That concludes General Questions. The next item of business is First Minister's Questions. At question number one, I call Douglas Ross. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. At midnight on Tuesday, businesses in Scotland were legally required to sign up to the SMP Green's deposit return scheme. Thousands of producers rightly decided not to because the scheme is an absolute shamble. Lorna Slater,lluniad y Dáfn i'w ddechrau, gynnwys ddim ddechrau ar 664 dechrau, ond rwy'n adegwyd ar ddadf yn y cwmbrYYYsgrif er mwyn rwy'n adegwyd nesaf rhywfaf. Er rherau ar gyfer, rydw i ddim ddim ddim ddim ddim ddim ddim yn ddegwyd yr yongod gwyfyr yng Nghymru ddim oedd. First of all, yng Nghymru i'w ddim ddig i ddim ddig i ddim yn dweud i ddim yn dweud i ddweudio'r I have deep respect for the concerns that are being raised by business, and the Government will continue to work with business to address those. Frankly, the sheer opportunism of some opposition parties who have supported this scheme, rightly supported a deposit return scheme, previously criticised the Government for taking too long to introduce it, to now indulge in knee-jerk opposition, the opportunism of that, frankly, is breathtaking. I will use a parliamentary term that I believe is polite enough. So, too, is the blatant distortion of some opposition politicians, and yes, I am talking about Alistair Jack in particular. Coming back to the point, and this is an important point, the number of companies in the drinks industry inevitably changes over time. At the outset of introducing this scheme, it was estimated that there were around 4,500 companies. However, significantly less than that will have to register, because once groups of companies registering under one registration are identified, the estimated number of individual producer's importers will be below 2,000. That is not actually the most relevant statistic. The most relevant statistic is the share of the market, the percentage of products that are included. That is over. 90 per cent are now included in this scheme. Finally, if I was to state that in the opposite way, if I was to stand here and say that 90 per cent of producers were registered, but that only covered around 20 per cent of the market, that would be a problem, because that would be a seriously problematic way of approaching this. We will continue to progress with the scheme that is for the benefit of our environment, and we will do that responsibly, because that is what people across Scotland have a right to expect. Douglas Ross. First Minister, when you are in a whole stop digging, surely you or your many, many officials watch Laura Slater. Through the chair please. Absolutely unable to answer a basic question yesterday, but one that is so important. We need to know how many businesses, producers and the First Minister's Government expected to sign up to a scheme when we know only 664 dead by the redline. It is a very simple number that either the First Minister knows and is refusing to tell this chamber or the First Minister does not know. I think that this chamber deserves an answer. Also, the First Minister says that she has deep respect for businesses across Scotland. Businesses are giving this Government a very clear message, loud and clear. Their deposit return scheme is a complete disaster. The Scottish Wholesale Association said that it could be a car crash. UK hospitality Scotland says that it is flawed. In a singun it says that it is unworkable. The Scottish Chamber of Commerce last night after listening to the minister's statement said that business concerns have been completely ignored. Car crash, flawed, unworkable. The voice of businesses across Scotland ignored. So First Minister, even at this late stage will you finally just once listen to Scottish businesses and pause this scheme? First Minister, of course the last time the Government announced a delay to the scheme necessitated by the pandemic, Conservatives were amongst the first to criticise the delay. That is what I mean by sheer opportunism and knee-jerk opposition, but that is what we have come to expect from the Conservatives. We will continue to act responsibly. Coming back to the central point in Douglas Ross's question, it is important. I gave him an answer in my first response, but I also pointed out that anybody looking at this rationally would see that it is the number of bottles, the percentage of the product covered that matters most, because the vast majority of product is produced by a relatively small number of producers. As of yesterday, more than 90 per cent of product, more than 90 per cent of the shade in the market is covered. That is the crucial point. If it was the reverse, that would be a problem. We will continue as we have done. There have already been a range of concerns that have been responded to in terms of reducing the cost. So producer fees are 8 per cent, 30 per cent, 40 per cent lower than originally planned for glass, plastic and metal containers. The day one payment for producers have been reduced and we will continue to liaise with business responsibly and sensibly. However, let us not lose sight of the central point here, which is the purpose and the objective of this scheme. It is about reducing littering. It will reduce littering by a third. It will increase recycling rates of single-use drinks containers towards 90 per cent. It will reduce CO2 emissions by 4 million tonnes over 25 years. That is the equivalent of taking 83,000 cars off the road. That is about the environment. It used to be the case that the Conservatives pretended to care about the environment, but it seems that those days are long gone. Douglas Ross. Very clear. The First Minister is ignoring Scottish businesses again. I am sorry. When she says that opposition in calls to pause the scheme are sheer political opportunism, I would hate to be the health secretary sat next to her. There is going to be some more finger wagging coming in a minute, because of course we know that Humza Yousaf, Ash Regan and Kate Forbes have all said that the deposit return scheme should be delayed. Political opportunism from the heart of the Scottish Government. Kate Forbes. Suspend business at the moment. We will recommence, and I will call Douglas Ross for his third question. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I have to say that it is getting very tiresome, these constant interruptions in First Minister's questions. We are here, democratically elected, to put questions to the First Minister. When it gets disrupted like that, people watching and people who want to hear the questions and the answers are getting pretty fed up by that childish behaviour. I was kind of on a roll explaining the total political opportunism of the SNP. We spoke about Humza Yousaf, Ash Regan and now let's speak about Kate Forbes. Kate Forbes has said on the deposit return scheme that the First Minister has just defended over the last two questions could create economic carnage. That is one of the more tame things that Kate Forbes has said about the SNP's record. There is just one wee problem. Kate Forbes is the SNP's economy secretary. The SNP's record is Kate Forbes's record. When the SNP Government was slow in paying out Covid grants to businesses, Kate Forbes was running the schemes. When companies demanded the SNP Government reset their anti-business agenda, Kate Forbes was the minister who was not listening. When the ferry scandal ran even further aground, Kate Forbes was fully on board. The new Kate Forbes seems to be saying that the old Kate Forbes isn't up to the job. Can I ask the First Minister which one does she agree with? The Kate Forbes with a terrible record in government or the Kate Forbes who says this government has a terrible record? Douglas Ross said that he was on a roll. I'm not sure whether he meant rolling down the hill, but that seems to be what that question is. I said last week that Douglas Ross was seeming awful scared of Humza Yousaf. It seems this week that he's also very scared of Kate Forbes, which says to me that whoever is standing here in my place in a few weeks time will keep the Conservatives firmly where they belong in opposition in Scottish politics. I, for as long as I am First Minister, will continue to work to introduce sensible schemes that protect the interests of business but also protect our environment, because we have a deep responsibility to do that. I would also point out again that we are in no way unprecedented in introducing a deposit return scheme. Similar schemes are already operational in many countries and territories around the world. Indeed, some of the companies that I understand that are raising concerns, as they have a right to do here in Scotland, are part of those schemes in other countries elsewhere around the world. I read in the newspaper today that the Conservative UK Government is about to announce its own scheme, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, which no doubt will have Douglas Ross squirming, as he often does when his colleagues in London make life difficult for him. We will continue to be responsible for liaising, engaging with business but taking steps that are about protecting our environment and making sure that the cost of dealing with waste, which has to be met, is dealt with fairly. That's what this is all about. I begin with an apology. It's been brought to my attention that I perhaps used industrial language in response to the protesters who interrupted the session earlier. To you, the chamber and everyone listening, including my mother probably, I apologise for that. I won't repeat it. Christine Grahame is asking what I said. I promise I won't repeat it, so I just do want to apologise to you and the chamber. Let's get back to where we were, because I was asking the First Minister about the leadership election and the SNP candidates. The First Minister doesn't seem to want to talk about that. It's no wonder, because this contest is an absolute binfire. The SNP are so split and divided that they even tried to ban the media from watching the hustings. The only thing that unites the candidates seeking to replace Nicola Sturgeon is independence. The candidates have even more reckless plans than Nicola Sturgeon's de facto referendum. Last night, Kate Forbes revealed that she wants to hold a referendum just three months after the next general election. Three months when there are so many bigger issues facing the country. Kate Forbes thinks that a deposit return scheme would cause economic carnage, but holding another referendum to break up a 300-year union will be a breeze. Does the First Minister really think that anybody in Scotland will find Kate Forbes' plans credible? What we found out in that latest question from Douglas Ross is that his so-called role came to a crashing halt pretty quickly. Can I also perhaps share some news with Douglas Ross, the chamber and indeed the country, although I'm not sure it will come as any surprise to the country? The SNP is united in favouring Scottish independence. I think that we're going to increasingly see the country united behind independence as the best way to free ourselves from the impact of Tory governments or indeed from the impact of Labour governments that are often indistinguishable from Tory governments and be in charge of our own affairs and our own destiny. Getting back into the European Union, for example. I look forward very much to the vigor of that debate in years to come. I'm also confident that whoever stands here in my place in just a few weeks time will continue the outstanding record of success of the SNP. It's the SNP that continues to occupy those benches, taking forward decisions for the good of people of Scotland even when those are tough decisions and that Douglas Ross and his colleagues will stay certainly over there but who knows, perhaps over there, in years to come. Question 2, Anna Sarwar. We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis that is hitting people hard, an NHS crisis that is pushing staff to breaking point and putting patients' lives at risk and a wider economic crisis that is leading to business closures across Scotland, made worse by a flawed and chaotic deposit return scheme led by an incompetent Government. At the same time, the SNP has turned in on themselves, more interested in scoring political points against each other rather than focusing on the people's priorities. At this time of crisis, for business, for families and patients, why is it that all people in Scotland see as a Government divided and in chaos? I have to say, maybe somebody here can help me. I have lost count of the number of leadership elections that have taken place in the Conservative and Labour parties in the years that I have stood here as First Minister. I think people in Scotland will welcome seeing a robust debate about the future of our country, covering all of the things that Anna Sarwar has just talked about. They will appreciate seeing candidates for leadership setting out proposals to build on the actions that this Government has taken in recent years. Anna Sarwar talks about the cost of living crisis. One of the things that I am proudest of in my time as First Minister and always will be proud of is the game-changing Scottish child payment. Transformational for families and children across this country, doing more than anything across these islands to lift children out of poverty. I am proud of that and I am confident that whoever succeeds me as First Minister will continue with that record of success. It will be interesting to hear of Nicola Sturgeon's proud of the candidates who are trashing a record in government over the past couple of weeks. The choice that the people of Scotland are being offered by the SNP to replace Nicola Sturgeon is woeful. We have a health secretary who is closing an intensive care unit in air after promising to save it just a few weeks ago. A finance secretary who has completely blocked £15 per hour for care workers, who now miraculously is calling for it, and Ash Regan, who thinks that Scotland could set up a central bank within weeks, three candidates falling over each other to distance themselves from their own government's policies, all you turning on the flawed DRS scheme, all wanting to hit the brakes on a national care service and all over the place on independence. Nicola Sturgeon gave all of those candidates their first step up in politics, so I wonder, First Minister, with the benefit of hindsight, which one do you regret appointing the most? First Minister, I am proud of all the Governments that I have led and I am proud of those who have served in these Governments and the record of Governments. I said on the day that I announced that I would be stepping down as First Minister that nobody would entice me into expressing a preference for my successor, and Anna Sarwar is not going to manage to do that either. However, I am confident that whoever succeeds me will continue with that record of success. Ultimately, my record of my ministerial team in Government will not be judged by Anna Sarwar or Douglas Ross, it will be judged by the people of Scotland. In my time as First Minister, it has been judged by the people of Scotland on no fewer than eight occasions, eight landslide election victories. I think that that is the vote of confidence in my record as First Minister that I will continue to be proud of. At the start of the contest, Nicola Sturgeon told us that it would be a chance for Scotland to see the best talent that the SNP has to offer. Here we are, the top three. Ash Regan, backed by Alex Salmond, Kate Forbes, backed by Jacob Rees-Mogg and the Scottish Greens candidate, Humza Yousaf, backed by Peter Morrell. It may be funny, but this is really serious, because we have 770,000 people on an NHS waiting list. We have families struggling to put food on the table and pay their bills, and businesses are shutting down because of this Government's incompetence and anti-business agenda. At this time of national crisis, when people need a competent Government that is on their side, is this really the best the SNP has to offer? I know that it is quite hard for me to imagine this, but if I was in the shoes of Anna Sarwar or Douglas Ross, what I would be more worried about than whatever was happening in the SNP leadership election campaign was why it is that the only political game in town remains the SNP, and they are lagging so far behind after 16 years of an SNP Government. That says that the people of Scotland continue to put their trust in us. Why do they do that? Take employment in Scotland at the highest level, I think, on record, unemployment at the lowest level. We are seeing in a very, very challenging time for our national health service an increase in the number of patients being treated the longest waits falling. We are seeing a situation in which I hear Christine Grahame say no strikes in our national health service, which makes us the only nation in the UK to have achieved that. We continue to be the best performing part of the UK outside of London when it comes to attracting inward investment into our country. We are lifting more children out of poverty than any other part of the UK. That is why the Scottish people continue to trust the SNP Government. That is true today, and I believe that whoever succeeds me as First Minister, that is going to continue to be true for a long, long time to come as we continue and complete the journey to Scotland becoming an independent country. Question 3, Alex Cole-Hamilton. To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet. First Minister, Tuesday, Alex Cole-Hamilton. I'm very grateful for that reply. It's an Andrews Wine company, champion small and local producers. Their mission is to offer interesting and lesser known brands to their customers. Their owner Peter estimates that because so few producers have signed up to the DRS scheme, that three quarters of his stock will become unavailable. All they will have left is what you can buy in a supermarket. This is a family run business thrown under the bus and there are thousands more businesses like them. Jobs are on the line and this is starting to cause real harm. Indeed, Fergus Ewing, a loyalist of 50 years, has called it willful recklessness. Her finance secretary Kate Forbes has called it economic carnage. Government incompetence is undermining the very case for DRS, something that could massively reduce our waste and emissions, but only if it works. This is a moment of real jeopardy. It can't wait for the next First Minister because irreversible business decisions are being made right now. Nicola Sturgeon calls it opportunism. I call it scrutiny backed up by an avalanche of industrial concerns. If the First Minister can halt the chaos of the national care service, why can't she pose this? First Minister, first we are not halting progress to a national care service. What we are doing is taking time to both receive the report from the lead committee of this Parliament and then take time to consider that report. If we did anything else, Alex Cole-Hamilton and others would be the first to and rightly criticise us for that. First Minister, I will continue to take all of my responsibilities very seriously for as long as I am in this job. One of those responsibilities is to continue to ensure that my Government continues to engage with businesses about concerns that they have about the deposit return scheme or anything else and to address those concerns and to allay fears that businesses such as the one-sided by Alex Cole-Hamilton have put forward. We will do that responsibly and we will do that in a way that ensures that we can introduce a scheme that is necessary and beneficial to our environment in a way that many other countries have already done, in a way that the UK Government is about to do as well and do that sensibly and responsibly. I think that that is what people do expect from their Government on tough issues as well as on less tough issues and that is the approach that I have always brought to be in First Minister and I will continue to do so. Question 4, Karen Adam. Miss Adam, we cannot hear you currently. Can you hear me now? We can, thank you. The hope has unmuted me. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on the Scottish Government's response to on-going food shortages currently affecting Scotland. First Minister. We engage regularly with all of the main retailers. We are aware that some are currently experiencing temporary disruption to certain off-season fresh vegetables. Some retailers have introduced a buying limit as a short-term preventive measure to avoid bulk buying and ensure that customers can get what they need. Retailers have provided assurances that there is currently enough stock available for customers if everyone continues to shop responsibly and that the situation is expected to improve week on week and we are monitoring this closely. Given the pressure on food and drink supply chains caused by Covid, Brexit and the war in Ukraine, the rule of affairs secretary wrote to the UK Government last year to raise the cumulative impacts of labour and skills shortages and rising costs. No response was received to that and so the cabinet secretary has written again as recent events have clearly highlighted the vulnerability and the importance of supply chains. Karen Adam. I thank the First Minister for that answer. Former chief executive at Sainsbury just in King said, I hate to say it but it's a sector that's been hurt horribly by Brexit. Liz Webster, chair of Save British Farming said, the reason that we have food shortages in Britain is that we don't have food shortages in Spain or anywhere else in the European Union is because of Brexit. The views from industry are clear. The shortage of basic nutritional necessities can be attributable to deliberate act of Tory policy. Does the First Minister share my utter dismay that the Tories refuse to acknowledge and apologise for the fundamental harms that they have visited on people? Karen Adam is absolutely right here and the voices that she has quoted underline that the food and drink sector in Scotland and indeed across the whole of the UK has borne the brunt, not just of Brexit but of the very hard Brexit pursued by the UK Government particularly through the loss of free trade and free movement. Although it is the case that poor harvest conditions in Spain and Morocco is a key factor here in terms of some shortages, the situation isn't helped by the UK Government's approach to Brexit where our food and drink sector has lost many of the benefits that it had when trading with the EU. The loss of free trade has increased, for example, the additional paperwork required to import to the UK and thus increased the cost of trade.  Brexit was a mistake and the way it has been pursued by the UK Government has compounded that error. It is, of course, one of the many reasons why the sooner Scotland is independent and able to re-join the European Union the better it will be for everyone. To ask the First Minister whether she will provide an update on what discussions she has had with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in relation to bullying and harassment in schools. I am very clear, and I am sure that this is a view shared by everyone across this chamber, that bullying and harassment anywhere, but particularly in schools, is completely unacceptable. The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills and I are committed to further work to help address this. Just last week, Education Scotland published a thematic inspection report that we commissioned on the recording and monitoring of bullying in schools. We have since announced and commenced a review of the national anti-bullying guidance. Respect me, Scotland's anti-bullying service is part of that work, and we have invited teachers, parents and young people's representatives to be involved in it as well. Later this month, we are seeking the advice of the teachers panel and the advisory group on relationships and behaviour in schools to further inform our approach. A pupil in my region has been subject to repeated instances of bullying and violence, sometimes even involving weapons. The parents have complained to the school, to the police, to the council and even the ombudsman and now they are running out of options. On further investigation, the parent was appalled to find out that incidents of bullying had not been recorded and an FOI request shows that this under recording of bullying is a common place in our schools. This neglectful SNP Government is throwing pupils to the wolves. Does the First Minister acknowledge that under reporting of bullying incidents in schools is an issue? And will she action the desperate pleas from parents and pupils by implementing an enforcement mechanism to ensure schools are accurately reporting incidents? First Minister, it is important that instances of bullying are recorded properly, comprehensively and monitored. That is why, as I said in my initial answer, we commissioned a report on the recording and monitoring of bullying in schools and Education Scotland published that report, the result of the thematic inspection that they did just last week. That is an important point but one, as I have said, action has been taken to address. Secondly, it is really important and obviously I cannot comment on individual cases but the experience recounted by the member is unacceptable but it will also be the case that that will be repeated many times over in schools across the country. Bullying is unacceptable wherever it occurs but we are talking here about schools and given young people it is particularly unacceptable in schools. We should have a zero tolerance to it. I think that all of us would accept that it is not a new issue in our schools. However, the modern world, particularly the role of social media in the modern world, means that bullying often takes different forms and very pernicious forms today compared to some years ago. The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with local government, recognising the lead responsibility here of government. We all have a responsibility. The daily record campaign is very clear about it and I applaud its campaign. There is a role for social media companies and frankly there is a role for all of us as adults in our own communities to make sure that children and young people are safeguarded and respected. That is a serious issue and one that I want to assure the chamber and the country that the Scottish Government takes extremely seriously. Rhoda Grant. Schools do not take responsibility for what happens to young people on their journeys to and from school. What steps will she take to make sure that children are protected at this time and what steps the police are taking? I think that Rhoda Grant is right and gets to the heart of what is a societal problem and therefore has to be addressed on a societal basis. Obviously, we are focusing a lot rightly on what happens in schools and it is important that local government and individual schools focus on that. Schools cannot be responsible, certainly not solely responsible for what happens outside schools. The police have a key role to play and I know that they take that role very seriously. As I said in my last answer, all of us as adults in communities have a responsibility and a role to play to make sure that children are properly cared for and safeguarded. It is in some ways a complex problem but we should not allow that to take us away from the collective responsibility that we have to tackle. Government, national and local has to be on the lead in this but we all have a part to play and I am sure that all of us take that seriously. Willie Rennie. The First Minister knows that I have deep concerns about the increase in violence in schools. It has always been there but it has certainly increased since the pandemic. There is a lot of distress behaviour in schools but teachers report that they are sick fed up with having to be left to pick up the pieces of this. They do not think that there is sufficient resources to be able to manage it. As part of the reviews that the First Minister has set out, will additional resources be available for schools to help them cope with this crisis? I think that it has been very good and very important for the work that Willie Rennie has done on this. I will give him a commitment that yes, that will be part of the consideration. I know that that is something that the daily record has drawn attention to in terms of funding to make sure that there are places for young people to go but I know that Willie Rennie is particularly talking about resources in schools. Teachers are often at the front line of this particularly when bullying is happening in schools and we must take account of that but that should not take away from the fact that this is not just an issue about what happens in our schools, it is a wider issue about how young people are coping with the pressures of modern life particularly over the last few years and mental health support. Another issue that Willie Rennie has raised often in this chamber is an important part of it but making sure that those who work most closely with young people and that obviously includes teachers have the right support and resources to do that job is an important part of it. I will have further discussions with the education secretary over my remaining few weeks in this post about exactly that issue. To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking in light of reports that individuals are unable to be discharged from hospital due to lack of available spaces in care homes. We have provided an additional £8 million to health and social care partnerships to secure provision of 300 extra interim care home beds so that places can be purchased above the national care home contract rate. That has resulted so far in 331 people being able to be discharged from hospitals to those placements with a total of 581 people currently benefiting from an interim care placement. As part of the work of our ministerial advisory group in health and social care pressures, we are supporting local systems to gain a better understanding of care homes data and supporting partnerships to understand local availability and suitability of care home places for people in their care. Our plans for a national care service, which I alluded to earlier on, of course represent the biggest public sector reform in Scotland since this Parliament was established and will help to ensure consistency and fairness at a national level with services being designed and delivered locally. I thank the First Minister for that answer. Last week the Scottish Government issued refreshed guidance on hospital discharge to care homes. The policy states that, where the preferred choice of care homes is not immediately available, the person will be required to make a temporary move to another home with a suitable vacancy to wait. My constituent John Finlay has progressed his MS. He has been in hospital for seven months and is desperate to get out and into a suitable care home. John is 58 years old. Many care homes will not admit people of that age. Therefore, the pull of places he can go to is significantly reduced. This new guidance could see him forced into accepting a place in a home that is either very far away from his community and support network or a home with a very poor track record of care. The First Minister tells us how this is putting patients at the centre and why people like John have their rights denied to them because of the Scottish Government's failure to deal with social care. I am happy to respond in more detail if he wants to send me the details of the individual case, but what I am about to say has general applicability. Firstly, no-one's rights should be denied and no-one should be forced into a place that is inappropriate for their needs. What the guidance is seeking to do is first recognise that for any patient that is a delayed discharge hospital is not the best place for them, so being in another setting is better for them. Obviously, partnerships want to meet preferences. They also need to consider what is the best place relative to a hospital for somebody to be. Individual preferences are important. Of course, the case that has been raised here is not just about preference, it is about needs given the condition. That goes to another point, and I referred to work that is under way to gain a better understanding of care homes data because this is not just about the total number of places available, it is the type of care that individual care homes are offering. Those are complex issues, but they are important issues, and as we continue to reform health and social care, better integrate it and make sure that people get the care that they need in the best place, those are the issues that we need to continue to grapple with to get to the right outcome. That is a general response. I am happy to amplify some of that in relation to your constituents' name, your constituent's name was Individual Case, to hopefully give some reassurance about the matters raised. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Food Bank Network, the Trussell Trust, have stated that inadequate benefits were the main reason for a sharp increase in destitution and food bank use in recent months. Research has reportedly revealed that basic benefits given to low-income households are at least £140 a month below the real cost of food, energy and everyday items. Does the First Minister share my view that history will record with shame how the Tories in action and indifference has caused people in one of the richest countries in the world to face this dire standard of living? I agree very much with Emma Roddick. The Conservatives should be deeply ashamed of the impact of their welfare policies. We have known for a long time that the current UK Government benefits system is not fit for purpose, and people across the country are paying the price of that in ways that Emma Roddick has pointed out every single day. We have called for improvements over many years. For example, we should see an immediate uplift to universal credit and other means-tested benefits. We should see the scrapping of the unjust and cruel to child limit and benefit cap. Those two policies alone were singled out in a recent report from the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe. It said that those policies continued to exacerbate child poverty. For our part, we will continue to seek to do the right things through our social security system, in particular with the Scottish child payment, which is lifting children out of poverty at exactly the same time as the policies of the UK Government are pushing them deeper into poverty. The last point that I would make is that if we were able to join up all those approaches and have all social security powers under the ambit of this Parliament, we could do so much more for those who need our help most. Russell Finlay. A year ago I asked about dozens of registered sex offenders who have been allowed to change their names.  People have no idea if the person next door may be a dangerous predator. Will Nicola Sturgeon agree that this is wrong and I outline what her Government intends to do about it? I am happy to write to the member to again give the detail of the arrangements in place. We have well established arrangements, not least the MAPPA system, to ensure that the public have protections from registered sex offenders. In terms of changing names, there are requirements on people who change their names to give notification of that. That is not about people being able to hide. Of course, I will happily remind the member of those arrangements in a letter that I will arrange to have written to him. Clare Baker. This week the legal age of marriage in England and Wales has increased to 18. The rise is to prevent vulnerable children and young people being forced into marriage. While Scotland retains the legal age of marriage at 16, can I ask what evaluation the Scottish Government has made of the appropriateness of 16 in light of concerns over forced marriage and coercion? Does the First Minister agree with comments this week from Dr Marcia Scott of Scottish Women's Aid that marriage under 18 is a mechanism for abuse in the worst case scenarios? I have not seen Marcia Scott's particular comments, but I have huge respect for Dr Marcia Scott. I would always pay close attention to anything that she said. I am, of course, aware of the change of law in England and will continue to consider the implications and the case for change here in Scotland. The relevant minister will keep Parliament updated as those considerations progress. Households across Scotland are continuing to face an incredibly challenging time at the moment and will be rightly baffled as to why their energy bills are set to go up despite energy prices falling. Does the First Minister agree with me that the Tory UK Government must now pass on the reduction in wholesale gas prices to consumers and bring down Westminster's cap and bills to £2,000 per year and devolve energy regulation powers to this Parliament? The Conservatives seem to think that it is not appropriate for this Parliament to consider the issues of the energy costs that people across Scotland are having to pay right now. I think that it is exactly the kind of issue that we should be discussing and Paul McLean is right to raise it. The new price cap strengthens the case for the UK Government to reverse. It is planned to increase the guarantee for an average household from April. We result that such an increase would result in there being around 980,000 fuel poor households in Scotland, a significant increase compared to estimates for this winter with the price cap set at £2,500. We have called upon the UK Government to provide additional support and we will continue to do so because people need that support and they need it now. Yesterday, the results from the controversial school sex survey were released. The total participation rate from children and young people was 58.3 per cent in the local authorities that took part.  The data proves what I and others have said all along that our children and young people do not feel comfortable answering those types of invasive questions. Will the First Minister finally agree with me that those inappropriate questions should be removed from all future health and wellbeing surveys in our schools? I think that those surveys are really important. We have just had exchanges in this chamber about the need to record and monitor instances of bullying. Because, in my view, manufactured controversy around the survey led to some local authorities pulling out about it, we actually did not get as much information on bullying as we might have wanted to during the survey. We all need to be responsible about making sure that we are gathering information about the real-life experiences of young people that allow local authorities, schools and national government to take decisions that are about protecting their welfare and wellbeing. I think that it is really important to do that and to do that in a way that avoids any temptation to get dragged into another Conservative culture war, frankly. The member talks about controversial questions. Questions of this nature relate to smoking, alcohol, substance use and, yes, sexual health. They have been included in health and wellbeing surveys for years. It is only recently that they have become politicised. Last but not least, questions about sexual health are asked in the equivalent surveys in England, where, in case the member has not noticed that the SNP is not in government, another party is. People affected by historic forced adoption have been campaigning for recognition, support and a formal apology for a very long time. They have support from MSPs in every party in this chamber. Having heard their calls, can the First Minister advise whether she is considering making a formal apology? If so, when? I thank Monica Lennon for raising this issue. I have commented on this before in the chamber. I have expressed my huge sympathy with calls for a formal apology. I have also rightly talked about the legal complexities that the Government has to work through. We are actively considering a conclusion of that work right now. While, of course, those are matters for the business bureau to timetable, I am very hopeful of being able to give an indication of the outcome of that work while I am still First Minister. I am sure that the First Minister will join me in offering this Parliament sincere condolences to the family and friends of all those impacted by the tragic fire at the shore recycling centre Perth early on Tuesday morning. This devastating incident is deeply concerning, not least because this is the second fire in six months at the site. In the days to come, our emergency services will be attempting to establish the facts of the situation. However, does the First Minister agree with me that, following that, there must be an investigation into the circumstances of the fire to ensure that such a tragedy does not happen again? I take the opportunity to extend my deepest sympathies to the family of the individual who sadly passed away following the fire at shore recycling plant in Perth. Early on 28 February, the fire and rescue service were alerted to reports of a large fire within the plant that mobilised six fire appliances and specialist resources to tackle the fire, which involved approximately 200 tonnes of scrap material. They worked alongside partners to maintain safety both on and off the site. The last appliance left at 9pm last night and the fire service will return for a routine check today. Let me put on record my gratitude to our fire service and all who worked at the scene of this fire. The fire service confirmed previous incidents resulted in the review of on-site fire safety measures. They initiated a joint investigation with the Crown Office in Police Scotland. It would be inappropriate for me to comment further, of course, until investigations conclude, but it is important that investigations do take place. Today is World Book Day, and the First Minister is well known as a self-identified avid reader. As she leaves office, how does she feel about being responsible for closing more public libraries than any of her predecessors? I am proud of the support that this Government gives to libraries. I saw many libraries in my constituency, as was the case across the country. I have to close during the pandemic, but I have also watched them reopen and become vital parts of local community. I will continue to support libraries. I will continue to support everything associated with the wonderful world of books. Perhaps I will even look forward to having a bit more time to read them in future. I seek your guidance. Yesterday, Lorna Slater said that there were 2 billion containers in the deposit return scheme, representing 95 per cent of volume. Circularity Scotland, the scheme administrator, said that there are 3 billion containers. If the 2 billion figure is correct, then our biff of being paid to collect 1 billion containers that do not exist. If the 3 billion figure is correct, then the volume registered would not even be close to 95 per cent. Would you be willing to invite Lorna Slater to correct the official record or come to the chamber to explain where the missing 1 billion containers have gone? In response to Mr Golden, I would say that generally the content of members' contributions are a matter for them. However, I do of course expect that ministers strive to respond to the specific detail of questions wherever possible. It certainly is the case that a mechanism exists whereby members, where they become aware of an inaccuracy in any comment, can correct the official report in that regard. We now move on to members' business. There will be a brief pause to allow members to leave the chamber and those in the public gallery who wish to do so to leave also.


Alright so we just have some vermilion snapper over here, we're just going to make a little ceviche with it, cilantro, tomatoes, onions, little jalapeno, lime, lemon, salt and pepper, pretty simple. We're going to cut a little bit of this up, put it in here, put some lime and lemon juice in there. That lime juice will essentially cook the fish in the acid like that, so you can eat it right now, right off the table, but it's good to let it sit for a little while and let it ready to roll. Shake it up a little bit, let that thing mix in there real good, then put it somewhere cold. Alright so once you get it all mixed up, we're going to take it, put it on a little ice with a couple beers, so we can enjoy those once it sits for about 30 minutes and yeah, we'll have that waiting for us when we're done cleaning these fish.


The makers of Wrigley Spearman chewing gum invite you to enjoy life. Life with Luigi, a comedy show created by Psy Howard and starring that celebrated actor Mr. J. Carol Nash with Alan Reed as the star. Chewing gum is a typically American product that appeals to people of all ages and nationalities in all parts of our country. And the Wrigley people feel that life with Luigi is a typically American radio program, a friendly, enjoyable show that sort of symbolizes the American spirit of tolerance and goodwill. So the makers of refreshing, delicious Wrigley Spearman gum are glad to bring you life with Luigi each week and have you join them in this pleasant half-hours entertainment. And now let's read Luigi's letters. He writes about his adventures in America to his mama Vasco in it. Dear mama mia. His sons and all the good Americans that they move on out of their houses and they start to live in a wonderful, bigger place, sir. Department of stores. Mama mia, you should see the crowd, sir. Yesterday I went to Susan Rosebuck to buy a two-center washer for my sink, which is a leaking. Five times I must start off to the hardware department. And five times the crowd is pushing me back to the lady's house, of course. But finally I'm gonna come home with a two-center washer for the sink, for which the clerk is a gift to wrap the tidal with a pink ribbon and a stamp to dawn up and up before a Christmas. So why does it turn out the nice anyway? This a Christmas, even if my sink is gonna be surprised with a present.  This is a wonderful American invention, but it's the one thing I'm gonna warn you about. Don't try to stuff the whole of bread in at one time. Put in just one slice of bread, and don't do nothing until you see the smoker come out. Then you take out the bread, scrape off the black part beneath it. This is a taste almost as good as a plain bread that's a stale. But at a Christmas time, everybody has got a list with their friends in their names on it. I'm gonna get the minor two. Everybody's name is on it, except my countryman Pasquale, because for him I'm gonna get something extra special. All year long I'm gonna put away a dollar a weekend of my banks at Christmas and fund it, and now I'm gonna get a fifty dollars, just for this, a big surprise for Pasquale.  But you and me can tell them I'm Maria.  Luigi, my friend. Hello, Luigi, hello, hello. Hello, Pasquale. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you too, little banana nose. Luigi, I know you're short of money, so don't get me nothing, you can't pay out to the twelve easy installments. Hello, Pasquale. Pasquale, are you finished with your Christmas shopping yet? Luigi, how would you like to see television every night the next year? No, no, Pasquale, you shouldn't. Don't worry, I didn't. Huh? Luigi, I'm only teasing. I'm gonna buy you a big, beautiful television set. Oh, Pasquale, how wonderful.  Well, this is gonna have a big twenty-inch screen. It's gonna keep out all the flies. Oh, thank you, thank you, Pasquale. Also, with this set it's gonna have a hundred-foot electric cord. Yeah, but Pasquale, I'm gonna get a little room. I'm gonna donate a hundred-foot electric cord to reach the socket.  You're gonna plug in the cord into your store, but the television is set, it's gonna play into my daughter Rosa's room. Pasquale, you mean every time I'm gonna watch my television set, I'm gonna do to with your daughter? That's right, you lucky pups, you. Pasquale, if you don't mind, I'm ready to listen to my radio. That's not it, don't you think it's enough for the sea on a television? Yeah, sure, Pasquale, but with your daughter Rosa in the room, who's gonna be able to see it?  So what if my rose is the way to 150 pounds? It's not as so big as all the way you look at it. Pasquale, if you don't mind, I'm rather not to look. Luigi, why don't you think about it, it'd be fair. Remember, there's two sides to everything. Two sides of roses, you got more sides than a four-way cul-de-tablet.  All right, Pasquale, now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go to my night school. All right, go, Luigi. Now remember, don't spend any money on me for Christmas. My waist is a 46, my neck size is 19. Also, I'm alike at the play cards. I could use a tray, an automatic shuffling, two plastic decks. That's for when I play canazza. All right, Pasquale, goodbye, I'm gonna see you later. Goodbye. A little bit of pumpkin heavy. Well, he's gonna get the money to buy the good presents anyway. He's always got to come up to me for money. I'm his private little marshal of plan. Hey, what's this, he's left behind. A little envelope. I'ma know like at the peak, over once a peak on a million. Hey, what's this, 50 dollars? Oh, he's gonna do something behind my back. Let's see what is right on this paper. Christmas elast. Well, my name must be on the top. Mrs. Baldwin. Schultz, Horowitz, Olsen. He must be saving me for the last. A male man? Rosa, window cleaner? Officer Flanagan and Tommy the newsboy? Jake to the pickle, a man? He's left to me out. 50 dollars, he's a hit away from me, and he's left to me out. Me, he's a guardian in America. When he's come here from Italy, I give him his first pair of shoes, his first haircut, his first comic book. And when he's a knocker to read it, I help them out. I've got a somebody to read it to. No president for Pascuali, huh? Well, I'm gonna show him this list.  Christmas of 1999. All right class, quiet please, after all the roll. Mr. Lasko? Here. Mr. Howard? Mr. Olsen? Mr. Schultz? Mr. Schultz, are you supposed to be Santa Claus? That's what my wife's relatives think. Come on, Danza, come on, Danza. Mr. Schultz, enough of that, and stop cracking your belt. All right, down, hickok. Smile, Miss Spaulding. It's just a Christmas spirit. Here, here's a present I bought for you. Some voodoo perfume. Oh, thank you, Mr. Schultz.  Here's my gift to Miss Spaulding. I brought you something, also.  Well, class, this is wonderful. I can't find the words. Who cares? Just so long as you don't find the price tags. Hey, Schultz, a heart of which starts in here.  Thank you, Luigi. Thank you very much. Well, should I do it to him now? Sure, go ahead. Luigi, we all got together yesterday after class, and, well, we all talked about you and what a nice little fellow you were. But we shipped in, and here's your Christmas present, and that's all. Merry Christmas. Oh, oh, friends, who had a wonderful present. This is the most beautiful fountain of pen I've ever owned. This is the only fountain of pen I've ever owned. Ha-ha-ha-ha. Look, a gold top and a beautiful inner side. Luigi, go ahead. Read the inscription that we wrote you on the pen. Yeah, all of it, yeah, and it comes straight from the heart. All right, I'm ready. 14 carats of gold filled. Luigi, you are reading the point. Here are the cap, you read. Oh, oh, with the Sincere Friendship Christmas in 1950. Oh, class, that's beautiful. I can't think of any other words that you could have added. More words? See, if we added any more words, you'd have ended up with two fountain pens. Luigi, we're glad you liked it. It was just a slight return for the present you got us. No, Luigi, what did you get for Pascuali? Well, for Pascuali, I'm getting something extra special.  This wonderful country, America. And you see, well, he's a watcher of me all the time, so I'm getting him a big surprise. A wallet? Of what? A necktie. A noose? No, no, no, no, class, none of those things. It's a surprise and a... Give us a hint, then. Well, is it something that Pascuali not gonna touch, smell, or feel? He's not gonna keep it, but once he's got it, he's not gonna exchange it. Stop, Luigi, you're getting us all for shimmel. Come on, Luigi, you've got our curiosity all around. Why are you gonna give Pascuali? Well, yesterday I went to the bank, took out the money, and I'ma send it to myself. What am I gonna get up to, Pascuali? That's the difference. Something that nobody has ever gave anybody before. Aha, so you're getting him a shrunken mummy head, huh? Mr. Schultz, please stop interrupting and let Mr. Basko finish. Well, anyway, I'ma take the money, and I'ma... I'ma... I'ma money it. Something wrong, Mr. Basko? What? Hey, Pascuali's a Christmas of money. It's a missin', I'ma lost it. Luigi, wait, wait. First look in all your pockets. And try to think where you might have left it. No, no, no, I'ma left it in our place. I'ma lost it. That's terrible. Please, please, Mr. Schultz, and you excuse me. I'ma gotta go look for it, sir. Certainly, Mr. Basko. Luigi, don't take it so hard. Schmei, let only money. Though you lousy, what are you going to do? Chomp off the branch? How much money did you lose? Fifty dollars. Fifty dollars? Luigi, move over, and I'll chomp off with you. One suggestion that'll add to your family's Christmas fun and enjoyment. While you're doing the rest of your Christmas shopping, include some packages or a box of healthful, delicious Wrigley's Spearman chewing gum. Hang a few glistening packages of Wrigley's Spearman on your tree. They're white, red, and green, and they'll give your tree an added attractive touch of holiday color and cheer. Slip a few packages of Wrigley's Spearman into Christmas stockings, too. They'll delight the children, and Wrigley's Spearman is a wholesome, refreshing treat for your family to enjoy after those big holiday meals. So for extra holiday enjoyment that costs very little, remember to get a supply of Wrigley's Spearman chewing gum. And now let's turn to page two of Luigi Basko's letter to his mother-in-it. Kind of so, Mamma Mia, is there no use even to tell you what the wonderful present I was going to get to for Pasquale, because I was a lost to fifty dollars, I was a second for it. All night long I'm looking the streets with my searchlight, I'm gonna find the fifty dollars, and I'm gonna hide a fight with the two people in a parked car. Also into my house I'm gonna look all over under my rug, in the flower pot in the chandelier, and all I'm gonna find is a dust of two flowers and a lamp that's in no work. Also I'm gonna push the way all the furnaces, I'm gonna push the swept up all the floors, the dust under the couch and the bed. I'm gonna find the money, Mamma Mia, but today I'm gonna get the cleanest house or room in Chicago. Mamma Mia, I'm gonna get the hard to look at the Pasquale, right now I'm assume it's through my window, and he's talking to Ross and he's very mad. Yeah, I'm gonna just imagine what he's saying to her about the meeting. Ross, stop eating for a minute, I wanna talk to you. Ross, who's the best friend that Luigi's ever had? You, Papa. Yes, and who's the treated in better, fairer than anybody else in the country? You, Papa. Yes, and who's the turned out to be a rotten, ungrateful jackass? You, Papa. Yes.   Ross, if from now on are we true to Luigi, don't ever associate with him, don't go near him, and don't ever let me see you thinking about him. Can't I marry you, Papa? Not even that. Ross, if he was to come back to you, what is the hands and knees, what would you say to him? Luigi, you wanna play piggyball? I'm so mad at him, he's never gonna get him back as a $50. Some Christmas, the last days, I had presents for everybody, even a jake and a pickler man. But if for me, nothing. It's not the presents so much. I wouldn't have cared if he was to give me a cheaper $0.99 a necktie. The same one I gave to him the last year. Oh, I'm so mad at him, I gotta cut him out of my will. Papa, you got a will? I gotta make one, just so I could have cut him out. About you. Now, it's impossible. I've been a hintin' since the Thanksgiving. God, huh?  I gotta find out why he's left me out of his Christmas list. He'd better have a good reason or else I'm gonna break his neck. Hello, Luigi. Hello, Busquely. Merry Christmas. That all depends. What are you looking so sad about? You did something you sorry for, maybe? Busquely, I'm a lost little white envelope. Maybe you was a funder? Absolutely not that I could approve it with a six of witnesses. I'm a believer, you're Busquely. Uh, Luigi. What? You, uh, didn't forget anything lately, huh? Forget it? Yeah, I see you know. It was a season and now for Santa Claus, some people have been generous, filled the stockings over the fireplace. Busquely, I'm sorry, but... Don't about me, no buts. Luigi, all year long you've been crying about that, a broken down old radio you got that's always a blow to the tubes. So yesterday I went out to the body or something. Uh, a new radio? No, three new tubes. That wasn't gonna be your present, including a few other things I was gonna get you. But now you couldn't forget them. Busquely, Busquely, please listen. After all, a fellow who's a forget, I'm alive. Yeah, but at Busquely, I'm... I'm... Hey, I didn't forget you. Huh? You got something familiar, Luigi? You're saving for a surprise. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Busquely. Yeah, here's your present and a Merry Christmas. Oh, Luigi, what a beautiful fountain of pain. Yeah. Look, a gold cap, 14 carats of point. Oh, it's the right now, isn't it? Yeah. With a sincere friendship, Christmas of 1950. Luigi, I gotta apologize. How do you want it all? It's all right, Busquely. As long as you're happy now. Luigi, I can't tell you how happy I am, but now you did me a favor. I gotta do you a little favor. Busquely, please, no roses. No, it's not the roses, it's something else. Luigi, when you left the stall yesterday, I was a stay there and suddenly... Luigi, my fellow boob. Oh, precious. Oh, my, Luigi, a merry Christmas to everybody, even you, Busquely. Merry Christmas, Mr. Bellicottas and the man. Luigi, I never got the chance to really thank you for that little wallet you gave me for a present. I'd say I should say you's in a good health. I love that little secret compartment inside where you can hide some money, you know. You know, that's really very tricky. It took my wife ten minutes to find it. Oh, smile, everybody. Be like me, always laughing. My rheumatism is killing me. Anyway, Luigi, thanks for the wallet. It's too bad that you didn't find your money. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. I want to talk to you. No, just a second, Luigi. Busquely, it's too bad that Luigi couldn't get your present this year. No. What are you talking about? Luigi would have never forgotten the best of presents. No, sure. Busquely, I was just... No, sure. Luigi has given this to me. It's a very expensive present. He will end up at the very same fountain. The fountain pens the class gave you, Luigi. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sir. I'm like so much. I'm going out and I got the same wonderful busquely. Uh-huh. And where's yours, Luigi? Well, mine is, uh... Well, uh... Well, what do you see, sir? I'm away home from school. I'm lost in mine. Oh, you did, huh? Then tell me this, Luigi. How could you buy busquely a fountain pen if you lost the $50? Luigi, you mean that you couldn't have bought me a present when you lost the money, so you gave me the fountain and pen the classes it gave you? Merry Christmas, Mr. Busquely. Luigi. Luigi, why didn't you tell him why you didn't give him a present? Busquely, do you know that this little wiener schnitzel has been saving a dollar a week from his lunches and coffers just so he could prepare a big surprise for you? Luigi, you were just going to spend all the $50 out of me? Well, what could you buy? A suit, a coat, shoes, a dow to pay for that automobile? No, no, Busquely. It wasn't nothing like it. That was... It wasn't nothing that you could wear or eat or play with. It was, uh... Well, uh... It was something for the heart. And what else, already? To me... To me, Christmas is not just a given of things. Christmas is a for the spirit. Peace, sonnet, goodwill toward the man. And, uh, Busquely, if what I was going to give you would have made you feel that way, that would have been a really Christmas present. Luigi, where is the present? Maybe if you were just suddenly to find the money you could have still bought. No, no, Busquely. It is not in the store. You see, I... Well, I was a went to the church and I said to Father Connie, Father Connie, I'm gonna be glad to give it to church. $50 if on a Christmas night, your little boy's a choir with the beautiful voices. Was it to come and sing outside of Pasquale's restaurant? Little boy's a choir? Yes. Ah, Luigi, only you could think of a thing like that. Yeah, but... Well, what's the use? I wasn't supposed to be there this morning, but I didn't have the money. I'm sorry, Busquely, I'm... Hey, Busquely, where you going? I've got to kill myself. What? Luigi, I'm the worst of rats. I have a crawl and a face to research. You see, I was the one that found the... Hey, Luigi, what's that? Hey, Busquely, that's... that's the little boy's a choir. Yeah, there was... Hey, there was a come anyway. And there's a Father Connie. Open the doors, let's hear. Yeah, yeah, listen. Maria, Gratia Plena... It was a beautiful night. Yeah, but... But I'm not expecting you to come. I'm gonna bring you the money. Luigi, the church never asks for money in advance. In advance?  You see, I was lost... Luigi, look, under the table. What the envelope? Hey, that's looking like my envelope. Wait a minute. I'm gonna look inside. Yeah, yeah, there's the money inside. Yeah, my money. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50. 60, 70, 80, 90, 100. You see, Luigi, you found your money after all. Yeah, but... But Father, how is it possible? It was only 50 in the envelope and now it's 100. Luigi, it's a Christmas of time. A miracle can happen. Yeah. Yeah, Busquely. But I'm... I'm a wonder who's made the miracle. Mommy, and Busquely got his Christmas present after all. And I'm gonna finish this letter to you with my brand new fountain of pen. Busquely is the one who writes some extra words on it like, you best friend of Busquely and, well, everybody shoots his own letter. So now it's a pen and a pencil set. Mommy, maybe you're thinking it to yourself what my present was meant to to Busquely. Well, I'm gonna tell you. After everybody has gone away, the father, the choir, Schultz, everybody. Have a look at the empty envelope and I'm excited to Busquely. Busquely, you made the miracle. And Busquely is excited to me. No, Luigi. You did that. It's a type of miracle to make a miracle. Merry Christmas, mommy. The makers of Wrigley's Spearman Chewing Gum hope you've enjoyed tonight's Christmas episode of Life with Luigi. And they'd like to remind you that with Christmas just ahead, you want to have an extra supply of Wrigley's Spearman Gum in your house. A few colorful packages of Wrigley's Spearman to hang in your Christmas tree, some to put in the children's stockings and some to pass around before and after those hearty holiday meals.  So when you're doing your final Christmas shopping week, include a supply of healthful, delicious Wrigley's Spearman Chewing Gum. Wrigley's Spearman will add to your family's fun and enjoyment during the holidays. The makers of Wrigley's Spearman Chewing Gum invite you to listen next week at this time when Luigi Basko writes another letter to his mama Basko in Italy. Life with Luigi is a Psy Howard production and is directed by Mr. Howard. Mac Benhoff writes the script with Lou Dermott. J. Carol Nash is starred as Luigi Basko with Alan Reed as Pasquale Jody Gilbert as Rosa Hobbs Conrad as Schultz Mary Schiff as Miss Balding Joe Forte as Horowitz and Ten Feeters as Olson and featuring the Robert Mitchell Fireball. Music is under the direction of Love Russell. Bob Stevenson speaking. This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.


Well, hello and welcome to another Dev nation.  So I've certainly learned a lot from come out over the years and I continue to learn He is my mentor when it comes to reactive programming. That's how I like to think of it And more importantly, he's gonna show us reactive from the corkis perspective You guys have been hearing a lot from corkis in our last several episodes You're gonna hear more about that today because it is awesome So make sure you put your questions in the chat tab and for all those people who can't see and can't hear and even see me Right now refresh your browser. Just remember that tell everybody. All right. Well, thank you so much. Come on We'll turn it over to you. All right. Let's me Show my screen real quick There we go so My name is Clemence Coffier. I'm software engineer at Red Hat and in this presentation We are going to see how we can build reactive application with corkis so corkis is corkis is Full stack for Java that has been tailored for the cloud native environment. So that means that we are packaging more in terms of memory consumption and to start very very fast to be very fast to start The stack itself Proposed everything you need to build micro services And even to write function and to execute them in a serverless environment so corkis provides several benefits first it's provide a very nice developer flow with a very fast hot reload You're never entered it. You can modify your configuration run your tests having the hot reload all at the same time It's pretty your velocity is going to hit the sky As I said supersonic subatomic Java super fast to start very small memory consumption, and it's done It's also based on a lot of libraries that you are used to Like vertex or hibernate or a CDI and it's all there already to be used and finally It's what we're going to see today How corkis unifies imperative and reactive in a single start So but what does reactive means and Reactive is actually a very relevant world It started with a reactive manifestos that has been defined by type safe No light band a few years back that they find right to systems and reactive systems are distributed systems focusing on Responsiveness for this all your component of your systems are going to exchange messages and those messages lead to asynchronous code because you don't know when you will receive these messages and So you need to have a way to write code in an asynchronous manner This is where reactive programming Takes place. There is several way to build a synchronous code It go can go from spreadsheets because yes spreadsheets are actually reactive programming for example, you have a Formula that is observing a cell Inside your spreadsheet and if you modify your cell the formula is going to be updated so that it's reacts another way to build a synchronous code is to use events and even some loss like Interaction or sign-offs and stuff like that there can be low level you can use callbacks There is many way to build that you can use actors to Something that is coming to Java in the next few years Let's say is going to be fibers that will simplify or we've write a Synchronous code because we will be able to write it can offer synchronous manner, but it's going to be executed a synchronously reactive programming the pure active programming is based on the idea of Data flow and the pipe of data So you have pipes and you have data inside and you will have publishers that will Feed the pipes with data and consumers that we consume this data As soon as you have this you quickly have an issue if you have a slow consumer and a fast provider So for this we need some kind of back pressure protocol And this is where righty streams come into the place as righty streams define a non-blocking and a synchronous back pressure protocol Be aware that righty strings is very low liver and does not provide any operators and Implementing the righty strings types yourself. It's generally a very bad idea Fortunately, there is several implementation of righty strings that I want you to do that and two of them are part of the same family It's what we call right till extensions typically we have a rich of a two and reactors which are based on righty strings and provide lots of Operators so you can actually compose your program using these operators Okay, but I didn't define what reactive means so far and if you look at the Oxford dictionary reactive means showing a response to a stimulus There is another definition of this which is actually much more interesting for us It means acting in response to a situation rather than creating or controlling it This definition is exactly Where we see the difference between imperative and reactive? Because in some part of work world So the one you generally use well you as a developer control what will be called next Because what will be called next is a method you call or the next line and so on in a reactive world it depends on the messages or Stimuli you are going to receive and you are going to send so you are not really in control of the flow Your environment is in control of the flow Anyway, if we want to define if we want to take this definition we can say that Reactive is kind of a synonym for event driven no because well an event driven program is going to react to event failures And messages which are kind of our stimuli and it's fine But as soon as we have a event driven application We need to think about concurrency because potentially you are going to receive a lot of messages in a very Short-term window. So the first part of the reactive landscape is going to help you to build concurrent applications Here we found writing programming writing strings and both are kind of based on this non-looking and asynchronous idea but we are in 2019 and These days we are not building Standard on application who are building systems when building microservices which are living in a world That contains all their microservices all their siblings So we need to think about how the system is going to be a bit not only a whole the individual components are Going to handle requests and it's where We can see how reactive systems fit in this picture reactive systems is a Architectural style to be distributed systems with one focus one objective being responsive Reactive systems is based on four pillars and the first one is Message driven which should be actually be read a synchronous message. It means that all our components are going to exchange messages This give us two other Characteristics elasticity and resilience as soon as you use messages, you are going to send messages to virtual address Because of this it's very easy to have elasticity as when I send a message I send it to this virtual address and then I can have a queue or broker that will dispatch a load among the set of Subscriber and increase or decrease this number of subscribers depending on the death or of my queue So elasticity is kind of easy in that case resilience comes also from this virtual address ID because we can imagine sending the messages to one Component, but as soon as this component crash having a second one that will replace it Also, we can have a knowledge meant in on our messages meaning that the function processing to message can acknowledge and And and indicate when the message has been processed correctly if you're able to under messages Request and so on when under fluctuating load and when facing failures, you are actually building a responsive system systems that take care of what of Answering those requests in a timely fashion and This responsiveness is very important today for our users because users hate when we are failing systems One very important part to understand is that asynchronous are reactive does not meet multi-threading and when I say asynchronous message passing I don't mean taking a client That use a thread pools and you're in a request there and having this red pools taking care of the business No, that's actually is a very bad idea because Your concurrency is going to be limited by the number of threads you have assigned to the thread pool more threads you have More expensive is your solution for two reasons first each threads have a huge memory cost and Memory is not that cheap anymore on the cloud and the second part is actually it also have a CPU cost because most right you have more time. You are going to spend switching between you of these threats This time of CPU is going to be taken from your quota and taken from your quota is Paying your cloud provider for nothing So a synchronous and reactive is not about multi-threading. It's about never blocking and so relying on Unblocking IO to do all those exchanges Okay, but right now you probably have your microservices using HTTP And we're going to see why it's not necessarily a good idea and how you can switch to messaging so When we build microservices the idea was that each microservice is Independent and run in isolation which means that it should be able to run even if the other microservices are not there This actually felt short when we think about HTTP Because if one of your service is not there then the caller is going to fail and the caller is going to fail and so on Until you get the user getting the error. So of course you say yeah, but error should not Cascade that way and Netflix proposed or popularized a few years back circuit breakers So we should use circuit breakers to protect this to protect the failures to be Cascade and to bubble up to the users Okay. All right. Yes, a good record fix part of the problem However, tuning circuit breaker can be very very hard and most of the circuit breaker you use today's are using thread pools which leads to the Previous slides about being non-blocking and not using thread pools also circuit breakers can Provide fallbacks Well, fallbacks are nice, but sometimes are not very useful Imagine you want to have the balance or your bank account and because this microservice is not there It's going to provide a fallback with the default value for your balance. That's not really useful. So How can you Provide different way to do this and actually it's very simple just use messages and Messaging is there for the last 25 years more or less so There is a Less risk to use such kind of solution in the sense that well, it's there. We know to tune it. We know to use it If you use messaging, you have a few benefits first all the messages are going to be sent in a non-blocking Manor you can even have request reply because if you take protocols like and to pee or rabbit MQ They are supporting or request reply very nicely elasticity as I said can be provided by the same middleware by scaling up and down the number of subscribers and finally the resilience can be done Also the same way using annuletments on having a shadow Microservices that will take over when the first one crush Mentioning also all other patterns that are very important today. So I already mentioned request reply but imagine things like message stream or event sourcing and CQRS they are based on on messages and the ability for your microservices to consume well a sequence of message a stream of message and What react to it for each message or doing some composition of these tricks? It's also enable publish subscribe Which is very useful this day if you need to inform one micro service that something happen in an event-event manner like Every time a user logged in or logged out you want to send an event In order to make Aware of this event You could with HTTP but that will require that the sender knows who is interested by this event, which actually is going to break the The loose coupling So let's speak about quarkus now Quarkus Provide a solution that is HTTP messaging and streaming all in one So you don't have to choose you can really mix All of them and that's what we are beyond the idea of unifying reactive and imperative So typically you will have a synchronous HTTP at some point generally at the gates of your system and In Quarkus is going to be completely non-blocking in a synchronous right now It's based on the undertow and we want to switch to neti and it's a work in progress Once you get a request Quarkus is going to call your application called which is going to use generally resty Jacks RS and CDI and This code can emit messages These messages will be sent to a messaging middleware whatever it is and on the other side You can have another quarkus application that will receive those messages and do some processing of the product So let's demonstrate this imaging a coffee shop a Traditional coffee shop you go to the counter you order a coffee and then you have Well, the waiters or the barista that is there that is get your money and go to the coffee machine Do your coffee and bring that to you Meaning that during that time all those are customers have queued and will be served once I get my coffee This is typically your GDP world completely blocking. I wait to get my coffee Now think about Another type of coffee shop more in the line of Starbucks or narrow or cost a coffee In these coffee shops you go to the counter you order you pay then we give you a receipt with And so on with with an ID So to justify that you pay and as I said tell you that your beverage is going to be ready But later This is typically how we will do it in an asynchronous manner and we are going to build this so Our coffee shop said microservices represents a counter and when you place an order And you are going to be to get a response, but just with the other idea the order is going to be incurred into a Kafka queue which is orders and and then You will have Another queue another topic that is named you actually That will tell you about the state of your orders if it's prepared or if it's ready and so on The orders topics is read by baristas that will prepare your coffee and then send That to the queue topics and so you can get you can retrieve your your your coffee So the first things we want to build when we switch from this STTP world to this Kafka world is Switch to asynchronous STTP so the first things in the whole world will get a endpoint like orders that we get an order and I will use an STTP client to call my Coffee machine and barista to have this order and this return on beverage and I return that to my to my customer in a blocking manner If we switch to asynchronous instead of returning a beverage directly I'm going to return a future beverage what we call in Java a completion state Of course, this means that the processing must be a synchronous and this means that we are going to use an STTP client a true STTP client not an STTP client using Thread pool but really a non-blocking a STTP client which would pass this order in an asynchronous manner The fact that it's not looking is very important here because that means that we don't have thread pool And we don't limit our concurrency based on the number of threads which is our clients can order Okay, but we're still waiting here. Well, at least the customer is still waiting So we're still not where we want and you're right So we need to to improve a little bit our solution the first thing we will do is to return to the to the user's order ID, so like a receipt So if we call this method This endpoint to check service and point we pass an order immediately the counter is going to enqueue this order to To the baristas and immediately gives a computed order ID So we will turn immediately the second part is About sending messages because so far I didn't send messages to do this we are going to use micro-profile waste reactive messaging and in our implementation, we have something called emitters which will bridge the imperative world and the reactive world So typically I can use I can inject an emitter like this with at inject and at stream and this emitter when I call the send method of them is going to emit messages to a channel named orders and By configuration we can say that these channels is actually a Kafka topic Actually, this Kafka topic doesn't have to be named orders It can be named as you want and maybe you also have strong or weird conventions around Your cues and topics naming like I've seen one deployment where all the cues were named after a lot of the ring characters but in your code having a Channels or topics named Gandalf doesn't really mean anything. So anyway Here we have our enqueue missiles that will just send messages To this channel and this will go we will see on Kafka All right, but this was my coffee shop microservice. So representing my counter. We need to have our completion stage our barista microservice Our barista microservice is receiving from the orders queue orders to be Is writing to the queue to be so orders and queue actually challenge in this case We don't know. We don't care if they are to pick you or their behavior So this is actually how a barista is implemented It's as to annotation incoming and outgoing Incoming indicates that I'm reading from this channel and ongoing indicates that I'm writing to this channel and here This method prepare is called for every messages that has been sent on the order of channel And is doing some asynchronous processing on it because preparing some coffee take some time So Here one the code that we are going to show is actually taking some time to prepare coffee to or actually represent how it works The signature we use here, which is for each import I'm returning completion stage is one amount more than 30 of them So we propose many many ways to produce process and consume data some Pair message base so you receive a single message and you return what you want some are synchronous and some allow to Manipulate the streams directly so you can have a stream based operation like windowing and so on the last part of our demo is how we will display that the Drinks are ready and for this we are using the stream annotation again it's a qualifier and I'm going to read the channel beverages and By reading the channel beverages it means that I'm getting a stream and in that case I've decided to use a rectis trims publisher types Because beyond all the streams operation and message operation is certainly rectis trims But you don't have to manipulate it Here I've On purpose Decided to show that to you, but you can use every curative variable or you can use rectis trims operator So you have many different way to inject your strings and to display the Products the ones beverages that have been ready. I'm going to return this stream directly as a server sentiment Okay, so let's have a look at this demo So I have my coffee shop running here I have my Kafka worker running because I'm going to use Kafka. I will go to my swagger UI because Quarkus provide a very nice swagger UI based on open open API and I'm going to order some Expresso and because it's really Starbucks is a actually never were able to write my name correctly. So and So I called it and I get my express of clearance. This is my order ID and if it goes there, this is the last one And what we have here it means that First the coffee shop has in queue the order In the queue topic and we display it as in queue And once the barista took the order and prepared it. It's another message is to The queue to get to the queue topic and we will get it. So let me redo it From a second window so you can really see how it works and this time I'm going to change I'm going to send an express so to burr and actually if burr come new france and says that it's called burr It's probably going to be written like that, which actually means butter, but it's how we will pronounce it I'm sending it and See we immediately have the order in the queue And once Julie so our barista has prepared the The espresso it can get it and it's ready to be Doing We'll quit this. Okay So, okay about orders at work when I have a lot of uh Coffee order so I can order a lot of coffee We'll see that here So and one of the main difference with HTTP Is that all the orders are going to be in queue and one by one processed So it's not really a synchronous request reply Where the first will be served first and then the second one and then the third one and so on here We thank you everything And well it will be delivered when it will be delivered Okay So nice. We have seen how it works. So we we press an order this order goes to two uh two other Topics then we we also indicate that it's in queue the barista read it Prepare it and send the message to the queue topic with the ready state. Okay, but How can we demonstrate the reactive system benefits? Well the first one is To stop the baristas Because typically a barista can take a break or whatever and if I order coffee again My orders are going to be part of my queue But they will never pass ready because I don't have any barista that will Uh, uh, prepare them If I restart Julie Yeah, we start seeing that Julie is taking over and going to prepare all the pending requests Another thing we can do is to have a second barista that I named Tom And as soon as Tom is ready I can include lots of coffee And we will see that Tom and Julie are going to dispatch the Lord. So again, this shows the elasticity So which shows the durability so I'm resilient meaning that if the service is not there No problem. We don't lose the the request so we can process them once somebody is ready to serve them And the second part is elasticity by just starting another subscriber Obviously in our systems, this will be managed by auto scaling So let's back to the slide and conclude So we have seen The resilient part we have seen the elasticity part. So what we built was really reactive systems so Reactive systems is really a new way to build Distributed systems that really focus on responsiveness. Don't lose your state and so on. So it has elasticity resilience and non-blocking message passing as primitives Quarkus gives you everything you need to build reactive systems and to do that it unifies imperative and reactive It does not only let you build reactive systems It gives you a way to do that in a very simple manner where in your code You'll just have a few new annotations like incoming ongoing and so on that will give a very A development model very similar to what you are used to have So with this you can build crud rest and cli using the operative model reactive system and data streaming application using the reactive model and mix both Instead of your same application on same system I think we are already almost out of time. So if you have any question, I will take some right now And if you are more interested by this you can check out the quarkus.io website or chat with the team on Zulip and Of course, uh, follow us on on twitter So, okay, right. All right better now All right. So a couple questions. Okay is the demo code You got a github url for the demo code? So I don't have uber so that's going to be interesting. Oh Um It does seem like here. Let me try this Ah, that was working No, okay. I can take a full cache a shoe question based on uh On their priority. I think that we have a few uh made Is the source code of the from the demo available? Yes, it is available It's on my github repository. Uh, uh, so my my github nickname is cscofier And you will find a quarkus reactive demo and you have exactly everything and you have the instruction to reduce the the full demo Uh, now servlet filter capable of non-blocking request header updates So we ask as some servlets, um support Um, I don't know about the non-blocking request header updates. Um I would say yes. I don't see why we could not do it. So I believe we can but need to be checked Um Yeah, so is there a git repo for the demo? Yes, uh, so just check my github account and Is quarkus to make full reactive application. Can we use eric java or rector? So we support, uh, eric java 2 and a micro profile right extreme operator Which is very everything I did here. You can you can use every java 2. It's uh, it's It's It's flowy ball Your emitter can be a flowy ball too. So if you know how to java 2 you will be Fine Also In a jack servicing point we have seen that we return in, um a completion stage We can also return a single or I don't know about maybe but I believe it's supported too Um, so come on can we Yep Yeah, so i'm not sure if anyone can hear me but the We should just take one more question and then we're out of time and that's the web sphere mq question I think is a good one Yes So can we integrate with uh web sphere mq and as well as using gms. So what's your mq? Yes Um, you can so we have several connector for for msng the support mqp uh Rabbit mq kafka and a few others a course with web sphere mq Uh for gms, uh, we are working on it We start having a plan so as we have a plan is going to work very very soon Okay, well, I do think we're we have run over our time slot for today I'm actually looking up the github repo link for a reactive messaging demo is the one you said, right? Uh, no, it's another one. Uh, I can send that to you It's uh, it's very cool Active demo, okay. Don't see that one. But all right, we have reactive messaging demo but not reactive demo And the coffee shop demo too many repositories Things he found one. Oh, no coffee coffee. Sorry Uh, thank you. Great All right, well then we need to get out of here the uh, but thank you so much for your time today Thank you everyone for attending any questions and come on. Thank you so much Thank you very much