Swinney says Scottish government will sponsor visas for foreign care workers
John Swinney has said the Scottish government will help hundreds of overseas care workers stay in the UK, as he attacked Westminster for its rising hostility to immigrants,The first minister said it was unfair Scotland’s older people had to “pay the price for Westminster’s prejudice”, and that his devolved government would sponsor visa applications for workers needed to staff care homes, at a cost of about £500,000,Swinney described the UK government’s decision to greatly restrict access to visas for those jobs, in an effort to respond to rising tensions over mass migration, as deeply damaging,“Thousands of care workers here in the UK entirely legally have been left high and dry, unable to work, while care homes are crying out for staff,” he told the Scottish National party’s annual conference in Aberdeen,“In what world does that make any sense?”Swinney told delegates the measure was further evidence Scotland’s interests were being damaged by continued membership of the UK, as he confirmed he would make a fresh push for independence central to Scottish parliament elections next year.
Sketching out some of the key themes for that election campaign, he said Scotland could thrive with “a golden combination” of independence, rejoining the EU and the economic advantages from Scotland’s “vast, low-cost, renewable energy”.In an effort to energise delegates, he said: “We are going to break the logjam in Scottish politics … It’s time to be more assertive.”He cited the fact Scottish council tax and water bills were the UK’s lowest, as were Scotland’s child poverty rates.He highlighted free university tuition and prescriptions, free bus travel for under-22s and the scrapping of peak rail fares.This was delivered by “a government wholly owned by – and wholly serving – the people of Scotland”.
Swinney claimed the SNP was within reach of an overall majority at Holyrood by winning 65 seats, a figure he argued would form a mandate for the Scottish government to demand a new independence referendum,That approach has been repeatedly rejected by Keir Starmer, the prime minister, who has said the UK Labour government will not grant Scotland the legal powers to stage one,The first vote, in 2014, was won decisively by anti-independence campaigners, by 55% to 45%,Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, said on Sunday he and other Labour MPs, who won a majority of Scotland’s seats at Westminster last year, had been elected on a manifesto pledge not to approve a second independence vote,Nicola Sturgeon, who quit as first minister in 2023 after failing several times to deliver a new referendum, told reporters on Sunday she knew from experience it would be an “exceptionally hard task” for the SNP to win that majority.
Holyrood’s proportional voting system makes it very hard to win an overall majority for one party but Swinney’s goal has resonance for the SNP for several reasons.It has only happened once since the devolved parliament was set up in 1999, when Alex Salmond, the former SNP leader, won the 2011 Holyrood election with 69 of Holyrood’s 129 seats.That triggered talks between his government and the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in London on Scotland being given the temporary legal power to hold an independence referendum.But that was a voluntary, political decision by the UK government; there is no legal or constitutional requirement to do so.Swinney hinted on Sunday he believed that could form the basis for a legal challenge if the SNP were to win a majority and Starmer continued to block him.
Despite Sturgeon’s warnings, SNP strategists argue privately the independence strategy is necessary to win over hundreds of thousands of pro-independence voters who no longer back the SNP,Many of them voted Labour in last year’s general election,
The Guide #212: The Taylor Swift backlash has me asking: how much good music can one artist really produce?
Amid the flood of discourse around Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, one recurring sentiment jumped out: that the album – which many critics have declared a misstep in Swift’s otherwise consistently solid discography – felt hurried, hasty, rushed. “The Life of a Showgirl Is 40 Minutes of Elevator Music Rushed Out to Break a Beatles Record”, read the particularly savage headline of a piece on Collider. In the Guardian music desk’s excellent round table on the album, just about every panellist expressed a wish that Swift would take a break from the constant churn of releasing records, in order to recapture a lost spark.And it has been quite the churn. Since 2019 Swift has on average released an album a year, and that’s not counting the Taylor’s Version re-records of her older albums
Seth Meyers on Trump: ‘deeply unhinged, detached from reality’
Late-night hosts have questioned Donald Trump’s cognitive abilities as he makes further blunders during his second term.On Late Night, Seth Meyers replayed clips of various rightwingers talking about Joe Biden’s cognitive decline when he was president and then told viewers that the same people should be more aware of Trump having similar issues.Recently, he repeated the debunked claim that he predicted Osama bin Laden would engage in mass terrorist activity one year before 9/11. Meyers played footage of him slurring a catalogue of errors to a crowd. “Finding the dementia in that clip is like finding Waldo in a book called Oops! All Waldos,” he said
Spitting Image comics decry lawsuit over depiction of Paddington Bear
A decision to sue the makers of Spitting Image over a depiction of Paddington Bear as a foul-mouthed drug addict is an attack on comedy and freedom of expression, the comedians behind the reinvention have said.StudioCanal, the production company that made the recent Paddington movies, is taking legal action against the team behind Spitting Image over the character’s reimagining as the co-host of a satirical podcast, The Rest is Bulls*!t.In a new YouTube video responding to the lawsuit, however, a dishevelled Paddington is again seen snorting cocaine and using StudioCanal’s legal letter as toilet paper. The video calls on viewers to “remember to like and subscribe before Paddington gets cancelled”.The online show featuring Paddington’s makeover is produced by Avalon, the makers of Spitting Image – the satirical TV puppet show that angered numerous politicians when it ran throughout the 1980s
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s national guard deployments: ‘Incredibly dangerous and unnecessary’
Late-night hosts assessed Donald Trump’s deployment of the national guard for nonexistent crises and government dysfunction amid the ongoing shutdown.Jimmy Kimmel took a moment to acknowledge his home base of Los Angeles on Wednesday. “We are safe, we are sound, thanks to our president who saved us from ourselves by calling in the national guard to stop a conflict that never started – but could have! Had he not acted to prevent an entirely fabricated crisis from spilling out of his imagination and on to our streets,” he said, referring to Trump’s deployment of the national guard in LA to prevent a nonexistent insurrection.“Thank you, Mr President,” he continued. “Thank you for sending troops to occupy all of these Democrat-run cities, whether we want them or not
Bill Burr calls critics of Riyadh comedy festival ‘sanctimonious’ and ‘phoney’
Bill Burr has defended his appearance at the controversial Riyadh comedy festival, calling his critics “sanctimonious cunts”.The comedian has been under fire, alongside Kevin Hart, Louis CK, Aziz Ansari and Dave Chappelle, for being on the lineup for what was billed as “the world’s largest comedy festival”. The Human Rights Watch called out the event as a distraction, aiming to focus on something light rather than the “soaring number of executions” taking place while comedians such as Marc Maron and Shane Gillis expressed disappointment. David Cross wrote that he was “disgusted” in a statement.Burr spoke to Conan O’Brien as part of a live podcast, and said he felt “wonderful” about his appearance and doesn’t “give a fuck what all these phoney fucking people are saying”
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: ‘Why does he always sound like the dumbest member of the crime family?’
Late-night hosts discuss Donald Trump’s unhelpful comments on the ongoing government shutdown, Ghislaine Maxwell and Fox News being too “politically correct”.Jimmy Kimmel continued to keep tabs on the government shutdown on Tuesday evening, as essential workers such as air traffic controllers were still required to work without pay. “Meanwhile Congress, the people who actually shut the government down, are getting paid in full,” he said. “Don’t even try to make sense of it. The logic doesn’t fly, and I would recommend that you don’t either, at least for quite awhile
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