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Philip Sim @BBCPhilipSim
, 3 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
Former Holyrood Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson has passed away aged 69 following a short illness, @ScotTories confirm.
Flags at @ScotParl are being lowered to half mast as a mark of respect for former Presiding Officer Sir Alex Fergusson, who passed away early this morning bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
Alex Fergusson served as an MSP from 1999 to 2016, and was Presiding Officer for the 2007-11 term. He was "somewhat stunned" to be knighted the year he stepped down from parliament Alex Fergusson being sworn inAlex Fergusson with the Queen
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In court two at the Court of Session for the Alex Salmond judicial review vs Scottish government - hearing before Lord Pentland should kick off at 10.
There are cameras in the court for today’s hearing, and I’m sitting squarely behind Alex Salmond. Apologies in advance to my mum for not putting on a tie.
Last time Alex Salmond was in this courtroom, he was being sworn in as first minister of the Scottish government. Today, he’s here for a judicial review against that government, over its handling of allegations of sexual misconduct (which he denies)
Read 33 tweets
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Excellent infographic on how pop culture influences baby names in today's Scottish population stats: nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statist… Growth in name Arya since Game of Thrones startedGrowth in name Kayleigh following release of Marillion single in 1985Growth in name Luna since Harry Potter films came outGrowth in name Merida since Brave came out
National Records of Scotland have also charted the rise (and occasionally fall) of babies being named after Scottish islands: nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statist… Growth in boys named after islands of Lewis and HarrisTrends in girls being named after islands of Skye and Iona
Incidentally the NRS website has a tool where you can chart the popularity of any name. 'Philip' appears to have fallen off a cliff basically the minute I was named. Hard not to take that personally scotland.shinyapps.io/babynames/ Graph showing massive decline in the use of the name Philip
Read 5 tweets
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Supreme Court hearing on Holyrood's Brexit bill kicking off now - submissions from UK law officers expected to take up most of today. Might also be time for the start of the Lord Advocate's response, which will continue tomorrow. Live stream here: supremecourt.uk/live/court-01.… Supreme Court
Advocate General for Scotland Lord Keen leading for UKgov side at the Supreme Court. He says the Scottish Brexit bill as an entirety "impermissably modifies" Westminster legislation and as such is outside Holyrood's competence Lord Keen
Lord Keen says EU Withdrawal Bill allows for devolved administrations to go their own way in future - but "starting point" must be "a regime that applies across the entire country". So Holyrood only competent to modify retained EU laws "after exit"
Read 57 tweets

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Pittsburgh
Multiple fatalities and additional casualties amid an active shooter situation in or near Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue. pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/10/27/hea…
Read 56 tweets
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Less than 48 hours after Sen. John McCain died from brain cancer, the White House flag was no longer flying at half-staff.

This decision breaks from the precedent of lowering the flags for significant national officials from their death until burial as a show of respect,
So when must a flag be lowered to half-staff? Though precedent is often followed, there are also rules outlined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a 1954 proclamation. Aside from the instances outlined by Eisenhower,
the president can also choose to lower a flag whenever the nation is mourning, whether it is after a tragedy or after the death of another official not outlined in the proclamation.

As McCain was a U.S. senator, the proclamation instructs that flags be lowered
Read 12 tweets
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Sens. Schumer and McConnell request that the Dept. of Defense "provide necessary support so that U.S. flags on all government buildings remain at half mast through sunset on the day of Senator McCain's interment," Sen. Schumer's spokesperson says.
DEVELOPING: The White House flag was raised to full-staff again Monday as other flags, including at the nearby Washington Monument, remain at half-staff in honor of John McCain. nbcnews.to/2odT7h3
Speaker Ryan ordered the flags on U.S. Capitol grounds lowered over the weekend in honor of Sen. John McCain after his death and that the flags remain lowered through sunset on the day of interment, Speaker Ryan spokesperson says. - @AlexNBCNews
Read 7 tweets
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BREAKING: Former First Lady Barbara Bush has passed away at 92, according to a Bush family spokesperson. periscope.tv/w/1OwGWEErMaQxQ
BREAKING: Barbara Bush, the matriarch of an American political dynasty spanning decades who was the second American to be both the first lady and the mother of a president, died. She was 92. nbcnews.to/2HvzOLu
Read 13 tweets
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Short answer: this POLITICO archive is a good start. Longer answer: it's only OK; there are people missing/miscategorized—try to find the two Sessions lieutenants who met with Kislyak in Sessions' office on 9/8/16—and those here are only broadly summarized.politico.com/interactives/2…
2/ If Panos Kammenos is in there, I don't see him. Likewise, Jacob Heilbrunn (Center for the National Interest) claims—maybe falsely—to have been responsible for the Mayflower VIP event where Trump and top aides met Kislyak. CNI is said to have Russian ties. Where's Heilbrunn?
3/ Gazprom advisor Richard Burt helped write the Mayflower Speech—a key event in the Trump-Russia story. I don't see him here. Likewise, Russia pipeline advocate Bud MacFarlane was at the VIP event, helped get mentee K.T. McFarland her job, secretly lobbied Trump on Saudi Arabia.
Read 33 tweets
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Y’all.

I’ve been doing some reading and research and a bunch of online quizzes and some soul searching and...well, I have a confession.

I....I think I might be a Democrat.
To understand this, you have to know that up until a month or so ago, I was a registered Republican.

Because that’s how I was raised here in Red country as the daughter of a very conservative Southern Baptist head deacon.

I was raised thinking Democrats did the devil’s work.
I remember crying, sobbing even, when Bill Clinton won the election because I thought we would all be headed straight for hell.

And my fairly small, conservative k-12 school with all 130 of us in my graduating class did nothing to teach me otherwise.
Read 16 tweets

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