The first item of business this afternoon is portfolio questions. In order to get as many people in as possible, short and succinct questions and answers would be appreciated. Question 1. Maureen Watt. To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in reducing the number of senior managers in the NHS. NHS Scotland has set a demanding target to reducing senior management posts by 25 25 per cent oesrwyd 2020 a 25 oesrwyd 2015. That target was exceeded 1 year early. By 31 March 2014, senior management posts had been reduced by 29.3 per cent. The savings from the reduction will continue to be reinvested into services in the National Health Service in Scotland. Furthermore, unlike trusts in England, the savings of more than £1 billion that ydy'r skydeddau o'ch bod oedd wedi'i gyrraethaheidi adeth yn lleidio rhiynau i'r llaw oedd yn yr edithaf Australia yn cyfathoddydiad i'r ynfiadniolol, a bach wedi'r defnyddio, ac yn du panaf i'n gweld'r gwaith yng Nghymru. Mor rai yn fawr. I have a thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Does he believe that NHS Scotland would have made such substantial progress in reducing bureaucracy if we had indeed followed the example of the Tories at Westminster with their disastrous reorganisation and privatisation? No, I don't. The role of non-NHS providers in delivering NHS-funded care in England has increased markedly from 2006 onwards. In Scotland, we ensure high-quality health provision by other means, including efficiency and productivity initiatives. Many thanks. Question number two is Kevin Stewart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government how many consultants work in NHS Scotland. There is currently a record number of consultants working in Scotland's national health service with NHS boards looking to recruit even more staff to further increase capacity. There is 5,037 whole-time equivalent consultants working within the national health service in Scotland as at June 2014, an increase of 1,140 full-time equivalent or 29.3 per cent within the lifetime of this Government. Kevin Stewart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank the cabinet secretary for his answer. The rise in the number of consultants under this SNP Government is a welcome one, although I do have some concerns about recruitment of consultants at Aberdeen's A&E, which I hope can be resolved. Can the cabinet secretary also offer any specific information about the number of junior doctors in the health service? Doctors in training within NHS Scotland have increased by 254.8 full-time equivalent from 5,361 to 5,591 during the lifetime of this Government, which equates to an increase of 4.8 per cent. It should be noted that the funded establishment of emergency medicine consultants within NHS Grampian has risen by 125.4 per cent during this period, with 80.3 per cent more consultants working in this speciality in NHS Grampian. The late minute of the meeting of NHS chief executives held in 6 August highlighted a number of issues that require immediate and transformational change, including consultant and other recruitment challenges. Can I ask the cabinet secretary how he is going to close the additional 450 million gap in his budget, much if it is apparently caused by pursuing initiatives that run contrary to his own 2020 policy? The member looks at the published information of the NHS territorial boards in Scotland in particular. He will see that the targets for savings for this year have already been exceeded. There is not a reduction of £450 million in the NHS budget in Scotland. However, I take the point that we need additional resources. Had we been able to remove Trident from the Clyde, we would have had substantial additional resources available for the health service, and I note that the member voted to keep Trident on the Clyde. Nanette Milling. Given the national and international shortage of consultants and certain specialties, can the cabinet secretary outline what research has been undertaken to assess how many potential future consultants are currently in training, particularly within those specialties, and when they may enter the workforce? We are in constant contact with the academic board under Sir David Calder, with the education secretary, with the universities and the medical schools, as well as with the academy of royal colleges and the individual royal colleges themselves. We are continually looking at those vacancies over a three-month period, which have not been filled. There are certain specialities. Pediatrics is an example, GPs is an example where there is a UK, and in some cases worldwide shortage, of available qualified staff. However, as the member knows, in some cases, we are advertising overseas to recruit staff where we find it impossible to recruit staff in the UK. However, for some specialities, it is very, very challenging. To ask the Scottish Government how it is addressing medical staffing issues in the NHS Lanarkshire. Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government is supporting NHS Lanarkshire in aligning its staff to meet patient demand and the implementation of a number of site-specific actions. The number of consultants and posts in NHS Lanarkshire has increased by 59.8 per cent, or 159 whole-time equivalent, between September 2006 and June 2014. Qualified nurses and midwives have also seen their numbers rise by 9.8 per cent or 329 whole-time equivalent during the same period. A recent international recruitment exercise for A and E and Acute Medicine trainee doctors has led to NHS Lanarkshire successfully recruiting to an ST4 emergency medicine post. NHS Lanarkshire board papers from last month say that medical staffing across all front door emergency services is fragile, and models of care will require further review if vacant posts are not filled. What does the health board mean by further review, and what contingencies are in place to maintain patient safety if the staffing situation deteriorates further? First of all, unlike Labour, we will not be planning to close any accident and emergency departments. What we are doing is recruiting people. If you look at the Lanarkshire situation, when we took over, there was a total of eight whole-time equivalent A and E consultants in Lanarkshire. There are now 32 full-time equivalent A and E consultants in Lanarkshire. Because of the complexity, particularly the number of people who are very elderly with very complex conditions, you cannot just look at the number of patients, you have to look at the complexity and increasing complexity and comorbidities of the patients presenting. I do not want to underestimate the challenge that we face throughout every modern health service and every modern society in rising to the challenge of an ageing population, but, certainly, we have multiplied by a huge factor the number of A and E consultants in Lanarkshire compared with the pathetic record of the Labour administration. At last met NHS Lanarkshire. Cabinet Secretary, Alex Neil. He is presenting office of ministers and Government officials a regularly meet with representatives of NHS Lanarkshire. I thank the cabinet secretary for his response. I know that the cabinet secretary is aware of the situation currently existing at Belshill clinic, where a local GP practice has had to co-locate because its facility burnt down some years ago. It is now over five years since that co-location took place. I know that the cabinet secretary is not responsible for the reason behind that, and there has to be questions asked around why that situation occurred. However, the fact is that services that should have been delivered from Belshill clinic are not being able to be carried out because the GP practice is co-locating in that facility. I am told by staff that that is creating a pressure on services at Monklands hospital in particular, because those services have to be delivered from there. Can the cabinet secretary tell us that he has any contingency plans in place to address that problem, because it cannot be allowed to continue for much longer? The member makes a very valid constituency point, and I fully understand the concerns in Belshill clinic. I am aware of the concerns. I am happy to meet the member to look at the current situation and the plans to deal with it. I accept that speedier action is required to deal with the situation, and I am happy to convene a tripartite meeting between NHS Lancashire and Michael McMahon as a local member, and I am happy to see whether we can agree a way forward. Thank you. I supplement you from Linda Fabiani. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The cabinet secretary is very aware that we have issues in Hermeyr's hospital in East Kilbride, with beds being occupied for longer than necessary, because the local authority hasn't put home care packages in place timidly. I know that action has been taken in that regard, and I wonder if the cabinet secretary can update me on progress. Cabinet secretary? Yes. Delayed discharges have become more of an issue in recent months. Nothing like the scale that there used to be in terms of delayed discharges in Scotland, but in particular areas such as Fife and Glasgow and in South Lanarkshire, in recent months, delayed discharges have not been dealt with by the local authority as quickly as they should have been. As a result of that, we have put £5 million additional money into dealing with the issue of delayed discharges, and some of that money has gone to NHS Lanarkshire and very specifically to help to deal with the situation in Hermeyr's, which on the latest management information figures that I have available to me has shown a degree of improvement, but there is still obviously a major challenge because of the local authority's failure to deal with the level of care that is required either in terms of residential care or assessments for care at home. Briefly Neil Findlay. The cabinet secretary is living in cloud cuckoo land, if he thinks that this is not the biggest issue in health and social care at the moment. It really does him no service to just lay the blame at local authorities when the Scottish Government is slashing local authority budgets every year, so can we start to get some reality into this proceedings? I would happily meet the cabinet secretary to discuss how we deal with delayed discharges because it is the biggest issue in health and social care at the moment. I presume that that was the question, cabinet secretary. I am always happy to meet members, particularly if they have any solutions to offer to any problems. I have never found that in Mr Findlay's case whatsoever. The fact of life is that delayed discharges are nothing like the scale that they were five, six, seven years ago when his party was in power. There has been a very substantial reduction in delayed discharges. However, we have not in certain areas achieved the final reduction that I wanted to see in terms of this year and projecting into next year. I merely stated that that is because of the time it is taking local authorities either to place people in residential care or to arrange home care or indeed to undertake assessments. It is not a question of blame, it is a question of fact, but I know that Mr Findlay always gets confused with the facts. Question 5, Sarah Boyack. To ask the Scottish Government what additional resources it is providing to address delayed discharges. Cabinet secretary, Alex Neil. Presiding Officer, I will just answer this in the previous question. On 7 August 2014, I announced an additional £5 million for financial year 2014-15 to help health boards to improve the flow of patients through health and social care services. The funding has been carefully targeted to seven health board areas that have faced the most significant pressures from delayed discharge. That investment will enable them to accelerate progress towards sustainable change, drive down delays and release hospital capacity over the long term. Our legislation to integrate health and social care will also ensure that health and social care is provided in the right place at the right time, making the best use of available money facilities and people. I thank the cabinet secretary for his response. He will know that his written response to me during the recent period suggested that he is developing a methodology by next year to assess the cost to individual health boards of delayed discharge. We know that we currently have an upward trend in delayed discharge in the Lothians, and it is a problem for us now. We have heard that tackling delayed discharge could release between £125 million for reinvestment elsewhere. Can the cabinet secretary clarify whether that resource will go to local authorities to address the issues that he has just identified in terms of the lack of care packages and the lack of home care support that councils can offer? Can he clarify what impact the £450 to £450 million funding gap that was identified by Neil Findlay just a few minutes ago will have on his efforts to tackle transferring that resource from NHS to our local authorities? That is a good question until the myth of the £450 million funding that was mentioned. Edinburgh City has got over £1 million of the £5 million, so Edinburgh has actually got more than 20 per cent of that £5 million. As she knows, there is a strategic challenge in Edinburgh, which mainly arises because of the lack of social care capacity, residential care, as well as care at home. Some of that is due to the fact that, of course, 25 per cent of residential care residents in Edinburgh are self-funders, and the private and independent sector tends, obviously, to take them in, sometimes rather than people referred by the local authority. She will also be aware that there is now a very regular meeting between the senior leadership both in terms of councillors and the chief executive in her team in Edinburgh City and the senior team in the health board, both in terms of the chair and the chief executive, and they have now got together a plan to deal with the particular challenges in Edinburgh in relating to delayed discharges and associated issues. I believe that the plan that they have put in place is the right plan, and we need to look at how we can fund that going forward, because I recognise that Edinburgh is one of those areas with very special challenges that have been building up for a number of years, but require to be tackled at the earliest possible opportunity. I am afraid that I must ask for more succinct questions and answers if we will not make much progress. Claudia Beamish To ask the Scottish Government if it can provide an update on NHS homeopathic and complementary medicine arrangements in South Scotland. The Scottish Government's position is set out to my answer to the oral question that was asked by the member on 12 March. The Scottish Government recognises that complementary and alternative medicines may offer relief to some people living with a wide variety of conditions. It is for individual NHS boards to decide what therapies they may make available based on the needs of the resident populations in line with national guidance. Claudia Beamish I thank the cabinet secretary for this answer and wanted to just progress things further beyond the question in March. In NHS Lanarkshire, there has been a significant number that has responded to the consultation and a report as imminent about those services, just highlighting the interest of my constituents in that particular area. More specifically, in NHS Lothian, of which part of my region falls in, I have also heard constituents' concerns about conflicting advice from healthcare professionals and barriers against access to homeopathic care, often in contradiction, as I understand, with NHS Lothian statements. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what guidance is available to practitioners in making these decisions? If she has evidence of contradictory and wrong advice, please let me know, because we will take that up with the health board, and I am happy to send her details of the guidance that we offer in those matters. 7. Graham Pearson To ask the Scottish Government what additional support it is providing to the Scottish Ambulance Service in light of it not meeting a range of targets. 8. Alex Neil The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Ambulance Service to provide a high-quality, safe and sustainable emergency ambulance service to Scotland's population when they need it most. Setting and agreeing performance measures is part of that. It is encouraging to note that, nationally, performance this year continues to show improvement. Despite seeing a 10 per cent rise in the number of calls, the Scottish Ambulance's average response time is just 6.5 minutes across the whole of Scotland. However, we are not complacent and they are not complacent, and we will continue to monitor and support the service to make further improvement. 9. Graham Pearson Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank the cabinet secretary for the reply. He will be aware of reports of ambulances being sent, significant distances to cover shortages in neighbouring areas, and that there are issues about staff numbers and available funding. There are thousands of cases of ambulance taking more than 20 minutes to reach patients, and it is clear that, despite the efforts of front-line staff, the Ambulance Service is still going to deliver a level of service that the public would expect. In light of that failure to meet a wide range of vital targets, will the minister provide further information on steps being taken to address those issues and the timeframe that is expected for significant improvement? Presiding Officer, I recognise that there are challenges particularly in rural areas, and I know that the area that is represented by the member has very specific challenges, not least because, in some areas, the transport infrastructure is not always the easiest to meet the kind of targets that the Ambulance Service sets itself. However, having said that, the Ambulance Service has achieved the target in 74 per cent of the time that it is set for it, but we recognise the need for further improvement. I am happy to send the member details of the improvements that the Ambulance Service is taking forward to improve performance and the quality of service that it provides. I ask the cabinet secretary to look at areas where improvements might be made and to look at concerns that have been raised with me by some of my constituents about the possible capacity issues of the road ambulance fleet in Aberdeen, which appears to be delaying getting patients who are arriving from Orkney and the other island groups by air ambulance, then transferring on to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. It is correspondence with the Ambulance Service directly, but I would certainly welcome any intervention that he might be able to make on that issue. Presiding Officer, the member wants to write to me with details of that. I am happy to take up the issue with the Ambulance Service and see if we can make substantial progress. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to improve support for unpaid carers. Minister Michael Matheson We intend to introduce a carers bill that will extend and strengthen the rights of both adult carers and young carers to help to ensure that they are much better supported. We will continue to provide support to carers and young carers investing nearly £114 million between 2007 and 2015 in a range of programmes and initiatives. That includes funding for carers initiatives through the reshaping care for older people change fund, funding NHS boards for their carers information strategies and funding the voluntary sector short breaks fund. Subject to parliamentary approval, we will invest a further £5 million in NHS boards carers information strategies and a further £3 million in the short breaks fund in 2015-16. I welcome the minister's full comprehensive response, but will the minister be aware that the carers allowance is the lowest income replacement benefit in the UK? Does the minister agree with me that the UK Government should increase carers allowance to at least the level of jobseekers allowance as a matter of urgency? Michael Matheson I am aware, as the member highlights, that carers allowance is one of the lowest income-based benefits within the welfare system in the UK. Of course, during the referendum, we set out very clearly the need to tackle this and for an increase in carers allowance, but I would certainly add my voice to call upon the UK Government to look at reviewing the overall level of carers allowance, which at times has felt as though it is the forgotten benefit for carers. We should also recognise the very significant contribution that carers make to our society, which they did not provide. That support would cost the taxpayers significantly more. They deserve not only practical support but also financial support. Briefly pleased, Rosie Grant. Will the minister consider improving support to young carers through the educational maintenance allowance? That depends on excellent attendance, which is very difficult for young carers to do because of their caring responsibilities. Will he consider—I know that the legislation of the moment and the guidance means that there are individual circumstances to be taken into account for young carers, but will he consider putting them on the same footing as care leavers so that their educational maintenance allowance cannot be withdrawn from them? The member will be aware that the Scottish Youth Parliament has made a number of recommendations on support to young carers, in particular on educational support allowance and that my colleague Angela Constance made some changes to the guidance in order to reflect how EMAs should be provided to reflect the views and issues that were raised by the Scottish Youth Parliament. I can also tell the member that my colleague Mike Russell was due to meet those representatives from the Scottish Youth Parliament to discuss those issues in more detail. We are taking forward a range of measures under the carers policy aspect to help to support young people within schools and within further and higher education. My colleagues within the education side are also looking at what measures they can take for, including where there are further actions that they can take under EMAs to see whether there is further support that could be provided to young carers in education. To ask the Scottish Government what research has been undertaken to determine if there is a link between the intake of sugar and an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition published its draft report for consultation on the links between intakes of carbohydrates, including sugar, on health on 26 June this year. The advisory committee report referred to evidence suggesting that sugary drinks are associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes in adults. The report shows that diets high in sugar can contribute to excess calorie intake, which, if sustained, leads to weight gain and obesity. If an individual is overweight or obese, they are more prone to a range of serious health problems, including type 2 diabetes. The Food Standards Agency in Scotland will review the Scottish dietary advice based on the report's final recommendations early in 2015. Does the minister share my concern that we are facing a ticking time bomb with the explosion of type 2 diabetes in Scotland? The minister will know that diabetes is the main cause of blindness of those of working age and contributes half of the non-traumatic leg abutations. A whole variety of studies such as the Stanford Medical School have linked sugar intake with diabetes. Will the minister agree to meet me and Diabetes Scotland to work up new proposals to tackle and prevent Scotland's silent killer? I am sure that the member will recognise that there is a complex one around tackling obesity. It needs to be taken forward on a number of fronts, one around physical activity and improving individuals in participating in physical activity, but it is also important to change their dietary habits, which is not something that is easily challenged on a short-term basis. That is why we have taken forward a range of measures with the food sector from the reformulation programme right through to the supporting healthy choices framework, which we launched a few months ago, and also the work that we are doing in terms of improving labelling, so that people in purchasing goods have a much greater level of understanding of the content of the products that they are purchasing. I am more than happy to meet the member and his colleagues to discuss whether there are specific measures that they feel that we can take forward together in order to help to tackle. What is, of course, a growing problem within Western society and one that we need to make sure that we tackle head-on? Very briefly, Jackson Carlaw. Does the minister agree that many people who purchase low-fat products, particularly dairy products, are unaware that those products very often contain much higher levels of sugar than they might anticipate and that they are not wittingly exposing themselves to the potential of diabetes? We are doing a range of work just now with the food standards agency in order to drill down into the issue much more clearly so that the public understand the choices that they are making. The member has highlighted what is often an area where individuals can be confused in the products that they are purchasing, which is why we push for front-of-label packaging, which allows people—the traffic-like system allows people to see much more clearly the content of their products. We need to make further progress in the food standards agency and do some very interesting work in the field in order to make sure that we take the area forward further. To ask the Scottish Government what issues it discussed when it last met NHS boards. Presiding Officer, the Scottish Government last met NHS boards on the 22 September 2014, the outcome of the referendum, 70 services and the performance of NHS boards where the matter is discussed. I wonder if you discussed the late discharge, given the many questions on that topic today. 150,000 bed days each quarter are occupied by delayed discharge patients, and one patient in Highland had to wait over a year from the date of medical discharge to going home. So what is the Scottish Government doing to support NHS Highland who do have responsibility for home carers to recruit and retain staff to ensure that patients get the care and support when they need it and where they need it? Can I say that the member will be aware of the report that we published jointly with COSLA earlier this year as a result of a review of residential care services? We are following up that with a joint review of home care services. I believe that the social care sector faces a number of challenges. For example, we are committed in principle on the need to introduce the living wage. We need a proper career structure for people working in the social care sector. We recognise that the funding of independent providers is below what it needs to be to provide the level and standard and quality of care required and a whole range of other things as well. We are now looking at the implementation of the recommendations of those reports across the whole of Scotland because the description that Mary Scanlon has outlined in Highland in terms of the social care sector could be applied in many other parts of the country. If you go to Aberdeen, for example, at the moment, people can earn more filling shelves in a supermarket than they can very often than working in the social care sector. We have to tackle the underlying strategic issues so that we get the social care sector in Scotland into far better shape, including in the Highlands, and dealing with the very specific challenges in rural, remote, rural and island communities. I'm afraid I must once again ask for shorter questions and answers or some members will be disappointed. Question number 11, Patricia Ferguson. To ask the Scottish Government what the average waiting time is for children who require an upgraded cochlear implant processor. Michael Matheson. If on clinical assessment by the cochlear implant specialist team at Crosshair's hospital it's considered that a cochlear implant processor needs upgrading, then if there is a suitable processor in stock there is no waiting time and it will be provided to the patient at the time of assessment. If a processor has to be ordered then it normally takes two to three weeks to be delivered. If on clinical assessment a patient is found to have a processor that is faulty but can be repaired then the patient is provided with a like-for-like processor from stock whilst their processor is sent for repair. There is no waiting time for this process. Patricia Ferguson. I thank the minister for that answer. He will be aware that young people who have profound hearing difficulties and who use cochlear implants also face a very challenging environment, for example in the classroom, which can often affect their ability to learn going forward. As new technology becomes available their parents are obviously anxious to secure the best possible opportunity for them. I wonder if he would sympathise with the parents of one of my constituents who has been told there are some 200 young children in the queue ahead of her before she is likely to have an upgraded cochlear implant processor and whether he believes that, in line with the rest of the country, those should automatically be replaced after a handful of five years. Can I comment on a final point about changing the cochlear implant in five years? We are in the process of doing that just now through NHS Scotland. The member will be aware that the national cochlear implant service provided that at Crosshouse hospital in Kilmarne, because it is a nationally delivered service. However, I have outlined to the member that, if there is a need for a processor to be changed or to be repaired, there is a process in place for that to take place with no waiting time if there is one in stock. However, if the member wants to write to me with specific details on a particular type of cochlear implant that she is referring to that presently is not available through her national service, I would be more than happy to get the clinicians who are responsible for deciding on the approach that we take here in Scotland to be able to respond to her specific constituents' issues. To ask the Scottish Government what evaluation is undertaking on the sexual health and blood bone virus framework 2011-15 and when it will publish the framework of work beyond 2015. The sexual health and blood bone virus framework comes to an end in 2015, and we have already commenced work to evaluate the progress that has been made. NHS boards and their partners in local authorities and the third sector are preparing reports on progress. Those will be related to presenting a national report on progress overall. Officials will also be visiting each NHS board before the end of 2015 to hold detailed discussions on achievements, challenges and progress. Our national monitoring and assurance group is also carrying out an analysis of data to establish progress against each of the framework's outcome indicators and a report of the work that will be produced soon. A refreshed framework setting out the future strategic direction in this area will be published in the summer of 2015. Thank you for that response. A study in Glasgow found a prevalence rate of hepatitis C among South Asian communities in Glasgow of up to 3.1 per cent compared to around 0.6 per cent or less in the rest of the population. However, the current strategy makes only a passing mention of awareness rising in ethnic minority communities. Can the minister assure me that the review framework will adopt a more thorough approach in tackling the virus in South Asian communities in Scotland, in particular in Glasgow? What I can say to remember is that our boards are responsible for broadly delivering the framework on the ground already do that work. For example, Greater Glasgow and Clyde take forward a range of work in their minority ethnic groups in Glasgow around blood-borne viruses. However, when we review the progress that has been made, we will consider what further steps need to be taken and that should be reflected in the new framework in 2015. To ask the Scottish Government what the impact on NHS Fife would be of the reported shortfall of up to £450 million in NHS funding. Let me be clear that there are no planned cuts to NHS funding. Read my lips, there are no planned cuts to NHS funding. The Scottish Government is a record of protecting and increasing the NHS budget, and NHS Fife, like all other territorial boards, will receive above inflation resource increases in 2014-15 and 2015-16. Despite that response, what is absolutely clear is that there are at the moment problems that have been facing patients and staff across NHS Fife, with up to 40 vacant consultant posts needing filled and reports of increasing use by the health board of private firms such as MediNet. In August, patients awaiting surgery were sent home at the last minute, as operations were cancelled as wards were full. Therefore, will the cabinet secretary join with me in supporting calls for an independent inquiry into whether the model currently being followed by NHS Fife is fit for purpose in meeting the needs of the people of Fife? I accept that NHS Fife, like every other health board in the civilised world, is facing particular challenges. NHS Fife's performance has improved dramatically in recent years, and the quality of provision across a range of services has also improved dramatically in recent years. If the member, however, has any specific concerns, I am happy to listen to those so that we can address them with NHS Fife. Thank you. To ask the Scottish Government how front-line services would be affected if the reported £400 million reduction in NHS funding gets implemented. Presiding Officer, let me make it absolutely clear. There are no plan cuts to NHS funding. The Scottish Government has a record of protecting and increasing the NHS budget, and its latest £12.1 billion resource budget, the first time it has ever gone over £12 billion, reflects a funding increase in real terms, both this year and next. I thank the cabinet secretary for his response. The leaked memo from NHS health board chiefs previously referred to said that boards would have to consider centralising hospitals and closing services. Can the cabinet secretary give us a cast iron guarantee that, across Fife, Tayside and Forth valley, there will be no such centralising nor closing of services? Specifically, can he give us that guarantee in relation to the services at Perth Royal Infirmary? The memo that was leaked was some thoughts of a number of chief executives, and it does not represent Government policy. The member knows perfectly well that any proposals for service redesign go through a very intense process, including a major process of public engagement. I certainly have no intention of redesigning services in a way that leads to any retrograde steps in terms of the quality of provision, and certainly we will always ensure that any proposals for change will require to go through a very comprehensive exercise in public engagement, as we always do. The biggest threat to the national health service in Scotland are the £25 billion-worth of cuts being promised by George Osborne and Ed Balls. That is a real threat to the national health service. I was going to ask the cabinet secretary if he could confirm indeed how the Scottish budget has, in fact, been impacted since George Osborne has been chansored and how much NHS front-line budget in Fife has changed over that same period of time. We have passed on every penny of the funding allocated to us for health in Scotland, and just for the record, the IFS report that tried to allege otherwise was factually incorrect, and I think that I am right in saying that they have admitted their mistake. They got it wrong. To ask the Scottish Government how it supports the provision of accessible GP services for people in remote and rural areas. In Scotland, we know that some health boards face significant difficulties recruiting in remote and rural areas. In the Highlands and Islands, there are some particular communities that have been without a permanent GP for a while, and I completely understand how frustrating this is for residents. One key element of the recently agreed GP contract agreement are the changes to golden hello payments for remote and rural areas from 1 January 2015. That will mean that health boards will have more flexibility to specifically incentivise GPs to work in those areas that are more difficult to recruit to. That will hopefully make the challenge of recruiting to remote, rural and deprived areas easier for boards and help those communities who have faced a long wait for a permanent GP. Is the minister aware of plans to reduce the number of GP-consulting hours in Dalmali, which geographically is one of the most remote GP practices in the UK? Do you apparently to the fact that there has been a lack of uplift in additional payments from the health board to support Dalmali surgery since 2004? Is he also aware of concerns in Inverary nearby, where they have had to rely on locum GP cover for three years? Will he raise those concerns with NHS Highlands and work to ensure that communities in those rural areas are not receiving a poorer level of GP cover compared to areas on the central belt? Does he agree that defolution was meant to improve living standards for everybody in Scotland? I am already doing everything that the member asks. I am going to Oben even in Nectober and I am glad to meet him there so that we can report in progress. Many thanks. That concludes portfolio questions and I will allow a brief pause before we move to the next item of business.


years ago, a few years ago back when the federal government bailed out New York for delivering the civil service, the services of the city, he said $1,600 per capita. With all of its maneuvering politically and chicanery out there in Chicago, Chicago was only $600 per capita, but the astonishing thing was that California, the city of Washington, was $2,600, evidently the costliest city in the United States. It's going to hurt us. This is the legislative budget, the budget for Congress. Where do I leave them? That is off the record. Mike was off. Like it was the day I said we were going to Russia in five minutes. Anybody going to Georgetown today? Yeah, if I could. Say, is that how it goes? Outside. Outside. So 10,000 people. Definitely outside. I appreciate it. It's the first time since 1948. See you later. You've got 26 minutes before you're going here. I don't have time this twice. I'll try it again. Try to read it backwards. Twenty-two minutes. Twenty-two minutes. You mean I'm that slow? Sorry, I couldn't read it. Twenty-one. This is my sister Pat and her daughter Katie. Oh, sorry. Okay, come on over here. Mike's off on his Sunday. Can you stay back for a second? Okay, now. Now do you want to do that? This group. Yeah, we're going to do an individual family here. You want to put the president in the middle? Sure. Okay, everybody look over here. All right, now come on by. Thank you. Oh, I'm going to have to change. Megan. Don't let me get in the way. You're getting that in the middle. The chair can be in front of us. Everybody look at the camera and smile. Smile, Denny. Denny, smile. Everybody smile. Good. All right. Next in line is my sister Peggy and her family. Kevin Cook, Peggy Cook. That's Jimmy. Billy. That's Kevin. Kevin. Oops, sorry. Don't let me get in the way. Look at the camera, Bill. Smile. Smile, Jim. Look at the camera, Bill. This is my brother Frank Roberts. Hi, how are you? Is another brother Michael Roberts? Sorry. How are you? My sister Marybeth. Oh, wait. My parents, Dr. and Mrs. Robert. What, what, what? Oh, could I have a little bit? Mom. Wait a minute, wait, wait, wait. Since your present, now we'll do our parents right here with you. Oh, me? Whatever you say. Now you got 10 more in the camera room. Right. Just so you can see, right? Do you have everybody's faces? What are you doing? Make sure you serve your face. Move a little bit to your bed. Over here? No. What are you? I got to come down. What are you, Captain? You put the England tooth in Victoria. Then sometime later, a 13-minute package about this death stated decommission of the ship and this was carved from the planks. I don't remember how the arrows switched at the arrows. I come over here to dress like this on Saturdays when I do my radio broadcast. No, because I have one just like this. We have some, my son and I have some Red Cross that is great, Red Cross and we like to think that are very voluntary. And I've given 14 gowns. 10 gowns. I got that. Thank you. I'll go on to the fifth. Let's go. Hold on. She's very quick. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate to be here. She has a certificate of election in the government and you're not at the wall. We'll just have to get control of how to do it. Have a great afternoon. Thank you.


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The humor in this movie is great, too, and it's intentional. It's got to be, especially with the sheriff. Swearing? Swearing for no reason.   You're the sheriff!  Yeah.


Hello, and in this video for firefight second edition, we're going to tell you how you can fight in hand-to-hand combat So I've got my rats here. Yep. Matt has been shooting me a bit. I'm a bit weak So I think it's time that I got stuck in and started fighting with teeth and claw so Matt I'm worried about these enforcers here. I want to charge in with these How does it work when I want to actually fight you in hand-to-hand? Well, you can you need to move into base contact with me Yep Now you can do that with an advance, but it's not a charge and you won't get the benefits of that Really ideally you want to charge into combat now. That's a sprint move into base-to-base contact Okay, that's your second of your your values on your speed stat. I mean your case 15 So I think that's well within range What you do is you go From your leader model, you measure the range to the closest enemy model in unit And as long as it's in a direction in a straight line, so you don't have to run around anything It's a valid charge. You won't be hindered. Yeah, and you can get into combat So you move your guy your guys your leader straight into the closest one and imagine Yep, and then he goes in yep, and then the rest of your unit needs to get back into coherency Just like a normal move. Yeah, but as much as possible in base contact with other mod enemy models Okay, so they can that one go there There and they can they go behind you? Yeah, as long as I stay in coherency from the leader. Okay Big terror you're you're less than 10 models at this point. Yeah, you're oh, yeah, must be this side within three Okay, okay now because you you weren't hindered and you charged Your bonuses are you get to fight first fantastic before I get to roll if any if I've got any survivors I'll then fight back. Yeah, you also get plus one to hit. Okay, so it's quite quite beneficial So exactly the same way as shooting You have a look to see how many dice each of your guys get in assault. Yeah, so these are stalkers So they have got assault weaponry, which is two dice each. Okay, so you've got one two three four five So that's ten dice. Yeah, and he does he had any attacks or anything special to your squad Yeah, so that is a night terror with cives and assault 4d with AP to okay So you probably want to you want to roll for his four dice as a different color. Yeah So to identify that any hits he gets will have Effect the armor. Okay, we're rolling to damage. And so on the profile, I guess because he's a drone They will use the same stats as everyone else. So I'm still rolling Four plus correct. Okay, so he's in effect. He's an upgrade to the squad He'll add attacks. Yeah, but any any Anything that's specific to his attacks such as armor penetrating or only for him doesn't benefit the whole squad Okay, but he adds to the squad for shooting or come out or whatever whatever that drones abilities Okay, right. So I will be so you saying actually I'm plus one. So I'm yeah, actually three plus on my wow It's over for these enforcers. Okay. So here we go And all those ones and twos. Yeah So that's pretty good hits. Okay. And now you're rolling is just with shooting. You're now rolling against my armor, right? So my enforcer opportunities have armor six. So all those white dice are gonna need six or more Yeah, but those green ones you said had AP two. Yeah, it's gonna be down to four. So any four or more, okay? so So I've got four Five and I have five guys each with health points or hit points one. Yeah, so you've wiped the squad out Wow five have gone So I will remove those fives now obviously I don't get to fight back Yeah, now if you'd have advanced into me would have fought simultaneously Okay, so it's only if you get an unhindered charge off that you fight first So what do I so I've won the fight what do I do now? You because you're the fights winner you're not marked as Activated unless that is actually the end of your activation So actually if you had advanced you'd have a short action left at this point But you you you used a long action to sprint in so you don't but you can make a consolidation move Okay, so again, it's from your leader. So your leader can move in Any direction and then the rest will go back into here to coherency with him So how far can I move is it three inches?  Is there anything you could have done to stop me? Yes, so If as I was unactivated, yeah Not every unit can do this some units will have keywords that allow them to have an assault reaction Okay, so they can respond immediately to the threat coming in and there's there's four things they can do So if they've got the suppressive fire keyword, they can try and pin you on your way in. Yeah, which means you'll be at minus one Controlled fire means they can actually shoot you it's harder to hit you But if they do hit you any casualties that are caused count towards would count towards my assault resolution, okay? I can try and evade which means I can actually run away, which means you'd fail Yeah, then potentially left out in the open. Yeah And then the fourth and final one is a counter charge So if you if you've got an assault unit just very good at obviously attacking itself It may want to obviously immediately fight fight back. Okay, so I tell you what well Let's let's see what would happen if I You'd kind of attacked me first with only your assault reactions Yeah, and we'll also place myself behind this hedge to see how cover makes a difference as well Yes, okay, so if we set up again, and then we'll have a look see what happens. Okay, so this time I'm gonna charge in again Yeah, but unfortunately my rats have stupidly decided to hide behind this hedge So what it affects is that gonna have when I charge in so you'll declare your intention to assault me. Yeah This will hinder you so if if your lead if the the line from your leader to the closest model goes Through difficult terrain or over an obstacle or you have to go round something. Yeah Then it becomes a hindered charge right still get into into combat But you'll still get to go first as well, but you'll lose the plus one to hit. Okay So that's the first thing also because my squad here is Is not yet activated and they're also not pinned They can make an assault reaction because they've got the control fire keyword. Okay, they can do a controlled fire Reaction, okay, so if I announce I'm gonna charge of these and assault you Do you then say now say no I now do immediately do my Assault reaction. So this point say I could evade I might be able to fall back at this point Yeah, and then you might then you might find yourself out in the open. Okay, so at this point I'm gonna fire back now that will activate me. Yeah for future rounds. So it's I'm kind of Borrowing a future activation of mine, so I would activate them But I would do a control fire now because you're running at me and um It's and it's something I'm reacting to and not not set up. Yeah, I'm at minus one So my guys normally hitting on fours. I'm gonna hit out on fives. Yeah, but I can ignore that That hedge for this. Okay, because I guess they are it's like they're charging towards me. Yes So I need ten dice five ten. Okay, and I need fives now Any that any damage I caused you at this point will add to my combat resolution Okay, so if I've got any left and we'd seen who's one. Yeah based on the most damage cause Anything I do here with my shot will actually count. Okay So The ones that failed that was pretty good Yeah, much better than your previous role if you watch one of the other videos And your armor five fives So one two three four five five models. Oh, no Actually at that point I have before you've even got to me. Yeah, I've actually wiped you out Did you move all of those including your leader and then the drone's gone as well because that's not a part of the unit Oh, no, so that was a big difference. Yeah, absolutely big difference now I had to borrow an activation to do it. Yeah, and then it might be back to my turn So I'd have another activation so I couldn't do anything more with them. But yes, that's a some reactions like that can be you know, you've got from a from a Planning point of view you have to look at the other unit. Say how are they can they react to me? Yeah Have I got enough to get past them? Okay. Yeah, it's obviously You know previously I wiped you out this time. You totally want me Yeah, so your your guys are very good at combat once they're in it Yeah, I've got a lot of attacks and forces are very good. There's smaller squads, but they're very good at shooting. Okay so maybe actually will Set up slightly differently and we'll have a look see what happened if we both were rolling for fights and then see what happens as well there Yeah, okay. Okay So in this situation, we've set up another one of the kind of potential situations you may find yourself with assault in this case I've actually advanced into combat rather than charging in and the different areas that will end up fighting at the same time Rather than me going first Wiping out your squad and then you having to go if you've got anything left That's right. So normally you always get to go first if you have a successful if you charge it Yeah, if it is an advance in it's a simultaneous combat. Okay So I guess you could potentially Because of the way the short action along actions works You could shoot the short action to weaken the unit and then advance into combat and potentially then an assault as well Yeah, absolutely. And we'll see a bit later with command orders You know the enforcers can be quite good at that because one of theirs allows them to advance shoot advance So actually they can wade through Okay, well number of units, right? Okay, so so I'm gonna roll for so I still stand up for sort of roll first I guess but then we're gonna resolve the casualties at the same time Yeah, I mean, obviously if we had enough dice, we could do it together. Yes, you go first But you I will get to fight back with all of my guys and then we'll work out the difference Okay, so so I'm gonna roll my 10 dice I've got the green ones again for because you're advanced and you're not on plus one So it's just your normal assault value. So that is five plus. Oh, so four plus Take out there. Oh, so that's two threes. Yeah Yeah, okay, you alter damage. So my armor is sixes Fours for that green one because yeah, you're a P2 so Two Okay, so that would be So for successes, okay Now normally that would kill them for my guys and it will do yeah, they all because we're fighting simultaneously I'll get to fight back with everyone first. Okay As I said, I'm much better at shooting my guys have only got one dice each in combat But okay, they're still alive at this point. So I roll five dice My assault is five plus. So this is like a melee. We're all sort of scrapping I'm trying to bite you in things in your house.   I've got no AP or anything like that To Okay, so you caused five I You caused four. Yeah, I'll take four guys away leaving leaving my leader. Who's this guy here? And you take two of yours away So in this instance, you've won the combat Okay, you've done four damage to me and and I've only done two to you. Okay. So this point I as a loser I have to Move directly away from you and directly away is based on the position of the leaders Yeah, so you draw a line from the winning leader My leader is here the one pointing the one that's pointing yeah winning leader through my leader And I fall back advanced move So three in that direction and he's going to move back here now it is possible now I have to end my unit The unit has to move in all its models stay one inch away from enemy units Just like you normally would do in movement if I can't do that Then I might become trapped and in which case instantly destroyed okay, so you can surround someone and destroy them like that You know gets I will become activated even if I wasn't already And you can make it a consolidation move because you're the winning the winning side Okay, so like before I can just move them around. I'll move my leader back there Killing like that Okay, so as you can see there's plenty of different options for how you can kind of react to an assault action What you can do obviously if you charge in and also what you can do if you advance So I hope you enjoyed that video and we're back shortly with another one


When should I upload my videos to my channel to get the most views, and the time of day makes a big difference? What we use is a tool called Google Analytics, not YouTube Analytics, and I'll hide myself to show you. The key is to use the hourly graph, not the day graph, and look at when the traffic on your YouTube channel is starting to pick up. What's the time of day that you have the lowest point, and that's the point when you should upload your video so that everyone sees your video as your traffic rises? How do we get this graph? Well, it's very simple. Go to your YouTube channel, the Creator Studio, and then in the channel settings, you'll see a section called Advanced, and then in there, there's a section called Google Analytics. You put the ID from Google Analytics right here, click Save, and then in a few days, you'll see this graph in Google Analytics. In our case on Freedom Central, the best time for us to upload is right at zero o'clock, midnight Pacific, because that's when the traffic starts to pick up for us on our channel. What's the best time for you? Tell us in the comments below, we would love to know if there is a big difference depending on where you are in the world. If you have a website, you should also include that in your Google Analytics. In our case, we have a website, www.freedom.tm, and here is the hourly graph, and as you can see, it has a very similar point at which traffic starts to pick up. It's around midnight Pacific again, so this just reinforces the notion that that is the best time for us to upload videos to our YouTube channel because our audience is waking up at that time. Are there any other ways that you can tell us to figure out the best time to upload videos, or do you think this is the best way? Tell us in the comments below so we can all help each other grow faster together, because that is the spirit of freedom. We all help each other grow together as a family, and let's see how much the freedom family grew in one day. If you remember a few days ago, I showed you this screen which shows how many subscribers are in the freedom family. Now we're going to hit F5 refresh, and here we are. Today's subscriber count is about 450,000 more than yesterday. Those of you who were guessing before around half a million, you were very close. How much will we grow tomorrow? Let's find out after this number ticks in 24 hours. Who am I? I am George, CEO and founder of, and I have to wake up, get up really carefully because I sprained my ankle. Last night I was walking home, it was dark, and I wasn't careful, and I was walking, walking. You know how it works when you hit an uneven part of the pavement, you didn't expect, and your ankle turns? Well, that's what happened to me. So now I'll be hobbling for a few days, thanks to my clumsiness. Clumsy George. Well done. I am George, and you've been watching, and we will grow together as a family, because this is the freedom family. You are part of it, we are all part of it, and we're all growing together. So grow with us, and partner with freedom. That play now button right there on the video bar is all you need to click to get started.


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Okay, welcome everybody to this week's Charting and Analysis webinar with myself, Jasper Lawler. I've got the risk warning on the screen here. I'm going to cruise through that and then we'll get things underway. As always, if you have any questions, please just send them through the chat window or the Q&A window and I'll do my best to address them. Okay, well, a couple of familiar themes for this week really. We had the Fed turning a little dovish last week, so the Federal Reserve is hurting the dollar somewhat and been a catalyst for a higher close for the US markets last week. But we also got Greece very much in the headlines today. There had been some early hopes of a deal, but as is pretty familiar from most of this year, those early hopes have been dashed by officials from the creditor groups. So still not got a deal for Greece. Today is a bit of a kind of false deadline really. This meeting was created and it was hoped that a deal could be done, but really there has been talk of a sort of assumed default if a deal isn't struck today. But I don't think that's really been acknowledged by the main creditors, namely the IMF and the Euro group finance ministers. It was just something sort of talked about really from within Greece. So I don't think even if a deal is made today that's not the end of the world and that's being reflected in equities at the moment. So even though an early deal was spoken of, really it's been essentially denied, but markets are still quite firmly higher. Just look at their German backs on the screen. It was up over 3%. It's off its highs, but that's fairly typical when you're up 3%. It's only so high you can go within a day. 3% is a fairly strong performing day and so you're going to get some profit taking. Up the upper end of that. As mentioned, last week on Wednesday we had the Fed meeting. There was a lot of people in the early part of this year calling for a rate hike at that meeting. Obviously didn't see it. So there are still plenty of people calling for a rate hike at the next meeting in which there is an accompanying press conference, which is September. But if you look at federal funds futures, which are really kind of direct bets on what the interest rate will be, then they're suggesting more in line with December. And so one of the big takeaways from that Fed meeting was that some of the growth projections have been paired back and the dot plots that suggest what interest rates will be at certain periods of time means that a few people have shifted from expectations of two hikes this year to just one. So still an assumption of one to two hikes this year, but the general trend is towards less hikes this year. And so that slightly undoes the strong dollar theme and improves relative outlook of things like the euro. Now, as mentioned, really just euro group in Greece is a bit the big one today. We've got some U.S. housing data later, but that's going to push prices around a little bit, but not too massively significantly, I would say. But if we do have a look at the U.S. 30 here, then we can see things are fairly range bound.  If you are a range trader, at least that's part of your sort of repertoire where you're able to recognize that prices are going pretty sideways and just kind of acknowledge the upper and lower bounds, then actually this is a pretty great trading conditions because fairly consistently prices are bouncing off the support resistance levels. Nothing works perfectly, obviously, but as long as you have sensible stop buses, you could say we had that blow marked in from April 17th. That's broadly been the support in one, two, three, four opportunities since. And profit-taking not far off the high that was put in just before that was just about there, there it was, got a little more here, didn't quite get there this time we did. So as long as you recognize the trading environment, there are plenty of opportunities still. For me particularly in this chart, I use the RSI because I think it provides a bit more information, just a sort of overbought, oversold information that some of these indicators do. So you can see here that we did cross below what had been support in 40 years. You often see RSI oscillate between 40 and as much as the overbought levels in a sort of bull market, uptrend, it's going to say bull market, but really just uptrend and then you'll see the market capped by 60 and it's down as low as an oversold mark down around 20 or so. In a sort of downtrend. So this 40 level has been supporting the uptrend. Got a little break below there, corresponded with this drop, but we didn't really break the lows and hence we've had a push higher since. And a couple of failed attempts at again breaking this level was first put in here and we've managed to have a bounce and I think quite critically on Thursday, so the day after the Fed, we had quite a strong rally in US equities, put us right up back above 18,000 again. And so that was critical because 50 failed once, but the next time we broke through 50 we sort of held above 50. So to me, the next level if you're following RSI is 60. If 60 rolls over, that's still a chance that this could actually start. That's the first sign of weakness, perhaps a failure at 60 could be the first sign of things actually rolling over properly. But so far it's encouraging. That's the general assumption is that probably 60 is going to get broken and we'll move up towards the kind of upper end of this bound again. And the worry is that the Fed is about to hike rates and makes cash a bit more appealing than stock markets and perhaps raises the cost for businesses in terms of interest rates. It's still going to be very slow raising rates, but obviously markets are looking ahead to the future when rates would be a significant amount higher. So that's US markets. I mean they generally set the trend and so if we look across to UK markets, better performance post general election, but we did have this rising wedge pattern which I'll get back to this weekly chart in a second, but you can see the wedge pattern which I've mentioned in several webinars, easy to spot here, has broken. And the wedge pattern actually memory serves would possibly suggest a slightly larger correction, but you've got to be aware of these projections based on the height of the pattern. I think there is the highest part of the pattern, more conservatively here, just the largest distance between the two trend lines projected from the breakout area. But you've got to bear in mind strong support levels which is six, 700 is. And so it's not too much of a surprise to see that here it's a bit messy looking. This is the daily chart, but if we do switch back to that weekly chart you can see kind of more clearly what's happening. As we had this, the low pitch in here failed to drop through it here, massive spike higher there, and then we failed to close below it last week. So that to me suggests that failed to close below, bears have failed to close and push prices lower. So even though we're in a bit of a sort of weak looking environment, within that weak environment there's a chance of pushing back up towards that old high just to see, test the convictions of bulls in the markets if we can break above and actually turn around this break lower and push into more of a short-term uptrend. What could be the catalyst for that this week? Not so much in the way of UK data really. Probably going to be more external influences. Perhaps the Chinese PMIs, that's going to affect, that's tomorrow sort of early hours, tomorrow that's going to affect the commodity sector, the resource sector within the FTSE 100. And you know that could be a catalyst just alongside any possible resolution in Greece or lack thereof. And just the best barometer of sort of European markets in my opinion is our Germany 30 here. So we've broken this rising trend line, found resistance a couple of times, now I say a couple approaching the third time really, of this 55-day moving average, seemingly pushing a bit through it but finding some resistance at this old high, the resistance and a sort of familiar idea of how we're looking at the markets is just we're in a sort of downtrending mode, we're looking for a close below the previous low and we didn't get it. We had a bullish pattern, bullish hammer off the low there, pushed down for another attempt, big engulfing day, two bullish patterns, prompted a strong move up here right up towards the highs. Now we're in a downtrend so you would expect, a downtrend in the short term, you'd expect some resistance here, but if we do push above, there's a bit of a confluence going on here of this declining channel, if it persists, plus the 55-day moving average could provide a bit of extra resistance maybe in and around that round, number 11600. German data specifically, obviously very grease-orientated again, but on Wednesday we have the German iPhone data and so that will also be interesting in terms of sentiment within Germany. Actually, there's a lot more data than I'm suggesting but I'm talking about the major market sentiment changing type data. I did have a note from one attendee that not hearing the sound. Has that changed? I'm not getting any comments from anyone else and I've been talking for a few minutes here so I would imagine someone else would say it. Okay, get some confirmation elsewhere, maybe, I don't know, basic technical stuff here to turn the sound on, turn the speakers on, give the old computer a reset if that fails. Hopefully that will work. So from here, let's just switch over because we were talking about the Fed and so currency is a natural way to play economic data but when we're talking about the dollar, oftentimes the opposite to the movement in the dollar is found in gold and gold is proving to be fairly flat-trading except going into, then you see a pickup in volatility going in towards and following Fed announcements and non-farm payrolls data and so in line with that, we had the Fed meeting last week and we actually saw a bit of a strong rebounding gold. Again, you can see here this is quite a consistent trading setup if you like where this is the trading range so this is what kind of points out the main level that we're dealing with here. In the last chart of the Germany 30, we're in a downtrend, we're looking at an expectation of breaking the low to continue the downtrend. Here it's just a sideways market. That was the main low that we needed to break out of the sideways market. A few people would have had stock orders below there hoping that was the breakout and it did push quite far but in this sort of vicinity where we had this strong breakout here, that in the end caused a bit of support and again weren't really able to close beyond that level and have since been a rebound. As you can see the logic here, it's obviously a benefit of hindsight stuff here but you can see what's going on, a false break of the level and then pushed up fountain resistance initially from that high but then have since found resistance at this high here and coming off. Now the 200 day moving average is proving a bit of a headwind to gold of late. We did get a false break there but still the general tendency I would say for gold at the moment is to the downside but if the Fed are starting to get a bit more dovish, it's not even that the Fed are getting more dovish but it's just the data is still consistently quite weak. Now someone else is saying something about the sound but I think that's just got to be a couple of different people with sound issues. I don't think that's for everyone but I was just saying the Fed are not necessarily getting more dovish but it's just that the data is remaining weak and they've just said that their data is dependent for a long period of time and for my opinion the Fed aren't going to start raising interest rates and possibly risk this bull market in stocks and change the scenario for the dollar and for gold just because rates have been low for a long time. Three years in rates were low for a long time four years in rates were low for a long time it's not that time period that's going to dictate when they change it's going to be when inflation starts getting caught towards their target and last week we saw consumer price inflation at 0%. So that's not typically an environment in which a central bank raises rates at least significantly. So even though we've had a bit of a kind of pickup in gold still overall it doesn't bade well. Now if we switch over to all markets here now this trend line here is something to be aware of. Now if it's not perfect and you have to pit your spot in terms of which lows you're going through I would say it's near enough to kind of miss that one but if you use that low around that low we saw a very indecisive candlestick here and then a close below on Friday these peaks here along with this sort of Fibonacci level I think I've got there sort of holding it up but potentially that's the first thing to give is this rising trend line and then we've got this kind of range that's formed with these two lows here and the two highs here so we're in a sort of 60, 61 to 66 type trading range so I'd say the default assumption would be to maybe assume that 61 gets some kind of rebound and that 66 gets some kind of drop off in accordance with that trading range but just to be aware that this long-term rising trend line is broken and perhaps this correction could be starting to get a bit deeper. I think this is a fairly obvious trend line and you're going to get some sort of false breaks during the day so the biggest confirmation will be from a weekly close. If it's a strong move down below the trend line you're going to miss some of the initial move but then you can feel a bit more confident the prices are breaking down if we did get a move below that trend line and arguably back through this 21 week moving average then you could look for all more sort of short-term bounces to play that trend line break but looking a little bit dubious at the moment for me I mean still you could say that this correction is perhaps running its course because that was a lower low than a fail to make a new low. Now it's arguably making a reasonable bounce off here then we're arguably making a higher low so showing some support for that trend line to me is kind of what's supporting this uptrend and the break of that particularly for the week would be suggesting that we could be in for a move back down to perhaps as low as sort of 54 this low back here perhaps even 52. Well since we're talking about commodities here and then we just had a request I guess we've got a bit of a different quest here and it's not something I update as often for analysis of the Aussie index typically Aussie analysts are the best guys for that and you know they have their own blog which you can check out for maybe more in-depth analysis of the Aussie market but let me just bring that up here what we're looking at at the moment is still we're looking at this weekly trend we're still within what I would call an uptrend on this kind of longer term basis but we're into a sort of deeper then perhaps initially expected correction and so at the moment we're basically this to me was a big kind of breakout area sort of this and this so when you make a strong breakout like that and then you know you obviously you're kind of bouncing expecting a higher high doesn't happen form a bit of a double top here and then break down that's initially where you expect to find support is this previous peak we did just before it but it failed going into the lows of the base of the pattern essentially rolled over and then this next peak has found a bit of interest and then also just the kind of breakout area that initially kind of got this rally started so this is a fairly indecisive candle to me because yes it's a long wick of this area but we still made a bit of a new low not a closing low but we came off the highs as well so a good follow through the next week so to me I don't even know if we'd get back up to the neckline of that pattern again we can look at the number of closes in around there that could be a level to pay attention to we've made some progress if you see on the daily chart here we tried to knock back lower off of that sort of daily support you can see we kind of tried to sell off there didn't try it again got a good bid off of 500 so we're pushing back up I suspect between there is this breakout zone on the daily chart which we could maybe define as sort of there where this big strong candle breaks through their support maybe this sort of a tendency and we're still below the moving average could be an area we start seeing some selling again hope that's helpful and we're moving on to currencies now so yes I will try to cover EuroCAD as well if we just get into EuroDollar and then maybe follow that up with EuroCAD so this is a zone that I drew in a good while back it's basically based on the where we sold off from here we've got a big weekly high and then the area that we sold off from and it's that kind of supply zone if you like it's been capping trading and you've got a kind of resistance from that high here is where we again fell down and where we've faulted last week so obviously we're getting some higher high lows keep things simple here I mean how are you judging which side of the trend you want to be on you've basically got some higher lows it's not quite a I was going to draw a trend line it doesn't quite work but up through those lows it's higher lows but we need here we have the higher high higher than I would say this sort of this area but we need this to break through to make our high high and of course we're below the 200-day moving average which is generally not generally but it's an area that a lot of people will kind of say that while prices are below the 200-day moving average they're looking for opportunities to sell while it's above they're looking for opportunities to buy so if you're someone buying beneath the 200-day average you're either ahead of the crowd or just going against it and trading counter-trend we're above these two short-term moving averages but again it's this level really the 1450 that we need to break through there's no real I mean it's one of these kind of tricky areas where the longer-term trend has been down for a while and now we've seen a correction and people are trying to call the end of the correction but then people are also trading in the direction of the short-term trend which is higher so things are not quite as aligned as they were so beautifully here where all the long-term and short-term trends you kind of know where you are here it's just a larger correction which you would imagine has to end and see a bigger move lower at some point but we haven't quite seen it yet to me the fact that we bounced off the equivalent demand area on the weekly chart after selling off from here means the next time we're probably going to break it doesn't mean it has to be tomorrow but I would think that we're probably going to move through this demand area and the logic there is that we could move up to the next demand area which is actually pretty significantly higher up above 120 so similar picture in terms of the Canadian dollar where it's not quite such a simple bounce at this point where here it's more of a sort of sell the bounce here we get the bounce sell here we've had the bounce up to the old high but then we've moved higher it's not a straightforward sell the lower high within the downtrend we've failed to make a lower low and now we've pushed up to a high so it's a kind of deeper correction of this downtrend but that was quite a large sell-off and so this is arguably an inverse head and shoulders so we're back around the neckline that's quite a solid looking inverse head and shoulders on the EuroCAD but the price action since has been fairly weak and that's not really the kind of follow-through that you want to see you don't always get initially the kind of price action you want but to me with those kind of candlesticks with back below the neckline then probably that trades off and one of the better performing currencies last week was the British Pound now we've here it's always good to look compare and contrast the Euro with the British Pound and say this is the equivalent supply area on the Pound that we were talking about just now in the EuroDollar and the Pound broke through it last week so that's strong for the Pound we've had a short-term period of big strength so you'd expect probably a sell-off maybe down to the bottom of the supply area before we push higher again but the fact we've closed above there not only for the day but for the week to me is a good sign for the Pound certainly a confluence of resistance in this area but I think the bigger one that you have to pay attention to is just the fact that it's made a higher high we'll come into the end of the webinar here so I'm going to round things off there may be a call of extra currency pairs or a request, that's something I can cover on the on some additional time I have had a question on wheat to get into that and obviously anyone else throw through some requests so I'm happy to get into those Dolly Yen is obviously a great trade recently but we've seen some pullback there we started running into really with this one you need to look at the monthly chart and it was these levels here which you can see these two spikes here have caused the top in the in the daily prices for now still I think the strength of that monthly candlestick of the prior month suggests we've still probably got more upside but not that surprising there's such big resistance would cause a bit of a sell off in the short term especially given the what we've been talking about in terms of the dollar and we did get some comments from Coroda the I believe it was Coroda the President of the BOJ saying something along the lines of he can't see the sort of trade weighted exchange rate for the yen getting much weaker that was him talking down the currency a bit and they obviously want a weaker yen to help exporters within Japan but I think you can reach the stage where it gets into more panic selling than just a sort of orderly lower rate the support of the economy it can be something that starts being associated with lower confidence when you have a lower currency size maybe it's crossing that threshold for them in their bank of Japan that being the case I think a lot of central banks do tacitly consider themselves part of their job is to keep currencies within a certain band and if you consider that this is the highest level in over a decade then certainly it's reached the top end of its band so big sell off here finding support of the 38.2% FIB but my default assumption would be that actually we're going to roll over again and see a deeper correction that's countertrend so it's risky but a move through this floor would be the trigger there to support that idea that we're going further down now in these kinds of scenarios obviously selling towards the high is the lower risk if you believe that's going to eventually break but it hasn't actually broken yet so then it's high risk from the perspective of perhaps it's slightly countertrend someone has just mentioned pound yen so I'll have a quick look at that I'm going to end the recording now for the official session so for those who have to hop back within lunch break thank you very much for attending but I'm just going to answer a couple of extra currency pair pound yen and sugar and wheat for those who are interested