Scottish policy wonk. Director Reid Foundation, Sec. Keir Hardie Society and SHA Scotland. Historian, ever hopeful for Fulham FC! @davewatson1683 on Threads

Troon, Ayrshire
Joined January 2010
While some folk are getting excited about directly elected mayors in Scotland, I explain here why mayors (or provosts) are not the solution to proper devolution. We need devolution to local communities, not more centralisation. unisondave.blogspot.com/2026…
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Seven of the 10 areas in the UK where people are most likely to die before reaching the age of 60 are in Scotland, stark new figures have revealed, amidst the country's health inequality crisis. Poor housing and insecure employment are key factors. heraldscotland.com/news/2664…
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Killers and serious sex offenders detained in hospital are among the criminals who will no longer receive benefits under proposals called for by victims' families. 👏👏👏. And the Tories, who had many years to do this, complain it took too long! bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cv62…
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A Reform spokesperson said: "Amanda Bland should reflect on her reasons for choosing to isolate herself from that team of capable individuals.” 😂😂😂 bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq39…
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Reset The Rates: The six asks of The Herald's campaign on business rates. Some of these make sense such as transition, hospitality and online. But the case for the SBS has never been made and business rates should return to being a local tax. heraldscotland.com/news/2664…
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What recent polling suggests will happen in the US midterm elections. Trump’s popularity rating has hit record lows. Will this be reflected in the upcoming midterm elections? National polling is not always local. theconversation.com/what-rec…
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As French protests escalate into riots, they may prove a gift for Marine Le Pen’s right-wing party. What started as protests about conditions in French schools has widened into riots about cost of living – and taken hold in other European countries, too. theconversation.com/as-frenc…
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Piloted flights protecting Scotland's waters from illegal fishing have more than halved due to cutbacks. ScotGov selling planes to save money and using drones. Critics argue that losing experienced pilots could mean criminality goes unchecked. theferret.scot/flights-illeg…
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Amazon uses AI surveillance to monitor union risk in UK warehouses. Internal documents suggest tech giant collects ‘hundreds of data points’ for ‘union-busting’ AI model. opendemocracy.net/amazon-ai-…
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Dave Watson retweeted
Come join us tomorrow and hear Jackie Kay read from her works and talk about her memories of Jimmy Reid
Just a few days to go before our 2026 memorial lecture, with the inspiring Jackie Kay. Tickets are available here. zeffy.com/en-GB/ticketing/ji…
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This carnival of protest on the streets of Delhi has shaken Narendra Modi like nothing before. The singing, dancing and sheer joy in the face of police brutality at the protests led by the Cockroach Janta party show people no longer fear India’s regime. theguardian.com/commentisfre…
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UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is known to be considering tariffs amid concerns that Chinese car manufacturers benefit from state subsidies, allowing them to undercut carmakers based in the UK. Following EU action. heraldscotland.com/politics/…
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She was only four when Trump said he would end the war in 24 hours. Just turned six when Musk decided to join Trump on Putin’s side and help the Kremlin killers murder her
At the funeral of one of the Ukrainian kids murdered by Russians this week, while the U.S. hobbled the country's defenses. Elizaveta Sorochyshyna, age 6. Relatives and friends left stuffed toys near her coffin. Elizaveta was one of three children among the 23 people killed by russians that day.
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Dave Watson retweeted
457 UK armed forces personnel died during the war in Afghanistan. Beyond those and US fatalities, a further 703 individuals from 30 nations were killed. Hegseth owes each of their families an apology.
Hegseth on Afghanistan: I was a captain in Afghanistan, and we would go to the headquarters in Kabul, and there would be 50 flags at the headquarters. It was a beautiful thing to see 50 different countries contributing to the NATO alliance and the ISAF mission there. Except there were like maybe five that contributed. It was actually closer to one or two that, by the end, were actually involved in kinetic operations. In fact, the ISAF patch, we would joke that it meant "I Saw Americans Fighting."
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Over 1100 non-American soldiers from 31 US-allied countries were killed fighting in Afghanistan, approximately 1/3 of the total combat deaths. t.co/x4tGhxJiFG
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He says the name just fine when he’s begging the Qataris for a personal jet or the Saudis for funding for his son-in-law’s private equity firm. Wonder what’s changed?
Trump on El-Sayed: "His name is actually Abduladadalalalala. It's Adulbabababababa Mohammed Al-Sayed. So his middle name is Mohammed. So I was right. He's a jihadist."
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Thanks to advances in renewable energy technology, such as solar panels, Britain’s homes are increasingly decentralising the energy system, and becoming less reliant on oil and gas price fluctuations. blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp…
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Thomas Massie responds to media when asked about the latest developments on the Epstein Files: “You know, if this were a private law firm with 5% of the resources of the DOJ, this would have been done by the deadline. And they just missed another deadline, which is the report to Congress, which is supposed to list all the politicians that are in their files, and also they’re supposed to justify all the redactions 15 days after the first 30-day window. But the biggest problem isn’t that they’re missing the deadlines—it’s what they’re redacting. So they’re citing the Privacy Act and they’re trying to pretend like that overrides a law that we just passed that says you can’t withhold records to prevent embarrassment. They’re also citing FOIA standards which don’t apply to our law when they’re trying to say that they don’t have to release internal decisions, but our bill specifically says release internal decisions.” The victims will NEVER see justice. And the saddest part? These perpetrators are still out there raping, trafficking and murdering children.
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Just a few days to go before our 2026 memorial lecture, with the inspiring Jackie Kay. Tickets are available here. zeffy.com/en-GB/ticketing/ji…
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