Well, to no one's surprise Congress once again has voted to increase defense spending and this time the magic number is 783 billion. I mean, this is just a common call. I don't know how People in Congress can look their constituents in the eye and still purport that you know They're representing them adequately because they're not Imagine what we'd be able to do with that much money to help Americans with half of that money with a Quarter of that money imagine all of these social programs that we'd be able to fund It's just it's absolutely ridiculous at this point and it shows that our priorities are completely backwards now I'm gonna get into the specifics of just how ridiculous our defense budget is But first I want to show you a clip that Bernie Sanders posted to his Twitter and YouTube channel because I think that he really puts everything into perspective and He responded to this almost immediately and I think that that's really important. Take a look. I am very proud That I am the only candidate in the Democratic primary that voted against all of Trump's defense budgets There is something a little bit wrong When we are now spending More money on the military than the next 10 nations combined and at a time when we have some 500,000 men and women sleeping out on the streets or an emergency shelters when I was spending close to 750 billion dollars a year on the military We need a strong defense to protect America not to make the military industrial complex huge profits We can have health care for all we can raise the minimum wage to a living wage We can make public colleges and universities to wish free and you know what we can cancel all students that we can do that When the American people come together and the fight for justice and that's the fight that I look forward to leading That was good And I really wish that Bernie Sanders would go on the offensive a lot more because this is something that you should be bragging about if you Are the only person to have voted against all of Trump's budgets who's running for president I mean everyone else should be incredibly ashamed right because if you're running against Trump because you don't believe He's fit to serve if you think he's an unhinged maniac And you don't want him in charge of the nuclear codes then why are you giving him more money for the military? Even Elizabeth Warren has voted for some of his military budgets. It's just It's inexcusable if you truly believe that Donald Trump Should not be president. He's unfit to serve Then every single person running for president who voted for a single Trump military budget should be forced to explain to the American people Why they gave this maniac? Billions more to spend on the military when there are crises here at home not being addressed Flint still doesn't have clean drinking water. People are dying every single year Because they don't have health care We are drowning in student debt people are working longer hours for lower wages and yet We're giving the military industrial complex even more money They have to explain that to us because it's absolutely ridiculous Now to put this into perspective Bernie Sanders tweeted Congress just passed a 738 billion defense package. We spend more on defense than China Saudi Arabia Russia India the UK France Japan Germany South Korea and Brazil Combined we need to fundamentally change our priorities as a nation And when it's really put into perspective like that when you see that we're out spending all of those countries um It shows how ridiculous our government is they don't care about us now Bernie Sanders didn't actually make this very clear, but we're outspending The second and third and the fourth and fifth biggest spenders in the world Combined so to show you what this looks like visually This is a chart from last year which shows that we did in fact spend more than the next seven biggest Spenders combined which included China Russia Saudi Arabia India France the UK and Japan And that was when defense spending was a hundred and sixty billion dollars less than it is now Yeah, and if you look at this chart from Andrea witty of connect the dot USA comm She maps out spending for the last 65 years and what you'll see is that there are various spikes throughout history you know during the Vietnam War and the Cold War and Since we've been involved in these forever wars We're just in a permanent state of massive military budgets Larger than the Vietnam War and the Cold War now We should cut our military budget by half at a minimum But even if we only reduce spending by about a third from 2018 spending again when it was only at 600 billion I use only 600 billion, you know that word very loosely we could fund 3.6 million in infrastructure jobs or give away 34.4 million in Pell grants of almost $6,000 each we can give over 56 million low-income adults healthcare and to really put it all into perspective Look at the chunk of our total budget that we dedicate to defense spending This is from 2018 again And when you look at discretionary spending, which is what we're able to adjust each year that accounts for about 30% of our overall budget now of that discretionary spending, which is the yellow portion of the chart here Look at how much we spend on the military almost half of our discretionary budget goes towards defense Sometimes it's more than half and that accounts for about 15% of our total budget on the military 15% That's insane and it's probably higher now because we increased military spending by more than a hundred and sixty billion Compared to what we were looking at here on these charts. So I mean What do you say about this? Our priorities are completely backwards We're spending so much on death and destruction and the media isn't even going to bat an eye and Ask anyone in Congress how they're going to pay for it But when we talk about saving lives and passing Medicare for all all of a sudden, we better make sure we have a plan to finance it Is this increase going on the deficit? Is this increasing the deficit? Where's all of our deficit Hawks in the media and in Congress?  There's no threat to us No other country would really want to mess with us because they saw what happened to other countries that tried that So I think it's time. We you know, just reevaluate our priorities and look at this defense budget We should be talking about cutting it in half and again.  So Bernie Sanders is right We need to reevaluate our priorities And I really applaud him for being one of the few people to speak out against this insane military budget and to actually call out The military industrial complex Mike is the worst progressive on YouTube. Please don't subscribe to him or become a patron David Dole is so much better. Trust me folks. He's doing a great job. He really is


TLO what's poppin? We are on kick KICK.com I did just realize how tight my shirt was I apologize. Let me there we go So now you don't have to step man boo We are not live, but you leave a like comment subscribe turn on your post notification bells Let's continue to grow the family from Chicago to the UK And all around the world because I feel like this is around the world video This is the channel you can go look at and just in case you missed any of the lives We do got the patreon Just posted Sherlock today We're all cut up And don't forget we do got you know Sam merch For the ladies, you know for the good couples, you know And the discord any of the links to this stuff is down below in the description It's in one big link called the link tree you click that link and everything will cover 10 most luxurious prisons in the world. I Just feel like luxurious in prison shouldn't be in the same sentence. I don't care how many prisons I see that are posh Never understand it. Mm-hmm. Never you get me All right, let's get into it Let's check this out If you've ever struggled between choosing a life of crime or becoming the next big music sensation Then how did prison is the perfect place for you located in Norway this in the UK upcoming UK artists? You know I'm saying having this struggle Because I know y'all struggle with this every day all the best artists is in jail So the Gravitational pool of the streets is the women it's beating the grab no patient will pull have been a rock star a pop star a rap star Stuff man music sensation then how did prison is the perfect place for you located in Norway? This prison is the only prison in the entire world to come with a fully equipped recording studio music lessons Are even offered to the prisoners on top of all that when prisoners aren't making their lyrical debut They can learn please God send a SJ there All the good artists that's locked up in the UK send them there So we could still get fired tracks. You know I'm saying other skills by taking the cooking and woodworking classes offered as well Other activities offered at the Haldan prison are rock climbing reading in the spacious library Playing soccer and going to run on the jogging tracks once finished enjoying the activities prisoners can retire to their Individual cells each of which are loaded with a mini fridge flat-screen televisions toilets and personal shower That's crazy. You got a glass door real tile You know I'm saying good bed Sent is this central air the UK don't even got AC and they got central air in the jails in Norway central air There's You know they should be comfortable, but like damn Hosting only about a hundred inmates this minimum security bus toy prison located on the bus toy island in the middle of the Oslofjord is What? But story is in the middle of the Oslofjord. Where's that more of an all-expense paid vacation Retreat than a prison and the only price you have to pay is to break a few rules The inmates here can enjoy all sorts of attractions such as living in small cottages as opposed to cells sunbathing Fishing horseback riding tennis saunas and assist on the prison farm. However You're not even in jail and you got a cottage villa for free But prior to being a dream prison bus toy prison was once known for being a brutal juvenile detention center In fact nearly a hundred years ago in 1915 a riot broke out to protest the harsh living and working conditions the riot spiraled out of control so fast that the Norwegian government was forced to send their army to the prison in order to help guard subdued prisoners Unfortunately, the riot provided little to this is two prisons in Norway no help in changing the living and working conditions And it continued to operate until 1970 when the prison was finally shut down only to be reopened again in 1982 as the now luxury prison. We know it as We know it as I just got introduced to it. I know The Xin Cheng prison in Beijing China has a bit of a stricter prerequisite in order to get in this prison only hosts fallen political leaders Or high-profile personnel also like a white collar prison Built in 1958 it was originally supposed to host war criminals But in the mid 1990s the prison was fully renovated into a luxurious prison in order to keep the at-the-time new But now common senior officials prisoners here are each given large cells with personal flat screen televisions writing desks sofas personal toilets and showers and washing machines Bro, they got a washing machine in there Bro, I have to go out of my house turn right walk down turn left walk down I'm like a door with a key fob and didn't pay for laundry Prisoners are fed personalized meals depending on their age and severity of the crime Ranging from basic rice and vegetables to extravagant meals outside the cells prisoners are not required to wear uniforms And are allowed to play games read exercise and watch television in Southern Scotland a privately owned prison named Her Majesty's prison atty. Well has become a learning prison I think I heard it while many prisons offer their inmates classes and workshops to help build job skills None are as dedicated as Her Majesty's prison at a well inmates here are given 40 hours a week for skill building activities and classes aimed Directly at teaching their inmates job skills and readying them for a simpler transition back into civilian I salute this type of behavior You know saying they still look like a prison, but we just giving you the opportunity to be able to Simp for a simpler transition back into civilian life. We're readying y'all. I Can get behind this one life inmates are each given minor control over what classes they want to attend It's almost like returning back to school which with all things considered isn't so bad If you happen to get caught committing a nonviolent crime in loben, Austria There's a slim chance you'll be spending your sentence in the appropriately named justice center from the outside This place will look more like a modern universe. Oh, I'm tired of it see now. This look like remember when y'all seen the Avengers Remember when the Tony Stark tower got torn down and they relocated it. This is what the relocation look like This is this is Tony Stark's new lab What is this? Versity than a prison each prisoner is given their own cell with private bathrooms flat-screen television Writing desk and even their very own kitchenette outside of the cells inmates can enjoy a wide variety of recreation like Tivities like weight training basketball reading table tennis and of course computer time Unfortunately 205 inmates is the maximum this prison can hold so only the lucky few get to experience it while the rest are stuck in a regular old prison Prison Even though having a toddler behind bars doesn't really sound like the best idea the Alan Whes prison in Spain is the perfect place to raise a family Provided that one or more of the parents is currently serving a sentence there the Alan Whes prison decided that instead of causing broken homes It would allow families to live with their incarcerated relative The prison is fully stocked to take care of children having its own nursery Playplace and even a children's Psychologist 28 year old mother and current inmate Carmen Garcia has weighed in on the situation by saying they take good care of us And having my child and husband with me makes me very happy Carmen is serving a 10-year sentence for murdering her boyfriend The only catch is that the whole family must be present during all roll calls Who married her after she murdered her boyfriend like what like what how do you trust? Yeah, I'm in here.   That's crazy. Sure. These inmates are learning their lesson Santa Anna jail located in California USA is a pay-to-stay prison meaning that as long as you have the cash You can stay in the luxurious Santa Anna jail rather than in a regular less glamorous county jail But it's not cheap on the first America's something else day inmates must pay a $140 administration fee and $110 for each following day in the prison. That's roughly $40,000 a year inmates or guests as they're referred to by staff are given a single private cell with regular doors are not required to wear a Prison uniform and can instead wear their normal clothes Of course not if you can afford 40 bands a year to be locked up Like you ain't gonna do nothing dumb in there and are allowed to bring their own cell phones or laptops with them Unfortunately, Wi-Fi is not provided So pay your bill Over the last few years crimes being committed by the elderly in Japan are becoming more and more frequent to the point Where Japan now has a specialized prison just for those age 70 and above All the Onomichi prison most of the inmates here only committed minor crimes such as shoplifting or possession of drugs Almost all of Onomichi's elderly inmates have their own cell with personalized charts that Comfortable it specify the inmates dietary restrictions and daily medication needed in order to ensure they are getting proper care They also come with a 3.6 meter attached room with Tatami mat floor a TV a desk a sink and a toilet This one seems like the right thing to do though Let their personal belongings mainly books or comics are kept in a locked suitcase when they are not in their cells The Onomichi prison is the first of many prisons specifically for the elderly that Japan has plans for Old folks prison. No old folks home. Don't know which one is which Her Majesty's prison Wandsworth located in Wandsworth, England is Equipped with many outlets to help prisoners pass the time away I never thought I'd see an English prisoner here. I've seen a Scottish one while enjoying their sentence such as two gyms a Sports hall a chapel that can support up to ten different religions and many Educational and training programs focused on helping inmates make an easier transition back into civilian life and into the working world Inmates have even banded together with the help of the prison staff to form an award-winning radio program called Radio Wano In fact one of the education programs offered at Her Majesty's prison is radio production You know what bro custom live from Wandsworth prison HMP. It's yours truly DJ


Yr ymgyrch yn falfwyrr ar gyfer y pee已經idwyr mewn gwahoddiad yna y mae'r bywion ymddyr iawn y byd, ond o'r fawr i'rwyr yma i ymddiad o'r cyffrifetio yn fawr, yn ddigonfod chuadol mewn gwahoddiad. Yr fawr yw'r byd yn gwneud maen ni'n gweithio i'r byw. Dw i'n fawr i'r byw. Rwy'n ceisio gael i'r byw, i'r byw i'n cael ei gwyffennu i'r bwysig pwysig i wneud餞no nu oes allan o bobl oed. I remind members that, for the purposes of the standing order rule on subjudice, no mention should be made of any live cases during this debate. I now call on Neil Findlay to open the debate. Mr Findlay, seven minutes please. Thank you very much. This member's debate is linked to a number of issues around public procurement and the use of procurement to advance fairer employment practices. On this matter, the Labour-led Welsh Assembly has often led the way across the UK. Whether it be tackling abuses of agency working, bogus self-employment or blacklistening, public procurement in Wales has been a vehicle for improving the rights of people at work and building mutually respectful partnerships between employers and employees. The Welsh Government has sought to extend good practice wherever it is found, like the memorandum of understanding on direct employment that we saw at the Olympics, the Hinkley Point agreement and the industry-wide agreements such as the GIIB. Those are cited in Welsh policy advice notes as exemplars of good practice, and procuring bodies are strongly encouraged to follow suit. At the pre-contract stage, employers have to set out how transparency in employment practices will be ensured throughout any contract. That is reported on for the duration of that contract. Contracting authorities are expected to monitor and audit the employment practices adopted throughout the supply chain, with collective agreements respected. Dodgy practices such as the exploitation of agency workers and the use of bogus self-employment and umbrella companies are being proactively tackled and addressed. In a previous member's debate, I went through the history of blacklistening and the impact on construction workers and their families. Some of the victims are present in the middle of legal proceedings, therefore, as the Presiding Officer says, those cases are surjudice, so I do not intend rehearsing all of that again. However, what I want to address is what has happened since that member's debate and what actions we need to take here in Scotland while learning from elsewhere. The Welsh Assembly was the first legislature in the UK to act on blacklisting. 111 Welsh workers' names were found on the consultant association database. When that came to light, the Welsh finance minister, Jane Hutt, moved to ensure that the Assembly took proactive steps to prevent any further blacklisting taking place. In doing so, he sent a very clear message to those companies involved that they would not secure publicly funded contracts unless they put their house in order. Of course, the Scottish Government followed the Welsh lead with its November 2013 procurement advice note. I thank Neil Findlay for taking intervention, but we do acknowledge what has been said by Jane Hutt that the Welsh Government only started looking at this in June 2013, a month after the Scottish Government had shared its draft of blacklisting guidance with the Scottish trade unions. Also, what you can't have said, the Scottish Government published Scottish procurement policy note goes beyond the general advice given by the Welsh Government. I do not think that that is a competition, Mr Brown. I think that I will raise some of those issues as I go on because there are problems still across the UK on a whole range of issues here. That was welcome. I do welcome the publication from the Scottish Government, but at the same time as we passed the public procurement bill, Parliament was advised that the accompanying guidance would be backed by secondary legislation. It was said to make it more flexible than primary legislation and could be amended to meet changing circumstances if that were deemed necessary. Although I disagreed with that approach and pushed my amendment for legislation, I accepted that the then Cabinet Secretary, now the First Minister, acted in good faith. However, it is now clear that the Scottish procurement policy note has not been adhered to and that many public authorities, perhaps out of fear of legal reprisals from those companies that they exclude or may exclude from competing for public works, are still awarding contracts to companies that are complicit in Blacklist. The Scottish policy note, as it currently stands, clearly is not working. Since its introduction, we have seen the NHS common services agency award a £660 million contract to a consortium of contractors, including Balford, Beattie, Kear and Langerork. Mr Finlay, I would be grateful if you did not mention names and confine yourself to allegations rather than assertions of fact, in terms of the subjudice element. None of what I have said relates to any issues in court. That is publicly available contract information from the Scottish Government and from SPICE, so you might be conflating to issues, if you do not mind me saying so. We have witnessed the Scottish Prison Service award a £2.5 million project to Carillion. Network Rail have awarded a £245 million contract to Custain. Transport Scotland award Balford, Beattie, a £10 million contract. Scotland Excel and Lerwick Harbour have given contracts to Kear, BAM, Nuttall, Skanska, Custain all winning bids for public works. Moray Council, East Ayrshire Council, Fife in North Lanarkshire, East Ayrshire in Arran NHS, Scottish Hydro, Robert Gordon University and others, all awarded contracts to companies who have been involved in the blacklist and conspiracy. I appreciate that Mr Finlay may have suspicions that companies are involved in that kind of activity, but, in those matters, mere suspicions are not good enough. Can he assure the chamber that he has got the exact knowledge that each and every one of the companies that he has mentioned have been legally convicted of the offences that he... Diolch yn fawr. No one has been legally convicted because the cases are on at the moment, but the Scottish Affairs Committee at Westminster investigated that and the companies were brought before them to give evidence, Mr Mackenzie. I would suggest that you maybe look at the two reports that have been provided by the Scottish Affairs Committee and look at some of the legal proceedings that are on-going, but if you want to defend companies who have been involved in a human rights abuse, then you just carry on, Mr Mackenzie, and not a single company has self-cleansed, not one has owned up, not one has apologised and not one penny of compensation been paid, but the public procurement advises that no company who has been involved in blacklist should get a contract unless they have taken remedial action, but no remedial action has been taken and still the contracts are given. A blacklisted worker who I spoke to this week expressed has discussed that this should be happening despite all of what we know of what went on. I want to ask the Scottish Government whether, when the subordinate legislation and full guidance is introduced later this year, will that stop companies who have been involved in this, like those that are listed, from getting a public contract until they have taken that remedial action by accepting their guilt, apologising and providing justice and satisfactory compensation to their victims? The Scottish Government said that it would wait on the publication of the Scottish Affairs Committee report before deciding what to do, while that committee has reported twice. With the election of a Tory Government, it is highly unlikely that there will be any UK inquiry. Scottish workers were blacklisted in disproportionately high numbers, more than anywhere else in the UK. I am today calling on the Scottish Government to recognise this and initiate a Scottish inquiry into this scandal. Only through such an inquiry will we find out why so many Scots had their lives ruined by this illegal practice. Given that, I thank Mr Finlay for taking the intervention and acknowledge that we probably both very much regret the election of a Tory Government, but given that, does he now regret that his party argued so strongly against the devolution of employment law, which would have allowed us to take action on those things much more effectively? You do not need any further powers to hold an inquiry in Scotland on that issue. Mr Brown, I am more than willing to take another intervention, if you want to tell us that you will have an inquiry. I will answer that question when I speak, but do you regret not arguing that employment law should stay? Mr Finlay, you must draw to a close, please, Mr Finlay. Mr Finlay, you must draw to a close, please, as you are over nine minutes. Finally, the Welsh Assembly has led to a number of positive developments using legislation where it can but also its influence and spending power to address workforce matters and labour market abuse. It is now for the Scottish Government to use its power and its influence to make its guidance more robust. The current policy note is not working and the Scottish Government must ensure that the subordinate legislation that is to come prevents the award of yet more contracts to the guilty and leads to the self-cleansing of the construction industry that we all want to see. Crucially, that delivers long-awaited justice to the brickies and joiners, the Sparks plumbers, engineers and others who are looking for this Parliament to deliver for them. Many thanks. Before I call Johann Lamont, I would again remind members that we should avoid discussion of the on-going litigation mentioning companies involved or any appropriate or inappropriate levels of compensation. Can you please confine your remarks within those parameters? Johann Lamont, four minutes or thereby please. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I do welcome the opportunity to support this debate. I congratulate Neil Finlay on bringing this debate and pursuing it in the way that it has done. I recognise the work of the unions in this regard and, indeed, as has already been referenced, the important work of the Scottish Select Committee. I hope that, however, the make-up of that committee is in the House of Commons, it will continue to pursue, with the same energy, the very, very important issues for workers in Scotland and across the whole of the United Kingdom. This is a persistence that goes back a long time. I remember Maria Fife many, many years ago pursuing this whole question of blacklisting, the list being provided to companies so that we know the folk that they were not to take on. Over many years, unions highlight what some companies were willing to do in order to exclude people who they regarded as a problem. It is appalling that blacklisting was used to deal with those who were doing the most decent of things, keeping people safe at work. We know that the record of health and safety in the construction industry is still a scandal, and we know that it is a greater problem in Scotland than elsewhere. The very idea that when somebody raises a question about safety, their instinct is not to make their workplace safe, but to get rid of the person who is raising those questions almost is beyond belief. This Parliament, over many years, has, for example, pursued the scandal as best as it has and the implications that it has for people's health. We know that this country has been scarred by silence over those issues, so I am sure that everybody across the chamber understands how important exposing the whole question of blacklisting has been. We must fear that, if you have a culture where you lose your job if you open your mouth, people keep quiet and, in keeping quiet, people are put at risk, not just in that workplace but in the work that they are doing elsewhere. I am sure that nobody in here wants to defend blacklisting. The only question is how do we now make sure that we underline how absolutely unacceptable it is? Dancing in the head of a pin in the way that Mr Mackenzie appears to have been doing, I do not think that it adds to the assisting in that regard. It is important that there is an inquiry. It is simply an act of justice for those who suffered in the way that they did and for people to confront just how much it meant to people, what those consequences were. That was not just a bit of an employer not being very kind to their workforce, it was systematic, it was unacceptable and people lived with the consequences for a long time. I do think that we could have an inquiry, I think that it would be good in terms of creating standards in the workplace and giving voice to those who suffered. We do want companies to own up, to clean up and pay up. It is not difficult. I am sure that many organisations, many companies who themselves did not involve themselves in that practice must agree to that because they are also tarnished and damaged by that activity. We also think of the important opportunity. I urge the Government and the Cabinet Secretary in particular to recognise the importance of looking at how power can now be used, both to challenge those who did use the practice and to ensure that it never happens again. I recognise the steps that the Scottish Government has already taken, but I would just simply say to be confident enough to look to whether there are other measures being taken to see if we can learn from them. I am not asking you to say any other group of politicians is better than you are, but simply to draw on that practice to see if we can strengthen our protections in this country. We have the power of the public purse. We should be using the power of the public purse to drive up standards. Those who are not willing to drive those standards and commit to those standards should not benefit from that public purse. It is a truth in general around questions of wages and so on as well, but particularly in this regard. I also say to the Cabinet Secretary the privilege of power that he has. In opposition we can raise questions, we can pursue alongside the unions, we can stand with those who have suffered in that way, but you have the privilege of power. All I ask is that you exercise it to stop where you can those unacceptable practices and press for the kind of change that right across the chamber we are agreed on. We are not in dispute with you about whether this is a bad thing or not, we just simply urge you to look again at what else you can do in your position to make sure that those who acted in that way are exposed for what they have done, that they are forced to own up, clean up and pay up. I think that our workforce across Scotland and particularly the construction industry will be a great deal of better for it. I am pleased to speak in this debate having run our construction business for over 30 years, and I will say at the outset that I am sympathetic to Mr Finlay's concerns regarding blacklisting, the use of umbrella companies and payment of the living wage, and some of the companies that he named earlier on may indeed be guilty as charged, but some of them may not. I can never agree to Mr Finlay being the judge, jury and the executioner in this matter or indeed in any other matter. No, I do not have time, Mr Finlay. Mr Finlay, we will not be naming any companies from now on or we will be sitting down. Mr Finlay, this is not me, judge, jury and executioner. All of this is on the public record by individuals who have been associated with these organisations. All I would ask you is to research it and look at it. Not me. I think that if Mr Finlay had listened properly to the point that I was making, he would not have intervened to say what he did say. I would put it on the record that I am not yet an accredited living wage employer, although I do pay at least the living wage. In many years, a business always paid above the industry-recommended rates, but I did so not so that I could put a plaque on the wall. The reward I received and continue to receive was the pleasure and the privilege of working with a team of people who were and are committed, conscientious and capable. For those people who are only concerned with profit and those businesses who are only concerned with profit, I would also say that this investment in people has paid for itself many times over the years. The umbrella company was dreamt up, no doubt, by the same tax lawyers who advised the UK Government on taxation policy from time to time and then go back and advise clients how to circumvent it. It must be borne in mind that the umbrella company is not illegal and is one response of an industry that deals with the difficult problem of an intermittent and fluctuating workload and is complex and at times incomprehensible tax and employment regime. The victims, as usual, of blacklisting and umbrella companies are the workers. To that extent, as I have already said, I very much sympathise with at least part of Neil Findlay's motion. Unfortunately, Mr Findlay lives in the black-and-white world of oversimplification. What he fails to recognise is that the Scottish Government has to abide by both UK and EU legislation without any real say over either. The legislation is complex and overlapping and, in some cases, obscure. If the Scottish Government fails to abide by that, any legislation that it produces or any actions that it takes in awarding contracts will most surely be challenged in the courts. Legal actions, certainly. We could tell us what is oversimplified about somebody losing their job and not being told that they have lost their job, and what is so complex that an inquiry could not establish exactly what was done so that we can be clear who was responsible and who was not responsible. We could separate those companies with an honourable record from those who have not. Mackenzie Mackenzie, I am sure that John Lamont will know that employment legislation is a reserved matter and it is reserved to the UK Government. If those powers were reserved to this Parliament and to this Government, no doubt we could simplify them, but legal actions can be costly and often the losers in such actions are the public in terms of the loss of best value, in terms of inordinate delays in providing necessary infrastructure, and the losers are often construction firms in terms of uncertainty and the victims are often workers in terms of the loss of meaningful and secure work. This is the reality in the increasingly litigious world we live in. The Scottish Government has issued guidance on blacklisting and umbrella companies. In fact, it has gone further in some respects than the Welsh Government. It has encouraged the payment of the living wage. It is doing what it can do with the powers that are currently available. There is, of course, a simple solution. As I have said— You might wish to draw to a close. The full powers—I will do, Presiding Officer—that is for the full powers of our employment law and taxation to be devolved to this Parliament. We have been promised a powerhouse Parliament, not the palliative care Parliament that we have that is unable to do anything other than mitigate a little bit of the pain, inflict us on, inflicted on us by the UK Government. If Mr Finlay really cares about those issues, he should— I am afraid that we are going to have to close now for six minutes. Those powers to be devolved to this Parliament. Thanks very much. Thank you. I now call on Jackie Baillie to be followed by Alex Rowley. Presiding Officer, it is customary to be very reasonable in members' debates and I think that we have been provoked unduly by Mr Mackenzie into not being quite so reasonable this evening. But let me try, because I want to start by congratulating Neil Finlay on securing the time for this debate and for the passion in his speech this evening. Can I say to Mr Mackenzie that it really is simple? This Parliament has powers. It has powers that it can use to have an inquiry. It is a dereliction of its duty to the people that I believe the cabinet secretary actually cares about not to use those powers. Indeed. Can I refer to the statement that Jackie Baillie just made, and also to what Johann Lamont said about the privilege of power? When did the Labour Party, in its eight years in government here, or in 13 years in government south of the border, use that privilege of power to hold an inquiry? Can I make the simple suggestion to you that the scandal first came to light in 2009? So certainly in this Parliament, we weren't in a position to do that. You were. But can I say to you, it's not about who does it. We will support you in taking such an action forward, because bad employment practices shouldn't be tolerated irrespective of who has the power and which government is doing the inquiry. You say and your government says inequality is bad for the economy, unfairness is bad for the economy. Well, guess what? I agree, but there is nothing more unequal or unfair than what we've witnessed in terms of bad employment practices. Now I know, my colleagues know well, that I often quote Richard Leonard from the GMB, and this debate is no exception, because he was absolutely right when he said that the construction industry blacklisting scandal is not a tale of a few bad apples, but an entirely rotten system, which operated in a supposedly advanced democratic state. And for much too long, the practice of blacklisting has flourished. But if you heard the denials at the time, you saw the innocent faces of those businesses engaged in the practice, you could be forgiven for thinking that somehow you had imagined it all. But the harsh reality is that, no, I'm not going to take any interventions from Mr Mackenzie. I think I've heard quite enough from you this evening. But the harsh reality is that blacklisting is very real, and it's been used as a secret tool to keep out workers that they simply didn't like. Now, when the scandal first came to light, it was indeed in 2009, but it was revealed that blacklisting wasn't something that was simply isolated or rare. For 16 years, people compiled a secret database of thousands of construction workers. The files contained extremely detailed and personal information, names, addresses, national insurance numbers, even comments made by managers. More than 500 workers in Scotland affected over 3,000 workers across the United Kingdom. Let me be very clear in condemning the shameful practice, because blacklisting is nothing short of a gross abuse of human rights. Many of the workers who were affected, as Johann Lamont pointed out, were union members who had raised health and safety concerns. Their files included phrases such as, will cause trouble, strong trade union, or ex-shop steward definite problems, and the effect on the careers and their lives and the lives of their families was absolutely devastating. So we must ensure that blacklisting is outlawed. We should learn from our neighbours. Wales has been held up as an example, committed to an ethical, responsible procurement policy that facilitates better employment practices. I am sure that the cabinet secretary would agree that we should ensure that procurement is used to achieve better employment practices in Scotland, too. We have witnessed the increase in casualisation of the workforce. We have seen zero-hours contracts, changes to terms and conditions, reduction in hours so that many workers are now underemployed. Now, whilst I believe that we could have done more in the procurement bill, let me echo Johann Lamont's comments. Let's agree that blacklisting is bad. I don't think anybody in this chamber thinks otherwise. But the challenge to government is what more you can do to protect the very workers I believe we have a common interest in protecting. I welcome the Scottish Government procurement policy note. Of course I do. Anything that helps is to be welcomed, but we need to remember that those are simply guidelines for public authorities. They are not legally binding. The Government's ambition was to bring in secondary legislation. That is an ambition that has not yet been met. It is something that we would like to see happen, and I hope that the cabinet secretary would agree that it is something that he wants to see happen to. Let us work together to make that happen. Let us put the secondary legislation in place because we share a common agenda to protect workers in Scotland, engaged in public contracts, and indeed more widely than that. Let me also say to the cabinet secretary that having an inquiry here would also help to shed light on some of those bad practices to ensure that they do not happen again. I hope that he can find it in himself to take forward the ambition of this Parliament across the entirety of the chamber to do exactly that, because, after all, the services that are delivered—I will finish on that point—are public services. We should expect the same ethos, consideration and approach to their delivery irrespective of whether it is in the public or private sector. The cabinet secretary has an opportunity to do something good. I hope that he sees it. I would also applaud Neil Findlay for securing this debate today. I would stand to call for support for his call that the Scottish Government wants and for all hold an inquiry into Black Listen and that they review the current guidelines and consider whether they are fit for purpose. The minister, in some sense, has responded to that. I was disappointed when he decided to blame someone else before we hear his answer, but, in this instance, he cannot blame a previous Government in here for not holding an inquiry, given that it was not known at that time exactly to the extent that Black Listen is being carried out. It was in 2009 that the names of 3,300 people were discovered on a black list in the offices of a consultancy agency, including more than 500 workers from Scotland. That is why this Government and this Parliament would be right to hold an inquiry, and that is why we must, I would suggest, hold an inquiry. It strikes me that the advances that have been made in health and safety in my lifetime—the advances that have been made in terms and conditions for workers and workers' rights in my lifetime—did not happen by accident. They happened because men and women, shop stewards and trade union members up and down this country fought for better terms and conditions and fought for health and safety. Many of them, who are no longer with us, would be terming in their graves to see that their fellow trade unionists would be treated in this way, in an impolwm way. Carefully to what Mr Riley said, and I wonder if he agrees with me or the STUC that trade union and employment law should be devolved to this Parliament, particularly in the light of the anti-trade union proposals in last week's Queen's speech? The minister seems to want to divert it by blaming Labour, and Mr Mackenzie seems to want to divert us from the question by trying to look at powers that we do not have, but we do have the power to hold inquiry. That is the whole point. We have the powers here to hold inquiry, therefore we do not and should not be blaming anybody else for not doing so. However, if I can come back to trade unionists, men and women, who were absolutely dedicated to fighting not for themselves but for the rights of workers and for health and safety, so that when workers went out in the morning, their families knew that they were going to come back at night, the advances that they made. What sums up for me was Michael Mewture on 23 January 2013, where he described black listeners arguably the worst human rights abuse against workers in the UK since the war. It is worse than imprisonment in that it usually is imposed on the victim without being given the opportunity to defend themselves, and it lasts for an indefinite period, often decades. The impact that that has had on workers, the impact that it has had on their families, we know that there are at least 500 victims in Scotland from black listening, and we need to do something about that. I would appeal to the minister to look at the call that is being made by Neil Findlay and, once and for all, hold an inquiry into black listening and review the current guidelines, considering whether they are indeed fit for purpose. I want to congratulate Neil Findlay not just for his powerful and emotional speech, but also for a very forensic contribution in which he set out the facts and figures of the scandal that has come to light in our country. In a way, it is quite apposite that we are having this debate in the week in which there is controversy about whether or not the Scottish national football team should play guitar in a friendly match. Many people have become concerned that it is inappropriate for Scotland to play guitar against the backdrop of the thousands of deaths of immigrant workers in that country who are building stereo in preparation for the World Cup. When we look at the conditions that those workers operate in and when we look at the appalling death rate and when we consider what happened in the terrible factory collapse in Bangladesh when we look at the scandal of Bhopal, there is a common thread running through all that. That is where companies, often multinational companies, are able to exploit workers who are not able to organise in trade unions and who are not able to defend themselves, that those companies will seek to exploit those poor workers right up to the point of death in order to maximise their profits. I like Rowley paid tribute to the generations of men and women who fought in factories and workplaces in this country to make sure that ordinary working people in Scotland and elsewhere in the United Kingdom were able to go to work with a degree of certainty and assurance about their working conditions and their safety. We know tragically from the events in Mary Hill some years ago that it does not always guarantee 100 per cent, but when we look at our health and safety record in this country and we contrast it to the examples that I mentioned, then you can see the advantage of brave men and women standing up and defending their friends and their colleagues in their workplaces and pressing for conditions that benefit the workers. It is because of that track record of determination of many shop stewards and trade unionists that those multinational companies—and it was not local companies—have sought to blacklist those who have been effective in standing up for the rights of ordinary working people. As other speakers have indicated, there is a scandal that has blated their lives. Many are not able to work again. Some are only able to work at jobs that are less well paid than those that they previously had. It has only recently come to light just what these companies have been doing. That should not be a debate about whether someone else was right or wrong or someone should have taken action earlier, nor should it be a debate about what more powers do we need to have. Let us have that debate by all means, but let us also, just for the moment, look at what we can do here and now to make a difference. Even incrementally—not no thanks, I am about to finish—even incrementally do something that will improve the lives. We have heard the calls for an inquiry—something that we could do. An inquiry would help to guide future investment decisions of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Futures Trust, because if they found practices that were unacceptable, I would hope that that would then make them think twice about where the investment goes. Equally, let us look at the procurement note, because it would be wrong to pass the buck of the responsibility to local councillors without giving them assurances and guarantees about the investment decisions that they are making. They need that back up in support from the Scottish Government so that they know that the law and the guidelines will protect them when they take action against those companies who are refusing to face up to their responsibilities. Yes, that is a scandal. Yes, those companies are still making massive profits. Yes, their shareholders are still benefiting. Yes, their senior management has been awarded payments that are absolutely grotesque in comparison to the damage that they have caused. Yes, it surely should be right that we at least show some good faith to those brave men and women who have tried to do something to make life tolerable for those that they work with. Thank you very much. We now move the closing speech from the minister, Mr Brown, and from the cabinet secretary, Keith Brown. I think that this is an extremely important issue to be debated, and for that reason I congratulate Neil Findlay on securing the debate. I do think that it is essential that I strongly refute the suggestion that the Welsh Government has taken action that this Government has not taken, that it has gone quicker or further than we have. I think that, first of all, I agree with some of the points that have just been made. In fact, one of the words that Hugh Henry used is one of which I noted that the word blighted. I think that the simple fact is that, for many people, their promotion opportunities, their employment opportunities were blighted and, of course, the welfare of their families were blighted as a result. Often, as has been said, without them even knowing about that. I think that that is an absolutely scandalous way to behave. It is an abhorrent way for employers to behave. During my 19 years as a trade unionist, we discussed this kind of thing quite regularly. It was not a recent thing. It was usually in terms of whether somebody had been passed over promotion because of their trade union activities, or perhaps they were the first to go on to a list of redundancies. It was usually that suspicion that was there. We have had different versions of this, but some people have said that it is a recent thing and we have not known since 2009. Others have said that Johann Lamont said that he had been wrong for years. Maria Pfeiffie was mentioned that she actually tried to introduce a bill in 1988 called the Access to Information Bill Blacklist. She spoke about her constituent who she believed was blacklisted by the economic league. That has been known about for a long time, yes, I will. Finlay? It is absolutely right, and we agree on that point. The issue is that the raid got the full information, or not the full information, but it got information back on individuals who can be identified and companies who were blacklisted. That is the big difference, that the raid made all the difference with the evidence that we now have. I accept your family's point up to a point. Of course, had that bill been proceeded with, subsequently, access to information bill, that information could have been gained far earlier, long before 2009, had that bill. I appreciate that it was a bill that was put forward at a time when a Conservative Government was in office. I understand that point and presumably did not succeed for that reason. It could have been brought in subsequently and the information that was unveiled in 2009 could have happened much earlier. That is the point that I am trying to make. Finlay? The argument that he is making, the logic that he is making in reference to that bill, would lead me to say, therefore, that you have the opportunity to introduce an inquiry, so let us not wait and blame someone else. You can do it like that Government could have done it then. They chose not to. Are you going to choose not to also? I think that there are two points to respond to that. I was going to come on to the inquiry subsequently, but there are two points. The fundamental difference is, of course, and now I know that those benches do not agree with us. I think that it is somehow an irrelevance of the fact that we have no control over employment law. I think that it is a very big issue. It also impinges on the worthiness of an inquiry as well. I will come back to an inquiry in a minute or two. The guidance that we published in 2013, first shared in draft with the Scottish Trade Union and the STUC in May 2013, is clear that firms engaging in blacklisting have committed grave misconduct and should be excluded from public procurement unless they can demonstrate appropriate remedial action. The guidance is a strong deterrent to those who might blacklist. It also has a positive effect on contractor behaviour, encouraging contractors to take steps to put things right. I am trying to make some progress, but I do not have much time left. Neil Findlay's concerns seem to be that some companies alleged that blacklisting had won contracts since the guidance was published. Two points are important here. Firstly, as I have said already, employment law is still reserved. We have taken the firmest action in the UK to use public procurement to prevent blacklisting, but until the employment law is strengthened and effectively enforced and those are judgments made against offenders, it is extremely difficult in practice for purchasers to exclude companies for blacklisting. Secondly, and relevant to the motion, according to the Welsh Government's procurement website, Sell to Wales, 13 companies named by the Information Commissioner's Office as subscribers to the Consulting Association have won public contracts in Wales since November 2013. Seven of those contracts were awarded by the Welsh Government itself. I know that that is uncomfortable, but it happens to be a fact. It did not appear to make it into Neil Findlay's motion. Mr Findlay, please allow the cabinet secretary to make some progress and perhaps to take an intervention once he does. The Welsh Government, much is made of the Labour-led Welsh Assemblies acted ahead of everyone else and gone much further. When I pointed out that that was untrue, even in the words of UCAT, it is not a competition. We cannot have it both ways. I highlight the points that have been made about Wales, not to denigrate our colleagues in Wales, who are equally opposed to blacklisting, but to tackle the false premise of the motion put forward by Neil Findlay that the Welsh Government is taking action that we are not. Without control over employment law, has there been an inquiry in Wales? There has not been an inquiry in Wales, so they do not have control over employment law. The Welsh Government faces the same difficulties that we do, and if only that had been acknowledged. Perhaps in the same tone that Johann Lamont made her contribution by acknowledging that we perhaps agree on the fundamentals here, but there are major problems in how we deal with it. In terms of broader employment practices, we also condemn the inappropriate use of umbrella companies, particularly where that has a detrimental effect on workers' terms and additions. We would congratulate the Welsh Government following our lead in providing guidance promoting positive employment practices in public contracts, but the Welsh guidance does not, as reported, ban the use of umbrella companies in public contracts. It provides details on the instances where discrepancies between pay and the rights of workers not directly employed by contractors may occur. The Scottish Government policy guidance on workforce matters and employment practices goes further, and it also addresses workforce matters, including living wage and zero-hours contracts. Just for clarification, can you explain why you cannot have an inquiry, given that you have had inquiries on other very serious matters? We are not having any debate about who has done what, where and who is better or not. Why can we not have an inquiry and why would it not be able to inform us in terms of what we might be able to do in the future? I do not think that what you have just said is true. I think that we are having a debate about who has done what. It has been littered with references to who is doing what, so let us not pretend that this has been done in a completely non-partisan manner, because it is not. We certainly agree on things, and I appreciate the way that Johann Lamont has put a point forward. What I would say in relation to the inquiry, which Neil Findlay did not take care to mention, was that I have agreed to meet Neil Findlay and other representatives to discuss the issue. I want to hear from him, having looked into this myself, what could be achieved by an inquiry. I generally want to know what he thinks could be achieved, especially in the absence of power over employment law. I am generally waiting to hear that, so I will meet Neil Findlay and discuss those issues, and we will take it forward from there. All that I can do is to take an open mind to this, having done a fair bit of work myself to find out what we could possibly do. With respect, you can bring the weight of Government to testing whether an inquiry would be worthwhile or not. I think that I have answered the point that was made. I am happy to continue the dialogue if the dialogue is what is wanted. If it is not, if it is simply as it always seems to be with Neil Findlay, let us see how we can have a go at the SNP. There is not much point in that dialogue. I have just said that I am willing to take an open approach and an approach with an open mind. I will take an open mind towards the discussions that you are about to have. We will see if what is proposed is a dialogue or a monologue, as is per usual with Mr Findlay. The Scottish Government policy guidance on workforce matters and employment practices, as I have said, goes further. It also addresses those workforce matters, including the living wage and zero-hours contracts. Where our guidance introduces transparent tender evaluation criteria for relevant contracts, the Welsh Government does not do that. I am not saying that having a go at them, but you cannot say that the Welsh Government has gone further than the Scottish Government when the facts do not sustain that. In relation to the living wage, we fully support the living wage and we recognise the real difference that it can make to the lives of the people of Scotland. We are funding the poverty alliance to promote the take-up of the living wage accreditation system in every sector across Scotland. In the last 12 months, we have seen the number of Scots-based living wage accredited employers increase significantly from just 30 to over 200. This morning, the First Minister hosted a living wage summit with business leaders and representatives from sectors where the living wage is not widely paid. The Scottish Government today has been confirmed in its status as a living wage accredited employer. We have been paying all staff at least the living wage for some time now, and I am happy to say that we are amongst the number of officially accredited employers. We cannot make the living wage mandatory in public contracts. We do strongly encourage it. It was the Labour Party's position that it could do that and that the Scottish Government voted against it, but that was not borne out by the Labour Party's own manifesto at the election that we just had. The Procurement Reform Scotland Act 2014 allows us to do the encouragement that I have talked about by providing statutory guidance on workforce matters and procurement, including the living wage. Promoting the living wage through public procurement, however, is a weak alternative to having the powers of our employment law, which we asked the Smith commission to deliver incidentally, in which the Labour Party argued most forcibly against us gaining those powers. I am grateful for the opportunity to place the Scottish Government's commitment to fair work on the record again. I am proud that we have shown the way and that others are now following our food steps. There is, despite all that, agreement across the chamber, I believe, or at least that part of the chamber that is represented here tonight, on the importance of tackling those issues. I cannot help to reflect, however, on how much easier it would be to tackle them head-on if we had control over employment law. Thank you all for taking part in this important debate. I now close this meeting of Parliament.


Let's take a look at some of the situations that can be considered batter or runner interference. And sometimes you will even hear this term used as the batter runner and this would be a player who's kind of in the middle between say if the batter puts the ball into play somehow and he's running to first base and he's kind of in that area between being a batter and a runner so we would actually just call him the batter runner. So the first example we can look at is that after a third strike if the batter hinders the catcher in his attempt to field the ball so after third strike the batter hinders the catcher's attempt to field the ball. So obviously there are some situations in which if the catcher drops the third strike then the batter can run and so this maybe if the ball bounces either in front of the plate or something like this in an area out here maybe the batter on his way toward first base might kick the ball or hit it with the bat or something like that or even interfere with the catcher rather than the ball and then he could be called out then for interference. The next way is that the batter would intentionally deflect the course of a foul ball in any manner. So he deflects the course of the foul ball in any manner and so that would be, could take place in a similar area maybe if the ball was fouled off and it's rolling down the line and then the batter would be coming up beside it, if the batter would be coming up beside it he wouldn't be able to kick the ball say in the fair territory or to use his bat or any part of him to knock the ball fair or he would be called out for interference. Next one is that before two are out and there's a runner on third base the batter would hinder a fielder and making a play at home plate and so this is before two outs the batter enters any attempt to make a play on a runner the plate at home plate. So this is a situation in which the batter would not be called out but the runner would actually be called out, the runner is out. So if we have something, if maybe the runner is attempting to steal home or something like that or he would get caught in a run down something along these lines and the batter would somehow interfere with the play then we would actually call the runner out rather than the batter. The next way is that something not a player so much as a coach does and that is that if in the judgment of the umpire a base coach at third or first base either touches or holds the runner and he physically assists him either in leaving or returning to the base. So a base coach assists physically, assists obviously he's there to assist him by yelling things, yelling directions, a runner in leaving, returning, a base and so it's also a key thing that he's physically assisting him that that's part of the rule so obviously he wouldn't the coach he should be in his coach's box over here or on the third base side it would be over here so if a runner is maybe rounding third base the coach couldn't come out and push him or either or maybe if he wants him to stop he couldn't grab him by the jersey and pull him back to the third base and so the key part about physically assisting him is that sometimes you'll hear if somebody hits a home run and the player will give a high five to the base coach some some people get upset about that and they say the coach touched them so it's interference but but but that's that's not the case because the coach is not physically assisting him in his trip around the bases. So the next way is that with is also involves a base coach and that is with a runner on third base the base coach would leave his box and in act in a manner to draw a throw by a fielder so this is with a runner on third base a coach leaves his box to attempt to draw a throw so maybe this is something maybe he would he would come out to to if the third baseman maybe goes elsewhere on the play if he goes to back up home plate or something like that and the the third base coach would would actually come out on the field or or or something even even shout or to try to draw that throw then they could call that that runner who was on third base out so there's a few different ways that a batter or runner could be called out by interference we'll take a look at a couple more in the next video


Hi, I'm Sonny Jackson from the Denver Police Department Media Relations office. There was a shooting in Southwest Denver today. We spoke with Sergeant Matt Clark to get the details of what happened. Sergeant. Okay, so today at about noon, just after noon in the area of 5th and Knox, in District 4, District 4 officers responded to that area in a report of a disturbance and a shooting there. It's right across from the fire station. The firefighters were on scene immediately and tended to the victim. The victim was transported to the hospital with down life threatening injuries at this point. The suspects in the incident fled on foot. They were followed by a witness who followed them to a residence here in the two-hour block of North Hooker Street. That house was quickly surrounded by officers. Metro SWAT team responded to the location. Secured the area and we wound up taking five people out of that residence. I believe we have a suspect who has to get this point.


When it comes to the cosmos as a whole, there is far more that we don't know than the little bit we do. Based on new information and discoveries, the benchmark model is changing all the time. Some of the key unknowns are being investigated by intensive efforts across a spectrum of scientific projects. Here are just a few. There's a hunt for the nature of dark matter. For example, the LHC at CERN now reaches 13 trillion electron volts. That's enough energy to find support for, limit, or eliminate various dark matter theories. There's a hunt for the behavior of the hot quark plasma in existence during bariogenesis. For example, thousands of times a second, the Brookhaven National Laboratory's relativistic heavy ion collider creates a quark gluon plasma. This research can reveal subtle details about the quark gluon plasma, and by extension the origin of matter. There's a hunt for neutrinos with new detectors like Diab Bay in South China. They hope to detect neutrinos from the neutrino decoupling epoch, and eventually solve the riddle of why so little antimatter survived bariogenesis. There's a hunt for early gravitational waves with projects like the laser interferometer space antenna, LISA. The laser arms will be millions of kilometers long, making it sensitive enough to register weak gravitational waves, like the remnants of waves created in the earliest moments of the Big Bang. And the hunt for more type 1a supernova continues along with deeper analysis of each and every one of them. This will provide a more exact measure of the scale factor dynamics since the end of the Dark Ages. And to further our knowledge, a new space telescope called the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope is in design and scheduled for launch in the early 2020s. This telescope is specifically designed to further our understanding of these key standard candles. As these researchers uncover more of nature's secrets, we can expect significant changes to the benchmark model. So stay tuned.


Yeah, alright. So again my name is Pankaj, I work for Flipkart and we are dabbling with virtualization and this is our first effort. It's called cloud. It's basically a way to create machines really fast using whatever hacks we could come up with. So let's look at it. So the aim was to provide a service that will allow you to add capacity really fast and it will reduce the time it takes to add machine because if you're a startup and you're growing fast you need to keep adding hardware to support your software and you need to every single week some new component will be added. You need to add capacity for it and you need to make it grow. We also, one of the aims was to integrate seamlessly with what we had so we came up with this. It's basically a simple to use interface which allows you to create machines which are well defined so there is only like you have an option of small which is our version of a core. Our version of a core is 3% of a 32 CPU box. I will explain why it is like that. You have 4 options of hardware to choose from and you can destroy the existing machines that you own or you can look at the status of the machines you own. So we have a set of inside it's called staging which is what the integration environment is. So for almost a year we were using 3 servers for staging before we came up with this environment. And within a month of getting this environment up the staging the number of staging machines reached 139. It's 3 to 139. Time taken to allocate 60 servers. It's anything between 10 to 15 days because if you have ever put a server in rotation you know what it takes. You need to you need to install it. You need to make sure that it's up and running. You'll see issues with it. Even if you use Kickstart or FAI or something you'll always run into issues. Using cloud it takes 10 to 15 minutes to allocate as many machines as you want. It's the same amount of time it will take for one machine or 100 machines. It doesn't matter. So this is what it looks like when you create a machine by hand. You use some sort of tool to figure out where your machine is put it in PXC boot. Then you have to log into the centerfills, log into BIOS, change that stuff. You have to boot it, wait for it to boot, then it installs itself. So on and so forth. It's a long process. With the current setup you can make a small shell script to create as many hosts as you want. You also can use the web interface. The same functionality is there with the web interface. All you need to do is give the hostname, choose which size you want and choose where you want it. So we have multiple installations. So for staging there is an installation where hardware is allocated and you create your VMs, they come up there. And similarly for other environments. And it tells you what is going on. So once the machine comes live, it also gives you a status report of what this machine is. It tells you the IP of the machine, who is the owner of the machine, what is the status of the machine and which physical machine this machine is on. So anytime you need to know anything about this box, you go here. It also tags it as a VM. So anytime you want to find out, you can tag whatever you want. You can tag it punkage. So all the machines you create, you tag it punkage. So you can just go to the tag and you say, I want all the machines I created. Or you can tag machines based on teams. You can tag machine based on whatever comes your fancy. You can always go to them and you can access them. So what do we use for this? A lab is for authentication of users. We use Puppet a lot. The machines themselves are open VZ containers. And DNS is automated. How do we do it? That is the question. So please open VZ because the requirement is at Flipkart, we mostly use Linux and we're not going to change anything anytime soon and start using Windows for something or any other OS. So since the requirement was mostly in Linux, we decided to go for open VZ because it works mostly like a jail and that matches what we want. We don't really want a complete virtual environment because mostly the applications we're going to run are going to run in a JVM itself. So we have that much control. So all we need is a place to contain people and share that hardware. We use Puppet for automated roles. I will explain how this works. We build a host database for a lot of other things but the cloud uses the host database and really makes it work. We use daemon tools for all sorts of things and there is a free software open VZ with a panel we use that as well. So this is like an explanation of what happens. I don't think you can read it so I'll read it for you. So there's the front end or the API or the command line or whatever you want to call it. It interacts with every other component using an API. So the most important component is right here, the hostdb. So what happens is when you create a new VM using the command line tool or the web interface, it makes an HTTP call to a physical node. This node can be equated to a name node. So this is the guy who controls all the other physical machines which can host VMs. They all talk HTTP to each other. So this guy knows how many VMs machines are there to host VMs and it can connect to them and say create a VM for me and this guy will create it and this guy will tell this guy back. I created it. So when you create a host, what happens is the front end, this is called the FKBC maker, the software, it does two things. It goes and creates a hostdb entry, something like this. Something like this. It creates this entry because it knows what the IP is. It creates a service tag based on the IP and it creates a hostname and other stuff it adds. It also adds the tag called VM. So this entry is created in this hostdb. And also it makes a call to this guy and says make a small machine for me. This guy sends back, okay, I got it. And this guy says your machine is ready. Chill out. And all the other things. So let's say this guy told this guy to make a machine and goes to this guy and says you seems to be free. You make a machine. He makes this machine. So what happens is when the VM comes up, it has a reboot task associated with it. So the first time it boots, it is told to execute a script. This is the pulse script. It executes that script called flip codify. What it does is it downloads, it basically sets up the app repository. It downloads certain packages like puppet. It sets up the keys, SSH keys for root access. It does a lot of these tasks and makes the machine ready for you to use. So once all that is done, it also runs a puppet dheventy. So I will explain what that does. So meanwhile, what is going on is this guy has gotten the entry about this new host that we are creating. So the DNS server runs a script on itself using daemon tools. It is a script that basically makes a call to host dv and asks, do you have any new machines? And this guy says, yeah man, I have some. And he makes DNS entries for it. Same thing happens on all the other services. Nagios is continuously polling this guy. Whatever service you want, you can just pull this guy and say, give me information about this tag, the VM tag. I'm very interested in it. So this guy will keep all information about this.  So there's no limitation on what you can put it. This is basically a YAML. You can shove anything in there, right? If you want something for Nagios, you put it in there. If you want something for your X application, you put it in there. So whatever information you want, you put it with the host. Whatever information you want to add for all the hosts, you put it in the tag. So tags themselves can also keep information. So that is what is going on. So this is the preview of what happens. The puppet server will also run the same task using a demon tool process. And it will say, oh, I got a new machine. I've got to add it to the staging nodes. Or if it gets a prod machine, it adds it to the roles that is prod roles. So you have to do the basics, right? You have to first standardize the hardware. Because if you have non-standard hardware, you will spend a lot of time figuring out which machine you can host which VM. And what you can do with it, what you can't do with it. Because if you have a standardized hardware, you know that on a VM, I have 32 cores, I can only create 32 one core machines or 16 two cores machine, and so on and so forth, right? And you associate weight of RAM with each core and weight of the space with each core, and then you go with it. So we have a standard for this. So our app class machine is a 32 core, 1-bit G RAM machine, which we chunk it. And we don't virtualize databases. So database machine is this. The important thing is to get a centralized host database. This thing is very important because it lets you keep all the details of the machine in one place, right? It should allow you to store any sort of data. It should not have limitations that you have to have this, or only these values are there. You can just randomly store whatever you want. It should allow you the ability to tag hosts, because once you have the ability to tag things, you can sort them, organize them in like various manner, and it becomes extremely handy. It should also have an API, because we are able to do what we are doing, writing individual components, making it top to it because there's an API. So again, an explanation of the host database. This guy will have all the details. So this is a physical host. The first entry we saw was a virtual host. Now, this is an entry for a physical host. So all the physical hosts also go into the same database. All the virtual machines go to the same database. All the stuff goes into the same database. So this guy has these tags. So this is an entry for a Nagios server, I think. Yes, it looks like a Nagios server. So this guy also has the location of where this machine is. So you can anytime just go here and say this machine is in the fifth rack on this row. This is a preview of a tag. So tag can have details associated with it. You can say for all the machines in this tag do this. You put that information in the tag and all the machines, you can read it for all the machines. So if you make an API call for a tag, you get all the machines in it and you also get all the properties. So again, this is what we do. Data is stored in key value players and hosts can be tagged. Tags can have properties and it's a source of truth. That is very important. So again, we'll go over this. If you see, you don't need to go over this. Okay, yeah. So this piece, like I said, this piece decides which physical machine to create the VM on. So what this guy has is it has a simple rule engine that you can build on. So you can set up rules like no two machines of this class can be on the same physical host. You can set up rules like if I'm creating web server, you need to have them on one switch, on this switch, because you have all that information. You can just query the host TV and find out what are all the machines on this switch. Right. And then you can just say all these guys go to that switch. Examples. When a host comes up, it runs the task and then it connects to Puppet. Puppet server also runs a poll on host TV, create new nodes. It adds hosts to roles and it creates, you can create roles. So what you can do is we can create a role and put it into host TV and you can just pull it out from the Puppet server and shove it into Puppet. So you can have, you can give users as much freedom. They can create their own stuff inside Puppet without ever editing Puppet files. This is, this is the life cycle of Puppet. What happens is if you saw the machine has the status tag, right? It's either live or dead or running or something. So this tag is set by the FKVC makeup. When the machine is coming up, it is in a particular state. When the machine comes up, it is in another state.  And when you put it in another state, it will do whatever is necessary for it. Like in the running state, it will update the host TV and it will rebuild the stuff. This is important because when you add machines and when you remove machines, all those details need to go away because if you use the same host name for something else, it's not going to work in Puppet. Again, you can write any application around it. It doesn't really matter. This is an example of an even more complex host TV entry. This is the tag that define what the host does. This is the physical location that it's in rack number 191. The NIC card is connected to the 24th port. All those details are there. So you can always get to the machine if you want. DNS does the same thing. It updates the changes and basically creates DNS entries and CNames in the same manner. Polls the host TV and does everything. Same thing. It also comes with an HTTP API. You can write code that monitors how your website is doing and based on your performance, you can choose to destroy machines or you can choose to create machines because if you add machines to a particular role, when the machine comes up, it does the Flipkartify thing and then it runs Puppet and when it's added to the particular Puppet class, all the details of what the machine is supposed to do is present in Puppet. So when it comes up, it comes up ready to serve. That's it. That's my talk. Now you can have questions. Pardon? Pardon? It's not a very, the Flipkartify script he's asking if it is available. It's not a very complex script. It's basically what it does is when the machine comes up, it adds a SSH key so that even if the machine doesn't do what it is supposed to do, it can still access it using a key that is available to ops. So it adds a key. Then what it does is it installs Puppet. All the juice, all the good stuff is in Puppet. So what you do in Puppet is you define your pseudo file. You define your roles that this is a web server. These are the 15 packages that it needs to have and since we are building on existing platform that Flipkart has, we have our own app repository. All the packages that we use in production are Dev packages. So to deploy in production, all you need to do is app get installed. That is what it does. So the role defines these are the packages you need. Then you go and run Puppet, it just installs everything. You're ready to go. Yes, so that is the front end. So that is here. So this guy right, that is the front end. This guy makes that decision. This guy. So the name node, its only responsibility of the name node is to know how to interact with these other machines and that's it. It doesn't care, it doesn't care if we can host 10 machines or 15 machines. It knows. So basically this front end queries this guy says how many machines you got. This guy replies I got this many and that information also we keep here.  So this guy will always know I have a headroom here. I have a headroom here. Yes. So what happens is there is something called the open VC web panel. Okay. So it's a software written in Ruby, which is free software. You can just download it and install it. I have a dip for it and install it on all the machines. And what it does is it has an API key. So you give an API key. This is also through Puppet. All the machines come up. They generate an API key for them and you just connect it to this guy. So this guy can talk to any of the machines. Yeah, yeah. So open VC doesn't have any limitations on what you can or cannot have. So if you can see here, we have an option of you have an option of so you can have Debian 64, Debian 32, you can have CentOS, Fedora, whatever you want. As long as you keep the users there, you can use them. Yes. It's in every physical needs to happen. Pardon? Four men. Four men. I have never used it. Does it, it acts like a database for Puppet instances. Then what? Pardon? It's based on files. So basically it's an implementation of SVN. You saw in hostdb, you can, it's based on SVN. You can basically go back a version. So it will always keep all the versions. You can do query from revisions also. So it will always query trunk or something. Or you can actually, oh you get the new servers because you just say, give me VMs whose status is planned. So it just gives you the new ones. Or actually what we do is we basically generate the entire file all over again. We just generate the entire file all over again.


Hello everyone, this is Amit Don of AmitDon.com You're watching one of my Australia travel videos and today I'll be showing you some scenes from Australian roads and highways I'm heading towards the Cardinian Reservoir Park and these scenes were taken on my way to the park Forget about liking this video forget about subscribing this channel. Thank you for watching and I'll see you shortly


Hello again. Well, I posted a quite a long video last week about forest garden books and I got a question back almost immediately, which was asking about good plants for forest gardens for warmer climates. So this person was in middle of Portugal, so kind of mild and more arid and dry than where I live here in Britain. So I recommended a book called Permaculture Plants. Now this book is an Australian book and it looks at tropical and subtropical plants. So not really for where I live in Britain, but a good recommendation really for somebody who lives in a drier, warmer climate. Another good question back saying, so what is your favorite permaculture plant? And that's an interesting question because of course like books, there cannot be one favorite plant, but there are certainly plants that are things that we very much love at particular times of year. So I'm going to talk in a moment about this particular plant, which at the moment doesn't look like very much, but has a wonderful secret below ground. But I'd like to return to the idea of a permaculture plant because of course as we've discussed before when I talked about what is permaculture? Permaculture is very much about where you are. So this book is called Permaculture Plants, but for me, if I tried to grow these things, most of them wouldn't really be permaculture in Britain because I need a lot more heat and humidity and put a lot of energy into growing them. So I would say plants that might fit into a permaculture system where you live and for many of us, that probably means more perennial plants. So maybe I could talk about some of my favorite perennials as Robin flying around at the moment, waiting for me to do something interesting where you can come on forage. So this particular plant here, Yakon, I came across a good few years ago. It was this particular one was gifted to me by friends. I went to teach in Germany at an eco village called Siebenlinden and they were harvesting at the time and they gave me some root to bring home and I've been growing it ever since. And it's, for those of us who live in kind of slightly cooler climates, this is an excellent book. Taste of the Unexpected, very interesting, lots of interesting plants by Mark Diakono. You can't see his name very well on there. And Yakon is one of the plants that is in that book. So let's have a look.  It grows up to a couple of meters tall. We grow it in pots here. We have a small cottage garden at the moment. So we don't have a lot of space. And also if you have any kind of underground burrowing rodents that like to nibble at tubers, this is a good way to protect them. We found that initially some of the crops were particularly those we were growing in the shared garden up the lane. We're getting quite heavily eaten and because they form their tubers late in the autumn, it's good to leave them in as long as possible, really, before, you know, until the top growth starts to die down like this. We haven't had a proper frost here, but basically when it gets cold, Yakon being South American plant starts going. And it puts its energy into the tubers. And that's the magic bit that we're going to be harvesting. So there's several stems here. This is the remains of last year's stem. So what we do in Britain, because this isn't frost hardy, really, and in the south of England, it's milder than some parts of Britain, but it's also, you know, we can get pretty cold here. So we bring this out every year. So we pull them up, we take off the tubers, and we store what's left of the crown. And that's the remains of last years. Don't need that now. And so what I'm going to do is to just start to lift this. There's some perennial onions in here as well. So I shall be a bit careful. You can see it's quite solid. Let's loosen this up a bit. Probably what I need to do is give it a good shifty. It's got good roots this year. Well, that went well. So there's part of the tuba that's broken off there. I think what I'm going to need to do is to get something a bit more hefty to get these out this time. Okay, so going for a different method. I've got the drug and let's see if I can just basically empty it. The trowel and truly in there. Okay, let's start to open it up a bit. There's one of our tubers. This has gone into a fairly clay soil, but it's very interesting that the acorn cleans up really beautifully. That's very nice. I would show you another one, but of course we've eaten the last batch. The stone. So what you'll find is that it will start to see what you plant in any given year will start to divide up into or produce several stems, which you can then basically take up and store. So in Britain we store these over winter in a cool fairly, well a dry cool place. Ideally dark. I'll show you in a moment what happens if they're not in a particularly cool place. But so we'll be saving that for next year. These are kind of propagation routes rather than storage tubers or I prefer to eat those. They're an investment in next year rather than something to eat this year, if that makes sense. So I'll keep going on here. Another tuber there. They're a pretty good year really. And let's see what we've got left. But we can start to split this down and break it up into smaller pieces for use next year. There's another one there, which has a hitchhiker along as well. It was a warm summer and it looks like we've had a pretty good year. I'm not quite sure that. Let's do that. Is that really an entire? Never seen anything quite like that before. But that seems to be a combination of propagation route and storage tuber. That is enormous. Anyway, we've had a good year. So let's take that.  They wash up very easily and see they're very smooth and clean. They have a prebiotic. They have I think inulin in here, which is indigestible sugar, but it's really good for your gut bacteria. And they're really nice. We have these in salad.  Slice that, put it into salad over the winter. It's a really nice crunchy texture, but also a kind of melt-in-the-mouth texture. It has a flavor of kind of subtle pairs. Very, very nice. One of my favorites. Hence, doing this little video. So highly recommended, but in our climate they do need a bit of caring attention over the winter. We have a look at ones that we already put into store earlier. We normally would keep these in the garage. Previously, we've been keeping this in the garage, but we don't have the garage anymore. So essentially, we tried. This was the first lot that we lifted. We put them indoors in the corner, but it's just trying to grow because it's too warm. So what we've done now is we kind of double insulated bucket, and we're putting it into the porch. So somewhere cool but frost-free, essentially, for the winter. And it will reward you with some fantastic, tasty tubers. Unusual, very easy to grow. They don't really flower. We did have a flower this year, which was surprisingly small and sad looking on the ACON, but the plants themselves get quite big. The top growth, they're very easy. They don't really suffer from diseases in Britain. And that's my first recommended plant, permaculture plant for Britain and places where you can keep them nice and frost-free.