Thank you, welcome. Thank you for coming along. This is a subject that's been a fascination for me for quite some time, not as long as I would have liked. The Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe by Michael Schneider. Has anyone read his book? If you're just having to be fancying to knock one up this afternoon. And this is all about, it's about maths, but it's sort of about form and nature, and it's an amazing journey. And if you're remotely interested in maths or even nature, it's a fascinating read. So highly recommended. And one of the things he says is, to understand nature better, we first need to recognise the roles of its basic patterns. So as permaculture designers, or just quick hands, who's done a design course here? Yeah, so most of you. So I apologise if I say the odd thing that might go over your head if you've not done a design course. Maybe you grab the person next to you and go, oh yeah, that's what he's talking about. But to me, as permaculture designers, what we're trying to do is to take advantage of nature's three and a half billion years of research and development on this planet. Life has been spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to best live here and exist here and thrive here. And we're quite relatively recent on the scene as human beings. And so as permacultureists, if we're looking for a great model for sustainability, then nature is it. Life, the diversity of life around us is it. And so as designers, permaculture designers, it's really important that we can understand how nature does that in order to design in a sustainable way and to mimic what nature does. And so Michael Snyder is saying that in order to do that, we need to understand the roles of its basic pattern. So we're very familiar, I'm sure, with picking up a shell off the seashore and seeing patterns in all kinds of things, spirals and branches and so on. And yeah, what he's saying is what are they doing? They look lovely, they appeal to our sense of beauty, but they also have function. And so as designers, if we can understand what those functions are about, then that actually starts us on our journey to identify how we can fulfill those same kind of functions that we're trying to achieve in our design systems using those same patterns. Because we see these things, we consider them to be patterns because we see them so often. And we see them so often because they are the best ways that nature is found to do particular things. Does that make sense? I'll keep referring back to this, otherwise I go off on a tangent and I realise I've missed something I want to mention. So my own journey with patterns started with this book. Anyone read this? Anyone lucky enough to get a copy of this? The good news is that there is a bunch of them being bought fairly soon by permanent publications of the Pharmacultural Association and so on. So it will be available fairly soon, not just on Amazon for a million pounds. But my own journey began with this book because when I did my design course, there wasn't much other than this book around. There's one other book here, which I'll mention in a moment. And this is Bill Wollison's designer's manual, but I'm sure most of you are familiar with. And interestingly, when I got this book, my teacher said, yes, a great book he says, but skip chapter four. It's really a bit of a mind thing. And chapter four is all about pattern understanding. Anyone actually read this or tried to read it? No? Good. Hopefully this will help. So a lot of people get stuck at the core model bit, which is this lovely diagram here. You can see. It's kind of like, oh, what's that about? Because he's trying to draw something in 3D on a 2D page. And I've yet to make this model in order to try and make this easier for my courses. And so one day I kind of decided I'll skip that bit and I'll come back to it. And actually once I got beyond that, and this baffling tessellation diagram here, which I also, I still don't get what this is about. One day if I get to ask him, it'll be great. But it started to become really useful because, you know, here he is. And in his own words, he says, you know, his patterns, this chapter is really him having an attempt at something. He doesn't really fully understand, but he thinks it's really important. And so, you know, it's for us as permaculturists coming into something that was started here 20, 30 years ago. To take permaculture and evolve it and to bring our own understandings to what is, you know, to me something that could save us. Yeah. So, patterns have function. You can also get a teacher. It's quite rare now. So, yeah, so my first impression is like, oh, it's really scary. But actually, we're completely hard-wired to recognize patterns. You know, as a lot of faces in this room, I recognize and I know who you are because my brain is able to recognize the pattern of your features and store them. And that's really important to me in terms of my survival because if I didn't, if I couldn't recognize the difference between somebody who is a friend or likely to kill me or pick up an apple and know that it's safe to eat this because my mother gave me one once and she knew it was safe to eat. However, that pattern gets into our brain. We recognize this is a safe thing. If we have to experiment every time that we're hungry, okay, let's look around again. I don't know what food is. Let's eat something randomly. We're doomed, aren't we? As a species. So, we're already really good at recognizing patterns. It's not hard, okay? Yes? So, this is why I introduce an assistant other than Phil. This is Pimple who's come to help me today. Yes? And Pimple is? Penguin. Penguin? Or... Or a cuddly toy. In the pattern of a penguin, yeah? Or a baby penguin specifically. And of course, you know, many have seen March of the Penguins. Yeah. If this was a real penguin, it would be quite smelly in here now. Unless you really like fish. But we recognize this, and it actually can give us, create in us an emotional response because it's such a powerful stimulus to us. The ability to recognize patterns and connect with our emotional being. So, patterns are easy. We just now need to figure out how to use them. Okay, so the next bit is thinking about who's heard of the edge effect on their permaculture course? The edge effect on their permaculture course. The edge is important, yeah? Yeah? Edge is quite important, yeah? The edge is the abundant place where everything happens, yeah? And so, the thing for us to do here is to link, you know, what is a pattern? When we think about what is a pattern? When we see a pattern, the pattern of a hand or a tree. That pattern is actually the shape of the edge between two different things. So, my body is this pattern, it's the shape of the edge between my body, which is still a bit fuzzy as far as I'm concerned, because I think it finishes here, but I'm not sure it does, which is in constant interaction with the ecosystem around me. So, I am an ecosystem of a whole bunch of, I believe, two trillion cells? Is it two trillion cells in the human body? Something mad like that. Something mad like that of about 80% of which are bacteria, apparently. So, you know, we shouldn't be too worried about bacteria, really. And this organism I inhabit, that my mind is aware of inhabiting, is very much an object, is a demonstration in the ability of cooperation that systems can cooperate in a beautiful way in order to make the ecosystem as a whole function.  And the reason for that is because, you know, where do you find the edge of that? Because then there's the bloods, you know, the cardiovascular system, and someone that has to support that digestive system, you take that out of the body and put it over here, it's not going to last very long, is it? So systems interact with systems, and the edge between systems is really important, because that's where exchange can happen. And within this ecosystem, energy and resources are constantly being exchanged. So the edge is where that happens, and patterns that we see are the shape, the form of that edge. So most of those edges, most of those patterns have quite a lot of edge to them, don't they? If you think of branching or spirals, if you think about the amount of edge there. Let me stay on track for this. Oh yes, okay, so, come back to Michael later. Maybe? Okay, so I'm just trying to get a sense of who feels like they've travelled quite a long way to get here. Psychologically is good. Who got a bit bored on their journey, perhaps? Yeah? Two of us, yeah? Okay, so you were at home, perhaps, or some place of work, and now you're here. And within this kind of human thinking concept we have, we might express that as, you know, this is where we came from. A, don't worry, there won't be much maths in this session. And this is where we are now, B. And I remember at school, at some point somebody saying, you know, what's the quickest way from A to B? Which is? Straight line. Straight line, okay? I'll do my best. Can't do it. I can't draw a straight line because I have no straight lines in my body. I am an organic curvy. I can move very nicely in curves, that's easy, but straight lines are pretty difficult. So, we don't see many straight lines in nature, do we? Any examples anyone can think of? The horizon? It's still a bit curved, isn't it? So there are approximations to straight lines. You know, sometimes you think, oh, light travels in a straight line, but actually scientists will tell you that light is like that, actually, or at least one part of it is, the wave function of it is. So, straight lines are really unusual. Curves, we see much more in the way of curves. This is because, if any of you have seen the story of stuff on the video, where she talks about, you know, here's a linear system that we're trying to run linear systems on a finite planet. So, we take stuff from over here, we dig it out the ground, we make stuff with it, we sell it to people, and we throw it away, yeah? We take it from here, and we throw it away here, and there's no connection between these two places. In fact, what comes out of here is no use here anymore, okay? And she says, she makes a very clear point that that's a rubbish system, that really isn't going to work, literally is a rubbish system. And nature doesn't do that, because if you think about, in nature, things, when I say that they're all constantly on the move, they're constantly in cycles, like water, for instance, yeah? So water starts, it spends a lot of its time in the ocean, apparently, but every now and again it gets evaporated by the sun, if it goes. And then it might fall on a hilltop or a mountainside, and as it does say, it then moves, obviously, under the power of gravity. So here's our mountain, and the water pools down here, and it makes its journey all the way down. So if we're looking at it from the side, obviously that's not a straight line, is it? It's got a lot of up and downing. Well, I say uping and downing, downing a lot and downing a bit less. It might be an odd splash where it does go off a little bit, but mostly it's going down. Obviously, the up bit is evaporation. So nature moves things around by the power of the sun, and water that's actually held in the landscape up here, when we think about storing energy, we usually think about batteries, don't we, electric batteries and things, but actually a lake on a hill or a mountainside is a massive battery because this is solar energy stored in water, which then lands on the landscape and then has the ability to do work, which we might think of as driving a hydroelectric turbine or perhaps irrigating the landscape. But of course, as far as nature's concerned, or what water is doing, is bringing life to the land because without this cycle, there probably wouldn't be very much life on the land or it would look very different from how it looks now because we rely, obviously, on the rain. So this water is kind of doing that way, but if we look from above, we'd have a slightly different pattern, wouldn't we, we'd have this kind of thing going on. It might do a bit of that later on and then turn into another river delta down there. But again, it's not taking the straight route. And the important thing here is that nature is in no hurry. Nature is, you know, this water is in no hurry and wherever this water is, it's doing something useful, giving life to the oceans or the land or weathering rocks, which is creating soil down here and so on. So this concept really is, you know, it's great here. It's great here. We put up with a bit in between. This is your M25 commute every day. How do people do it? But while we're doing that, we are respiring, you know, and we think of the trees actually supporting us because they produce oxygen for us, but the trees also need us to use carbon dioxide for them. So we're doing good work even when we think we're not, okay? Life is never doing nothing useful. So, so let's start looking at patterns specifically. So, put this off for a moment. Ah, yes, the one thing I was going to do here, which might be slightly messy, and normally I do hand this around but there's no way of doing it with everybody. So we're looking at water here, but when it falls out of the sky, it's quite easy to think, well, maybe it falls in a straight line out of the sky or when you pour it, water falls in a straight line.  I've been trying to keep this. I mean, it's been sat here for a while. Keep it as still as possible. And all I'm going to do is, if you can see, I don't know, try not to get a cake wet. We'll just pour the water into the bottles and also what's happening in the glass. OK, so what do you see going on there? Spiraling. Spiraling, yeah? Yeah. What's that about? Why does water do that? And so, water is a really weird thing and I'm not going to get into water here because it's a whole other subject, but it has a lot of strange behavioral properties. And if it didn't have those, again, we wouldn't be as we are. This thing wouldn't happen on the earth so I kind of always think it's really important to appreciate the simple glass of water for what it is. But water falls in that spiraling form and as it does so, what else was going on in the glass itself? Bubbles. Bubbles, yeah. So it's basically mixing with the gases, which is the air around it, and injecting that into the water. So as water falls down a mountainside, as well as doing the usual weathering, eroding stuff that we're familiar with, so aerating that water is putting air, putting oxygen into the water, which then allows life to live in the water.  It becomes stagnant, doesn't it? And then things die and you get anaerobic decomposition because there's no longer any oxygen in it. So again, water likes to also move. And there's a whole other thing around there from Victor Schellberg's stuff, which is really interesting too. So coming back to... Now let me just give you a quick quote. Buckminster Fuller, anyone familiar with him? Yeah, let's see the geodesic... Is that a geodesic dome? No, okay. So geodesic domes, like the Eden Project, he invented those and did loads of other mad stuff.  And it's on here, so you don't need to write this down. He said, straight lines are axiomatically self-contradictory and self-canceling hypothetical ventures. Nothing complicated. Which I think means they're a bit rubbish. So... Okay, so coming to the forms themselves, I'm going to start with the one that we're standing on, the Earth, yeah? And what form is the Earth? It's roughly spherical, isn't it? Yes. Yes. You can get quite technical about exactly what shape it is, but, you know, I can't draw straight lines. I can't draw a circle either. Apparently a genius can draw a circle perfectly freehand, but I'm working on it. I need a second go of that one. So... And this is the most, in terms of surface area to volume, what is a sphere? Smallest surface area to volume. So it's actually the most stable form as well. So gravitationally, everything comes together and it forms that sphere and that holds it nicely. So this is very stable, but because life is, you know, the ecosystem as a whole, the Gaia hypothesis, if you like, is wanting to create conditions conducive to life, it might look quite round from space, but if you start getting in close, you can start to see that it's not quite as round as it appears because, of course, we've just been talking about the mountains. So the tectonic plates are pushing up mountains all the time. They're creating extra edge. And, of course, on the oceans, the wind blows across the ocean, creates edge, more edge, waves, yeah? So nature is always kind of driving this basic sphere and turning it into something with more edge. And if you took our skeleton away, what would happen? We're probably turning to a blob, couldn't we? So our body actually invests energy in making a structure that stops us being a blob, yeah? Which I guess must be useful. I guess as a blob we could roll around quite easily, but this gives us other opportunities. And we see spheres, obviously, when things are trying to protect themselves as well or retain heat like a cat curls up in a ball or a wood louse or a hedgehog would roll up. A hedgehog does both things. It does a spiky thing as well as the round thing. For the sphere... Lots of words on a hedgehog. That's why I called it a hedgehog. An hedgehog. Yes. So, hello. It's a biodiversity. So what would happen if we broke that in half? No, I'm not talking about this, it's not the earth anymore. Don't worry, although that's slightly worrying. If this is a rock and we shattered it into several pieces, what would happen to the surface area on that rock? You'd have more, wouldn't you? Yeah, because basically you'd have what was on the outside but then you'd have some that was previously on the inside. And what will happen to the surface area of that rock? What will life do to that? It will colonize it, won't it? You'll get lichens coming along first probably and mosses and bacteria and so on. And eventually, whole ecosystems will evolve on those little pieces of rock. As water comes along and gets in the gaps and freezes and that's another weird property that water expands when it becomes ice. That's just weird. Nothing else does that. And yet without that function, water wouldn't be able to weather rocks and break them apart. And as it does so, which as a physicist, trained physicist, I remember my, it's really coming to join in. My lecture is, you know, entropy, that's a really bad thing because things are falling apart and we're all doomed. It's going back to doomed again. But I was completely puzzled by it, you know, so why, if it's all falling apart, why is it all together in the first place? Why does it get to be together if everything only ever falls apart? And of course, when I started to think about it, actually what puts it back together is, well, on one level of life, on a bigger scale, gravity. Yeah? So things float around in space and they start to stick together. We still don't really understand what gravity is or how it works. Maybe it works to get people to convergences. And so as things fall apart, as entropy increases, so do the opportunities for life. And so as things fall apart and get smaller and smaller, then more opportunities exist. And then what's the most fertile soil we can have? Yeah? Or just in terms of particle sizes, clay, very, very tiny particles, loads and loads of surface area, yeah? In fact, so much so that then the electrostatic charge on water can stick to it, yeah? So, lots of surface area is better. And as things fall apart, then so does life have more opportunities to put things back together again. And so instead of designing things with low entropy like plastic bottles, which at one point sounded like a good idea because, you know, other things break or cars rust, let's make things out of plastic. And then suddenly we're going, oh my God, there's 1,000 square miles of plastic floating around in the Pacific Ocean. What are we doing? So things falling apart is good. And if things didn't fall apart, then life wouldn't have the raw materials to make new stuff with. And as conditions evolve on Earth, then, you know, apparently the sun is now 25% hotter than it was when life first appeared on Earth. So I'm told, I wasn't there. Sometimes I feel quite old, but I was quite that old. And there was a very different constituency of the atmosphere. There was hardly any oxygen at all. In fact, there was kind of a toxic gas to the bacteria that were around at the time. And over that period of time, life has had to evolve to changing conditions on the Earth. And the only way it can do that is to always have some new stuff to make stuff with. So there was a guy who, I remember, was talking about artificial intelligence, and he was saying, yeah, basically, you know, where we're going with this is if we finally get to the point where we realize the best stuff to make artificial intelligence out of is what life already makes itself out of, which is called stuff. Because it can be infinitely recycled and never degrade. So we are... We're better than artificial intelligence. But that idea that nature's already done that experiment, and here we are to prove it. And so... Where was I going with that? Phew! It's my intelligence. It's just flown away. Well... Let's go back to this. Anyway, so this idea of things, as they get into smaller pieces, this pattern's called the lobe, lobe pattern.  And if you think about the bacteria that are floating around in your intestines, massive surface area. Lots of bacteria, very small individually, but collectively lots of surface area, changing nutrients to what's passing through your gut, and actually giving you useful stuff, or at least the good ones do. The bad ones compete with... Because they eat what you like to eat and they produce the same byproducts as we do. But this is... So this is happening all over the place, and if you go and, you know, you go and see a reed bed system, the gravel, that's what the gravel's there for. The gravel has a lot of surface area. That's where the bacteria live. And that's where we applied patterning in design. OK? So, let's have a look at a few other patterns just quickly. I have no idea what the time is doing. No, that's not right. Oh, no, it's all right. I've got half an hour. Hello. Still there. So if I can just split you into chunky, groupy kind of things, somewhere around there, and maybe you group on the floor. Can I give you one at the back somewhere and give you one here? And if you can just... One outside. And just in your groups for a moment, just do a quick brainstorm on where you see that pattern in nature. You know, there might be really small scale, big scale, hour scale. Yeah. OK? This is an effective pattern. I like this. I work with this. Is it interesting that... Has anyone got some of these? Yeah, they're very interesting. They're actually tuned slightly off from each other. So I don't know what the frequency is. Would this be 1,000 hertz or something in that region? Anyway, whatever they are. This might be 1,000 hertz. This might be 1,005 or 6, yeah? And the idea is when you ting them together, you get a beat frequency, which is the... I'll do it again and see if you can hear it. So, yeah? You hear that? And so this is all about the principle of entrainment, which is if you put a strong frequency over a weaker one, then the weaker one will entrain, it will come into alignment with the stronger one. And there was a guy, apparently, who had loads and loads of grandfather clocks a long time ago, and he went out one day and they were all out of sync with each other, and he set them all going. And when he came back, they were all aligned effectively and however that works. But this is entrainment. And the idea is that when you ting these in your brain, here's that 4, between 4 and 8 hertz frequency. It takes you into that brain state, which is that calm, meditative place. So that's why these are associated with meditation. And why it calms down a busy group of people thinking... It takes you out of your thinking phase. So, yeah, if we go around very quickly and just get a few ideas from each group, so if you'd like to start over here.  Yeah. Plants climbing. Air currents, tornadoes. The way that people know. Yeah. Springs. Yeah. Which is sort of bacterium, as I'm a bacteriologist. Okay. Yeah. So that's technically a helix. Yeah. Great. Okay. A group at the back. What do you have? Okay. V-hive. Giant's causeway. Poppy seeds. Insect eyes. Stability. I think it's very stable. Yeah. Over and over again in the same shape. Yeah. So there's great efficiency for the use of resources. Yeah, indeed. As well as the other thing. And also you needed this sort of like leaf and stem so how water travels in the plant. Great. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Down here. Increased speed, whirlpools. Weather systems like hurricanes. The inner ear. Yeah. A galaxy. And back tools. Something like sunflowers and an escape option. It's also the basis of human movement. There's some spirals as we turn around. Okay. All of the bodies in spiral. Great. Where are we next? Outdoor group? Yeah, true. So it's flow patterns. Converging and diverging flow. So for example of river trees and tree trees. And nervous systems. The brain and then out through the spinal column and out to the limbs. Converting healthy roots and branches of trees. Mycelia. The lungs for the breathing system. Family trees. Tree trees. So if you're a player you've got descendants or ancestors. Seed heads. Okay. That's good. Okay. We had... And thinking. Snakes and worms and the powder that they leave. Things like ripples in the water and waves. Sand dunes. Some of wind effects like that. Here's the digits. And other. Cow other. Yeah, intestines. Hair. Great. Okay. Thank you. It's not an ideal curve, is it? It's just... You had to use your imagination for that one. Yes. Curl up wood louche. Mellow, orange. Magnetic. Yeah, yeah. Faces. Seeds. Yeah. It's a kind of carambola star fruit. Yeah. What was that one called? That, well, it's kind of a sphere but with extra bits. Like a magnetic field around it. Like around the earth. Yeah. It's a nice room. Yeah. Okay. So we've been talking about kind of where we see them. But also there's some reflection being coming out about why they're like they are. So Manu was talking about diverging and or collecting and distributing. And so when we think about that branching pattern within a tree, it's all about collecting and then distributing to the leaves or collecting and distributing as that kind of two-way flow or within our lungs, of course, and so on. So that's very much about what the function of that is and creating extra edge. And interestingly, I mean a tree, if you've got an acre of trees, for instance, fully grown canopy trees, then you've got between 40 and 400 times or between 40 and 400 acres of leaf surface area collecting sunlight. So that branching pattern is massively increasing the edge of the ability of the earth to harvest that sunlight and make life. Very simple code. Yes. Yeah. And simplicity always wins out, doesn't it? Yes. So what else do we have? We had yours there. So that's kind of about cycles, isn't it? I mean, you have to use your imagination to a degree because that's on a flat piece of paper and we're trying to imagine it in three dimensions, really. But it could be the earth going around the sun. I know that's slightly elliptical, but also the sun is moving to space. So the earth is actually doing that pathway. And the DNA, people are familiar with DNA? Yeah, we said half of DNA. The DNA is a double helix. We've got a single helix here. Yeah, DNA is mad. Within the nucleus of every cell in your body, you have six foot long piece of DNA and it's only able to get in there because of all the ability for it to wrap itself and coil itself. So what else do we have? Yes, as you say, it's the most efficient use of resources to produce a strong structure. And you had spiral. What do you reckon to the spiral? What's that about? Any ideas? Yeah, so you think about water going down the plug hole or into a whirlpool. It's accelerating, isn't it? Or if it's going outwards, it's decelerating and distributing. So again, it's collecting and distributing, but there's a speed thing going on as well at the same time. Yes, yeah. What else? It was a wibbly one. That's another kind of a wave function, again, isn't it? On one level, it's about making more age, but creating opportunities so we could be thinking about the seasons, time, day, night, light levels and so on with that one. And so we see all these things because the nature's way of adapting to the situation that nature is finding itself in. And we often find them not individually but collectively in pattern mosaics. So we think of trees as having that form, but actually if you look closely at a tree, it also spirals. Well, I suppose it's a vortex because it focuses in on the point, doesn't it? But very often, unless you're looking at, you know, your Salix Torchosa with really obviously curved or your twisted hazel or whatever, most trees it's quite subtle and the branching pattern is more dominant. But actually if you look, the tree is constantly having to think about. It's designed itself or it evolved to produce the next leaf so it throws the leaf shade on the leaves behind it. So it's always looking for the next gap so there's the rotation of buds which creates that spiraling form. In some cases like a sweet chestnut tree, sort of people familiar with the bark of sweet chestnut trees, the whole tree goes, it's completely amazing. And so well, within the leaf it's always about throwing the leaf shade on the leaves behind it so the new leaf doesn't want to shade the leaves behind it so it's always looking for the next place where it can do that most effectively. Does that make sense? If I say that well. Yes. And the surface area one's so really important. You know, if you think about what oxygen exchange our body needs to have apparently, the lungs, surface area of our lungs is the equivalent of a football pitch all packed into that nice little thing that we had to carry around a football pitch with us. We wouldn't be here. So we're only able to be the size we are because we can gather that much oxygen through such an efficiently designed structure. The inside of our colon is 250 square metres. And it does that by having what are called villi. You know, this is very much a finger-like structure going on inside and each one of those villi have other little ones on top. It's a fractal again. It's a fractal being patterns repeating at a small and small scale. And mathematically you can take that to infinity. But I think in the human body it probably goes so far. And then if you think about what happens if we, you know, people often have digestive disorders now and it's related to food. For me, I don't do particularly well with gluten. And I've only observed that as a pattern. I haven't been tested for that or anything but I've just observed my pattern of eating things with gluten in over time and how I feel. And that's a really useful thing to do because you just get to know ourselves better as well. But when those kind of sticky gluten and substances get in between the fingers and get stuck in there that massively reduces the surface area inside my gut to absorb food and then suddenly the only surface area I have is this bit on the top. And I've lost all of that because it's full full of gunge. The body was designed to evolve in the ecosystem with the food around us and we've kind of changed our food quite a lot. Perhaps. And that potentially affects the efficiency of our organism. Yeah, body. Some of us more than others perhaps. So when we're thinking about patterns and their functions it's also worth thinking about how we've been using those things up to now and perhaps some of them are less effective than others. So we think about the road network that we have now. We've evolved originally from paths and tracks perhaps originally through forest and maybe, you know, cart tracks and so on. And what happens, you know, with a green lane if nobody uses it. It turns back in. Yeah, everything grows back, doesn't it? Yeah. And so those kind of systems are organic. Anyone here run or work out or anything? Yeah. Your muscles kind of go down again, don't they? So your body kind of creates things when it's needed and when it's no longer needed it recycles those materials and does something else with them. And that's an organic system. It grows and it shrinks depending on the needs of the organism. Now our original lane network was like that. If lanes got used they remained open and if they didn't they would grow over and they would disappear again. We've put big lumps of tarmac everywhere. It's a lot more work for nature to try and get through that. Although, excitingly, there are mushrooms that will burst through tarmac.  Calling to poor standards. So we have hope. But anyway, with that tarmac basically you remove the ability of the earth to grow food or harvest sunlight but also to recover. So, you know, roads will break up eventually but it will take a lot longer because we've stopped using them. So we created a network which is no longer organic. Yeah. So whilst we might be using those same kind of branching patterns so when we arrived here we might have come off the M25 here or something and gone into a slightly smaller road, an A road, and then a B road and then a manna lane, whatever. And each of these gets smaller because it has to deal with less and less traffic. And in an organic system the less traffic, the more it gets overgrown again. Whereas in this system everything is fixed. So the way we tend to deal with it now is we were driving around and there was another lane or two going on the side of the M25 and what's that going to do? It might relieve congestion here but then what happens, you have more traffic on here so the congestion just goes somewhere else. So we're kind of using those patterns and we're not using them so well. Anyone here do a 9 to 5? Well done. But you know, I was particularly aware a couple of times I've been to the Mediterranean this kind of siesta culture where it's too hot, you just chill out for a bit. You know, you start earlier in the day it's much more kind of in-tune with nature and our ability to do work and to do stuff. Whereas here, it doesn't matter if it's the middle of winter or the middle of the summer you've got to get out and go to work at 9. You come home at 5 which creates more of this congestion of course because everybody is moving at once and we're completely out of sync with the seasons. We even have a calendar which is broken into 12 when the moon actually goes around 13 times in the year. So we have all these systems which actually take us out of the feeling of natural time of being in the seasons and then it's no wonder that we kind of forget or don't know what food is seasonal anymore. It's scary. So if we're kind of working and mimicking nature then what we need to do is identify the patterns that will help us to do the things we want to do. So our strategy let me see do I want to go with this? Ah yes, I've missed one. This is where I need a bit of room on the floor. I need three volunteers to be trees. I've got a pine tree. Do you want to be a tree? A beech tree, oak tree and a pine tree? Do you want to be a tree? Yes. So it might be good if you create a space in the middle so everyone can see and actually work in the middle. Sorry about that everyone. Causing chaos again. So what I'd like you to do as trees is you have seeds and you have abundant seeds because nature produces loads and loads of those of course.  Not too far. I was thinking loosely in this area here. I knew you'd be trouble. And this process, what kind of things cause the seeds to be scattered? How would that occur? What's the mechanism for that? Winds. Whether the seeds are built-ins of little springs. Yes, kind of twirly things. Birds, animals. So there's all kinds of mechanisms that seeds get moved around and those seeds are obviously produced on different times as well over a period of time so they won't all appear at once like a nice GMP crop that you can harvest all in one go. Sorry, you can sit down if you want to. That's right, try and sit around the outside somewhere. And because of that of course the wind will blow this way on this day and this way on this day so seeds are scattered randomly. You know sometimes it's what's going on in the mind of a cow and there's like I'm just going to go over there now and it has that little and leave some thistle seeds behind and whatever it's been eating and so there's so many random processes that cause seeds to be scattered around. So if we were just to have a look here at our scattering patterns what do we notice about the distribution? We're only looking at three different species here but how are we noticing the distribution, what's going on here? There's clumping It's completely random. It is completely random this much or at least beyond the ability of my mathematics to work out. And so there are places where you have there's a cluster, you've got a beach and some oaks and some cones here and there might be other places where we've got a cone and there's much going on in those oaks a beach and then there might be areas where there's just oak or just beach or just cones, pines and so on and so nature nature is effectively consistently playing the lottery. It's okay to play the lottery as long as you buy all the tickets because nature always buys the tickets and it doesn't matter that most of nature most of the time life loses because life there's always a winner in life and this is what gets us around this is what's got life around the fact that the environment around it has changed that the sun has got hotter that there are seasons, things move climate change that we're facing this is not the first time that life's faced climate change for us it's a bit of a shock but life's dealt with this a lot and the way life gets around that is by constantly trying new experiments and we're familiar with guilds anyone play around with guilds in their garden? there are clusters of plants or species that grow together well that support each other provide so very often the guild might have a particular plant you're wanting to grow like a brassica maybe and then it might have a nitrogen fixer because the brassica likes lots of nitrogen to grow it's very leafy so like a legume or something and then you might put something else in there as well which is about repelling the pests that might come something chicken a chicken cannibal is, no so normally it's a plant or it might be like a squash that covers the ground well and prevents evaporation in a hot climate so mulch use effectively so we're putting plants together for beneficial relationships and so this is nature just keeping on trying this because whilst a particular cluster might work well for a couple of hundred years but as the climate changes then different combinations of species will actually prove to be better suited to the new conditions so if nature just did the same thing over and over again it would come to a dead end it happens every year and so this is the ultimate pattern no pattern on one level which is kind of odd and paradoxical but this is the way nature has managed to or life has managed to survive on earth and this is a strategy that's Fukuoka anyone familiar with him Pietro knows them well Fukuoka yeah it's his natural farming and his strategy was very much about you know scatter the seeds around the orchard randomly just mix them all up throw them out there and then see what happens and allow nature allow the vegetables to say where they want to be because they'll thrive in the places they're happy and they'll struggle in other places and so everything finds its own place and that's great if you have lots of seeds it's not so easy if you've just got a little packet and you have there's only five what shall I do with them but nature has loads of seeds and a lot of this can be food and that's fine because even the squirrels they'll be planting more trees so there's everything gardens so the random scattering is also a pattern and it's a really important overall pattern that nature has so we can use this technology like Fukuoka does but only if we have lots of seeds but I'm sure once we get used to this idea that seed saving is a really good idea seeds are real wealth then that's fine because then we get away from this idea that we have to protect every last seed we have from things that are going to eat it because there's enough for everything to create biodiverse environments where it's not just us saying this is our food and everything else must keep off but there's enough that the things we need to feed from that space which is the biodiversity the web that connects us all which brings us back to that pattern of the web anyone involved in transition and how does the web relate to transition relationships so it's a resilience isn't it the strength of a web comes from well certainly the flexibility which interestingly again look up closer to spider's web and where the the bits cross they have these squiggles they kind of tie these little squiggly knots like this one here so when something hits that it stretches and then comes back again but also the other point of course about a web is all the connections it's making to the outside so where it's attached this is the important part this is what makes a web strong and unfortunately we're not on the outside of that we're in the middle which is kind of with the spider but actually we're in the most vulnerable place because if some of these start getting broken and we could relate these to the species that create life on this earth by harvesting sunlight the green photosynthesis this is the plants and the trees well to some level but they're kind of the next stage up but they do help the photosynthesis if we start destroying that biodiversity containing the structure of the web and whilst we're in this web we're able to feed from any energy and resources within the web but if we start breaking the links we destroy that biodiversity we become more vulnerable I'm sure I don't need to tell you that but the vision I have for that is on those old black and white movies where you've got the guy soaring a hole in the floor and he's just not seeing what's coming but that's just what we're doing as we destroy species we're not caring for the earth and the web in which we're apart and a good web is one that basically harvests the resources it needs but also allows the things that are going to burden it through so a spider's web allows wind through it it doesn't want to be broken but it's close enough together that it harvests the insects that fly into it and so on we could think of ourselves as webs of a sort and net if you like as well this same kind of pattern that we're moving through the environment we're consuming things in order to nourish ourselves to make ourselves stronger and then we're passing on those resources which is fine as an individual but then what happens when we start building these things and this mind we have because we can project into the future and we have the media that tells us we might run out of stuff we start thinking instead of just storing a few things like everything else does or a bit of body fat we start accumulating lots and lots of stuff just in case and because we've got a nice big space we can lock it all up then that seems okay but actually these if you go back to thinking about energy and resources like to stay on the move when they're stuffed in our loft or in our cupboards they're not moving they're all for other people to use and this of course is platter so platter is not a good thing because it's storing nutrients and resources which could be used elsewhere more beneficially and it means that we have to buy a bigger house to fit all the stuff in which makes our life more difficult because we then need to have more money to buy the bigger house and pay the insurance which is higher because the house is worth more and so on and so forth Free Cycle is a good application of pattern


will both be as under development. Thank you and that concludes General Questions. We're going to turn now to First Minister's Questions. Question number one, Ruth Davidson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Before I begin, I'm sure today we'll all want to recognise the bravery and sacrifice made by the service personnel, who 75 years ago this morning took part in the D-day landings, and all of us owe them a debt we can never repay. Presiding Officer, we've heard a lot in recent weeks about the difficulties faced by teachers due to staff shortages a we are now learning more that in many schools teachers are having to teach different qualification levels of the same subject in the same class at the same time. So that's pupils of different ages studying different topics for different exams all thrown in together. The education secretary said last week that he and a quote it had never heard anybody argue that educationally there was something wrong with it. Does he stand by that statement? Before I respond to Ruth Davidson's question in its substance, I want to make clear to the chamber that I'm deputising today for the First Minister as she is in Normandy for the 75th anniversary commemoration of the DDA landings. The First Minister is honouring those who fought fascism, defended democracy and gave their lives for our freedom. As we look around our world today, we must all remember the debt we owe the DDA generation and now as then we must stand together against those who would choose the road of fascism in our society. In relation to the point of substance that Ruth Davidson raises with me on education, multilevel teaching has been a feature of the education system in Scotland for many years. It was a feature of the multilevel teaching of the education system when I was going through it all those years ago, and it has been a part of the system. Clearly, there is an active debate about the issues around subject choices, but I stand by my remarks that multilevel teaching is able to be delivered effectively in our schools by teachers who are trained to deliver professionalism of that quality and of that standard. Ruth Davidson, I'm not sure how the education secretary could have missed the largest teaching union, the EIS, saying that there has been an explosion in the number of combined classes that is putting teachers under increasing pressure, or the NASUWT union, which says that this issue is causing intolerable workload or stress, or the Association for Science Education saying that teaching of combined classes is like spinning two plates at once, or Principal takes teacher ENA in telling Parliament that it's a disgrace that schools have national four, national five hires and advanced hires in the same classes, or Marjorie Kerr, the president of the Scottish Association of Geography teachers, saying that the exams are not aligned to be taught that way and that national five pupils are definitely disadvantaged if they end up in a higher class because the courses do not match up. Now that the education secretary has heard the arguments against combined classes, does he recognise that all these people have a point? Deputy First Minister, of course I recognise there's a debate to be had about every single topic within education. Education is a part of our society that is actively the subject of debate. What I'm interested in is making sure that our education system delivers the best outcomes possible for the young people of Scotland, and on that the evidence is substantial that the education system is doing exactly that. We see young people now achieving more within our schools. We see attainment at level six rising within our society, equipping young people with the qualifications that they require, and we also see young people leaving school to the highest level of positive destinations on record in our history. I recognise there's a debate to be had, but I also want to make sure that we don't lose sight of the phenomenal achievements that young people are making in our education system today. Ruth Davidson Presiding Officer, the education secretary has said that there is no evidence of the explosion in multi-level teaching that the EIS talks about. Indeed, he says that it's been a factor in Scottish education forever. Will we have the evidence, because we sent freedom of information requests to all 32 local authorities and we asked them how many combined classes there are in their schools? Of the 238 schools that we've got back, 112 have classes where there are three qualification levels being taught in the same classroom and a further 11 schools where there are four levels being taught, such as Inverclyde academy, where maths is being taught for national 4, national 5, higher and advanced higher all in the same classroom. We will give the education secretary all of the evidence that he asks for, but the question is, will he act on it? I think that this is where we get into some of the interesting fault lines and contradictions in the Conservative position here. I believe fundamentally in empowering the schools of Scotland to decide exactly how the curriculum should be delivered. That's what I believe in. That's what this Parliament supported when it supported curriculum for excellence, a flexible curriculum to put power back into our teaching profession to enable it to deliver on behalf of the people of Scotland. What we are now seeing in our schools, as I've said already, is rising attainment by our young people. We are seeing an improvement in the destinations available for young people. We are seeing a rising number of teachers available to teach in our classrooms, a record level since 2010, and we see rising resources being put into schools, including £750 million from this Government directly into the hands of schools and local authorities to close the poverty-related attainment gap. That's the investment that we are seeing in Scottish education, and that's why it's delivering results for the young people of Scotland. Ruth Davidson I'm sure that the schools of Scotland are delighted to hear that they've been empowered by the education secretary and his staff shortages and subject choice restrictions. The point is this a week ago, the education secretary told Parliament that he had never heard anybody say that there was anything wrong with combined classes and that there was no data to suggest that the problem was widespread. I've come here today and we've given him the arguments from the experts and we've given him the data. After 12 years of Government, isn't it time that we had ministers in charge who prepared to face up to the challenges in our schools, not deny that they exist? Or is it the case that defending their failed record matters more to this Government than educating our young people across the country? I engage with the education system more than anybody else in this chamber on a daily basis. Yesterday, while Ruth Davidson was cooking up the latest moan fest to bring to Parliament, I was at the Scottish Education Awards, listening to case by case, the length and breadth of the country, on literacy, numeracy, attainment, achievement and the long service of our teachers. I listened to all those fabulous examples, but Ruth Davidson was cooking up the moan fest to bring to Parliament today. That's how I spent my day yesterday. Crucially, what matters is not the litany of complaints that Ruth Davidson brings to Parliament. What matters is what is being achieved by the young people of Scotland. Attainment is rising, more hires, positive destinations improving year on year. That's what Scottish education is determined to deliver, that's what it is delivering, that's what I'm happy to celebrate and I'm not going to take any moan fest from Ruth Davidson on the subject. Question 2 Richard Leonard Presiding Officer, today is a day for reflection on the sacrifice and the courage of those who liberated France and so liberated Europe. We owe them a huge and enduring debt. The Scottish Government urgently needs to consider how they can progress their income supplement quicker or, if that is not feasible, what interim measures could help. The commission strongly feels that many families need additional money in their pockets now. Those were the stark warnings from the Government's own Poverty and Inequality Commission in response to the Scottish budget. Deputy First Minister, if your own Poverty and Inequality Commission says that the poorest families in Scotland need money in their pockets now, what makes you think that they can afford to wait? I acknowledge the seriousness of the issues that Richard Leonard raises. We have made it abundantly clear and it's made clear from this position on a weekly basis that poverty levels in Scotland are too high and this Government is determined to do all that we can to tackle that issue. On the specific issue about an income supplement, the Government has made clear that we will report to Parliament before the conclusion of the parliamentary session at the end of this month and the Government will do that. However, there are a whole range of different interventions that the Government is taking forward to try to address the issue. I will set out some of them. Some of them are around the implementation of free school meals, where over 130,000 P1 to P3 through children are benefiting from free school meals, or the £750 million attainment Scotland fund, or the investment that we make in the council tax reduction scheme, or the work that is in place and the investment that is in place to mitigate the effects of the welfare reforms that are being imposed upon the people of this country by the United Kingdom Government, or the best start grant, which has been applied and has delivered significant results already for individuals and meaningful results and impact for individuals across our country. Yes, there is more work to be done, but let me assure Richard Leonard and the chamber that the Government is determined to do all that it possibly can do to support individuals who live a life in poverty and to help them to work their way out of that life of poverty with active support from the Scottish Government. Richard Leonard Is the Deputy First Minister seriously arguing that the Poverty Commission does not know about the initiatives that are just listed? It is making a point about the income supplement, but it is not just a question of welfare. Douglas Hamilton, the chair of the Poverty and Inequality Commission, said of the Government's commitment to inclusive growth that, despite a high level of commitment to make this new economic agenda work, very little has changed. As a result, it appears to be more of a concept than an approach that results in real change in people's lives. Deputy First Minister, when will we get deeds and not just words? I have just gone through with Richard Leonard a number of areas where we have undertaken deeds to tackle that particular issue, to recognise that the Government is taking a whole series of policy initiatives, many of which I have set out just now, which are making that impact, which led to some of the very positive endorsement of the work that the Scottish Government is undertaking from the UN special rapporteur, who recently reported on the strength of the response of devolved Administrations to the crisis that individuals face as a consequence of welfare reform. As we look at the steps that the Government takes through the fair work agenda, as we look at the investment that we are taking through early learning and childcare, as we look at the investment that has been undertaken through the best start grants and the social security devolution that we are taking forward, those are all concrete deeds that the Government is taking to address the issues of poverty that individuals face. We will do more, we are determined to do more, but we have to recognise that we are doing that against a whole series of pressures that come towards us arising out of welfare reform and the decisions that are taken by the United Kingdom Government that are deeply damaging to the lives of individuals within Scotland. Richard Leonard The Deputy First Minister uses the word crisis. While the Government has been delaying the income supplement, child poverty in Scotland has continued to rise. While the Government has been offering up concepts out in the real world, more people are queuing up at food banks. Only yesterday, a child poverty action group report produced by the IPPR concluded that the greatest reduction in child poverty relative to cost of any single option is achieved by addressing the two child cap. Deputy First Minister, when will the Government, at long last, think about its moral responsibility? When will you finally use your powers to protect families in Scotland from the two child cap? Or do you, John Swinney, still believe that families should be left to suffer in order to stop letting the Westminster Government off the hook? What an appalling accusation to throw across the chamber of this Parliament when Richard Leonard puts to me the moral question? The moral question is whether this Parliament should be dictated to by a Tory Government that Richard Leonard is quite happy to keep in office inflicting misery on the people of Scotland as a consequence of his unwillingness for this Parliament to take responsibility for these actions. Richard Leonard needs to look no closer than the man sitting on his right-hand side, who sat in the Smith commission and refused—refused point blank—to devolve responsibility here to give us the powers to tackle these issues. Richard Leonard has no right to trade moral responsibility with me across this chamber. He is walking across the road on the other side, doing nothing to take the powers into the hands of this Parliament to transform lives. He is happy to leave the Tories in charge. I most definitely am not. I appreciate that this is an emotive subject, but I would please recommend that members do not shout across the chamber. We have five constituency supplementaries, the first from Mark MacDonald. The Deputy First Minister will be aware that the administrators for Stonywood Mill have ended their discussions with the preferred bidder and that the sale is no longer being taken forward. While that is understandably a major disappointment, a management buyout has now emerged as a potential means of securing the future of the business and the workforce. I plan to meet management tomorrow and understand that the business minister is meeting them today, and I am advised that Scottish Enterprise is offering on-going support. Can I ask the Deputy First Minister if the support that the Scottish Government can and will provide extends to financial support? Will the Scottish Government consider bringing a statement to Parliament, laying out the support provided to date, and the steps that will be taken to help to secure the future of a profitable business and a skilled and dedicated workforce? Mr MacDonald's last point is, I think, the most significant point, which is that this is a profitable site and there is a skilled workforce here. In the Government's view, it is perfectly possible for a viable business proposition to be brought forward, which is why the business minister was in Aberdeen this morning—Stonywood this morning—for those discussions. It is why Scottish Enterprise is deeply engaged in all those issues. I give Mr MacDonald and the chamber the assurance that the Government is doing everything that we possibly can do with our agencies to make sure that all possible support can be made available. We obviously have to operate within the normal rules and the context with which Mr MacDonald will be familiar, but I give him the assurance that everything that possibly can be done to safeguard the future of the plant will be done. It has been a disappointment that the discussions with the preferred bidder have concluded, but there are active discussions about a management buy-out. The business minister will be happy to update Parliament in due course about the steps that have been taken to resolve the situation and to give certainty to the workforce of the paper mill at Stonywood. Neil Findlay, to be filled by Bob Doris. Presiding Officer, I have been passed a consultation document that is not publicly available on the future provision of the out-of-hours dental services in John's hospital. Three of the five options propose the partial or full closure of the service with a move to Edinburgh. That would leave West Lothian with no emergency dental service at our hospital. That follows the out-of-hours closure of the children's ward and the recent threat to the out-of-hours GP service. Why is it that we are constantly having to fight proposals that would see services removed from St John's hospital? Is not that yet more evidence that workforce planning in the NHS is shambolic, it is failing staff and it is failing patients? I point out to Mr Findlay that the children's ward has reopened in one of the issues that he raised there. Obviously, that is a consideration of a range of particular options. It would constitute a major service change if any of those options were to be taken forward, so there will be full and active involvement in consultation for all members of the public and members of Parliament in that process. However, I make clear to Mr Findlay that the Government believes that there is a very strong necessity for there to be a wide range of services provided at St John's hospital. It is critical that the sizeable population in the West Lothian area is supported by the broad range of services at St John's, and those issues will be uppermost in any consideration of those questions that the Health Secretary looks at in the period to come. Bob Dorris is to be followed by John Finnie. Deputy First Minister, around a year ago, a court granted my constituents supervised contact with his disabled son at a family contact centre in Glasgow. However, issue with disabled access to toilet facilities means that contact is not taking place within that time. It may be that no contact centre within Greater Glasgow has appropriate disability-compliant facilities. I am unclear. Does the Deputy First Minister agree with me that it is wrong that family contact centres appear not to be subject to minimum standards such as disability access? Indeed, I understand that there is little regulation more generally regarding family contact centres. Will the Deputy First Minister seek to remedy such matters so parents but, more important, children can have appropriate contact and reduce parental alienation? All public facilities should have appropriate disabled access for all individuals. If Mr Dorris is happy to provide the details of the situation to me, I will make sure that they are investigated by the appropriate minister, and we will work to ensure that all possible remedies are put in place. However, there should be no barriers for individuals to pursue their legitimate activities as a consequence of their disability, and I will make sure that the issues are looked at very carefully. John Finnie is to be followed by Rachel Hamilton. The Deputy First Minister will have heard the sad news that the Butian newspaper is the seeds publication this month, 165 years after publication commenced. The journalism jobs left Ireland some time ago, but the need for local news hasn't. Can the Deputy First Minister advise how the Scottish Government can support local journalism, particularly in our island communities? I was very sorry to hear the news about the Buteman, and as Mr Finnie says, had a long and distinguished history. Of course, it is part of the firmament of local newspapers that faithfully report activities and initiatives that are the length and breadth of the country. Obviously, those are private matters and private companies, but the Government is happy to engage in wider work in that respect. The culture secretary, Fiona Hyslop, was involved in discussions just at the weekend in relation to the role of journalism in our society and was making the point that we all rely on—a free and open press—to make sure that there is proper reflection of local priorities and appropriate discussion of national, political and wider societal issues. The Government supports very much the activities of local newspapers and is happy that we often provide lots of news for local newspapers to report on. The Deputy First Minister will be aware that this week, the Scottish Borders Council is handing over an extra £3.2 million to the region's joint health board, following continued concern over the state of the NHS Borders finances. At a recent meeting of the IJB, the board revealed that it needs to make £11.7 million of savings in the financial year 2019-20. All this comes in a week when NHS Borders reported the worst average waiting time in Scotland for CAMHS. Young people are on average waiting 22 weeks for treatment. Deputy First Minister, this is appalling. Can he commit today that the Scottish Government will properly fund NHS Borders, as the current financial situation is clearly unsustainable? Obviously, NHS Borders will be funded through the financial arrangements that we have in place that distribute the largest NHS budget that has ever been in history to the health boards of Scotland. NHS Borders will have their appropriate share of that, driven by the formula that is applied in this respect. Rachel Hamilton raises the significant issue around mental health services for young people. She will know that the Government is investing significantly in expanding mental health services at a whole variety of different levels, whether that is through the expansion of the school councillor network, or whether that is about the expansion of mental health services through the national health service. All those different interventions will be taken forward to strengthen mental health services. Finally, on health and social care integration at local level, this is a joint endeavour between the health service and local authorities to serve communities. It is important that there are open discussions about the financial requirements of that joint service, so the way that Rachel Hamilton characterises the handing over money from one body to another does not exactly get across the concept of partnership that lies at the heart of the integration of health and social care. She may know that one of the Conservative leadership candidates, Mr Rory Stewart, is looking very actively at the failures of integration of health and social care south of the border and has reflected on some of the issues that have been taken forward here in Scotland in reflecting that sense of partnership. Perhaps, before she bans language like that around the chamber, she should reflect on the importance of partnership between health and local government at local level. I join the other political parties in commemorating the actions of those who took part in the D-Day landings. As we see the forces of the far right to reinvent themselves in the UK, the United States and so many other countries too often aided and abetted by people in mainstream politics and media, we must remind ourselves that the fight against the far right is one that every generation must be ready for if we are to properly remember and respect the memory of those who did not return from that fight 75 years ago. At the end of April, the First Minister declared a climate emergency, so did the Welsh Government. Now, barely a month later, it has announced the welcome decision to scrap plans to build a £1.4 billion motorway relief road. Yet, in Scotland, the Scottish Government is pressing ahead with spending £6 billion on dualling the A9 and A96. Since making her announcement, the First Minister has repeatedly said that, when it comes to the policy changes that are needed, everything is under review. Does that include the next phases of those road projects? Patrick Harvie has reflected on the issues that we all face in relation to climate change. The Government has to take forward its agenda in a sustainable way. We have already made changes to our policy framework, with which she is familiar, through air departure tax, but the Government also has a duty to make sure that the country is equipped with the appropriate infrastructure that it requires to meet the needs of all of our population. Anyone who is familiar with the A9 and A96 will know that both of those roads have, by their current construction and by the volume of use, very serious and alarming safety records. Those issues have to be addressed as part of the Government's programme. The Government will do that, but all of those comments are set by me in the context of the absolute obligation on the Government to fulfil the climate change targets that we have set out and committed to. Roseanna Cunningham has proposed amendments to the current legislation to make sure that we fulfil the commitments that we have given to the Parliament and to the people of Scotland. Patrick Harvie seems to disagree with the First Minister when she said that everything was under review. She cites the problem of the volume of traffic use. The current plans will do nothing to control the issue of the volume of the use of those roads. The Scottish Government has an opportunity to change direction here and redirect expenditure from road building into investment in a modern, affordable and efficient rail network. The single-track Highland mainline railway, which runs parallel to the A9, has been described as an antiquated embarrassment. During that line, an electrifying it could be done for far lower cost than the Government's road building scheme. It is over 10 years since the Scottish Government promised significant investment to ensure that railway travel to the heart of the Highlands is competitive with roads. People in the Highlands have been waiting since 2008 to see that improvement in journey times. How much longer do they have to wait? What I would say to Patrick Harvie is that there are improvements that are being undertaken on the Highland mainline, as we speak. There has been structural change already undertaken on the line to ensure that the ability to deliver shorter journey times is made possible. Investment has been made through the ScotRail franchise in enhancing the rolling stock that is available for the Highland line. That has resulted in an expansion of capacity that can transport passengers from Inverness to the central belt. All those investments are taking place to improve the attractiveness of the rail network. Clearly, we have wider obligations to ensure that, in every respect, we are equipping the country with the connectivity that is required. The massive investment that has been put into digital connectivity is a huge benefit for the Highlands and the islands communities. Those are advantages that we are delivering as part of a balanced package, but I stress that they have to be done within the context of fulfilling the climate change targets that the Government is about to enshrine in law in the weeks that lie ahead. Seventy-five years on, I know that many thousands of people woke up this morning and thought of those in their families who served and sacrificed so that we may live freely today. The education committee said that he was confused. Teachers said that they had no real value. Parents, in his constituency, boycotted them. The teachers union wanted them scrapped, and Parliament instructed John Swinney to stop. That is national testing for five-year-olds. Yet, on Tuesday, he claimed that the tests had been implemented without any difficulty whatsoever. On the very same day in London, Donald Trump claimed that he only saw cheering crowds. Two peas in a pod, both in denial. Is not the truth that the national testing saga is symbolic of his performance as education secretary? I think that that ridiculous question is symbolic of Willie Rennie's leadership of the Scottish Liberal Party. I do not think that it serves decent discourse in this Parliament for Willie Rennie to characterise his questions like that. He could say what he likes to me. It is water of a duck's back to me, but I do not think that it helps his credibility one eye over two. On the question of primary one assessments, the reason why I said that the assessments had been implemented without any difficulty was the fact that, in the first year of the implementation of a complex IT project—and I remind Parliament that sometimes the public sector has difficulties with IT projects—650,000 assessments were undertaken the length and breadth of our country in 3,500 schools in Scotland. That is the evidence that I would marshal to say that the assessments had been undertaken without any practical difficulty. The reason why I believe primary one assessments to be valuable—I will say more about that in a statement to Parliament on Tuesday, which Willie Rennie will know that I am making—is that I want to make sure that teachers have access to resources that will inform their judgment about the progression of young people through the education system, because it does not serve young people well for any issues in their educational capacity not to be identified at the earliest possible opportunity. I thought that this Parliament believed in early intervention, primary one standardised assessments are about early intervention, and that is why they are valuable to young people around Scotland. John Swinney is ignoring the evidence again. He is not listening. Instead of bulldozing ahead, he needs to listen and scrap the test today. There is a long list. The pupil equity fund is underspent by £50 million. Audit Scotland says that colleges have big financial problems. Recruitment for nursery education is way behind. Six out of 10 teachers work more than an extra day every week, and more than half of all teachers experience mental health issues because of their job. John Swinney was brought in as the big shot troubleshooter for the First Minister's guiding mission. Does he really think that he has met the First Minister's expectations when she appointed him to that job? I was just about to encourage some brevity so that we can get through some subsequent questions. I will squeeze in a couple of supplementaries. The first one is Jackie Bailey and Gail Ross. The Deputy First Minister will be aware that millions of pounds of European funding could be withheld from voluntary organisations and local authorities across Scotland. Given that that could lead to employability projects closing, job losses and cuts to services for vulnerable people, why did the Scottish Government not heed the warnings more than a year ago because it is the Scottish Government's responsibility to administer the scheme? Why has nothing been done to avert this crisis? Will the Deputy First Minister act urgently and guarantee to fund the £22 million gap? I will accept an answer of yes. Let me give Jackie Bailey slightly more details. Jackie Bailey knows that she is one of my favourites, so she would expect a bit more detail. First of all, I can acknowledge the importance of the issue and the manner in which it has been set out by Jackie Bailey. That affects the prospects of a number of third sector organisations on whom we all rely in our communities. We understand the concerns of local authorities and why we have been engaging in discussion with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities on the question. We are determined to avoid any charity or third sector body going out of business as a result of this particular issue. We have been doing a great deal on this. We have been in discussions with the European Commission to explore resolutions to the audit issues. Last Friday, we presented possible solutions to the European Commission and we are awaiting a response. We continue to make payments to projects that are unaffected by those issues, but I assure Jackie Bailey that there is intense activity under way to resolve those questions and to give the type of security and certainty that third sector organisations are looking for. Of course, ministers will be happy to update Parliament on those questions in due course. I will take one other brief supplementary. Mr Swinney, it is rare that I say this, but some members cannot quite hear you. It is just when you are swiveling to try and keep your remarks to the front. Gil Ross. Today's national runs a letter from the Scottish Government confirming that it will not block an independent Scotland's entry to the EU. It confirms that this has always been their position and that there is no queue to join the EU. Another better-together scare story bites the dust. Now, I will leave it to the Herald to explain why they failed to publish a letter that they received some weeks ago. However, can I ask the Deputy First Minister, does he welcome this intervention from Spain? I better make sure that everyone hears this answer, Presiding Officer. Yes, I do welcome this intervention because it confirms the fact, as we have always known, that Spain would not block an independent Scotland from joining the European Union, and the confirmation from the Spanish Government is very welcome in that respect. However, that comes alongside the demolition of a whole host of other scare stories that were put around in 2014, such as having to vote no to protect our European Union membership. We know how well that went. Members of the public in Scotland were told that they had to vote no to safeguard the future of the national health service, and we now see that Donald Trump is over here trying to get his hands on the national health service. On the watch of this Government, we are going to have nothing to do with that, but the same cannot be said for the mess that the Tories have got us into on Brexit. To ask the Deputy First Minister what the Scottish Government's responses to reports that children are still being held at Dungavel House. Presiding Officer, if children are still being detained at Dungavel, a decade after the Home Office committed to ending this appalling practice, it would be completely unacceptable and a clear contravention of stated Home Office policy. The Scottish Government has repeatedly pressed the UK Government to implement more humane asylum and immigration systems. The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government wrote to the UK immigration minister on 15 May to express the Scottish Government's deep concerns following reports about the detention of children and pregnant women at Dungavel. She wrote on 1 April to support calls for a time limit on immigration detention. The Scottish Government is continuing to seek clarity from the Home Office regarding the detention of children in Dungavel. Can I thank the Deputy First Minister for that answer and ask him to cast his mind back to the Smith commission when all parties in that commission, as noted in the Smith agreement, recommended that the operation of asylum support be devolved? Does the Deputy First Minister agree that having some responsibility for asylum and greater insight into what happens in Dungavel would mean that we could better protect vulnerable adults and children, and can he give this Parliament an update on progress towards that recommendation? I do recall the discussions in the Smith commission that Linda Fabiani raises. As a consequence of that, the Scottish Government held a number of discussions at official level with the Home Office in relation to the Smith commission's proposals on asylum. Despite the recommendations made by the Smith commission, the Home Office refused to accept the case for devolving asylum accommodation, financial support and advice, or on the question of being able to lodge an asylum claim in Scotland so that we could provide for a more dignified and humane system. The fact that we were unable to make progress on what was an all-party agreement in the Smith commission, agreed by all participants in the process, should perhaps come as no surprise to us, given the fact that the Home Office has been continually criticised for creating a hostile environment in this area of policy, which serves none of us well, and which is, in my view, a scar on the reputation of the United Kingdom and its welcome to people who face jeopardy in our world. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the Scottish Fiscal Commission's prediction of a £1 billion shortfall in income tax receipts affecting the Scottish budget in the period 2020-23. I welcome and value the work done by the Scottish Fiscal Commission, as the commission itself has made clear that significant uncertainty surrounds potential reconciliations. The true position cannot be confirmed until out-turn data is available. The Government will decide how to manage any reconciliation as part of each budget, and we will be guided by the principles set out in the medium-term financial strategy, including over the use of limited reserve and borrowing powers at our disposal. While those forecasts have yet to be confirmed, what I can confirm is that, if we had followed the Conservatives' income tax plans to offer cuts to higher earners, the impact on our budget this year would be around £500 million. If that persisted year-on-year, it could total around £2.5 billion by 2023-24. I thank the Deputy First Minister for her response. In addition to the £1 billion black hole that was already identified, yesterday, the Fiscal Commission told the Parliament's Finance Committee that the devolved social security costs could be substantially higher than the previously predicted £3.5 billion total. Those are very serious issues for the Scottish public finances, and the Scottish Government cannot deflect criticism elsewhere. The Deputy First Minister himself sat on the Smith commission that signed up to tax devolution, and he signed up to the Fiscal Framework, which determines the block grant adjustment, which already protects the Scottish budget from slower population growth here compared to the UK as a whole. What people want to know is this, how will those huge gaps in the public finances be filled? Will it be by cuts in public spending? Will it be by further tax rises on hard-working families, or will it be both? It is interesting in Murdo Fraser's supplementary comments that, at no stage did he refer to the fact that, in the Fiscal Commission's report that was published, it demonstrates over this period an increase on projected tax revenues since the last assessment was undertaken in December of £490 million. At no stage did Mr Fraser comment on the fact that, since December to June, a £490 million increase in the estimation of tax revenue to be generated in Scotland as a consequence, and an increase in the tax takeover that whole period of £3.5 billion. As I indicated in my earlier answer, those are forecasts on the Fiscal Commission, which they themselves accept can go up or down. What we are certain about is that, if we had followed the Conservatives, we would be taking £500 million out of public expenditure today that would be a disaster for their public services. Thank goodness, an SNP Government is here to protect Scotland from the Tories. To ask the Deputy First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is, to recent figures showing that the number of women and girls playing football in Scotland has almost doubled in the past five years. We want to see more people taking part in physical activity, so I am pleased to see such a significant increase in the number of women and girls playing football. We have an excellent opportunity to further increase participation in our national game as Scotland's women's national team takes part in the FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time. I know that I speak for the whole chamber when I say that the Parliament and the people of Scotland could not be prouder of Shelly Kerr, her staff and the squad. We will all be cheering them on every step of the way in the Women's World Cup. I thank the Deputy First Minister for that answer and for stealing some of my thunder in terms of my supplementary question. I am delighted that, last October, the Scottish Government allocated funding that allowed all members of the squad to train full-time from January 2019 to the World Cup. That can only have benefited our team. The First Minister was one of the record 18,555 people who, like me, was at Hamden to see Scotland's impressive 3-2 win over Jamaica last week. Does the Deputy First Minister once again want to indicate his confidence that the team will be very successful at the Women's World Cup in France and do Scotland very proud? I think that it would be impossible for me to steal the thunder of Kenneth Gibson on any occasion. Let me join Mr Gibson in extending our warmest wishes to Shelly Kerr and the team. The fact that so many supporters turned out in Hamden is an indication of the growing enthusiasm and support for the women's game. The stories that we have all heard about the pioneers of women's football, who were again celebrated at the occasion of the match with Jamaica just last week, are an indication of just how far we have travelled on that question. In a First Minister's question time, where there can be such ranker in division, I am sure that I can close it today on a moment of unity that we are all rooting for the women's team on Sunday. We wish them well in the whole of the competition and I know for a certain fact that they will do Scotland proud. Thank you very much. A very good note to end on, and that concludes First Minister's questions. Apologies to the large number of members who did not get a supplementary question today. We are going to move shortly to members' business in the name of Alex Cole-Hamilton on trauma recovery and support for first responders. We will just take a few moments for the minister and members in the public gallery to change seats. We will have a short suspension.


The Bemidji City Council approved a new five-year contract with a raise for the Sanford Center's management company VenuWorks tonight. The council discussed and debated for over 90 minutes the terms, conditions and the length of the new contract. The new contract would begin in January of 2019 and would include new terms such as extending the termination clause from 90 days to 180. Members of VenuWorks executive staff were present to answer questions by council members. Before the final vote, council members debated and discussed at length the ongoing auditor VenuWorks by the Minnesota State Auditor and other issues surrounding the new contract. I find it real strange that we're actually wanting to enter into a five-year contract with a raise to a company that, before we even get the results of a fraud audit on that very company. I mean, we're not leaving us a window here for those other three items to be used as a, you know, as that barometer to determine whether this is actually being successful or not. But VenuWorks may deviate from the standard rental rates when such negotiation is deemed by both parties to be in the best interest of the facility. And it does not say what the approval from the city. The new contract was approved six to one with Councilman Ron Johnson casting the lone no vote. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Hey guys, so today I'm going to be doing a video all about the Maven Eon collection of scrubs and You know as a nurse that like scrubs are your obsession Especially when you find a great brand of scrubs that you love to wear and that is exactly what the Maven Eon collection offers So I am going to be going through two different styles of the Maven Eon collection of scrubs One is the v-neck top which I am currently wearing and one is the sporty mesh style Both styles are made with the cool max Fabric which is a fabric that keeps you cool and dry when you're working and as a nurse There's been so many times where I'm like running around and or in a room And I'm in like the contact gear and you just feel like sweaty afterwards and then it like clings to your scrubs and fabric and These scrubs do not do that because they're cool and they're lightweight and they have this great like Silky material which I love so this pair of scrubs is the v-neck pocket top and then the elastic Cargo pants bottoms both these scrubs are size extra small to give you reference I'm about five four and I'm about a hundred twenty five pounds on a good day And these scrubs are very nice and form-fitted I like my scrubs to give me a little bit of shape and be form-fitting and so that's why I got them in extra small They have lots and lots of pockets and you know as a nurse You're always putting things in your pockets and these scrubs are very breathable and comfortable to wear when I put them on I was like yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I can definitely wear these to work These are wonderful the next pair scrubs is the sporty mesh scrubs and the sporty mesh bottoms Which I think are so so cute that they have like this little meshy area on them although I'm not a super athletic person I do like to work out and so I like when my scrubs kind of matched my lifestyle like I am a Sporty sort of person and then I have sporty sort of scrubs work which are comfortable and flexible and Whenever I put on scrubs like the first thing I do is like bend down and like lift my arms up and move around So that way I know if the scrubs are flexible and movable and these made any on scrubs are definitely both of those I also got the Sporty mesh jacket and navy which is wonderful because I actually don't have a scrub jacket So this is so awesome now that I have a scrub jacket that I can wear with my scrubs that matches my uniform I love this 40 mesh style because it has the mesh on it and it's still breathable and cool and which is awesome because a Little bit of sneak peek if you're watching this video I am actually moving to Arizona soon and so Arizona is so so so hot and so to have scrubs in the summertime that are Breathable. Yes, that is just like exactly what I need if you guys are interested in checking out the Maven on Ian collection of scrubs or any of their other scrub products I will put their link to their website down below and also the link to their social medias down below I hope you guys check it out Make sure you give this video thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and I'll see you guys next time. Bye