbayview.com/2011/01/u-s-backed-the-invasion-of-eastern-congo-on-obamas-inauguration-day)

Clinton & Kagame

2 Jan 2014: Rwanda’s former spy chief ‘murdered’ in South Africa

Kagame’s former chief of external intelligence, Patrick Karegeya, was found murdered in a posh Johannesburg hotel.  In exile, Karegeya had secretly been advising South African and Tanzanian intelligence.

Kagame officially denied involvement in the assassination, but speaking on the matter to a domestic audience shortly thereafter, said: “You can’t betray Rwanda and not get punished for it.”

Comment: So the U.S. supported a President complicit in the murder of former spys resident in foreign lands.

(https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/02/rwanda-former-spy-chief-karegeya-murdered-kagame)

Patrick Karegeya, Murdered

14 Jul 2015: Rwanda parliament votes in favour of Kagame’s third term

Rwandan legislators voted in support of a referendum allowing President Paul Kagame a third term in power, backing a petition signed by millions of citizens.  The Rwandan constitution, adopted in 2003, limited the number of presidential  terms to two, and therefore barred Kagame — elected first in 2003 and again in 2010 — to stand for a third term.

But petitions signed by a total of two million people demanded that Kagame be allowed to stay in office. Parliament subsequently amended the constitution allowing Kagame to run for a third term of office. Addressing the press Kagame said that he was open to going or remaining based on what Rwandans decided ahead of 2024.

Kagame

Dec 2015: US State Department briefing by Rodney Ford

Bureau of African Affairs spokesman Rodney Ford said the U.S. will not support Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s bid to abolish Rwanda’s constitutional term limits so that he can remain in power. Ford’s statement came as a surprise because Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been such a close, longstanding and useful ally and “military partner” to the U.S.

The statement was, however, unequivocal: It read:

“ The United States supports the principle of democratic transition in all countries in the region through free, fair, and credible elections, held in accordance with current constitutions, including provisions regarding term limits. The United States believes that democracy is best advanced through the development of strong institutions, not strongmen. For that reason, we do not support changing constitutions to benefit the personal or political interests of individuals or parties. Changing constitutions and eliminating term limits to favor incumbents is inconsistent with democratic principles and reduces confidence in democratic institutions. We are committed to support a peaceful, democratic transition in 2017 to a new leader elected by the Rwandan people.”

Comment: Kagame ignored the US State Department instruction and got himself elected yet again. And the US is still backing him because they need his army to police other states.

(http://sfbayview.com/2010/08/political-cost-of-standing-with-kagame-mounts-by-the-hour)

Kagame

5 Aug 2017: Kagame re-elected president with 99% of vote in Rwanda election

Paul Kagame, 59, the controversial president of Rwanda, won a landslide victory in the African state’s election, securing a third term in office, extending his 17 years in power. The result will surprise no one, inside or outside Rwanda.  Kagame won international praise for the stability and economic development he brought Rwanda since the 1994 genocide, when an estimated 800,000 people were killed, but he has also been accused of running an authoritarian, one-party  state.

1 Dec 2014: Nigeria ends U.S. mission to counter Boko Haram

In May 2013, the U.S. Army posted a story on its official website announcing that soldiers and special operators would train a Nigerian 650-man Ranger battalion to fight Boko Haram, marking the first time that U.S. troops would train their African counterparts for a mission other than peacekeeping.

Col. John Ruffing, chief of US Army Africa’s Security Cooperation Division, said: “It is not peacekeeping — it is every bit of what we call decisive action, meaning those soldiers will go in harm’s way to conduct counterinsurgency operations in their country to defeat a known threat.”

But only 8 months later it emerged that the Nigerian government had terminated the U.S. effort to train a battalion of its troops to fight Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group responsible for abducting hundreds of schoolgirls earlier in the year.

According to Rodney Ford of the State Department. Who stated:

“We regret the premature termination of this training, as it was to be the first in a larger planned project that would have trained additional units with the goal of helping the Nigerian Army build capacity to counter Boko Haram.  The U.S. government will continue other aspects of the extensive bilateral security relationship, as well as all other assistance programs, with Nigeria. The U.S.government is committed to the long tradition of partnership with Nigeria and will continue to engage future requests for cooperation and training.”

The move followed the U.S. refusal to sell Cobra helicopters to Nigeria. The transfer being denied over concerns that Nigeria couldn’t properly use and maintain the Cobras, a State Department spokeswoman said.

The decision drew criticism from Nigeria’s ambassador to the U.S., who said it would hinder the country’s efforts to bring down Boko Haram.

South Sudan Army training

The United States Is Illegally Sponsoring an Army That Recruits Child Soldiers

American law prevents military aid to countries that employ child soldiers—but that hasn’t stopped the US in South Sudan where approximately 13,000 children have been recruited into armed groups, according to the United Nations children’s Fund (UNICEF).

In 1996, the United States began funneling military equipment through nearby Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda to rebels in southern Sudan as they battled for independence.  A decade later, after the civil war ended in a peace deal, Washington officially began offering military “assistance” to the SPLA, according to State Department documents.

At that point, without fanfare and far from the prying eyes of the press, the United States launched a concerted campaign to transform the SPLA from a guerrilla force into a professional army. Asked about the scope of the training, Rodney Ford, the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs spokesperson, said:

“ The US government began a comprehensive defense professionalization program which started in 2006 and continued after the referendum and independence of South Sudan until December 2013. This assistance included infrastructure, vehicles, human rights training, logistics, administration, medical, military justice, finance, and English language training among an array of other military subjects. The US government, for example, conducted a comprehensive medical program with the South Sudanese military which entailed procuring mobile field hospitals, building clinics, training nurses and improving the military’s medical infrastructure.”

Ford emphasized that no “lethal equipment” was provided and noted that the lessons were designed to “give soldiers the tools and skills that would benefit the civilian population.”

It sounded almost like they were building a South Sudanese Peace Corps. In reality, there was more to it. US support was not strictly a kumbaya effort of medical clinics and human rights instruction. It included:

Training and equipping of the elite presidential guard.

Construction of a new SPLA headquarters in Juba.

Renovation of a training center at the SPLA Command and Staff College in Malou, a town north of the capital.

Construction of the headquarters of two SPLA divisions in the towns of Mapel and Duar.

Training programs for general officers and senior instructors.

Deployment of a “training advisory team” to guide the overhaul of intelligence, communications, and other key functions.

Employment of Kenyan and later Ethiopian instructors to teach basic military skills to SPLA recruits.

Provision of secure voice and data communications to SPLA general headquarters.

Development of riverine forces and up to 16 tactical watercraft.

Military police instruction.

Training of commando forces by Ethiopian troops.

Establishment of a non-commissioned officers academy at Mapel with training from private contractors and later US military personnel.

Comment: Disgraceful support of military forces largely staffed by under aged children. But the oil is the key factor.

(https://www.thenation.com/article/united-states-sponsoring-army-recruits-child-soldiers)

Judge Hussen Al-Anbaki, his family:

16 Aug 2014: Time running out for Iraqi judge who jailed terrorists

In 2008, the U.S. Congress authorized a Special Immigrant Visa program to allow Iraqis, Kurds and Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government and were now in danger for doing so, to immigrate to the U.S.

For more than five years, Iraqi Judge Hussen Al-Anbaki worked alongside U.S. troops battling to bring terrorists to justice only to be denied safe haven in the USA.  Now he’s engaged in an even bigger fight — trying to get himself and his family into the U.S.

In a letter to Al-Anbaki, Gillian Apfel, refugee coordinator for the U.S. Chief of Mission, stated:

“You were not actually employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government. Your work with the Law and Order Task Force was the result of a cooperation agreement between Multi-National Force Iraq and the government of Iraq.”

A local state prosecutor and a New Haven immigration lawyer are spearheading an effort to convince the U.S. government to issue Al-Anbaki and his family special visas.

They say with U.S. troops gone from Iraq terrorist groups have become emboldened and are assassinating judges, and they are worried Al-Anbaki is next on their list.

Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Dewey Trudeau, defending, said:

“This is not just about wanting a better life for himself and his family, this is about wanting a life. Their lives are now in peril because he helped us. As an investigative judge, Al-Anbaki worked within the Iraqi judicial system gathering evidence on terrorism against both American soldiers and Iraqi citizens that he would then present before an Iraqi trial panel. He done it because he believed it was the right thing to do because these were people not only dangerous to the Americans in Iraq, but to the Iraqi people as well,”

Trudeau went on to say that it had been the judge’s decision not to be on the U.S. government’s payroll. He believed he could do a better job if he was considered neutral. She said:

“He purposely remained neutral as a member of the Iraqi judiciary, but he did receive other compensation from the U.S. We supplied him with a secure housing facility so he could carry out his work without getting killed.  If I had hired someone in Iraq to keep up my WiFi, giving them a paycheck, that person would be eligible to come to the U.S., but not the judge. He tries to come here and gets the door slammed in his face.”

The 2006, murder and execution by insurgents of Army Specialist David J. Babineau and captured Private First Class Kristian Menchaca and Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker is worthy of comment. She said:

” Eight thousand American and Iraqi soldiers, searched for three days before  finding their bodies. They had been tortured and mutilated and rigged with an improvised explosive device.  Judge Al-Anbaki volunteered to lead the investigation into their deaths. It was the first time an Iraqi judge had worked to get justice for Americans murdered in Iraq. He also rode with convoys of U.S. troops into insurgent territory to interview potential witnesses to the kidnapping and murder of the two soldiers. He was instrumental in persuading local Iraqis to come forward and testify against terrorists, something that had never been done before because people were too afraid. He convinced them to have faith that the legal system would bring bad people to justice. Eventually, as a result of his efforts, a terrorist was convicted in the case. While on one hand it was disappointing that only one of the terrorists were convicted, the fact that there was a conviction through the Iraqi judicial system was a victory, and it did bring some justice to the families of the soldiers that were killed,”

Referring to another incident, she said

” On Nov. 14, 2006, paramilitary gunmen in the uniforms of Iraqi National Police commandos raided a building belonging to the Ministry of Education in Baghdad’s Karrada district and arrested around 100 members of staff from two departments and around 50 visitors. The bodies of those kidnapped were found buried in shallow graves in 2012.  Judge Al-Anbaki again volunteered to get involved. His work required him to question at length many senior officials of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government who were responsible for corruption and sectarian violence. In doing so the  judge placed the lives of his family and himself in great danger. But he believed he could use the Iraqi justice system to weed out corruption and terrorists from the government.”

Comment: A cold unfeeling response from Gillian Apfel,  to a plea for help from someone who put his own and his family’s lives in jeopardy in support of the US.

(https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Time-running-out-for-Iraqi-judge-who-jailed-5693338.php)

Hilary Clinton & Gillian Apfel

Extracts from Hansard: House of Commons: Tuesday 24 September 2002

The Prime Minister (Mr. Tony Blair):

Today we published a 50-page dossier, detailing the history of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programme, its breach of United Nations resolutions, and its attempts to rebuild that illegal programme.

As the dossier sets out, we estimate on the basis of the UN’s work that there were up to 360 tonnes of bulk chemical warfare agents, including 1.5 tonnes of VX nerve agent; up to 3,000 tonnes of precursor chemicals; growth media sufficient to produce 26,000 litres of anthrax spores; and over 30,000 special munitions for delivery of chemical and biological agents.

All of this was missing and unaccounted for.

It is actually an 11-year history: a history of UN will flouted, of lies told by Saddam about the existence of his chemical, biological and nuclear weapons
programmes, and of obstruction, defiance and denial.

His weapons of mass destruction programme is active, detailed and growing.

The policy of containment is not working. The weapons of mass destruction programme is not shut down; it is up and running now.

I am aware, of course, that people will have to take elements of this on the good faith of our intelligence services, but this is what they are telling me, the British Prime Minister, and my senior colleagues.

The intelligence picture that they paint is one accumulated over the last four years. It is extensive, detailed and authoritative.

It concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons, that Saddam has continued to produce them, that he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes, including against his own Shia population, and that he is actively trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability.

On chemical weapons, the dossier shows that Iraq continues to produce chemical agents for chemical weapons; has rebuilt previously destroyed production plants across Iraq; has bought dual-use chemical facilities; has retained the key personnel formerly engaged in the chemical weapons programme; and has a serious ongoing research programme into weapons production, all of it well funded.

In respect of biological weapons, again, production of biological agents has continued; facilities formerly used for biological weapons have been rebuilt; equipment has been purchased for such a programme; and again, Saddam has retained the personnel who worked on it prior to 1991.

In particular, the UN inspection regime discovered that Iraq was trying to acquire mobile biological weapons facilities, which of course are easier to conceal.

Present intelligence confirms that it has now got such facilities.

The biological agents that we believe Iraq can produce include anthrax, botulinum, toxin, aflatoxin and ricin-all eventually result in excruciatingly painful death.

As for nuclear weapons, Saddam’s previous nuclear weapons programme was shut down by the inspectors, following disclosure by defectors of the full, but hidden, nature of it.

That programme was based on gas centrifuge uranium enrichment.

The known remaining stocks of uranium are now held under supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That is the assessment, given to me, of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

In addition, we have well founded intelligence to tell us that Saddam sees his WMD programme as vital to his survival and as a demonstration of his power and influence in the region.

Our case is simply this: not that we take military action come what may, but
that the case for ensuring Iraqi disarmament, as the UN itself has stipulated, is overwhelming.

I defy anyone, on the basis of this evidence, to say that that is an unreasonable demand for the international community to make when, after
all, it is only the same demand that we have made for 11 years and that Saddam has rejected.

If people say, “Why should Britain care?”, I answer, “Because there is no way this man, in this region above all regions, could begin a conflict using such weapons and the consequences not engulf the whole world, including this country.”

Hansard Tuesday 24 September 2002.

“Better Together” Gains Unfettered access to Experian’s Database

Experian is one of the largest data collection companies in the world, and provides credit worthiness reports for its subscribers.

Blue State Digital, a US data-mining agency that had worked for US President Obama on his successful election campaigns was asked by “Better Together” to devise an enhanced data management tool further developing its “Patriot” software which had contributed so much to Obama’a election.

Experian extracted extensive personal data of millions of Scots from its database and supplied it to Blue State Digital who then developed a data-mining software programme which they titled, “Mosaic” and sold it to the UK government supported “Better Together” campaign for use in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum. Cost £500,000.

“Mosaic” allowed “Better Together” to identify lifestyle indicators, categorize voters and link them with activists of a similar age or with similar social media friends in order to greatly enhance voter targeting and canvassing.

The data was used on, Facebook and UTube with the purpose of recruiting volunteers who were subsequently provided with the personal details of Scots and asked to cold-call them in order to canvass them for support. All information gleaned by the calls was then stored in the campaign database and transmitted to the three parties involved in Better Together.

19 Jul 2013: Scottish independence: “Better Together” Targets Voter ‘Tribes’

The group campaigning for a “no” vote in Scotland’s Independence Referendum has said it will embark on the most sophisticated targeting of voters seen in British political history.

Pro-union “Better Together” has launched its new “Mosaic” system.

It will divide Scotland’s four million voters into 40 different tribes.

This will then allow the campaign to speak directly to undecided voters using letters, emails and face-to-face discussions.

Better Together said the technology, developed with information purchased from credit rating agency Experian at a cost of £500,000 and further improved by additional input from political and strategy advisers of the successful President Obama campaign will allow it to identify lifestyle indicators such as, the number of cars a family owns and other personal information. Voters will then be “linked” to activists of a similar age or with similar social media friends.

Better Together Campaign Director Blair McDougall said;

“We have to make sure that we are on the doorsteps and high streets, but also that we are also on peoples’ smartphones, tablets and PCs.

This new tool will help bring our thousands of volunteers together with the key voters who will decide the outcome of the referendum.”

It is estimated “Better Together” had 10,000 volunteers signed up by the start of the campaign. IT expertise was utilized through the on-line presence of a significant number, including UK government staff based in England.

Social media (Facebook) played an important role in local campaigning especially as it enabled “Better Together” to more effectively mobilize more volunteers and disseminate information using the “Patriot” software.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-23379615)

16 Dec 2014: Westminster Civil Service, “Devolved Countries Unit”, (Dirty Tricks) campaign team wins “special” Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service Award

The three amigo’s who actually run the UK: Sir Jeremy Heywood, Sir Bob Kerslake and Sir Nicholas McPherson collaborated and plotted against Scotland marshalling the full might of the civil service attacking the Scottish government and anyone in support of the “Yes” campaign.

In the months after the referendum they expressed great satisfaction that their “Campaign of fear” had generated “fearties” in sufficient numbers so as to win the day for the Unionist coalition.

An award, in recognition of the team’s outstanding achievement in making a difference on an issue of national significance, (the Referendum) was presented by the ”Cabinet Secretary and civil service head Sir Jeremy Heywood. The proud team of strictly impartial, very senior civil servants commented afterwards;

* Paul Doyle;

“This award is for all the hard work that was done by all government departments on the Scotland agenda. The reality was in all my experience of the civil service, I have never seen the civil service pull together in the way they did behind supporting the UK government in maintaining the United Kingdom.”

* William MacFarlane, Deputy Director at HM Treasury, (Budget and Tax Strategy);

“As civil servants you don’t get involved in politics. For the first time in my life, suddenly we’re part of a political campaign. We were doing everything from the analysis, to the advertising, to the communications. I just felt a massive sense of being part of the operation. This being recognized [at the Civil Service Awards], makes me feel just incredibly proud.”

* Shannon Cochrane;

“We’ve learned that it is possible for civil servants to work on things that are inherently political and quite difficult, and you’re very close to the line of what is appropriate, but it’s possible to find your way through and to make a difference.

* Mario Pisani Deputy Director at HM Treasury, (Public Policy);

“We all had something in common, we’re trying to save the Union here, and it came so close. We just kept it by the skin of our teeth. I actually cried when the result came in. After 10 years in the civil service, my proudest moment is tonight and receiving this award. As civil servants you don’t get involved in politics.

For the first time in my life, suddenly we’re part of a political campaign. We were doing everything from the analysis, to the advertising, to the communications. I just felt a massive sense of being part of the operation. This being recognized [at the Civil Service Awards], makes me feel just incredibly proud.”

http://www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/hm-treasury-team-wins-special-civil-service-award

Comment: The Scottish electorate should be concerned about the abuse of personal information by State supported bodies:

“Anyone with a credit card, bank account, loan, mortgage, store card or monthly/quarterly mobile phone will likely have an Experian profile. The company conducts millions of credit checks each year on many hundreds of thousands of UK citizens. The level of data they collect and hold is frankly staggering. Making matters worse, the information Experian retain is very often gathered without our knowledge.

Companies run credit checks on potential customers whenever a new application for credit is made, yet it is rarely explained what “doing a credit check” actually entails. In fact, the consumer has little to no choice over which company actually undertakes the credit check. They are chosen by the bank, estate agent, mobile phone network or any other commercial organization.

Not engaging with a credit reference agency is almost impossible. It would entail not having a bank account, not having any direct debits, not having a credit card, not renting or owning a property. We have to, whether we like it or not, engage with these companies.

The consumer needs to be able to trust companies such as Experian that handle massive levels of personal data, more acute when we have little to no say over what data they hold.”

This is what the French thought: (https://rfcb.revues.org/418?lang=en)

The Scottish Tory & Unionist Party and Glasgow Rangers

Links between Tory Party MSP’s and other Individuals, Glasgow Rangers, the Ulster Democratic Unionist Party (UDUP) and the Orange Order are an unhealthy manifestation of the hard line Unionist approach to politics in Scotland adopted by the Tory Party under the Leadership of Ruth Davidson. It is time Scottish Rangers supporters, (the bulk of the fans) voiced their views publicly making it clear that the sectarian views of the largely foreign minority have no platform with Glasgow Rangers. Politicians are expert at exploiting division to their party’s ends and fans should reject any political mischief.

Old Firm Match Sunday 11 March 2018 – The Conduct of Douglas Ross – Linesman

The match was frenetic and chaotic but played in good spirit and was finely balanced until the 57th minute when Referee Collum sent Jozo Simunovic packing for elbowing Alfredo Morelos.

Collum, was behind the play and being unsighted might have viewed the incident as a 50/50 tackle but there was no chance of that since the linesman Douglas Ross, (Tory MP) who was also behind play frantically waved his flag and repeatedly shouted “Red card !Red card! Red card!” forcing the referee to send the Celtic player off. Watching a replay later it is clear that Simunovic’s arm is outstretched and there is contact with the upper body of Morelos but the disparity in height between the players exacerbated the incident and it is difficult to determine if there was any malice aforethought on the part of Simunovic unless you’re Douglas Ross.

The antics of Mr Ross were widely criticized and reported in the media after the match and in consideration of the necessity to ensure politics and sport are not adversely influenced by conflicting loyalties it is perhaps time politicians steered clear of officiating in professional sporting events.

15 May 2008: UK Prime Minister Brands Rangers Riot Fans ‘A Disgrace’

The Prime Minister, Mr Brown condemned the hooligans for their running battles with police during and after the Uefa Cup final, while a senior police commander compared them to a “pack of wolves” after one of her officers was pounced on by about 20 thugs.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister, said the “shocking and unacceptable” violence had severely dented Scotland’s hard-won reputation for well-behaved football fans.

The Scottish Conservatives’ deputy leader, Murdo Fraser, a Rangers fan, suggested the problem may have been caused by heavy-handed policing.

The crowds of up to 200,000 Rangers fans who travelled to watch the UEFA Cup final in Manchester left a “tide of filth” in their wake. The streets were littered with broken glass, empty bottles, cans, vomit and even human excrement.

It looked “like a tornado had hit the city”, one resident said. Yesterday, the city council was embarking on its biggest ever clean-up, with hundreds of tonnes of rubbish uplifted. (the Scotsman)

Former Vice Chairman of the Scottish Tory Party Provides a Secret £425,000 Brexit Donation for the DUP

Brian Monteith, former Tory MSP and ex-colleague of Richard Cook, the Scot whose group plowed more than £400k from undeclared donors into the DUP for its pro-Brexit campaign, denies knowing where the money came from.

Monteith runs the right-leaning think tank Think Scotland, for which Cook once acted as a senior adviser, and served as head of press at Leave.EU, which campaigned for withdrawal in the EU referendum.

Leave.EU was co-funded by Arron Banks, whose EU referendum donations are still under investigation by the Electoral Commission.

Cook also chairs the top secret Constitutional Research Council (CRC), which bankrolled part of the DUP’s Brexit campaign.

Full story at (opendemocracy)

17 Jan 2018: Bella Caledonia Addresses the Scottish Tory Party Agenda

There have always been extreme elements on the Scottish right. As a political tradition, it is defined by a drooling loyalty to antique British institutions, from the Crown and the Union to the empire and the military. But they are more pronounced now than they have been for years – and Ruth Davidson is directly to blame for that.

In an effort to shore-up opposition to independence, and to consolidate her electoral base, she elevated hard line unionism to the centre of her entire political strategy, relentlessly exaggerating the threat of a second independence referendum while simultaneously decrying the “turmoil and division” of the first one.

The result is a form of turbocharged British identity politics, heavily laden with right-wing jingoism, that has resonated with some of the most backward and reactionary (and Orange-inflected) sections of Scottish society.

That’s why she won’t publicly disown those members of her party who use arcane slurs to describe Irish Catholics, or who openly celebrate the sectarian lineage of Rangers Football Club, or who eulogize Enoch Powell. Her success is symbiotically linked to their support, and without them, she would be lost.

For anyone even slightly familiar with the iconography of unionism in Northern Ireland, which fetishes the royal family and the UK armed forces, the messaging was and is unmistakable. Indeed, the Scottish Tories have a much closer relationship to the Orange Order than they are willing to admit.

According to a report last year, which quoted Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland Grand Master Jim McHarg, a “huge number” of the Lodge’s estimated 50,000 Scottish supporters are Tories, and more members of the Order are now serving as elected officials across Scotland than at any time in the past two decades. (bella caledonia)

16/08/2016: A Holyrood Motion – Adam Tomkins, MSP, Representing Glasgow for the Tory & Unionist Party

That Parliament congratulates the Rangers Charity Foundation on the work it has undertaken in summer 2016 under its director, Connal Cochrane, in the communities of Ibrox and Govan;

Notes that 114 young people from the local area attended a free summer camp in July, run by the foundation, which allowed them to participate not just in football but in dance and badminton clubs.

Recognizes that the foundation hosts the Glasgow Veterans United organization at Ibrox Stadium, which helps veterans in overcoming addictions and mental health issues, and that many veterans go on and obtain an SFA level 1 coaching badge, and further notes the positive impact that the foundation’s work will continue to have during the 2016-17 season with many new programmes to be introduced, including a Friday night sports hub for young people from the local area and a food bank collection that was organized by the foundation prior to the Rangers v Motherwell match on 20 August in aid of the Glasgow South West food bank, which is based at Govan Parish Church. Supported by 21 MSP’s (19 Tory):

Tory MSP’s: Miles Briggs, Alexander Burnett, Maurice Corry, Oliver Mundell, Alexander Stewart, Jeremy Balfour, Margaret Mitchell, Alex Johnstone, Peter Chapman, Alison Harris, Murdo Fraser, John Lamont, Ross Thomson, Jackson Carlaw, Edward Mountain, Gordon Lindhurst, Brian Whittle, Maurice Golden, Neil Bibby.

2 Oct 2017: Compulsive Tweeter – Murdo Fraser Tory MSP

Fraser, a well known and unashamed anti-Catholic bigot, tweets sly sectarian driven innuendo almost daily alongside his Sevco tweets and his party never censor him.

The Scottish Tory’s clearly don’t give a toss about their MSP’s openly publishing and voicing anti-Catholic sentiments stirring the sectarian pot, they know their behaviour will not be condemned by the Scottish press and will be embraced by the Orange Order Unionists anticipating that the exposure will increase their vote share allowing them to carry on, and that sums up the Tory “one nation conservatism”.

Fraser tweeted, after the Bayern game about Celtic’s elimination from the Champions League: “Don’t you hate Scottish teams being dragged out of Europe against their will? And on Reformation Day too.”

After an “old firm” match in 2016 Fraser tweeted: “Rangers 5 Celtic 4 – The Queen’s 11 deliver Her Majesty the perfect Birthday present.”

Tweets, designed to increase the pain of losing confirm the mindset of the man who associates Brexit and Protestantism with Celtic’s elimination from the Champions League. And this from a someone who has sat in the Scottish parliament for nearly 20 years collecting his taxpayer funded salary as an MSP without ever being elected.

15 Nov 2016: Murdo Fraser – His College Days

Commenting on the election of Donald Trump, Tory MSP, Murdo Fraser wrote: “If it was mostly poorly-educated working-class males who voted Trump, wasn’t it the same demographic that largely voted yes in 2014?” Last month on Twitter he declared: “I’m British and I’m staying that way.”

At Aberdeen in the 1980s, he was a member of the FCS, the Federation of Conservative Students. The FCS were an organization so obnoxiously right-wing that they embarrassed even Norman Tebbit, who was then Conservative Party Chairman and not much left of Vlad the Impaler in his own political beliefs; and he had them disbanded in 1986.

When Murdo and his FCS mates weren’t strutting around the campus waving the Union Jack, they were behaving like pillocks towards gay students, singing “Hang Nelson Mandela!” at discos whenever the DJ played the Special AKA anthem Free Nelson Mandela, and making nuisances of themselves in pubs yelling “F*** the Pope!” But I guess that for Murdo, white, Protestant British nationalism is all good; whereas Scottish nationalism is unspeakably bad. (blood and porridge)

15 Mar 2018: Tweetie Time Again

Aidan Kerr Tweets: MSPs have voted to repeal the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act. https://stv.tv/news/politics/1410439-holyrood-scraps-offensive-behaviour-at-football-act/

Murdo Fraser added: Great to be part of this – scrapping illiberal, unworkable legislation

KAT Prodcast: Replying to Murdo Fraser: Murdo please be guarded against the inevitable consequences of this. The SNP along with others will comeback with a new shambolic piece of legislation that is blatantly aimed at Rangers fans (unionists) and doesn’t target the IRA nonsense and anti-British pish from they tramps.

16 Mar 2018: The Times: Letter from Stephen Davies (Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust)

Sir, further to your report (‘Poision Exposure Leaves Nearly 40 needing Treatment’), may I clarify that no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve agent poisoning in Salisbury and there have only ever been three patients with significant poisoning. Several people have attended the emergency department concerned that they may have been exposed. None has had symptoms of poisoning and none has needed treatment. Any blood tests performed have shown no abnormality. No member of the public has been contaminated by the agent involved.’

5 Mar 2018: Former Russian Spy Mysteriously Falls Ill in Britain.

A man identified as a retired Russian military intelligence officer who once spied for Britain is critically ill at a British hospital, and the authorities were investigating his “exposure to an unknown substance.”

The man, found unconscious on a bench together with a 33-year-old woman who fell sick with him in the city of Salisbury, has been named as Sergei V. Skripal, 66 and his daughter. He was once jailed by Moscow, then settled in Britain after an exchange of spies between the United States and Russia in 2010.

The police said a major incident, with a “multi-agency response,” had been declared. “At this stage it is not yet clear if a crime has been committed,” they said in a Twitter post, adding that they are “carrying out a full investigation & working with partner agencies, to clarify exact circumstances.”

The priority, the police said, is to identify any substances involved. They said they were working with experts to make a speedy diagnosis to ensure “appropriate and timely treatment.”

Mr. Skripal is a retired colonel in Russia’s military intelligence service. He was convicted in 2006 of having passed classified information to British intelligence, MI6, for a decade, in return for $100,000 wired to a bank account in Spain.

At the time of his conviction, the Federal Security Service, the domestic successor to the Soviet K.G.B., said in statements to Russian news agencies that Colonel Skripal began spying in 1995 while stationed overseas. His espionage activities were said to have continued even after he retired from the Russian military in 1999. (NYT)

12 Mar 2018: Britain Blames Russia for Nerve Agent Attack on Former Spy

Britain’s prime minister said on Monday that it was “highly likely” that Moscow was to blame for the poisoning of a former Russian spy attacked with a nerve agent near his home in southern England, and she warned of possible reprisals.

“It is now clear that Mr. Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia,” Mrs. May said in the House of Commons. “The government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.”

She said that either the poisoning was a “direct act of the Russian state against our country” or that Moscow had lost control of its nerve agent and had allowed it to get into the hands of others.

The White House took a different approach, declining to point a finger at Russia. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said at her daily briefing: “The use of a highly lethal nerve agent against U.K. citizens on U.K. soil is an outrage. The attack was reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible. We offer the fullest condemnation.”

But Ms. Sanders brushed off several questions about whether the White House shared Britain’s view that Russia was responsible. “Right now we are standing with our U.K. ally,” she said. “I think they’re still working through even some of the details of that and we’re going to continue to work with the U.K.”

“This is a circus show in the British Parliament,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, told journalists in Moscow.

Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy head of the Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee, was equally dismissive. Whatever Mr. Skripal may have once done, he said, he posed no threat to Russia now. “This already is not our issue,” Mr. Dzhabarov said. “He had access neither to our secrets nor facilities. He was of no use to us, to Russia in general.” (The Insider)

13 Mar 2018: What is the Novichok Nerve Agent

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Russia signed the Chemical Weapons Convention and destroyed stocks of all listed chemicals.

But many chemicals in everyday use within industry and in the home are not included in the Convention.

In 1992 a Russian Chemist, Vil Mirzayanov revealed the existence of a new binary nerve agent named Novichok and was arrested and punished for revealing State secrets.

Novichok agents are easy to manufacture covertly because they can be made with commonly available chemicals, (not on the banned list) in relatively simple pesticide factories anywhere in the world.

Vil Mirzayanov said: “the weapons originality lies in the simplicity of its components, which are used in civilian industry and which cannot, therefore be regulated by international experts”

The break-up of the Soviet Union brought with it an availability of stocks of unregulated Novichok chemicals and the distinct possibility that stocks may have been made available to terrorist groups or criminal elements within and outwith the former Soviet Union.

Detection and Treatment

Detection and treatment is not well established and their use as a weapon of terrorism presents difficulties when considered with the ability of amateur journeymen to manufacture them in binary form totally free of controls.

Delivery of Novichok is in liquid or vapour form and there is no minimum toxicity dose. Onset of symptoms, (restlessness, loss of consciousness, wheezing, and a running nose) is measured in seconds when inhaled and longer when absorbed with liquid

Hospital triage of patients should first include decontamination before therapy. Patients exposed to the vapour agent that are still awake are likely to recover after treatment. (C E Stewart)

12 Mar 2018: Russia ceased production of the Novichok nerve agent around 1998 and stocks were destroyed.

A Russian spokesperson briefed the press that the British claim that the Novichok nerve agent was only accessible to the Russian government was untrue, adding:

“Novichok was manufactured in Uzbekistan in the Soviet times and after the fall of the Soviet Union and, it is common knowledge that American intelligence services had access to the factory. The American and British intelligence services are well bonded and I am almost certain that the British got this Novichok nerve agent from them. It is clear Washington and London are working together to nullify Russia’s growth.

Placing blame on Russia for the attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal without definitive evidence is unwise given that the Novichok agent can be manufactured in someone’s kitchen and the chemicals needed are not included on any banning list.

An added fact is that Skripal spent 6 years in a Russian prison before being exchanged – Bags of time for Putin to have him killed for being a traitor.

It will be of interest that Skripal’s MI6 handler was Christopher Steel, the author of the fake Trump dossier debacle which has recently been exposed as a blatant MI6 attempt to prevent Trump from winning the recent Presidential campaign.

13 Mar 2018:  The Russian Response  – Russia demands Nerve Agent Samples in Standoff Over Poisoned Spy

Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov ,in a press briefing stressed that the UK should abide by the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and provide Russia with access to the samples of the nerve-agent which was allegedly used to poison Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

The Russian Public

Many Russians believe Western spymasters are behind the nerve-agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, as conspiracy theories about the attempted assassination flourish.

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s allegation that the Russian government’s involvement was “highly likely” in the attempt to kill Sergei Skripal, 66, with the Novichok nerve agent on March 4  are an attempt to deflect public attention from the internal problems her government is facing, including Brexit.

The Russian public simply do not believe that President Putin or anyone in the Russian intelligence would order such a murky way of getting rid of Skripal.

Is an Increase in Sanctions Against Russia Possible

The UK has been putting out feelers to sense what countries would be prepared to do in a show of solidarity.

No EU country has so far committed itself to further sanctions against Russia if the UK declares the Russian state had acted unlawfully on British soil.

Returns also indicate that some EU countries will advise the UK to put its own house in order, rather than agree new collective sanctions.

Norbert Röttgen, chairman of Germany’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said the case showed the need to target the blurred lines between the Russian state security apparatus and organized crime.

He added: “The incident should provide a reason for Britain to examine its open stance towards Russian capital of dubious origin”

MEP’s in Brussels are questioning whether the UK would use legislation – such as unexplained wealth orders that are included in the Criminal Finance Act 2017 – to challenge Russian millionaires living in the UK.

Tory government Ministers insisted the legislation may be used but they cannot risk using them in a way that undermines the UK’s reputation for judicial independence. (the times)

9 Mar 2018: Criminal probe launched as sectarian flyer showing abuse against ‘Fenians’ surfaces before match

The flyer, posted on the “Union Bears” Facebook page showed a silhouette image of someone wearing a green-and-white hooped jersey being kicked in the head while on the ground, surrounded by text reading: “Good night, green white.”

And added: “The Union Bears have organized a fans march to Ibrox before Sunday’s game against the Fenian’s. The march will leave the Kinning Park Louden Tavern at 10.45am. Wearing dark coloured clothing is encouraged. Please pass this on to fellow Rangers supporters. “UB07.”

Match commander Superintendent Alan Murray revealed Police Scotland is now looking into the controversial flyer. He said: “We are aware of a planned fans’ march on Sunday and would urge supporters not to join in.

Large groups of fans moving together can cause problems and I am asking fans to make their way to the ground as normal. We are aware of the content of the advert connected to the march, which permission has not been granted for.

A criminal investigation has been launched into the wording and logo of the advert.”

The fan pages have called for Police Scotland to take action against the Union Bears, with the statement: “The time to act is now, when the incitement is so explicit as it is with the Union Bears’ poster.

Waiting until after the called-for assaults have taken place is not an option. There is no place for this in football and there is no place for this in Scotland.” (Evening Express)

11 Mar 2018: Hundreds join Rangers v Celtic game march in defiance of police

Hundreds joined in a Rangers ultras fans group-organized march promoted by a sectarian hate-filled flyer which also depicted a Celtic supporter being booted on the ground. The, “Goodnight Green and White” banner was draped across a large group of face covered, balaclava-wearing marchers at the front.

The marchers set off red, white and blue smoke bombs in support of the Union and sang celebratory Rangers songs and sectarian offensive songs including “Follow, Follow” containing the “f*** the Pope and the Vatican”.

The police who had urged Rangers fans to boycott the unauthorized march have launched a probe into Rangers fan group the Union Bears. (Evening Express)

15 Mar 2018: Fake news:

To MSP Members of the Tory Party Rangers Football Club

I’m writing to hopefully discuss the disgusting scenes witnessed at Ibrox yesterday. I have attended hundreds of football matches at Ibrox, Parkhead And Hampden but I have never seen a Rangers supporters march like yesterday. As a Rangers supporter, it’s safe to say I was afraid for my safety and that of Celtic fans also attending.

I appreciate there’s not a huge amount that can be done following the recent removal from statute, by the Unionist parties at Holyrood, of the SNP government anti-social behaviour legislation, but I am keen to know your thoughts on the matter, none the less, and hoped as the Tory Party is the main opposition, they would be the best body to contact.

I know I speak for the majority of Rangers fans when I say that we can’t accept what happened yesterday getting swept under the rug by the Unionist supporting, media, press and BBC.

What follows, in case of interest, are the lines the Scottish Conservatives have put out today 14 Mar 2018.

“The “Union Bears” organized illegal march on Sunday before the match ruined what should have been a great advert for Scottish football.

It is understood that Police Scotland have set up a unit to investigate the matter further, and the Tory Party would urge them to ensure that all routes are taken to identify and charge anyone involved in criminal acts.

The hard work of footballing authorities, the police, football teams and their supporters has meant that significant progress has been made in the past two decades in making attending football matches in Scotland safer and more enjoyable, sadly the scenes on Saturday represent a significant setback for that progress.”

This is not the end of this matter, but I hope you can see from the above that we have made a start in getting to the bottom of this, with a view to ensuring that all relevant lessons are learned.

With very best wishes: Glasgow Rangers Football Club Conservative Party MSP’s (http://forum.followfollow.com)

14 Mar 2018: Forum members comments:

* Bravo the Tory Party. I actually trust it to do their best for us.
* I’m heartened to read that response from the Tory Party
* Thank you Tory MSP’s. I trust the party will be vigilant when the SNP and Labour attempt to whitewash this affair.
* If this party was in charge, they would get more votes.
* One of the reasons why I voted Conservative for the first time in recent elections.
* That is the difference between a real political party and a shower of charlatans (SNP and Labour).
* Impressed with that response.
* That reply is very good. Hope they deliver.
* Good reply, The SNP could learn from the Unionist Tory Party.
* This is the result of voting Conservative in the Glasgow region. Don’t give SNP or Labour your votes, they despise Gers fans not like the Tory’s who love us.
* This is one of the reasons I voted conservative for the first time
* Excellent response. I don’t know why we don’t vote more conservative in Scotland.
* A good reply. Glad to see that we have someone our side.
* Best political response so far…..sadly maybe the only one. Sunday’s troubles and concerns should transcend politics.
* Excellent reply from the Tory party. It’s good to know we have politician’s in our corner. I may need some advice later.
* The Tory’s have just gained a vote for the next election. Bravo. But hopefully they will keep to their word and clamp down on the Ultra’s.

Read also:

https://caltonjock.com/2016/10/27/in-bed-with-the-unionist-scottish-tories-rangers-football-club-supporters-reveal-their-hand/

https://caltonjock.com/2016/11/05/teddy-bear-supporters-embraced-the-unionist-fear-campaign-in-the-2014-referendum-the-tory-party-is-hi-jacking-the-club-to-its-cause-rangers-fans-beware/

https://caltonjock.com/2016/12/02/glasgow-rangers-fans-westminster-unionists-or-scottish-patriots-if-you-know-their-history-you-wouldnt-have-to-ask-true-teddy-bears-are-wrap-themselves-in-the-saltire/

Claire Louise Roe

b1976 – Lived in Southend, England. Parents divorced and she returned to Scotland with her mother.

Son, Cameron Roe, b 2001. Raised child as a single mother.

2015: Married Neil Martin Imrie. Recently announced she was with child. Due Aug 2018.

Parents: Father: Michael David Roe: b1956, Southend-On-Sea, England. Prison Service Officer. Resides England.

Mother: Karen Fraser Lovie: b1955 Aberdeen, Scotland. Divorced. Re-married Gary Trimmer 2000. Employed Aberdeen Council. Resides Aberdeenshire.

Education: Thorpe Bay High School (Near Southend-On-Sea) Secondary Education

Voluntary Community Service:

C-Fine Enterprises Ltd. (http://www.cfine.org) Charity operates food banks, good neighbours schemes.
Aberdeen performing Arts Committee
Gordon Highlander Museum Committee
Macdonald Art Committee
Rubislaw Field Committee
Friends of Hazlehead Park

Politics:

Elected Councillor (Tory Party) for Queens Cross, Countesswells & Hazlehead, May 2017

Employment:

Jun 2017 – to date: Dishy Dogs Ltd. (production and retailing of spicy sausages. Owns and operates enterprise together with her husband Neil.

Jul – Sep 2016: Events Consultant. 11th Annual Asset Integrity Management Aberdeen.

Jan 2009 – Jun 2016: Clerical duties. The Wood Group.

2004 – 2013: Part time Photographic and fashion modelling for a number of Agencies.

1994 – 2003: No record of employment in 9 years. Aged 18 – 27 years old.

8 Mar 2018: The Baby Box Story

The baby Box story first appeared in the the Unionist local rag,  The Press & Journal quoting Louise saying:

“I am lucky enough not to require a box which, in my opinion should be provided only to those in most need. Aberdeen Council, of which I am a Councillor, produced a working budget for the current year with reduced resources unlike the SNP government who are insisting on the provision of unnecessary provisions such as baby boxes which should be means tested. I intend donating mine to the CFINE foodbank where I am a volunteer helper” (paraphrased)

Willie Young gets involved accusing the midwife of completing the application form then attempts to deny it!!!

Government and SNP Councillor Reply

A Scottish Government spokeswoman stated: “Every baby born and living in Scotland is entitled to a Baby Box, but parents must opt in to the scheme by registering at an existing midwife appointment, or via their family nurse.

“The registration form must be signed by both the parent and the healthcare professional to validate the claim.”

SNP Councillor Michael Hutchison said: “I fundamentally disagree with the principle of means testing the baby box, but let’s consider how absurdly impractical means testing would be.

“What sort of cut-off are the Tories and Jennifer Stewart suggesting? Would we be taking baby boxes back from mothers-to-be if they get a pay-rise before they give birth? Or would it be phased, with a few less [items] if you earn more, up until you just get an empty box?”

Unionist Councillor Supporters Have Their Say

She was backed by former Lib/Dem now Independent Councillor, Jennifer Stewart who called the boxes a “vanity project. Adding most people I know wouldn’t want to put their baby in a box and neither would I.”

Readers Have Their Say:

Comment: A background search of her wider family group reveals no evidence of any political preference, with one exception. Her husband Neil. A declared Unionist. Claire is extremely photogenic, as are the other Lovie ladies and it is not surprising she enjoyed a successful career as a model. She is a talented, well intentioned, hard working lady who should do well in politics, always provided she avoids petty political punch-ups; eg. the baby-box fiasco. Caroline Lucas (Green Party leader) would be a much better choice for her, as a role model than Ross Thomson.

Lauren Apfel – A lady of Principle

Lauren Apfel is married to Adam Tomkins (MSP.) They have 4 children, including one set of twins. Lauren is an American Jew. She was born in New York. The children are raised and schooled in the Jewish Faith.

Her parents Richard Apfel & Sharon Bickler were married in 1966. They had 3 children. The marriage ended when Lauren was still young.

Her father departed the scene to operate his own Media Services Company whilst Sharon went on to marry the brilliant head trauma safety expert, Dr CJ Abraham. The combined “new” family increased in size to around 8-9 in total and reside in Great Neck, New York.

Lauren was a very gifted scholar who graduated from a number of “Top” universities in the USA. She then moved to England attending Oxford University studying the classics, literature and ancient history. Her sister Gillian, also a gifted scholar is a senior diplomat with the US State Department and admires Hilary Clinton

Lauren met her future husband, Adam Tomkins at Oxford. She put a very promising career in journalism on hold so that she would be able to raise her ever increasing family giving them all of her attention, a sacrifice, gleaned from her writing she does not regret. She publishes an excellent magazine/blog for thinking mothers.

Tomkins himself was also a gifted scholar and has written and published many academic books/publications. His swearing an oath of allegiance to HM Queen Elizabeth at the time he took up politics with the Tory Party could be likened to the Pope expressing solidarity with the Ulster Unionists. A strange event indeed. The SNP would have been a better fit.

Lauren however has no doubts about the fit of her politics and the British royalty. They don’t and she is to be admired for her honesty. The article, written and published by Lauren is printed below. Happy reading indeed.

22 Jul 2013: Lauren Apfel takes Britain to task for allowing the continuation of a governmental system that relies on the existence of a Royal family – Princes Are for Fairy Tales

Am I the only person in the world today not going gaga over the arrival of the royal baby?

Don’t get me wrong: it’s not that I don’t like the royal baby. I’m sure His Royal Highness is practically perfect in every way, and I, too, will wait with bated breath for the release of his first picture spread. It’s that I don’t like the royal baby.

Maybe this is because I am an American in Britain who nurtures a homegrown belief in the principle of the republic despite living in a country manifestly the opposite. Maybe it’s because, as a longtime student of political philosophy, I have a distaste for unelected power. Or maybe it’s because, as a parent, I just don’t care for princes and princesses, whatever form they come in.

Americans use the phrase “British royalty” loosely. In the glossy magazines, the expression refers to celebrities whose fame and whose children’s names and faces have managed to cross the popularity divide of the Atlantic Ocean. But as much as we lump William and Kate together with, say, David and Victoria Beckham as examples of A-listers who hail from Britain, the quotation marks matter. The metaphor of royalty is different from its reality.

The reality is that this baby is not a Beckham or a McCartney or a Connery. He is a Windsor, and that is a surname that comes with serious consequences — perhaps not to people in the United States, where political position isn’t so overtly contingent on lineage, but to those of us who reside on this small island, and to our children’s standing as subjects, not citizens.

The truth of the matter is that British people are both subjects and citizens. Britain is a constitutional monarchy, with a prime minister who is elected and a queen who is not. Many Brits take comfort in the idea that the sovereign is a figurehead. They indulge in the pomp and circumstance of royalty, the jubilees and the garden parties, all the while knowing that their true interests are represented by a Parliament of their own choosing. But the influence of the Crown, as an institution, goes well beyond the symbolism of Victoria sponge cake.

For the queen is still the head of state, the public face of this nation, which is something my child can never be. Your American child, on the other hand, very well might. Every child in the United States who is a natural-born citizen has the potential to be president. This is an equality of opportunity for which our founding fathers fought hard. It is the point Johann Hari was making when he quipped: “The American head of state grew up with a mother on food stamps. The British head of state grew up with a mother on postage stamps.” It is also the point Jaime Moore was making when, in a stunning series of photographs, she posed her 5-year-old not as a princess, but as a candidate for the highest office in the land.

The existence of royalty raises a special problem for our daughters. We are awash in a “princess” culture, in which girls — very little girls — idolize a subset of characters distinguished mainly by their cinched waistlines, their ability to accessorize with a diadem, and an arbitrary title. Our daughters need real heroes to emulate, the argument goes: women who can be admired for their strength of purpose, their brains, their prowess. Women who can be admired for the fact that they have achieved their status as heroes precisely because of these qualities.

Alas, real princesses do not fall into this category, either. They have the capacity to achieve, of course, but their royal status is not dependent on it. For that, there is only inheritance or marriage. A princess, as Peggy Orenstein notes in her brilliant book “Cinderella Ate My Daughter,” is “special” and “elevated” by her mere existence. She doesn’t actually have to do anything, except perhaps look good.

Among the Cinderella-like attributes Ms. Orenstein lists as the ones young girls aspire to are the desire to “please everyone, be very thin and dress right.” This describes some of the members of the Disney pantheon, to be sure, but it also describes, to a tee, the features of Kate Middleton with which we are particularly obsessed — not to mention those of Princess Diana before her.

Now there is a new royal in town. Our continued, collective interest in the Prince of Cambridge will be because he is a celebrity baby, but it will also be because he is third in line to the British throne. This is why, even as a lover of birth announcements, my enthusiasm is damp at best.

The message royalty sends to our children — the one about meritocracy, just as much as the one about aesthetics — is all the more suspect when it comes in flesh and blood. Prince Charming, at least, can be explained away as so much make-believe. Which is exactly what I tell my own children: princes and princesses belong in fairy tales, not in real life.

https://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/22/princes-are-for-fairy-tales/

http://www.beyondyourblog.com/podcast/byb-091-writing-for-motherwell-magazine-with-executive-editors-randi-olin-and-lauren-apfel/

https://caltonjock.com/2015/09/02/professor-adam-tomkins-a-visionary-or-a-plonker-the-scottish-jury-is-still-out-but-a-verdict-is-expected-very-soon-part-1/
https://caltonjock.com/2015/09/02/professor-adam-tomkins-a-visionary-or-a-plonker-the-scottish-jury-is-still-out-but-a-verdict-is-expected-very-soon-part-2/
https://caltonjock.com/2015/09/02/professor-adam-tomkins-a-visionary-or-a-plonker-the-scottish-jury-is-still-out-but-a-verdict-is-expected-very-soon-part-3/
https://caltonjock.com/2016/10/26/get-to-know-chancer-prof-adam-tomkins-the-tory-list-msp-is-the-brains-behind-the-scottish-tory-deferendum-campaign/

4 Mar 2018: Facing Up to the Reality of Brexit

I read with interest the interview with John Scott MSP in last week’s edition of The Scottish Farmer. His key message appeared to be for everyone to stop worrying because the Tories would ensure a positive Brexit landing for Scotland’s Food and Farming industry.

Tenant Farmers Meet to Protest

24 Feb 2018: Cayman Isles Registered Tax Free Buccleuch Estates  accused of ‘bullying and intimidation’ by tenant farmers who are having their tenancy ended.

At a public meeting in Langholm last night the audience heard from Alison and David Telfer of Cleuchfoot who spoke emotionally about the way they had been treated.

The Estate Chief Executive, John Glen attended together with Oliver Mundell, Dumfriesshire MSP, and chairman Chris Badenoch.

Mrs Telfer said that last September they were told their lease would probably not be renewed. They met Alan Nisbet, then the estate manager, in October.

She said: “He told us our lease was ending at the end of February, that the hill would be planted and the house and the rest of the land sold.

“He said ‘the die is cast, this will happen’. Whatever our retirement plans were, bring them forward four or five years.

“We asked what would happen to our hefted flock of South Country Cheviot’s. He said they would be cleared and we couldn’t be sentimental about sheep.

“We subsequently found out that Buccleuch’s forester had been at the community council meeting the night before we were officially told what was happening on our farm.

“He said the farm was not big enough on its own to provide an income and the farmer was coming out at the end of November. Neither statement was true.”

She said negotiations continued but they weren’t happy with Buccleuch’s proposals because Buccleuch wouldn’t buy the sheep.

“Our agent rang us on February 14 to say that Mr Glen had issued a very distressing ultimatum; that if we didn’t agree to their proposals, the next day they would start proceedings to evict us at the end of the month.

“We eventually signed the paperwork on the 22nd but we aren’t happy with what we’ve had to sign. We feel we were bullied and intimidated into it.”

Mr Glen said he never intended to have this effect on the tenants.

He said: “I regret and I’m sorry if that’s the feeling. It’s not what we’re aiming to do. We want to have professional conversations with our tenants.

“I do take it on board and I’ll look at our processes if that’s the way you think people (at Buccleuch) are behaving.”

Mundell said: “You (Buccleuch) have to accept that, if that’s the perception people have of your organization, that’s not a good position to be in.

“People aren’t always happy with the outcome of negotiations between a landlord and tenant but this here goes beyond that.

“Tenants feel intimidated and can’t speak out. I’ve lost count of the number of people who can’t believe that it’s come to this.

“We’re now in the very sad position where people don’t trust what you have to say and something seriously needs to be done to address that. It’s not a happy position for a community to be in.

“Of course, there is change but it’s the pace of change which shocked people.” (Eskdale & Liddlesdale Advertiser)

And why was Joan McAlpine not in attendance. She referred the issue to Holyrood

MSP Joan McAlpine has raised questions over Buccleuch Estates ending tenancies on their land in Eskdale with the intention to plant trees instead.

Ms McAlpine wrote to ministers after she was approached by tenants facing eviction at the hands of Scotland’s biggest private landowner.

The local MSP asked Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing what can be done to ensure that landowners like Buccleuch are not incentivised to plant forestry at the expense of tenant farmers.

She has also questioned whether Buccleuch’s actions go against the spirit of the Land Reform Act – and has written to Land Reform Secretary Roseanna Cunningham for advice. Commenting, Ms McAlpine said:

“I understand the importance of forestry and timber production.  The aim of planting more trees is commendable. However, this should absolutely not be at the expense of tenant farmers – we need to ensure that landowners like Buccleuch are not exploiting their tenants to line their own pockets.”

Constituents also informed Ms McAlpine that Buccleuch Estates had promised a community meeting on the issue – where locals could air their grievances and ask questions in a public forum.

However, the meeting  – scheduled for the 27^th of February – is to be run as a drop in, and locals are disappointed since this is not what was promised.

Ms McAlpine has approached Buccleuch to ask them to reconsider the format of the meeting. She said:

“Buccleuch Estates promised a community meeting and this is what the community are expecting – I have written to them and hope that they will deliver on this.”

https://caltonjock.com/2017/08/15/duke-of-buccleuch-gets-1million-farming-subsidy-from-the-taxpayer-each-year-then-charges-walkers-10-each-to-use-his-estate-byways-and-pathways-bloody-cheek/

Pentland Ltd, is a company based in the Cayman Islands.

It is part of the extensive group of companies whose ultimate parent undertaking and controlling entity is ‘The Buccleuch Estates Limited’ (BEL) and is listed in the annual accounts as a subsidiary undertaking with the principal activity of property development through which money is routinely loaned at keen interest rates between all of the aforesaid companies in the group.

The company is a subsidiary of:

(1) Dabton Investments Ltd. Founded initially by the current duke and his brother Damian and incorporated in May 2009, Dabton Investments Ltd was owned by the Scott family until 2013 when 100% of the issued share capital was acquired by Tarras Park Properties Ltd:

Tarras Park is in turn a subsidiary of:

(2) Buccleuch Properties Limited, a BEL company.

The consortium, valued in excess of £90million comprises Mixed Farming, Farming, Farm Management, Property, Agricultural Services, Estate Management, Fishing, Property Development, Forestry, Residential Developments, Bioenergy, Rural Land Management and House Building, Bioenergy

Important, comprehensive reviews of the activities of Buccleuch Consortium are to be found at:

http://www.andywightman.com/archives/date/2016/03

http://www.thenational.scot/news/14902205.Revealed__The_Duke_of_Buccleuch_and_the_offshore_haven/

http://www.thenational.scot/comment/14863069.Andy_Wightman__On_the_trail_of_Pentland_Ltd/

Duke of Buccleuch

Brexit – National Farmers Union Policy Statement

NFU Scotland considers it vital that the outcome of the Brexit negotiations give Scottish farmers, crofters and growers opportunities to profitably and sustainably grow their businesses so they can continue to underpin the rural economy, local communities and environmental gains.

Brexit – Tory Government Proposed Policies

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural affairs, at the start of his tenure undertook, as part of the Brexit process, to end the unwarranted farming cash bonanza titled the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which for nearly 45 years has further increased the wealth of already very rich landowners simply in recognition of the amount of land in their ownership.

At the outset the CAP had been based around the provision of financial subsidies generating the production of an obscene excess of unneeded food, subsequent mass storage and disposal as landfill of huge butter mountains and wine lakes etc.

Then, after nearly 30 years of discussion within the EU, sense appeared to prevail and in 2003 the system was reformed only to be replaced with one even more banal in its concept.

Wealthy landowners would be paid huge sums of money annually to reduce farming activities whilst maintaining large tracts of their land in an agricultural state. Simply put, “money for old rope” coupled with the demise of tenant farmers whose leased tilled land would be left to return to nature. Small farmers got even poorer, but the rich big boys got richer.

The solution, post Brexit according to Gove is to get rid of the CAP allowing the Tory Party government to bring about a fundamental change in the nations approach to farming resulting from an absence of massive financial subsidies forcing farmers to produce only that which they are able to sell on for a profit to the food chain.

No more food mountains to be buried or fed to farm animals. Protection barriers to worldwide trade to be dismantled. A modern day utopia for the British public and a substantial saving for the Exchequer (£3bn annually) in London.

But all is not that straight forward, Gove is not of a mind to “slit his throat” taking anything away from the Ruth Davidson’s bakers dozen of right wing Unionist MP’s elected to parliament in London in 2017 on a binding promise to Scottish farmers to get rid of the CAP and replace it with a system more beneficial to all Scots in the farming community.

Gove’s new policy is to be one of financial reward for compliance with government policies directed at the protection of wildlife, plant life and the environment. Rates of payment are to be maintained at existing levels until 2022.

The impact of the policy will be to further increase the wealth of rich landowners who will convert their huge estates and farms into nature reserves and rambles with the guarantee of financial reward from government.

Thereafter reaping a second recurring and ever growing financial return on investment from hunting, fishing, shooting and other field sports and activities.

Sheep farming will be at risk since the return on investment will outweighed by income from estate visitors. Gentleman farmers no more. “Lords of leisure” a more fitting description.

And what is to become of the small farmer? Well, it is expected they will continue to attract financial support, reduced by a surcharge levy for any perceived damage to the environment caused by their farming activities.

But Scots are entitled to be assured that their taxes are utilized by the government efficiently eg. protecting the nations food production from failure or deterioration and improving the environment. Not lining the pockets of the rich.

2 Mar 2018: Liar Liar Pants on Fire – Gove Plans to Limit Farm Support Payments

Michael Gove has contradicted the speech he made at the Oxford Farming Conference in January where he promised that CAP Pillar One payments would continue at current levels to 2024, not 2022 as the recent consultation paper states.

Gove said: “As we leave the EU, we have a historic opportunity to deliver a farming policy which works for the whole industry. Today we are asking for the views of those who will be affected to make sure we get this right, so any future schemes reflect the reality of life for farmers and food producers.”

ScotGov responded by challenging the UK Government’s failure to recognize quality food production as a clear public good, as the estimated future funding cuts could penalize livestock producers across the board.

“It is concerning that the UK Government is seeking views on whether to remove direct support for basic farming activity or food production from farmers following the 2019 Basic Payment Scheme in England,” said Scot|Gov. “This would be wholly unacceptable in Scotland as it would put our farmers and food producers at a disadvantage to those in the EU and clearly demonstrates why it is absolutely vital for Scotland to have full control over agriculture policy.

“The paper gives no clarity on what the total funding for rural policy will be to replace CAP and environment and rural funding. Without that information it is impossible for farmers, foresters, fishermen, and environmental managers to make long term plans post Brexit.”

The consultation paper itself contradicts Gove’s speech at the Oxford Farming Conference in January, where he said CAP Pillar One payments would continue at current levels to 2024 – not 2022 as the new paper states.

NFU Scotland president Andrew McCornick said that the consultation once again affirmed the necessity that the future of agricultural policy remain within the hands of the devolved administrations. (The ScottishFarmer)

10 Feb 2018: Highland Re-Wilding Plan Has Ignored Local Residents’ Concerns

Kate Forbes, the SNP,  MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, believes that the views of local residents have been ignored under controversial proposals to re-introduce predators to a 23,000-acre estate in Sutherland, north of Inverness.

2 Mar 2018: Campaigning for Scotland the Brand

A SMALL but hardy contingent of ‘Keep Scotland the Brand’ campaigners gathered in Kelso last Saturday in support of Scottish farmers and produce.

The grassroots campaign, initiated by consumers, is growing all over rural Scotland, and was prompted by the steady disappearance of the Saltire on Scottish-grown food, and its replacement by Union flag packaging.

Scottish Public Opinion and The Making of the Treaty of Union of 1707

Karin Bowie  University of Glasgow

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The 1707 Treaty of Union – Rules of Government

Article 1

On 1 May 1707, the two kingdoms of Scotland and England shall be united into one kingdom GREAT BRITAIN and the crosses of St Andrew and St George be joined and used in flags, banners, standards and ensigns at sea and on land.

Article 2

The succession to the throne of Great Britain will pass to the Protestant heirs of Princess Sophia of Hanover and all Papists shall be excluded from the Crown of Great Britain.

Article 3

The United Kingdom will be represented by one and the same Parliament to be called the Parliament of Great Britain.

Articles 18-19

Scotland will keep its own separate laws, legal system and courts of law.

Articles 20-21

The Royal Burghs of Scotland and those holding heritable jurisdictions i.e. posts and offices granted for life, will have their rights and privileges preserved after union.

Articles 22-23

Scotland will be represented by 16 peers in the House of Lords and 45 members of Parliament in the House of Commons in the first Parliament of Great Britain. Scottish peers will have the same privileges as English peers.

Article 24

After the Union, there will be one Great Seal for Great Britain but Scotland will retain use of the Great Seal of Scotland for matters relating to private rights or grants. The Scottish Crown, Sceptre and Sword of State and all Scottish public and private records will be kept and will remain in Scotland.

Article 25

The final article revokes all previous acts that might operate against the union and confirms the full authority of law in passing the Act of Union.

Rules of Trade

Article 4

All subjects of Great Britain will have freedom of trade within the United Kingdom and with her colonies.

Article 5

All trading ships will be registered with Customs Officers in Great Britain.

Article 6

Great Britain will operate the same trade regulations and be liable for the same customs and duties on imports and exports.

Article 7

The level of excise duty on liquor set across England will operate throughout Great Britain.

Article 15

Scotland will receive the sum of £398,085 10s sterling, known as the Equivalent:

• • to reimburse Scottish investors for their losses in the Darien colony

• • to close the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies

• • to pay overdue salaries to Scottish government officials

• • to invest in promoting the fishing industry, the manufacture of coarse wool and other industries in Scotland

• to help Scotland pay new taxes due in the future from the British Parliament.

Article 16

Great Britain will use the same currency. Coins minted in Scotland will have the same value as those minted in England.

Article 17

Great Britain will use the same form of weights and measures. The Scottish system will be abolished and replaced with the English system.

Tax Rules

Articles 8-14

Scotland will pay

• • a new land tax

• • new taxes on salt and malt but not until 1710

• duties on windows and lights, and on coal, culm [coal dust] and cinders but not until 1710.

Scotland will not pay

• duties on stamped paper, vellum and parchment.