The first item of business is a member's business debate on motion 10573 in the name of Stuart McMillan on Commonwealth Day 2018. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put down. Ask those members who wish to speak in the debate, please press your request to speak buttons now, and I call on Stuart McMillan to open the debate. Thank you very much. I'm signing off, sir. Commonwealth Day 2018 marks 41 years since it was first celebrated in 1877. That's the first simultaneously observed Commonwealth Day. It's important that there has been cross-party support so far for this motion, and I'd like to thank every member who has supported the motion. This year we have similar events in Scotland and the Commonwealth to celebrate Commonwealth Day. We have got the upcoming Commonwealth Games, which will be held from the 4th to the 15th of April on the Gold Coast of Australia, which will be the largest integrated sports programme in Commonwealth Games history. I had the privilege of meeting two of Team Scotland's hockey athletes at the Greenock Morton community open day on Sunday. I wished them well on Sunday and I also wish all the athletes at the Games, particularly all those from our Team Scotland athletes. Here in Scotland, 2018 marks the year of young people, which I'm sure that members would agree that Doftail was quite nicely with Commonwealth Day. Since its founding in 1977, it has had a special emphasis on young people. The main purpose of Commonwealth Day is to highlight the common ties and history of the 53 countries and territories from right across the world who make up the Commonwealth Day. It's always celebrated on the 2nd Monday in March, because leaders at the time noted that it's a day when most schools would be in session. That gives the opportunity for students and young people alike to participate by planning events such as many Commonwealth Games, simulated heads of government meetings and other events that celebrate the diverse culture of Commonwealth nations and territories. This year's theme is towards a common future, which builds upon the last year's theme of a peace building Commonwealth. The theme seeks to explore how the Commonwealth can address global challenges and work to create a better future for all citizens through sub-themes of sustainability, safety, prosperity and fairness, which is in line with the theme of the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in London. The events will also include performances, faith and civic gatherings, including citizens from all over the Commonwealth, and the procession that included young flag bearers representing each of the 53 nations and territories. According to the Commonwealth Organization Facts, the Commonwealth comprises of 2.4 billion citizens of which 60 per cent are aged 29 years or younger. That's an extremely young population. More than 1 in 3 young people aged between 50 and 29 live in Commonwealth countries, about £640 million out of £1.8 billion. That marks the huge emphasis that's placed on cultivating and shining a spotlight on the impressive talent of our young people in the Commonwealth, be it at sports, academics, politics or in the arts. In the charter of the Commonwealth, there is a dedicated section affirming the importance of young people in the Commonwealth. It explicitly states that the future success of the Commonwealth rests with the continued commitment and contributions of young people in promoting and sustaining the Commonwealth and its values and principles. We commit to investing in and promoting their development, particularly through the creation of opportunities for youth employment and entrepreneurship. Those powerful words from the Commonwealth Charter echo similar sentiments to a themed year of the young people here in Scotland. Some of my constituents in Inverclyde participate in the Inverclyde-Malawi schools partnership, which connects our schools with schools in the Chyridzulu district in Malawi. The Inverclyde partner schools supported various projects and built strong partnerships with those students in Malawi. Our young people are the future and, by creating those connections through our Commonwealth link, a strong bond is formed and has the potential to create long-lasting and positive outcomes for the futures of both Malawi and Scotland. Those bonds that our young people make help to form the future that we want to move towards as part of the Commonwealth. The Queen in her annual message ahead of the Commonwealth said that, through exchanging ideas and seeing life from other perspectives, we grow in understanding and work more collaboratively towards a common future. The exchange of ideas and understanding perspectives is key, especially in a time where the future can be uncertain. The values and aspirations of the Commonwealth Charter, which includes democracy, human rights and the rule of law, along with the commitment of the development of free states and the promotion of peace and prosperity, become crucial as the guiding principles for us, for this family of Commonwealth nations. By celebrating Commonwealth Day every year, we reaffirm our links, our commitments, values and aspirations to each other and pledge to work towards a more positive and common future. As we mark our Commonwealth Day here in Scotland and in the Scottish Parliament, let us look forward to what we can build together as part of the Commonwealth by recognising our current bonds and forcering new ones throughout our young people. Each of the 53 nations and territories cannot achieve their goals alone, therefore, with collaboration, we can work to deliver shared ideals and common goals. I look forward to seeing the future that we will be creating together with our other Commonwealth nations and territories. I wish all 53 nations and territories a very happy and productive Commonwealth Day. I call Tom Arthur, who will be followed by Margaret Mitchell. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I would like to begin by congratulating my colleague Stuart McMillan on securing this debate to mark Commonwealth Day 2018. Scotland's ties with other Commonwealth countries are well known, whereas the names of our towns and cities echoed in other settlements across the world or our widespread diaspora. There is scarcely a corner of the Commonwealth, or indeed the globe, without a Scottish connection. My only uncle, William Arthur, was one of many Scots who in the 1960s seized the opportunity of cheap transit to Australia as part of the assisted passage migration scheme, making him one of the tens of thousands of £10 palms. Willie, as he was known, spent 18 years in Australia working and starting a family before returning to Barhead in the early 1980s. Consequently, I am one of the many Scots to have first cousins in Australia who can regularly be seen enjoying days of endless sun on pristine beaches and smug, self-satisfied Facebook posts.  The first was the piano teacher Elizabeth Jacobs, who I had the privilege of studying under during my late teens and early twenties. Elizabeth returned to Australia a decade ago, but in her over 20 years in Scotland she was a highly sought-after teacher, both at the then, while Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and as a private tutor. With many of her students currently active as professional musicians across Scotland, Elizabeth Jacobs has left a formidable legacy in the country, brilliantly embodied in the now world-class Scottish international piano competition, which she was instrumental in founding. I also wish to take this opportunity to recognise Dr Jane Stanley, who is a senior lecturer in music at the University of Glasgow and a highly regarded composer. I had the privilege of completing my postgraduate degree under Dr Stanley and her teaching made a huge impact on my understanding of music and compositional craft. I highlight both Elizabeth Jacobs and Dr Stanley not only because of my personal connection to them but because they also exemplify two outstanding commonwealth women who have succeeded brilliantly in the realm of classical or art music, a domain that for far too long had been male-dominated. Presiding Officer, given the size of the commonwealth, it will not have escaped your notice that I have given exclusive focus and maybe marks to Australians. However, there is a very simple reason, a constituency-based reason no less that you will be pleased to learn of. That is because Johnston and My Rainfisher South constituency is the birthplace of Sir George Houston Reid, who was Australia's first High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, as well as being Australia's fourth Prime Minister. This year marks the centenary of Sir George's death, and, although he may not be a household name today, he was a significant figure in his own time. In an age when debates raged on the merits of free trade or protectionist policies, police assurance, Sir George was a committed free trader and the most prominent leader of the Australian Free Trade Party. Having been a key player in the major political debates of his era in Australia, a Prime Minister and the first High Commissioner to the UK, one would be forgiving for thinking that those achievements represented the total of Reid's career. However, following his tenure as Australia's top diplomat to the UK, he went on to be elected to the House of Commons, where he served for the last two years of his life and acted as an unofficial spokesperson for the dominions during the First World War. The story of Sir George Houston Reid, Johnston and My constituency encapsulates the interconnectedness, shared values and identity that characterises the Commonwealth. It is an institution that demonstrates that nations with complicated and sometimes challenging past relationships can come together and collaborate as equal partners. The lesson that we can all learn from that has never been more relevant. Thank you very much, Mr Arthur. I call Margaret Mitchell to follow by Lane Smith. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome the opportunity to speak in the Parliament's annual Commonwealth Day debate, which this year has the theme towards the common future. I thank Stuart McMillan for tabling the motion. The Commonwealth is one of the world's oldest political associations of states. As Stuart has already said, today it comprises of 53 independent countries and is home to a staggering 2.4 billion people. In 1949, the Commonwealth parliamentary association CPA was established to support Commonwealth parliamentarians. The Commonwealth women's parliamentary association, the CWP, was formed in 1989 and strives in particular to achieve better representation of women in legislatures. More generally, it seeks to promote and succeed in the furtherance of gender equality. Furthermore, the Commonwealth Charter 2013 states, we recognise that gender equality and women's empowerment are essential components of human development and basic human rights. With those years towards the common future theme in mind, it is clear that gender equality is recognised as being in the interests of all in the Commonwealth in order to develop and progress. The CWP's strategic plan for 2017-2019 therefore focuses on thematic priorities that include ending violence against women, women's economic empowerment and women in leadership. The establishment of the strategic plan has two main objectives, namely to increase awareness of the existence and work of the CWP and to create a resource centre as a hub for information that can serve as an important resource to help to tackle its thematic priorities. In addition to that, when the BIMR CWP steering group committee met in London in October last year, members had the pleasure of meeting with the girls' network. That is a mentoring organisation for young people. The organisation aims to inspire and empower girls from the least-advantaged communities. During the discussions with the girls, the committee members explored issues such as culture and stereotyping, which can be barriers to achieving ambitions. Many of the girls said that their mothers had been denied the educational opportunities to reach their potential and were therefore determined that their daughters would not suffer the same fate. It was hoped that meeting with the women parliamentarians would help to give the girls more confidence and motivation to achieve their goals and to realise that if they can do it, then we can do it too. Finally, I want to touch briefly on the issue of online abuse. That has increased with the rise in social media and was the subject raised at the CWP international working group held at Wilton Park Buckinghamshire at the beginning of last year. It was recognised that women parliamentarians need to share knowledge and learn lessons in order to address the abuse that they are subject to by enormous individuals not prepared to engage face-to-face. A good example of that can be found in the work of the parliamentarians for global action, which is a non-profit, non-partisan network of 14,000 legislators in 140 countries. In conclusion, it is crucial that parliamentarians continue to work together to counter abuse against women and young girls in whatever form that takes as we move forward together towards a common future. Thank you very much. I apologise to Ms Mitchell because the clock was not working for your speech there, but you kept in time nevertheless. There is a trooper. I call Elaine Smith to be followed by Tavish Scott. I thank Stuart McMillan for bringing the debate forward. Since its inception in 2000, the CPA Scotland branch has continued to grow, building on existing links, establishing new ones and strengthening its role within the association. I take this opportunity to thank the staff in UKIRO and in particular Scotland branch's Secretary of Market Neil for their work in supporting elected members. One of our many areas of work has been the Scotland-Malawi relationship, which Stuart McMillan mentioned earlier. I was very fortunate to lead a delegation a few years ago to Malawi to visit projects and provide seminars for committee members of the Malawian Parliament and to expand our own knowledge. Some of the projects that I visited there were under the auspices of the healthy lifestyle project based in Coopridge High School, which do fantastic engagement work in Malawi and at home. A priority in recent years, which is even more to the forefront in this and standard year of votes for some women, has been the work by the common wealth women parliamentarians to support and encourage increasing women's representation and gender equality, as I outlined a moment ago by Margaret Mitchell. Margaret Mitchell, of course, is our representative on the CWP and has worked hard to make sure that our branch has input and also in reporting back on activities. We are ahead of other branches and appointing a male champion on women's representation, Maurice Corry. Building on last year's theme of a peace building common wealth this year's theme considers how we can address global challenges and what to create a better future for all citizens through sub-themes of sustainability, safety, prosperity and fairness. In terms of prosperity and fairness, in recent years global inequality has been increasing. Oxfam's most recent report, Reward Work, Not Wealth, tells us that in the period between 2006 and 2015, ordinary workers saw their incomes rise by an average of just 2 per cent per year, while billionaire wealth rose by nearly 13 per cent. It seems then that the extreme wealth of the few is rising and those at the bottom are still struggling to survive. Oxfam's report also points out that, even in emerging economies with rapid economic growth, many workers, including a disproportionately large share of women, remain trapped in low-pay and poverty wages. It shows us that economic growth and the trade and investment that it gives rise to does not guarantee the living standards for the worst of common wealth citizens will improve. With the common wealth being home to around a third of the world's population, many of whom live in developing economies, it is important to use our common ties and our shared commitment to justice and fairness to work quickly towards the goal of building domestic and international economies that reduce inequality and function for the benefit of ordinary people. I was recently in Bangladesh for the CPA Executive meeting and the 63rd Commonwealth plenary conference. That was an interesting experience. Due to the venue that the Commonwealth Parliamentarians attend in the conference, we are given a briefing by His Excellency Abul Hassan Mamoud Ali MP, the foreign minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, on the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. Following that briefing, parliamentarians from many countries called for urgent action from the international community to resolve the on-going humanitarian crisis facing the Rohingya community in Bangladesh. The adoption of a statement on that matter was proposed by the CPA multibranch and a CPA position that was adopted by consensus. I would have read it out, but I see that I do not have time. I thank members of this Parliament who have put themselves forward to attend events and seminars, not only to share our knowledge and experience but to learn from other parliamentarians across the Commonwealth. I make the point that engagement is becoming more difficult due to members finding it hard to be away from Parliament due to votes. With the Presiding Officer as branch president, the First Minister and Leader of the Opposition is vice-presidents, I am sure that they would take seriously our branch ability to participate in important CPA work. Could I ask that business managers and the bureau consider ways to ensure that our branch can fully participate in the work of the CPA, including attending executive committee meetings? In the year of young people here in Scotland, I thought that I would just quote the honourable Emilia LeFacca MP from Cameroon, who was recently elected CPA chairperson, who said that over 1 billion young people hold the key to unlocking the challenges that we face beyond our respective borders. The CPA and the Commonwealth are truly global organisations. I thank Stuart McMillan again and say happy Commonwealth Day 2018.  I call Tavish Scott to be followed by Maurice Corry. Mr Scott, please. I thank Stuart McMillan for ensuring that this debate takes place, but I particularly like to thank Joan McAlpine, Tom McArthur and Maurice Corry, who are here. The others of here are, dare I say, at hired hands on this one. I want to recognise those colleagues who have come along from different parts of our Parliament to speak, at least I would assume that they are going to speak in this afternoon's brief debate on Commonwealth Day. I must confess that I have gone through that. Is the Commonwealth still relevant quite a lot of late? One of my political heroes, Shirley Williams, sorted that out from me on the today programme the other morning, in a typically brilliant Shirley Williams interview in which she absolutely took John Humphrey's part in that, as only Shirley Williams could, she made very strong arguments, as she would, as she would expect it to make about Brexit, but as significantly about the Commonwealth in arguing its relevance to this country, to the nations of the United Kingdom, but to the United Kingdom as a whole, in an entirely cogent way, which I haven't heard for some considerable time and more of that we need. Here's why, because I sometimes think that our branch needs a crisis going on somewhere before lots of colleagues from across the political spectrum would rush to our meetings, but there's been huge change, particularly in Africa. I mean of the last branch meeting to talk with John Davis, who's the new CPA chief executive down in London, a very able diplomat and very good to have him on board about the changes in Zimbabwe and the regime change that's happened there and what that means for the Commonwealth and what role the CPA, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association of Parliamentarians, can play in a positive sense to assist that country through a period of change to the even in some ways, even more extraordinary regime change in South Africa, where finally a disgraced President Zumo has departed to be replaced by a new President Ramaphoso, who has utterly fascinating and enthralling background in the pre and post-apartheid era and what that could mean for the Commonwealth and particularly for Africa in terms of the role it plays in the Commonwealth. I think it's exciting stuff as well to know that Gambia has re-entered the Commonwealth and then at home for us in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and all the process stuff we deal with day in, day out to find that with good news that Canada and Australia part of the old Commonwealth have rejoined the organisation which will give it strength and resilience, which is strongly needed. I wanted to just make three points about why it's relevant to us here in Edinburgh and in Scotland. The first is, as Stuart McMillan and others have rightly said, the role that we can play and Elaine Smith illustrated that through Malawi and the delegations she's led, as many colleagues from across the political spectrum have done that. It's not just been the past session, it's been right back to the early sessions of this place as well. While we've looked at what we can add there and where we can help in terms of not just members, but I would argue that everybody is, importantly, committee clerks going down to help with how that part of our parliamentary process works, then we should continue to do that, but we have to be realistic about what we can achieve. Secondly, sending and encouraging colleagues from across the political spectrum to take up the opportunities to meet with political colleagues from different jurisdictions the world over, do not be frightened of the attention that you might get simply because you have jumped on a plane to Ottawa because the benefits outweigh the disadvantages to making that kind of visit. What you come back with as a member having learned about other jurisdictions and learned about the problems that others have in contrast to our own fairly smooth running operation, also having been on the Brexit committee all last night, I've been into wonder about that. Our smooth running operation, I think, commends itself to it. I take Elaine Smith's point about sorting out the whipping so that we can encourage more colleagues, particularly from the Government parties, always a difficulty with the Government party in terms of allowing their back benches away to these kind of visits. The third one is rightly, I think—I forget now who raised this—but it is right to mention Maurice Corry as our CPA women's champion. We are, as Elaine Smith rightly pointed out, one of the earlier legislatures to do that. That's a good thing to do, and I'm sure that Maurice Corry will be an admirable advocate in that role, and we strongly support him in that. So this is Commonwealth Day, and we should make much of it. But we should never be frightened of challenging from first principles why it is relevant in the 21st century world, and occasionally resting on a few old political heroes like Shirley Williams. I call Maurice Corry to be followed by Joan McAlpine, and Joan McAlpine will be the last speaker in the open debate. Mr Corry, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank Tavish Scott for those very kind words, and I am deeply honoured to take on that role. I also would like to thank Stuart McMillan for bringing this debate to Parliament today, and I think that it's an excellent day to do it, obviously, and it means so much to many of us, and these obviously will be expressed as we move forward in the debate. I welcome the opportunity to speak today to celebrate the great partnership that is the Commonwealth of Nations. Through the network of nations that share common values, we have been able to develop strong connections that are cherished. Throughout history, the support between Commonwealth nations has been crucial, and in World War I, members played a crucial part in contributing to the British war effort, persisting on all fronts. In World War II, more than 8 million men from the Commonwealth served in the British armed forces, and continuing their role in supporting Great Britain in times of war and conflict and time of need. I encourage members today to visit local war memorials, towns, villages and cities to see just how many Commonwealth service men and women served in our forces and pay the ultimate sacrifice. Till this day, citizens of the Commonwealth can apply to serve in the armed forces and the British armed forces, and many do so. The British armed forces are currently facing shortages of recruits from the UK, and citizens of the Commonwealth have stepped up to serve. For example, one in 10 members of the Royal range of Scotland, my regiment, were born abroad, with many members serving and living and coming from Fiji, South Africa, New Zealand and Uganda. The system of support is a defining factor of the relationships between the Commonwealth nations. Each year, we celebrate Commonwealth Day before the annual meeting of the Commonwealth summit, allowing member states to collaboratively make decisions that will help all the citizens that are part of the partnership. This year, the summit will work under the theme, as my colleague Margaret Mitchell said, towards a common future, which focuses on promoting progress in the areas of sustainability, safety, prosperity and fairness. As a member of the Scotland branch of the Commonwealth Party Parliamentary Association, I have had the opportunity to serve, as we know, as a male women's champion, and I mentioned last week on International Women's Day that this role allows me to advocate for gender equality throughout the Commonwealth. While member states are united under common values and goals, each country is unique and suffers from different problems of varying degrees. Problems with gender equality is an area that all member states who constantly strive to address and approve on. Within the Commonwealth, we have countries that are incredibly progressive gender equality legislation, such as Rwanda, with the most women in their parliaments throughout the global community, and also countries for women who lack representation in their parliaments, such as Vanu Tutu and also Papua New Guinea, where no women hold seats in their parliaments. By sharing ideas on how to address the inequality that is deeply ingrained in many of our cultures, we can effectively collaborate to find effective ways to create a more equal society. Towards a common future, towards common progress, in creating quality through the Commonwealth, this is the message. The Commonwealth also allows us to connect and learn from people that we may not have otherwise had the chance to meet, and I recently had the opportunity to meet two senior parliamentary officials in the Parliament of the Public of Fiji. I became acquainted with Jacob Abraham and Sharon Narayan from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. The two were here in Parliament for two weeks to shadow committees and offices, and I was able to discuss with them my involvement with the CPA as the male women's champion for this Parliament and other topics to do with the Commonwealth. This is a demonstration of how common bond of being a part of the Commonwealth can bring people together and facilitate the discussions of ideas, issues and different ways of approaching problem-solving towards a common future, towards sharing ways of thinking and collaborating working together to achieve our goals. This is the Commonwealth. On the Commonwealth Day, there were multi-faith events and demonstrations of talent from various member states, with purposes of bringing us all together and showing that the diversity throughout the Commonwealth should be celebrated. Our differences, while they define each country with unique characteristics, can also be a way to bring us together and learn from each other towards a common future, but with acceptance and honour for our differences because they make us stronger together. Commonwealth Day was the kick-off for a new year, obviously exceptional organisation bringing together nations from around the globe to achieve similar goals. Together we can create societies that are fairer with equal opportunities for all. We can create safer communities for the people of Commonwealth. We can establish sustainable practices for a healthier environment for future generations. Prosperity can spread among all Commonwealth nations to ensure a positive and successful future. And in conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, this is another year for making progress in areas that need improvement and for sustaining good practices of a performing world. On Monday, we celebrated, but now is the time to get to work and continue making the members of the Commonwealth as strong and influential as possible. And a happy Commonwealth Day to all. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I apologise to Mr McMillan for my late arrival. I got the timing of the start of the debate wrong. I'm afraid there's been so many changes to business recently. I would like to congratulate Stuart McMillan for securing today's debate on Commonwealth Day. The contemporary Commonwealth is a unique organisation and one that enriches our lives here in Scotland, as we've heard from other members. As they have pointed out, the Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 53 sovereign states and includes some of the world's largest, smallest, richest and poorest countries. It's unique because, unlike most unions of nations, no one Government in the Commonwealth exercises power over the others. The Commonwealth Games is perhaps one of the most widely known facets of the organisation with nations and territories from all over the Commonwealth, no matter how small, able to compete as equals. And with the 2018 Games, due to start next month in the Gold Coast, it would be remiss of me not to mention our very own Glasgow Games in 2014 with Team Scotland coming forth with the fantastic 19 gold medals. There's a serious point to be made here beyond a simple boast. The lasting legacy of the 2014 Games can be seen all over Scotland. We know about the regeneration of Glasgow's east end, of course, but in areas such as Dumfries and Galloway, legacy funding has been used to enhance many different projects, for example, a shared use path between the town of Dalbeaty and the Seven Steins Mountain Bikes Centre, as well as allowing Max Wilton High School in Dumfries to purchase new gym equipment. The motion rightly welcomes this year's theme towards a common future, which looks to explore how the Commonwealth, as an entity, can address global challenges and work to create a better future for all of its 2.4 billion citizens through sub-themes of sustainability, safety, prosperity and fairness. The theme is already present in the work of the Scotland-Malawi partnership, which is a great example of the bonds that exist between Commonwealth nations. Across Scotland, the partnership celebrates more than 1,000 civic links between all 73 Holyrood constituencies and Malawi. Since 2009, Lockerbie academy in Dumfries and Galloway has developed a partnership with Tuwale primary school in Malawi. The main aims of the partnership are to develop and sustain a link between the two schools, which is equity-based, educational and mutually beneficial. The partnership touches on all parts of the curriculum from teaching African drumming and music, looking at human rights in modern studies and learning about David Livingstone in history. The project engages not only pupils and staff, but also parents in the wider community in partnership and encourages pupils in both schools to be responsible citizens in their local community and to understand that they are citizens of the wider world community. Examples such as the one in Lockerbie show just why the Commonwealth continues to resonate with so many people in Scotland today. That is why the tone of the debate this afternoon has been celebratory, as it should be. However, having spoken about the Commonwealth and what it is and how it enriches our culture in Scotland, I wanted to, before concluding, perhaps quickly explore what the Commonwealth is not, which is empire 2. It is important not to confuse the modern Commonwealth that we celebrate with a nostalgic yearning for empire. The Commonwealth is a collection of independent nations that have their own interests. Earlier this year, the UK Government reached out to try to secure agricultural quotas at the WTO post Brexit. A number of Commonwealth members were the first in line to challenge these. At the Commonwealth, the leaders summit in London in April that is coming up, they will be discussing trade, but in some reports in advance of the summit, the trade adviser has said that they are expected to express support for a strong rules-based, multi-lateral trading system to explore ways to support implementation of the WTO's trade facilitation agreement, which for those who do not know about it, enhances support for smaller countries to build the trading capacity and better participate in trade. It will also launch a Commonwealth trade review focusing on new technologies such as digital trade and fintech and further reducing trade costs. It is important to draw attention to the fact that the Commonwealth is powering ahead with its own agenda, notwithstanding the fantastic partnerships that we have here. It is a modern union of equals, and long may that continue. Thank you. Thank you. I will now call on Alasdair Allan to close the Government minister. Please. Can I check, Presiding Officer, how long you wish me to speak for? You can speak for seven minutes or till 2 o'clock when the next part of the business calls, but do not feel obliged to speak till 2 o'clock. I will not feel obliged. Okay, thank you in that case. That is not a reflection on your speaking capabilities, by the way. It is very useful guidance, thank you Presiding Officer. Can I, as everyone else has done, welcome this debate to recognise Commonwealth Day and thank also members for the many contributions made during the debate? I would like to thank also Stuart McMillan and the Scotland branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association for raising this motion in the Parliament today. Now, as many members have noted, Commonwealth Day was marked on Monday with celebrations taking place in Commonwealth Nations across the globe. The First Minister represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, and I participated in a big lunch arranged by the Scotland-Malawi partnership here in Edinburgh. It is also important to say in that respect, too, that Mr McMillan and Ms McAlpine mentioned some of Scotland's particular Commonwealth links with Malawi. A simultaneous lunch was held in the Longway Malawi, and we were delighted to be able to connect with our Malawian partners by video link and to share food stories and excellent performances by the Zatu band Girl Effect. To explain Zatu is a cultural movement born in Malawi that uses the power of music and storytelling to tackle challenging topics for young people, such as the gender gap, self-expression and sexual health. This focus on gender and on youth will be echoed in many of the events leading up to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in London in April, where 53 independent countries participate, and, as Ms McAlpine said, all 53 value the independence that they have. I am pleased to say that Scotland will be represented in much of that activity as it is the year of young people. I am delighted that Young Scott and the Scottish Youth Parliament will represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Young People's Forum in April. Scotland is the first country in the world to dedicate a full year to celebrating young people, giving them a stronger voice on issues that affect their lives and also shining a light on their achievements. 2018 is not just a year of activity and events, it provides us with a real opportunity to change the way that all generations work and live together. What happens locally is just as important as what happens nationally or internationally, and we want to empower our young people to become responsible global citizens who can make a real difference in the world. Representatives from the Scottish Government will also attend the Commonwealth Women's Forum, where panel discussions will cover issues of gender equality and ending violence against women and girls, a theme that was mentioned by Margaret Mitchell and Elaine Smith among others today. The Scottish Government is committed to preventing and, ultimately, eradicating such violence. Our work to tackle gender-based violence is underpinned by the Equally Safe Strategy. A delivery plan for Equally Safe was published in November last year and sets out a co-ordinated and focused action to tackling violence against women and girls. It includes 118 actions that we intend to take between now and 2021 to ensure that everyone is playing their part to prevent and to eradicate gender-based violence. Now, we are clear heading into these forum discussions that equality and human rights underpin Scotland's values and other countries' delegations visiting Scotland following the heads of government meeting. I am sure that people will be left in no doubt as to our position on these matters. We are committed to continuing such engagement in a positive and constructive way recognising that every country is at a different stage in their journey towards the full realisation of international human rights standards. Scotland stands ready to play its part in assisting others where we have knowledge and where we have good practice to share. Presiding Officer, the debate today has been, I hope, a chance to mention some of Scotland's many family connections with the Commonwealth and many historic connections, themes explored by Tom Arthur and many others. Indeed, historical links to our respective constituencies. However, looking to the future as well, the Scottish Government also stands ready to support future initiatives such as Birmingham and its recently announced host rather of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Having hosted the fantastically successful Games in Glasgow in 2014, that will allow us to share experience and foster stronger links between the two cities. As Tavish Scott pointed out or discussed, we should take the opportunity of this day always to reflect on the relevance of the Commonwealth to the future. However, I think that relevance, as Tavish Scott said, is certainly there and is represented in this Parliament in our own commitment to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, which I know will continue to be a very useful way of fostering those links in the future. Elaine Smith I thank the minister for taking the intervention. It is just again the point that I made that it is becoming more difficult and I wonder if the minister would agree with me that ways ought to be found to ensure that we can participate. Minister. I would be with the Presiding Officer or the Deputy Presiding Officer in that respect and that sympathetic as I am. Those are things all parties should probably take up with their representatives within the Bureau and pursue them through that route, but certainly we should do everything that we can to encourage people to participate in the work of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. I believe, Presiding Officer, that Scotland shares many of the ambitions and the values held by the Commonwealth nations around the world. We are committed to active participation in this global network and in the development of our common future. The Scottish Government welcomes the important work of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and, in particular, the Scotland branch. Therefore, I am very happy to celebrate commonwealth day and to support this motion. Thank you. That concludes the debate. Nice to spend until 2 o'clock.


outcast as to prevent glare that interferes either with motorists of residential properties nearby. Or motorists or residential properties nearby. And it requires that lights be extinguished outside of normal business hours. Except for safety and security. He said several times of the changes applied to all districts. And apply to every zoning district for every use in town. And he described it as changes to criteria, not to guidelines. So I read that as saying there's not exceptions and there's no exceptions in the bylaw or there's no of the magical footnotes. And so these two sentences were added by unanimous vote of the select board, the planning board, the finance committee, and the former commercial relations committee. And there was no discussion before the vote. So to me, that was the legislative history is pretty much O'Keeffe.  And so I began to ponder this. I was like, what's the difference between downcast and upcast lighting, you know, and I since I bird I was thinking about if you were a bird with that matter to you. And so I did some research on that. And it turns out that upcast lighting is particularly bad for birds, but it also is bad for mammals, insects, reptiles, and even plants, and that also includes night lighting in general. It's worse in the spring somewhere in fall because obviously there's more insects and animals around and green plants. It affects them, you know, the migration of birds, navigation, the ability of animals to see the timing of plants like their their internal timing can get kind of thrown off by night lights. They can bloom at different times the trees would might shed their leaves earlier late. And then animals, you know, maybe, you know, a little mouse going out at night might be eaten by a coyote because it's easily seen. And then it also disorients turtles. But anyway, so night lighting is not great. And I began to realize how much I admire now how dark Amherst is when I moved here. I thought, my God, this is the darkest place I've ever lived. And so now I see the benefit of that. Another thing is if you have night lights, lights at night, that's a use of energy that you don't need. And so, you know, I just want to present this to the board because to me, the section you know, the meaning of section 11.2417 is clear that all lighting must be downcast except for architectural signs and turned off when they're not needing except for safety. And this fits with the dark sky standards of the International Dark Sky Association. And I summarize that is, you know, put your lights on only when you need them, only the area that has to be lit, no brighter than necessary. It's something like blue lighting was preferred low level, or minimize blue light emissions and use warmer colors and also shield, have them downcast and fully shielded. And so I just wanted to present that because I don't know if we're ever going to run into this again. I know we have some buildings in town that have upcast lighting. And probably if we talked to them, they'd be like, oh, we can change that. And I thought you can just put your lighting downcast on your building or on a tree or on a post or something like that. So I think it's not a hard change to make or an adjustment to make. So that was my presentation. If anyone has questions or reactions or. Let me get my. At Chris Breastrup has her hand raised. Yes, Chris. I wanted to mention something that we did talk about at the public hearing and it is the fact that the Emily Dickinson Museum is a nonprofit educational institution and it's protected under Section 3 of Chapter 40A. The specific section that I wanted to read to you says, no zoning ordinance or bylaw shall regulate or restrict the interior area of a single family residential building, nor shall any such ordinance or bylaw prohibit, regulate or restrict the use of land or structures for religious purposes or for educational purposes on land owned or leased by the Commonwealth or any of its agencies, subdivisions or bodies politic, or by a religious sector denomination or by a nonprofit educational corporation provided, however, that such land or structures may be subject to reasonable regulations concerning the bulk and height of structures and determining yard sizes, lot areas, setbacks, open space, parking and building coverage requirements. So in other words, the planning board has discretion as to how much of the requirements in our bylaw that we would impose upon a nonprofit educational institution. And I think you did discuss this and you discussed it very carefully. And I remember going through the minutes of both meetings on October 21st and November 4th and these issues were brought up and it was noted that Emily Dickinson Museum is a special place in town and it is a nonprofit educational institution. I think Maria or somebody mentioned that it's a landmark. So I think this is a different kind of situation from if somebody had a commercial building and they wanted to light it in a similar manner, you might treat that differently. But I think the way you treated the Emily Dickinson Museum was within your area of discretion, particularly because of section three of chapter 48. Thank you. So I don't I don't want to revisit the old decision. I just wanted to present this information because I'm not sure. You know, part of it is just my I was just rooting about animals. And I just thought, how does it affect this? And I actually have become obsessed with downcast lighting.  And so I think it would just be good to people to know and to understand the impact and things like that. So also the poem was pretty, I mean, I just had a good chance to read some poetry. Any other comments? See none. So, Jen, I know you put a lot of time into this. If you want to, you know, kind of restate anything. I know that we all personally, I did not see did not see the demonstration and we can talk about the Dickinson Project. Now, correct Chris, because it's been just filed with the town clerk. So, yes, we can talk about that particularly if you want to. But but in this case, you know, we're the planning board and I just felt like we had they had a demonstration and it seemed like you know, the the knowledgeable folks, you know, with on the within the board here, felt comfortable with what was, you know, demonstrated during that lighting period.  And I think that we can take that. Yeah.  Yes. Yes. So but this particular project, I think, was vetted, you know, heavily by our our, you know, planning board members and I appreciate the demonstration that the Emily Dickinson Museum, you know, put up. And it seemed like, OK, well, we can do this. But I guess there's downcast and then there's some sort of variable where not upcast, but, you know, it seemed like the light was captured by the building, did not escape the property.   So any other comments from the board? OK. So all right. Oh, my gosh. This this draft going on the next item be draft housing policy. May I say something about that? Yes. So the CRC, I don't think they've really completed their work on this. They're looking for planning department. Input sooner than later. But I don't think they're looking for planning board input necessarily until April. That's right. That that that was my understanding. And that's why we haven't really kind of, you know, dove, you know, dived into it. But it's something that we definitely want to pay some attention to and, you know, provide our our comments on. So is this work? Oh, my gosh, I'm trying to remember now. Mr. Marshal, hand raised to. Yes, Doug. Yeah, I have a, you know, OK. So the end of April is the deadline. Is it your work? Is it your preference that each individual planning board member submit individual comments or that we you are going to put this on the agenda of some of our meetings and we're going to have general conversation which Pam or Chris will summarize in minutes. That's yeah. So I'm trying to like I'm trying to get my my focus here. But yes, we I think we all agreed that we were going to review this policy and that the and then I thought that we would be able to provide that during a future meeting and that, you know, Chris and Pam would collectively provide our comments within one document and provide that to CRC versus us individually providing comments, you know, as citizens. To to the town council. So does that does that sound reasonable for us that you would you would kind of combine our comments, but it wouldn't be like a single sort of vision from the planning board, but it would be individual comments from the planning board members that you would provide after we have sufficient discussion. I think we need to have some discussion. I would like you to have some discussion yourselves. You don't have to take a vote, but, you know, you'll come with your point of view and present your point of view to your fellow board members. And then Pam and I will try to summarize what you've said and pass that along to the CRC. That would be my preference. And we would like vote, you know, you would have some document and we would just like the minutes we would comment on what you what you have, you know, discerned from our from our discussions. But yeah, so I don't I don't expect us to have a singular sort of planning board recommendation in from what I understood from our previous discussions that we will have individual comments, but it would be provided from the planning board with.  And then and then, you know, Anna would, you know, I just kind of so there'd be some some document that. These are planning board comments, you know, but it would be member specific, you know, specific versus us trying to coalesce. You know. Makes sense to me. OK, all right.  Um, so I think that's actually a very efficient way. So you get a chance to talk to amongst each other and have to come up with a synthesized statement. Would it be OK if I just wrote some more detailed comments separately? I don't want to under because I might dig into it with the more depth than people anyone wants to know about. But for maybe another person like another attorney like Mandy Joe. So I don't want to undermine the general thing. So is that do you think that's OK? I think I think we could just include it as an appendix or yeah. That's good. So, um, topics not reasonably anticipated 48 hours prior to the meeting. No topics. OK. New business. We have none listed. Um, any not anticipated? No, no. OK. Can Chris, can I interrupt you? There, there was that bill. Did you want to talk about that? The bill that we got from KP law? Yes, we could do that. I think maybe Janet suggested that we do that, didn't she? So we did get a summary of the House Bill 5250 from KP law and I sent it on to you all. And essentially what it does is, along with a lot of things about the budget, it provides for certain types of zoning amendments to be adopted, certain types of zoning amendments having to do with housing, in particular, to be adopted by a majority vote of the legislative body rather than a two thirds vote. So that would mean a town meeting could adopt certain things having to do with housing by a did I say yeah, town council by a majority vote. And I believe that also applies to special permits for things for for applications related to housing that could also be granted by majority vote rather than a special rather than a two thirds vote. What I'm not clear on is and I think I'm right in this. I believe that the special permit is a discretionary permit and it would still be able to be denied. I believe that's true, although I have to check that out. But that's in the nature of the special permit that you can deny it. So I think you either vote for these certain things by majority or you know, you can you can still deny it. But we have to get a little bit more specific about this. Rob and I have to look at this more carefully and we probably have to talk to our town attorney, Joel Bard, about exactly what does this mean and do we need to change anything in our zoning bylaw to accommodate this new law? So that's something that we will be investigating and coming back to you with what we hope are clear answers. But we just wanted to introduce the topic. And I believe we've sent this summary to you and if you had any questions, you could ask them and we could take them under advice and get back to you with the answers. Thank you, Chris. Janet, Janet has her hand raised. Oh, no, it's residual. Sorry. I'm sorry. All right. The form a subdivision applications. Yes, we do have a form a and you got a map, GIS map in your packets, which you didn't receive. Sorry. But Pam can show you the the location of the property. It's on Pomeroy Lane. It's just east of the. Oh, this is can you flip that around, Pam? So north is pointing up. You know, I've flipped it. For this presentation, so it matched the other one. Oh, well, it's easier to look at a GIS map if it's oriented with north going up. So what this gentleman wants to do, fellow Michael Powell and his wife, Adriana. Whoops, sorry. Sorry, it's so ephemeral, isn't it? Yeah. Anyway, they own the property that's outlined in yellow here. And it's a long Pomeroy Lane right across the street from Pomeroy Court. So it's just a little bit east of the Pomeroy intersection that we'll be talking about about the massworks project. We're not talking about that tonight, but the town will be talking about that. And it's just east of Carriage Lane. If you're if you're familiar with that subdivision down there. So they own this big piece of property and what they'd like to do is be able to carve out a piece that encompasses the existing house, which is where they live.  I think they have four children back on the back property here. So if Pam can show us the A&R map now, that would be helpful. And I see now why she flipped the other. I flipped it. Yes, I was so on the ball. In this case, north is to the left. So what they're showing here is the property with the existing house in this square, this little square towards the front of the property. And then they're showing a. An access strip, which is 40 feet wide, and that's what's required. And then they're showing the location of the house. The access strip is long. Yes, that's it. Right. And then the location of the new house is back there. And they also want to build a barn. So they're showing the building circle where they want to put the barn. They're showing some some setback information to prove that the new buildings will be appropriately located and won't be against the setback lines. And so this is what they want to do. So if the board would would agree, I would ask Mr. Gemsick to come and meet me at Town Hall to sign this plan. The comments that we received from the town engineer were that when the properties are eventually separated and one is sold, he would recommend that there either be an easement across the common driveway. You can see that there's a common driveway on the north there or that the driveways be separated. So each house would have its own separate driveway. The way it's shown on this plan is that each house would have its own separate driveway, but there's a little piece of driveway connecting the two. So so either. And I've passed this information along to Michael Powell, that he either needs to grant an easement to the person who is going to buy the property or he would need to cut off that little piece of driveway. So do you agree? Do you have any questions? And then if not, do you agree that Jack can sign the plan? Oh, and by the way, I meant to say this, this will be going before the zoning board of appeals. The zoning board of appeals is going to look at a grading plan for the driveway and a grading plan for the area around the house. And it may get into the trees that might be removed if they're over six inches. So the zoning board is going to be looking at this carefully with regard to granting a special permit for a flag lot. But this is the first step when they separate the two properties. Any comment, Doug? Yeah, I guess I'm a little bit puzzled on what basis could we object? If you saw, there was something here that didn't comport with your understanding of the zoning bylaw. I think that would be a cause for objection. And then we would go back to the applicant and say you really need to get your surveyor to look at this more carefully. But I've looked at it carefully. The town engineer has looked at it carefully and we don't see any any issues with the zoning. The flag lot needs to be twice the area of the required lot area in the zoning district. So the front portion of this lot is in the RN zoning district, which requires 20,000 square feet in lot area. And the rear portion for the flag lot would require 60,000 square feet because it's in the RO district. And they have a total of 93,000 on the back lot and 28,000 on the front lot. So they meet that requirement and they meet their frontage requirements. So I'm not seeing any problems with this, but it's really a case when Jack signs this, he's saying this does not require subdivision approval. That's why it's called A&R. Subdivision approval not required. Well, I'm not gonna second guess you or Jason Steele. So I will agree to that, to Jack signing. Okay, does anyone have any questions? Yeah, it looks good, Tom. I was just gonna say that I approve you to sign it as well. Okay. Okay, good. Okay, so I think we can, oh, Andrew. Yeah, I wasn't sure if you were doing a roll call, but I approve also. Okay, should we do a roll call, Chris? Sure, if you want to. Okay. You need a motion. Yes. I move to approve the A&R just described. And a second. Second. Okay, Maria. All right, so let's go through, Maria. Approve. Tom. Approve. Andrew. Approve. Doug. I accept. Janet. I. Johanna. I. I myself accept. So. Okay, thank you. Very good. Anything else along the lines of the format? Nope. Subdivision, okay. Upcoming ZBA applications. Nothing to report, sir. All right. Upcoming SPP, SPRS, UBE applications. Not that I know of. All right. We can go on to the playing board committee and Lee is on reports. Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. Nothing of note.  With regard to the CPA, Andrew. We had a meeting last Thursday and unfortunately I only made the tail end of it. We've got another one that we're looking to schedule in February. Just in the portion that I was present for, we just talked about ways we might be able to standardize our evaluation and how we review the criteria consistently. So I think that that work will probably carry over into February as well. They also were putting together a timeline of how we could approach this work in a more, controlled manner, rather than kind of like the hockey stick at the end of the year and how we might be able to solicit more patients. Thank you. Doug Marshall on the Ag Commission. We have not met. So no, nothing new. Great. Tom on the design reviewer board. Good. Very good. And Chris, well, we already had the joint committee there. So I would think that we... Be on top of everything there. But, and then also the zoning subcommittee. So, report to the chair. I have nothing to add or to staff. I have nothing to add. Great. So we can adjourn. What, 941 I have. Thank you all. And then I think we're looking for Chris, you know, to provide us with a schedule that we can do our best to help achieve the goals that the town council has laid out. So, let us know. All right, good. Thank you. Hey. Good night, everyone. Good night. Night. Bye. It's Doug. It's your week for that.


So welcome back to another day in the bay, it's a bit of a different one this time because I'm on my own. I mean Patrick's here. We've got the Jag in, this is from the players guys who are going to be at Ultimate Dubs this weekend. So normally we get a car in from them so we can prep it for them, especially if they've got the play bay down at their unit and if that's particularly busy then we help out and we detail the cars for them. So we've got their recently bagged Jag in here, it's awesome old paint, it's just come from Cardio Security who have put on a fresh set of wheels and bagged it for the players guys so it was a nice transition from going from there to here to get nicely detailed so it's nice and fresh for the show. This is going to be a real proper swirl removal gloss enhancement video. So we're going to be going through clay barring, ultimate compound, polishing and hand waxing. So like we explained earlier this is coming in for some proper show prep. Now as you can see the paint is old, it's also very heavily swelled, it's got scratches, it's got marks, it's got stains so we can really go to town on this one and like I said this is a bit different from a normal day in the bay video as in the owner's not here. But that's fine, you know come the show season you're going to probably be seeing more of these when we get people dropped the car off. Especially people we have good relationships with, you know the players guys we've been working with them for many, many years as well as they're building a new YouTube channel as well so if you can check that out you'll get some great content on there as well. So the car has been cleaned, it's been washed and dried before coming to the bay so it means I can crack straight on with the clay barring. Now as we mentioned earlier in previous videos clay bar will not do anything to change the look of this paint but it will change how it feels. Now you can hear this contaminant sitting on the surface of the paint, that's when we want to use our clay bar. I'm going to use a quick detailer, get the surface nice and lubricated and if you want as well spray the clay as well. All I'm going to do is mipe down my left and right motions so I'm not going to go in circles because it's too random I could miss areas so what I'm going to do it's going to nice straight lines I can clearly see where I've been and it's just a nice even distribution of clay also you'll notice I'm just using fingertip pressure only that's because you don't need to press down on the paint all you need is a gentle motion just to gently remove those contaminants. Now the reason this is so important to clay bar before machine polishing or any kind of correction on the paint is because if there is contaminant sitting on the paint if you go straight in a machine polish that or hand polish here you're going to grind that contaminant into the paint so removing that is going to give you a better finish it's going to feel loads better as well.  Let me just move on to the next bit. We did a test panel, I always do a test panel before starting a detail on a car and just so I can get a gauge of what is needed to be done to get the most out of the paint. Now normally my first step would be to use our polishing pad with a compound just as a nice easy soft touch as in a start on the paint but that wasn't enough to get the heavy swirls and scratches out so I went to the Bernadette cutting disc which is a nice step up now this one's obviously it's a bit firmer than the polishing pad it's got a bit more backbone to it and I found that priming the pad with the compound and going at it with our DAE machine was the easiest way of getting the swirls out of that constantly battering the paint and keep going at it so yeah so using that combination with the ultimate compound and the burning in the disc is going to get this swirl free nice and quick. So before we get started on the car what I like to do is prep my pad so as you can see it's pretty hard it's a firm cutting disc that's what they are so what I like to do to open up the pores of the foam is scrunch it up beat it up what this does it kind of takes the edge off a little bit and it opens up the fibres so it can absorb more compound and keep cutting. And that won't take away any of this cutting ability not at all. It's softening the pores up so it absorbs more product. Exactly that. Like I say you only do this the ones at the start of the detail like I say it's kind of a ritual that I've kind of got myself into but I find it just absorbs way more product it means I can have longer buffing cycles so now the pad is nice and soft I want to prime the pad with the compound now I don't use water or detailer to prime the pad I use the product itself this way it keeps the pad cool we don't have any exposed foam rubbing on the paint work and it means that I can do longer buffing cycles to get a really nice finish on the paint. I'm going to get our ultimate compound which as you know is our kind of hero product well he is a hero product and it contains chemical cleaners to brighten dull faded colours but it also has the mechanical compounds to revive paint and remove our scratching swirls. It's going to use a spreader to feed it into the pad because I don't want any exposed foam rubbing on the paint work so I don't want to put more swirls on the paint. Now I only ever do this at the start of the detail if you get halfway around the car and you want to use a new pad and obviously you repeat this process I tend to find that this pad now will last me for the detail. Each section that I want to work I'm just going to do five little dots now you can do a cross if you can do a happy face and a happy face I just like doing five dots. Cable's over my shoulder this way it's not going to rub on paint work and cause more work for me. I'm going to stamp out the work area but I don't want to work. Now when it comes to compounding reducing your work area will get the better finish solely because you're not spreading the machine too much around you can concentrate on the small areas. So like we prime the pad I want to prime the surface so I'm going to set the speed to the lowest on the machine which is 30. I'm going to pull the trigger and quickly just spread the product. Now the important thing to mention is we're not taping up plastics solely because you don't need to with our products they're all plastic friendly if you're not confident about machine polishing the car and if you're not sure if you're going to catch the plastics feel free to master them up that's not a problem at all but I've spent far too much time in this bay and I know that the products I'm not going to mark the plastics is going to wipe straight off so if you don't want to you don't have to but if you want to it's not a problem. Gooping round machine it gives you the speeds for exactly the job that you want to do so I want to do swirl and defo removal 4858 now my go to is slap bang in the middle of those I'm going to do is I'm going to do two passes I'm going to go across the panel then up and down so I call this hashtag polishing it's just a nice regimented way of seeing where the machine has been and getting a nicer even spread of product before you get going with the machine it is really important to relax and chill out it is a big car we've got a lot to detail so the more relaxed you are the less impact machining is going to have on your body so holding the machine nice and chilled you don't need to hold and tight like you're on a roller coaster nice relaxed grip enough to keep the pad nice and flat now now the product is spread I'm going to pull the trigger push the button in this is I started and stopped the machine on the panel this way I'm not spreading product and causing more work for myself and clean up time and also you see this ridge here whenever you've got a ridge like this in the paint always work up to it never over it that's because that's by far the least amount of paint on the car so if you just go up to it on either side it's going to detail that edge and without you having to physically go over it whenever you do compound if you if you are left with a bit of a cloudy haze that's fine then compound will most of the time will leave a cloudy haze that's why you then move on to your polishing stage to refine the paint so at this point we're just reviving the next step with the polish is when we're going to refine and get that real enhancements of gloss and clarity of paint when detailing cars understanding that not every panel is going to be the same now we started on this side and even moving across to the other side of bonnet we've been noticing a few things that we saw at the start that we thought we would wait until we got to this side to address with you guys now you see we've got these little kind of patches here now understanding that it's quite old paint there's a lot of there's a fair few kind of signs of age and defects in the paint now these these patches here are kind of I don't know what they are I don't know if it's thin lacquer I don't know if it's a quick blowing that someone's used anything like that now if you're never sure about an area of car just don't work on it what we're going to be doing is we're going to be working around these just because I'm not 100% sure on what's going to happen if I do go over with a compound the pad we're just going to use some gentle approaches to make the areas look as good as possible but just shows you that you know not every panel is the same even half the panel of this was completely different one side to the other it's just being cautious and and just knowing when when's enough to know you know it's making the best of what we have position myself so we've revived the paint using the compound now I want to start refining it using our ultimate polish now we're going to set it down to a yellow polishing pad so this is super soft so I don't have to do my scrunchy bt upy thing but what I will do is still prime it because it's still a working product we're still going to do a few passes with this because we really want to enhance the gloss and refine that finish so again I'm going to shake up the bottle right to the pad now the biggest thing we've polishing and compounding is taking it off straight away it's not a wax so once you've worked an area with a polish take it straight off don't don't let it cure like a wax it's not going to do anything wrong for the paint it's just going to become a bit tougher to take off and we want to save a bit of time we want to get we want to get a better finish rather than just slaving over the product so we were talking about the hazing earlier and that you get from compound you don't always get it but if you do this polish can really refine that finish and get the real enhancement of gloss now we mentioned earlier about expanding work surface area so when I was compounding I did this section here on it but when I'm polishing I can move it up to doing this whole section on its own it's not because we're not overworking the surface so again cables over my shoulder I'm going to stamp out the area I want to work I'm going to set the speed to the slowest on machine and spread again I'm not worried if it goes on the plastics it's just going to wipe straight off so as you can see here we've done with this well in deeper removal we now want to move on to the waxing and polishing between three eight and four eight so like four I'm going to go slap bang in the middle of those two those two settings I'm still going to do my hashtag but because the machine is moving slower I can move quicker because we're not overworking the surface we're backing off we're now just kind of gently massaging the surface so my my arm movements are going to be a bit quicker because the machine is moving slower so again no pressure on the machine just enough to keep it nice and flat and aware of it. Each procedure change your towel so for compounding I was using the supreme shine microfiber towel because I don't want to keep spreading compound and oily products on the surface I've now moved on to our finishing towel which is a freshly cleaned towel again take it straight off detail face so for the eagle eye viewers and people like myself that are obsessed with detailing and paint and you'll notice that we do have some spots in the paint like this now unfortunately these are underneath the clear coat it's a chemical reaction there's nothing we can physically do about that to remove them so what we're doing is making the most of what we can do so that's removing the scratches and swirls now in our bay it's very magnified and you see a lot more than you would outside so if you can get a look in you know seventy eighty percent in the bay outside it's going to look stunning so if you do see stuff like this and you know you're working at the surface you just can't take them out unfortunately it might be under the paint there's nothing you can do about it now with all the paints we don't know the history of the paint we don't know who's painted it or someone you know feels like from the factory but what we're doing is what we can do and that's removing the scratches and swirls so we've revived the paint using the compound and the burgundy pad we've refined it using the yellow pad and the ultimate polish now we're going to be hand waxing so we've we've put the gloss in there we've enhanced the paint now we want to protect it so we're going to be using the ultimate paste wax this does come in a liquid form as well if you want to use the liquid and with a machine or by hand that's fine the pasting liquid both perform in the same exact way myself i like to use a paste wax i kind of like that kind of hand finish using a paste wax so what we'll do nice clean pad i'm going to pinch the top of the pad like this place it on the wax now all i'm going to do is turn it half a turn this is going to prime the pad which means that we can cover a nice surface area without having to top it up now only ever top up the pad when you start seeing gaps in the wax don't move on to the next panel think i need to top up the pad you don't want to overload the surface with too much wax you want to barely see it on the surface each process of priming the pad or priming the surface we're going to do exactly the same with the wax so i'm going to draw three lines you'll notice that i've expanded the work surface area again so i can do this whole section now in one pass that's not a problem now because i put these three lines in when i go over get over it with the pad is going to top it up which means we're going to get a nice even spread of wax no pressure on the pad just a few fingers to keep it nice and flat nice tight circles and as you can see you should barely see it on the surface so the reason i've gone for the ultimate wax is because it's a fully synthetic wax which means it hazes to a to a clear now this means if you've got a dark metallic um or any metallic in general the the synthetic wax will make that flak underneath pop on the flip side if you have a dark card it'll give it a real nice wet that's the reason i'm using the fully synthetic ultimate wax on this paint didn't see it wax is the only product we're going to let dry on the surface this is so it can really bond to the paint and give itself some give itself some protection give the paint some real good protection previously on the compounding polishing we've removed them straight away with the wax we're going to let it cure a common question we get is how long does the wax take to cure unfortunately it's a bit of a how long is a piece of string scenario it depends on the humidity the temperature of the day but what i tend to find is if i start at the bonnet and make myself round the car by the time i get back to the bonnet it's normally time to take off but if you ever unsure just swipe the surface if that swipe is greasy like that it means it's not ready to come off yet if it's clear it means it's really it's all good it's fully cured and ready to come off and always make sure again different process different towels this is a fresh clean finishing towel to remove that wax so my final touch for any kind of paint preparation or show prep we'll always be using the ultimate detail now this as much as it does boost the gloss it also makes sure you get a nice street-free finish and remove any kind of leftover residues from the wax so it's just a great finishing touch for any kind of paint preparation or show prep on the car and also when you're at a car show as well especially if it's an indoor one you can go around the detailer to make sure you get those fingerprints like dust off there and also just really boost the gloss and enhance the protection so now we've gone through the processes of what we're going to be doing on the car I'm going to crack on and I've got a full day ahead of making sure the whole car looks exactly like the the other side of the bonnet does so I'm going to crack on with that and let Patrick do whatever he's doing thanks


We've been invited out here by the Polish 4th Seaburn Battalion to train and integrate with them on decontamination procedures, so we brought out five Bradleys, about 30 guys to come out here and do the training, along with a batch of medics about a platoon to come out here and practice the medical seaburn decontamination process. Training seaburn is important because one of those capabilities that we don't always have access to at home is one of those critical training opportunities where in the seaburn environment for either nuclear or chemical, training the decontamination process with our full-up protective suits, the JS list, using our pro masks, getting the opportunity to integrate with a foreign country and see how they do it is a chance for us to learn and teach and also integrate so that we all become a little bit better and a little bit more proficient. We had a platoon of medics from our headquarters troop come out. Their opportunity here was to see how contaminated soldiers go through the decontamination process from point of injury to point of health care, so they're able to go through, see an injury or a casualty that was in their full JS list suit, be received by the Polish military, go through the initial decontamination process, downloading their gear, going through their tent where they had essentially a roller system, they were able to use a spine board, integrate with the Polish, take them, treat the casualty, move it through the spine board on the rollers and then be able to do the medical treatment on the back end.


You know I'm curious Why 12 Apostles? I mean all the numbers in the Bible. Are they divine? Isaac Newton who I'm a big fan of he dedicated his life work with the Bible in mind And so I'm curious what's your opinion about the any numbers the dimensions type of knackle are all these things have specific Numbers associated with them are those particular numbers? Divine in nature. Well, I I think it would depend on on what you mean by the question I don't think I don't think math was invented by God. I don't think numbers are you know have some sort of You know, he had a spiritual life or something like that. I wouldn't use the word divine I I I would say that I would say that the order that math helps us see and Understand in other words the elegance or the symmetry of creation of nature of Life as it runs, you know all the stuff that math applies to which is frankly just about everything All of that stuff math is is a human invention. They're out there different mathematical schemes, but they all Bring to bring into view Design and I do think design is part of creation. So ultimately numbers and math take us back to a Creator through through the root of the order and the symmetry That they help us discern and understand. So that's the way I would approach it I think it might just be a language difference there, but like specific numbers in in scripture I do I do think some of them have are there for more than just counting. I mean you have you brought up the number 12 specifically and Again while we do have the 12, which is the tribes of Israel, which is the apostles and then you put them together And you get the 24 elders and all that kind of stuff. I mean well while I think there is certainly Something to that. I also think that you know, this might freak some people out unless they've they've read fairly deeply into Some of the stuff I've done or if they read the poor tent Let's put it that way, but I think there are certain numbers like 12 That have to do also with the zodiac what I would call astral theology And I don't mean astrology like Miss Cleo, you know, like who am I gonna marry? How much money am I gonna make and all that kind of nonsense? The the assumption in the ancient world among Jews, this is why you have you find zodiac mosaics in Jewish synagogues What were they apostates? Well, no, they're not but their belief was that hey We read Genesis and it says that God made the stars and he made this the heavenly celestial objects and therefore times and seasons And this is language right out of Genesis. So so They're there they're put there by God and God's in control of them and we can look up at the sky ourselves and we can see patterns and So maybe just maybe if we really sort of watch that long enough Maybe we could figure out that God is either trying to communicate what he's doing or we could sort of Somehow understand that he's up to something and you get this in Psalm 19 And it specifically Paul's use of Psalm 19 again for people for people who've read The poor tent this is not going to be unfamiliar But if you go to Romans 10, we you know, this is Paul's discussion. I'll go back to verse 14 Paul is talking about, you know, the Jews and the Gentiles and all this stuff and the Messiah and he says in verse 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed and how are they to believe in him of whom? They have never heard and how are they to hear without someone preaching How are they to preach unless they're sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news? But they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah says Lord who has believed what he has heard from us So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of God, but I ask Paul says Have they not heard? Indeed they have For their voice here and here he starts quoting Psalm 19 for their voice has gone out to all the earth and Their words to the ends of the world now if you go back in Psalm 19 There's a text critical issue in Psalm 19. It either says It's talking about the Sun Moon and stars, you know all that kind of stuff in in Psalm 19 And it says either their voice has gone out to all the earth. That's the Septuagint. That's what Paul quotes In other words somehow they believe that the stars could speak They could message something and Paul is actually saying he's actually connecting that idea to the gospel or at least to to Christ The Maseridic text says their line has gone out to all the earth and that's a reference to the ecliptic Of course, which is that the path of the constellations follow the constellations of the zodiac So I used that for an illustration to say that there was this idea that God could communicate things Through the heavens again, this isn't astrology as we think of it because it's it's you know Scholars refer to it as astral theology or astral prophecy It's it's an own genre much later in the Greco-Roman world and a lot of people I shouldn't say a lot of people some people think that revelation is largely an astral Theological book and I think there's something to that I wouldn't go as far as some others And I don't think that Paul is saying that you could look at the constellations and sort of get the Romans road out of it What I think Paul is actually alluding to here is Is what we read in Revelation 12 now? I can't prove that but that's my suspicion I think that the tradition we have we've we have preserved in Revelation 12 about And I actually take when John says I looked up at the heavens and saw I think you I think he's serious I think John is reporting in Revelation 12 what the magi saw in the sky at the time of the Messiah's birth And I think Paul picks up on that and so the point is that People could have known That a divine king had arrived and it just so happened that if you do the math Here we are back to math if you do the math You can arrive at a specific date that I think again not coincidentally Coincides with Rosh Hashanah Which is the day of the inauguration of every new israelite king and it also coincides with Jewish tradition about Noah and the timing of the flood and we all you know we go back to Genesis 6 and let's have a party there I mean, there's all these things again that are converging in the birth of the Messiah I think that that really yes that that some numbers in scripture do telegraph these sorts of ideas And and this is a little bit beyond your normal Gamatria If you're if you're familiar with Gamatria that that's when you certain languages they the letters of the alphabet Corresponded to numbers Greek does that Hebrew does that Aramaic did it you know Not not every language does but a lot of them did and so there are places 666 is the best example Where you know he gives you the numbers so you don't you're not supposed to guess at the number You're supposed to guess it what the number means and it's a human number. Well, no kidding You know it but that that that's actually a hint as to how to think about it It's Gamatria that number means something and not only does it mean something in terms of the letters that the numbers form But that has to be framed within a certain wider context, which is what a lot of people don't do When they interpret 666 and other things in Revelation The dove when Jesus is baptized, you know that the Spirit descends on him You know like a dove well, there is no Old Testament passage that that has that sort of imagery you go back to Genesis 1 the hovering It's not a dove there. We actually don't have a bird named, you know it but if you take the Greek word for dove and Put it into you know put it through the Gamatria mill the sum total of those letters is again I don't think coincidentally the same sum total as the letters alpha and omega again I just don't think that's accidental There's another one in John I don't want to bring up with a hundred and fifty three fish because I use that in the portent. That would be a plot spoiler but There are just things like this going on that transcend the text and I and I do think there is a biblical Numerology, I think a lot of what you'd pick up and read Sort of is too imaginative. It just sort of takes the ball and runs with it all over the place What the way? I think it should be approached is can you situate what you think is going on here a It does it have exegetical foundation and the thing I just gave you in Romans 10 does because Paul is quoting Psalm 19 Okay, does it have exegetical foundation and Does it make sense within the wider ancient Near Eastern ancient Mediterranean culture of the time? If you can if you can situate, you know what what you think you see In those two ways and I think you might be on to something so certain numbers do have You know that sort of appeal the number 40 I think is is artificial and what I mean by that is if you actually concord that it's like everything in the Old Testament happens in 40s again that that that's that is a little too coincidental for me I think that the point there is either a generational thing or it's a literary way that people back then would have understood as as Completing a generation or completing a reign or something like that. There's this completion aspect to it because it it just shows up everywhere, you know, it's It has its own sort of broad Associations because of where it's used so some numbers. I think certainly Have I guess I could say divine telegraphing because again under inspiration. They're being used to telegraph certain ideas But but in and of themselves, you know numbers. I don't think there's any divine quality About math or about numbers. I think it just depends on their usage.  Oh, it was this president. Oh, it was that guy. Oh, it's Nero. Oh, it's If that's all you're doing You're just scratching the surface. There are things that you are not thinking about and probably aren't even aware of that You need to be thinking about That will help you make sense of that Maybe for a different reason But I don't I don't want to get too far into that Because there's there's a number of directions it could take and again, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pretend I'm a prophet I'm not a prophet But there are there are things that I could see as possibilities there that I've not seen in print Let's just put it that way It there one or two that that you could find in what I like to refer to as the fugitive literature You know again this this academic stuff that maybe ten scholars in the world will ever find that article and read it Which is unfortunate, but there are just things going on there at least potentially going on there that your popular prophecy writers Just put them away Just put them away that's probably one of the best pieces of advice I can give you and If you want some leads, I'm more than happy to give them to you But the the popular stuff just put it away


So here we are, the firefight two-player starter set. Brief look at what we've got, rulebook, force lists, the counters required, a huge enormous commandeer marauder army and an elite fighting force of the enforcers. It's a nice variety of models to look at more soon. Command dives and your very, of course, interesting D8s. So that's the contents. So here we are, the box opening moment. We've had a brief look and we've got your mounting points on the top. You can start collecting cool free things like morning a bard and other such a sort of wonderfulness and some great firefighters own figures on there from Kickstarter's past. Not available anywhere else. Great big box. There's not a lot of air being shipped in this. You have got tons and tons of plastic sprues and tons and tons more plastic sprues, adding even more. And then it's got a bag of BBC Daffy and Dice. Absolute screamingly good value for money. Who say war game? You get an army to fight war games with. Not a couple of models. And you'll see it in a minute just how beautiful they are. Right, let's start at the bottom of the box and work away. One of the things we've done here is your firefight getting started book. And this is before you dive into this. Let's have a little overview. Let's see what we're looking at. And yeah, we've done it. You spoke. We listened. Here you are. Here's how we assemble. Some of these sprues, the parts look quite similar. They're actually labeled up. They go together in lots of poseable ways. The stats you need to get playing. You've got your enforcers. You've got your marauders with a couple of options in there so that you can just get your armies out. Get playing. You don't need to worry too much about what's in this hundred page rule book.  Begin a scenario. Let me get playing. Basic setup zones. Kill zone. Quick reference guide. So you know, watch the how to play video. Take this out. Glue a couple of models together. You're playing. So you can see all beautifully laid out or nicely labeled on all there to get you gaming as quickly as possible. Next, we're going to go on to the books. Two books. Two I hear you say. Why aren't you going to do one? Well, we did that with some of them. And the problem is this baby pretty much is going to be valid for the next four years. You know, this is the rule book. There's the rules that might be some FAQs. There might be a few new little bits and bobs here and there. But pretty much that is your war games book. These are your army lists. These chains. These expand. New releases come out. We had new armies on and so on and so forth. And we find that that needs updating a lot more often than that. So we'd have a chapter approved. Then you're carrying chapter approved after chapter approved. We're getting around to the point where actually we'll just update this book every couple of years. And therefore you're staying valid and current. That's your problem. And before you dive into the books individually, you've got all the counters you need to play. So we're encounters, activations, etc.  You need to mark your squads as you're doing that. And then some of the, for example, this is smoke and rats firing on poison gas. So those types of things. So you can put all your markers on everything you need to play all right there, ready and available. So let's delve a little deeper into the books. Now we know why we have two. Let's look at the rule book. Well, first is new books, well, more lovely. Beautifully laid out. One of the charms is because we're coming back to this, we've been doing dead zone for a while. We've done warpaths. We've got a range of plastics. We've not only got all the expectant, but oh my goodness, we've got a polished system, lovely photography, lots of art throughout everything explained. We've been doing this for a few years now. So we know how to put it all clear, buildings, vehicles, more beautiful art, keywords, we know the keywords because it keeps it super straightforward. Once you've learned some games very, very straightforward. Assault reactions, what do you do when the assault comes in? And then you're into your missions, lots and lots of missions. And then the galactic, the GCPS, starting to go to the big background section. There's a nice map. Now where do we go? The Council of Seven. Good guys, honest. Making decisions that need to be made, I think, is the way to put it. So lovely bit, more depth and background, more art all the way through. And then, like we do about, we've been at this sci-fi for a while and we've learned a lot, made a few mistakes, but I think those mistakes were a long time in the past. And what you're going to be looking at here is lots of armies. And I don't think there's anyone out there that's got this many armies, you know, right from day one, right from the get-go, the Hysterians, why would they go down and fight when they can send droids, color shots, painting guides, explanations of what everything is, so it's all clear. There's a bit of art and forces through each one's laid out. When you build your armies up, you're all very familiar with that. There's war gamers, there's the forces section.  Quite, quite, quite, best, most beautiful dwarfs. It seems I haven't been more fetish. I think I'm highly in a position to talk about such things. The best sci-fi dwarfs on the market. Lovely kits, beautiful stuff. They've got their tongue down there, they've got ships over here. Everyone's getting cool, heavily armed, GCPS, beautiful hard plastic humans in space, rightly armored, as you'd expect. They've got their ship, drop ship there. And then into the marauders, brand new plastics, more on that soon. Let's get excited about that. And then finalizing out into rats in space and the plague. So lots of armies, lots of beautiful army lists. So that's tons of choice. Whatever you want, it's there. There's not one or two sprues and one or two plastic kits. There's lots of stuff for every army. Command dice, one of the things that makes firefight just a little bit more fun, a bit more random is you've got your command dice. You roll these out. Probably won't get that many in any given go. But these give you boosters and bumps, the higher your roll, the more you get of your round. So nothing wrong to use your special, special powers, cool new funky green dice, which always has a success on it. And some of them lots of successes or super successes.  Another times it doesn't go for you and you're slightly limited. D8s, we love D8s, just gives us a whole lot more cool things between two, three, four, five, six and seven. So you've just got that little bit of subtlety between the weapons and between the strengths and the toughnesses can open up a couple of point gap. It's big, it's not massive, four point gap, you know, a lot more successes than the other. So really we love the D8s and this sci-fi shows that different weapons and the different races have different skills and they can min-max just a little bit more than you can with D6s. So we're loving that. So let's have a little look at the plastics. Let's see the armies that we've got. Armies you say in a starter game? Yeah really. So what we've got with the enforcers, I will read it out, 20 enforcers and five peacekeepers and two jet bikes. When we say 20 enforcers you're not just talking about your average, Joe, they can build a bit of number of ways. They've got the machine guns or the hand weapon and pistol. So you've got close assault and distance plus special weapons sprues all in there. Two of the beautiful, gorgeous, sexy and very fast jet bikes. So you use some speed, you use some idea of zipping stuff around the battlefield. And then the super heavy walking tanks that are the peacekeepers. Got the big shield option, got the special weapon options, got the two-handed gun weapons and also close assault. So lots of everything there for your peacekeepers. And then we have the marauders. 40 marauders and four ripper suits. 40 marauders and I'm going to open one of these bags up because this is brand new. The sprues are gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. You're going to get 10 marauder commandos.  They are big, tough commandos. They know what they're doing. They used to work with the GCPS and then realised they could earn more money by working for themselves. And then there's also the faction that thinks don't bother with humanity. Let's just go straight to the take over the whole damn place. So 10 bodies, lots of movement in those bodies. And then you've got the pistols up there, you've got shredders, all manner of weapon options. And let's look at this. You've got 13 heads, 13.  Closer assault, shooty. You've just got infinite choices that you're going to be able to build out of these. And you've got 40 of them.  A couple of vehicles, a couple of big bits and you're done. You've also got the river suits. I'm not going to break this apart with these river suits. You've got four of those. They are, you know, walking tanks essentially to give it some heavy fire power, to give it some backup and some spine across your army there. So you'll be playing with what you've got. You know, you start with 10, start with a few of those and then build up from your starter set until you've got all this glued together. And then deciding how you want to scale your army, want it to be fast, I want it to be vehicles, I want some artillery. You can go from there, I've got what you need. Everything you need is in this box. I hope you've enjoyed it. There is tons, quite tons, but certainly kilos and kilos in new money, plastics, books, games, dice, and everything you need to start enjoying firefight. I really enjoy this.


this is Nidhi Singh and welcome to Friday Flashback. Swedish firms Spotify pushes Asia expansion with its launch in the Indian market this week. PepsiCo's former head Indra Nui has joined Amazon's board of directors. Nui will serve on the board's audit committee. Chinese AI chip maker Horizon Robotics has raised $600 million in its latest funding round. That's all for this week. See you next Friday.