Make sure my mic is not on. Okay, let's try this again. Hey, it's Bridget. Welcome to Above Life Channel. The purpose here is to inspire your spirit and to fill you with hope today. We're going to have a conversation with Ms. and Marilyn Monroe in the afterlife. I love Marilyn and I haven't spoken to her for a while, so I thought it'd be a good idea. Great opportunity to do that. Hello, can you come on in dear. I'd love to chat with you tonight. We're recording this particular audio on December 4, 2021. She's saying the fifth is significant is December 5 significant from Marilyn Monroe, December 5 she's making a comment about that I'm not sure what that is. Oh, she just told me she likes my jacket. Oh, thank you. The leopard print. Is there something about having shoes like that?  I missed you to shoes on the life side she met yeah I missed you to yeah we really haven't spoken for a while so give us some advice about love let's talk about love can we talk about love and heartache and relationships. I know something more pleasant she says let's talk about love falling into love she says okay alright let's do that go ahead. I think that she asked me why do I ask. I think that the reason in part I bring this topic is because it feels like I've been working on this concept of love just in terms of what does it mean like self love, and a union with self love and knowing that in order to be able to be present in all of our relationships and more fully participate in our lives as a whole, it's important to have that relationship with ourselves and it's hard to create that it, it definitely takes effort, and it has to be conscious and so you can talk to us a little bit about love just in general that'd be good. I know you like to talk about love. I talk about it though but but Bridget she says but Bridget. I talk about it. About other people others. She says, I understand love when it comes to others and she says I understand it in the form of attraction and the savvy that it takes to flirt to attract and to draw in. I'm realizing all of the. She's saying feminine. It's like feminine energy she's making me feel very sensual around the collarbone and the throat. Very she's like this. Very feminine. She says, feminine just the simple, simple subtle things that are very attractive, very sexy, very sensual. She says, it's like a perfume. The way she says the energy can be used to attract or entice it's like an invitation, she says. And she says, however, that can be misused and misunderstood very much yes, yes, very much misunderstood very much misused by both sexes both genders. In any kind of relationship she says it can be misused and misunderstood. Okay, talk about that a little bit that's interesting.  It's the unspoken attraction or attractor that draws someone to you and that creates an interest in you something that you have to offer it's that hidden or unseen value sometimes it looks really obvious like someone's body, for example, she says and the body, for example, and she says, I misunderstood the value of my body as my commodity as the one thing that others saw of me and desired from me, however, I used to that. Yes, I did. Yes, I did. It's not to say that you shouldn't use whatever you have that has value to be able to gain whatever it is that you feel purpose on purpose with or a purpose for and she says it's not about judgment. She's not about judging it's not about judgment it's about understanding that if you have something. If you want something, and you have something to trade for that or to that sounds bad to say that in terms of body I don't mean it disrespectfully. You guys I do not mean it that way at all. But she's saying, you have to think about the times that I lived in and how this is true of Hollywood and it's true today she says the body is a commodity it is the body is a commodity and she says I know that's going to upset and very many people. But it is truly what I had, and what I was able to use.  Can you talk about that that's something special. She says, um, yes energy. Yes, yes, it would be energy for it that's accurate that's that's what it would be. That's what that's right that's right that magnetism that law of attraction the magnetism she says I say law of attraction she says yes. And so to what means or what what result were you looking to achieve and she says, I wanted to be in front of all of the people who loved me. I wanted the love. And I wanted to not let anyone down to be there for my fans and to give the people what they want. It was the presentation of me, the performance of the persona of me. And I felt as though I received love a great deal of love from all of the strangers who watched the movies or listened to me sing. They loved me. And I felt that love. And I hope that they felt mine. And it was by other standards maybe something you know one of the feminists, she says the feminist movements would maybe judge me would judge me, maybe might judge me to say that I used my body in ways that weren't a respectable or with dignity, yet I would say that I utilized exactly what I had. And for that I would fault no one. And I can't say that my life was good or bad it just was a life to the best of my ability. And I really did and she says I really did appreciate all of my fans that's the love, that's the love that I had that I got. She says that's the love that I know. So you see I can understand love. And she says in ways that are maybe different than what you might think. But they're not bad. They're just different. And then she says to me oh my gosh I'm having a little bit of a conversation in my head with her and she says to me, you can have more than one love Bridget. So it is possible to love yourself. And, and in reality that would be extremely important yes. I don't know that I achieved that in my lifetime. There's a bit misguided. Yes. But it's possible to love yourself and probably the best way to go about understanding love and knowing love would be to love yourself. And it's very very easy to love yourself through the eyes of others who adore you, who adore you, and appreciate you, and can see what you have to offer and just be so grateful. And I could feel that that was real for me, the audience. That was real. But in romance and romantic love quite different. Very different. I saw the vision for me as family, the dream of the being a mother and having a good dad for my children and having dinner, letting the children play in the backyard and calling them in and I could envision a perfect most ideal echo. I thought that I may have had that was Joe or Arthur but it just was not possible for me to do that. Which was very very painful for me and it did cause a great deal of harm to my, my mental capacity. I didn't look for me. But yet, all of my fans still loved me. I was still able to take care of myself to the best of my ability and to show up to work and to bring to my performance. That which my fans would want. Yes, very much.  He was not a perfect man, but in his way he loved me. And he tried to be with me. And it was so much, it was so much, you know, it just wasn't quite a fit for him. I don't fault him for that. He was someone I could always rely upon if I needed help to come to my side to rescue me. It's so romantic. It's too bad we just couldn't live together that things didn't work out that way. Would you say he was the love of your life. Yes, right away she says yes. Yes. But yet he was kind of abusive and you had so many relationships where people took advantage of you and it was abusive and just abusive power and can you talk about that like how does that even fit with love how can that exist how could someone be so cruel to you. Or abusive to you and there's still love there how's that possible. I don't know. I don't know how to answer that. I only know for me. I didn't know different, I didn't know any different. Bridget, I didn't understand that. I felt as though I caused the anger and the rage she says she shows me rage she shows me rage, but she says anger I caused the anger I, I was a bit much. I'm not blaming yourself, which I really have a hard time with as a woman or like mayor, don't blame yourself. It's, it's, it's what I know. It's what I knew it's how I understood relationship don't you see it's all the perspective of the person and know different and so she says, but then so I can only say that I was so much. Too much. That hits home you guys for me a little bit. I'm like, Oh, love thing and the relationships and self love. So Marilyn you didn't love yourself did you love yourself. I tried. I tried. It was so different then it's not like it is now it's not it's not it's so contemporary. So contemporary this concept of self love. It's contemporary it's so modern. But you were strong independent woman. Yes, she says yes, thank you. I suppose at my time I was. I just simply wanted to be treated fairly. That's it. That's it. Oh, chills you guys. That's the evening right now so I'm a little I am a little tired but it's exhausting being Marilyn Monroe, she says it's exhausting. But today it would be nice just to be a Mrs. Mrs. a simpler life, perhaps, maybe next time. She says, our energy is really easy to personify. I can really grab it and take it in. Wow okay this was all over I hope this is helpful for you guys talking about love and relationships a bit self love a little bit. It's something I'm personally working on relationship with myself and so in deepening that and embodying that love more, more broadly and more fully. And so I appreciate the conversation. It does trigger me some of the concepts about being in relationship as a woman and relationship and a balance of power stuff old Hollywood vibes and the kind of masculine dominant energy that's hard a little bit for me personally to just appreciate that but we all know that things are different for different people and everyone has different experiences I hope this isn't triggering for you as you're watching it but we appreciate you sharing your authentic self Marilyn with us and your reflections and perspectives about love and what that is from your lens. So thank you for that dear. Appreciate it. Lovely light pink rose energetically which is compassion. That's a compassion, and also the color of self love or self care actually so. Thank you for that my friend. So this is Bridget you've been watching me on above live show as I've been channeling Miss Marilyn Monroe from the afterlife. I've inspired your spirit today and giving you some hope with this conversation with Marilyn from the afterlife and and encourage you to live your life. This is your life after all, and you get to live it. Just live it. Thanks for watching.


land. I would also like to say that we have masks. If there's anyone here who would like a mask, who does not have one, please step up and Therese will give you a mask and please stand where you feel comfortable. If you want to keep distance, then keep distance and if you feel comfortable and if you're fully vaccinated, we'd love, especially when we get to our circle, up at the high school to have a sense of cohesiveness. This day is in memory of a day 76 years ago when our country dropped the first atomic bomb on a city killing a hundred and forty thousand people at one instant. There were some survivors. There was a young girl who was two years old when the bomb was dropped, Sadako Sasaki and she seemed to be growing up to be a healthy young woman. She was a good runner and she was looking forward to becoming a phys ed teacher. But when she was 12 years old, she got a cold. Her skin started breaking out with lesions and she came down with what was known as the atomic bomb disease, leukemia. She was finally hospitalized and while she was in the hospital, she was told the the myth, the story of the thousand cranes. I can't talk any louder. I'm sorry. Come up closer. The legend was if you fold a thousand paper cranes that you will get your wish. And some versions say she did fold a thousand and other versions say she didn't quite get there. But in any event, children ever since have been folding paper cranes and leaving them at the Children's Memorial in Hiroshima. We have some very special paper cranes here tonight that were made for us for this peace walk from a friend I have to say a friend in Hiroshima and to reach and tell you the story of our paper cranes. I invite all of you to come up and take an origami peace screen from this basket to carry with you on this walk. Peter, you can start just to demonstrate. These cranes were made by Takako Shimizu, a resident of Hiroshima who was born four days after the bombing. My husband Peter and I met Taka in March of 2019 when we visited Hiroshima and Taka served as our guide. Taka's family, especially her husband Ken's family, was greatly affected by the bombing with death, illness, miscarriages, and in some case lifelong suffering. Every day of Taka's life is a day for her to work for world peace so that what happened to her city and her people will never happen to anyone else ever again.  She explained, Peter, can you hold that up for a second? She explained that these are double cranes joined together. Can you pull it out? Thank you. Joined together at the center wing.  Taka would like each participant to take a crane home with them today as a way for her to join hands with each one of us in friendship and in our work for peace. I will be carrying her string of 1000 cranes, which actually didn't she didn't quite get to 1000 because she wanted to get it in the mail. But she wanted it to get to me so that we could make it for this evening, for this evening's walk. And Taka says to us, it is a great pleasure and honor for me to join you, join your respectful and meaningful peace event in the form of these origami cranes. Welcome to our commemoration. It's really very heartwarming to see so many people that have come out for our walk. I too, as Glenda spoke of earlier, I'm humbled to be walking on the land of our land ancestors, the Abenaki people. This is a silent walk, except for a ballot the front and a ballot the rear. Neville and Glenda will sound their bells in kind of a call and response fashion. Also at 715 at the exact hour that the bomb was dropped, adjusted to Eastern standard time. The bells at Christ Church will toll 76 times. And at that time, unless we're in the middle of an intersection, we will stop and offer a prayer for peace. Or if we're meditators, we may come back to our breath. We will follow the route from main to State Street, walking down State Street crossing. It can be a busy intersection at Bailey Ave with this number of people will likely will cross in several groups, but obviously feel free to pick your pace up in the middle of the intersection. Walking meditation outdoors is slow. But for safety purposes, adjust your pace and then we'll proceed to the playing fields by Montpelier High School, where right where we'll form another circle to share reflections and song, poetry, music. Mariko and I will lead the walk. And I would ask that you begin by becoming aware of your body in the standing position, particularly your feet as they contact the earth. You might feel the universal pull of gravity drawing us down into the womb of the earth. You may also feel the stability and the solidity from the earth and allow it to permeate every cell of your body. The earth will give us a lot of energy when we walk in a way of awareness. We're not walking to chase after anything. We have no deadlines to meet. There's no rush. We're not encumbered in any way. We're walking just to walk. If it gets a little boring and your attention wanders very gently, take your attention back to your steps and walking in this way as a free person, we regain sovereignty in our lives. We're walking in freedom. We're not chasing after anything. This is meditation in motion. So I like to think that peace is possible. And I think as individuals, it is incumbent upon us to bring peace into our bodies, peace into our minds. And in that way, we can offer peace to the collective. We are not in peace with ourselves. We have nothing to offer the world. I think we all desperately want peace in the world. In our nation, in our communities, in our homes. And this is how we start. We come back to ourselves, our bodies and our minds. So I hope very, very much that you enjoy the walk. And there is, I think it was AJ musty, who said there is no way to peace. Peace is the way. And this is clearly the practice of peace. It's not something to talk about. It's something to bring into our life. So with that said, I hope very much that you enjoy the walk. This is a statement from Taka that she sent to be shared at this event. We have realized the importance of understanding history and not to make the same mistakes. We have made a lot of mistakes, which have led to many wars. War is an absolute evil. As your slogan says, peace is the answer. War is not the answer. We are all responsible for future generations. It was nice to see dogs walking for peace.  He had a dog, a little terrier named Fala. And before we entered World War Two, he made a speech, including saying, I hate war. Eleanor, his wife, Eleanor hates war.  And yet, we go to war again, and again, and again. But nobody wants to go to war. You know, you would go on the street and ask anybody, do you want to go to war? No, ask any child. Do you want to go to war? So we are here to think about peace and to share our thoughts and to rededicate ourselves to promoting peace and to being peace. So the floor is open to anyone who wants to share thoughts. And after we shared our thoughts, our wonderful musician Rick Paleri, who played the Native American flute as we were gathering, will lead us in a few peace songs. And he will also lead us with his flute down to the river to send off flowers with our intentions for peace. I stood that perhaps we sent if we if we wish to send a message to Taka and to Ken, who will see a video of this event, Ken is her husband, and shares our thoughts for peace with them. And I just wanted to say to Taka the incredible gratitude I feel to her and to Ken and to their families for keeping love in their hearts and not anger and not bitterness, which would have been very understandable. But they have lived their lives for love and for peace. And I feel great gratitude. Peacemakers are very sincere, the task ahead of us. And this this is definitely a part it's endemic in Buddhist practice, but on the one hand, it is our responsibility to commemorate in this case, the horrors of nuclear war on a civilian population on a massive scale of loss of life, many cancers. Today, we live with so much racialized violence and inequity, our country is a lot of strife, just the violence that seems everywhere. But on the other hand, it's not enough to remember the horrors born to peacemakers in a very genuine sense. We have to appreciate and wake up to the beauty in life, the fragility, the impermanence, life, human life is very, very short. We're long overdue as a people and as individuals to wake up.  Just I really I feel so much gratitude for this life. So I think we have to hold both of these dualities, these incongruent aspects of life desperately needs our peacemaking. I thank you for this guy at about 715 of a jet going overhead. In the stories I read as a small child, after the fact, because I'm not that old. I missed all the World War Two. I missed Vietnam. But there were people in Hiroshima who looked up at the B 29 is going overhead and say, isn't that beautiful? Because it's this white thing in the sky. And they just brought it. They made it more real. I'd read the books. I'd seen the film. But that was like, Oh, that's what it was like 76 years ago. In Hiroshima, a single B 29 flying over. It's made me want peace more. I want to try and meet people who don't think like I do and talk to them. There's something going on the radio now about meeting up with someone who has different views than you for the recorded voice. Very scared. But I'm going to try to do that. And hopefully that can start to change the momentum of the world. One voice at a time. Thank you. In the still center of my being in the silence of the road spirit called me to say that I'm feeling a little shaky about it. Because it's so important to us as we try to imagine a world where the languages and the ways of other people that are cultures are nearly as extinct as the animals and insects that were worried about losing during the planet's death that's going on. We need to have our people learn even in elementary school, the cultures, religions, languages that are being lost among the people that are being genocidally or displaced from those cultures. And only when we can affirm every of the lost languages, the lost tribes, the lost ways, the lost religions and have that be what we're most interested so that they either fear us or we hope respect us. My father is a US military serviceman. My mother's Okinawan Japanese. It hasn't been until I want to say the last few years that I've truly felt in my body, the conflict that is the history of both of my parents ancestry. And it's groups like this that are coming together in community to make change to talk about it, to to bring it forward so that the legacy and the history isn't lost. And I look around the circle and I wonder where our children are because these are really important things that have happened. And in order to not repeat the things that have happened, like the atrocities, just the sheer horror of what has happened, we need to make sure that these things get passed. So thank you all for being here. Thank you for inviting me to be here. This is so tremendously meaningful, healing for all like all the generations back and for me too. So thank you for being here. And gratitude. Say it isn't true. Everything of our children say it is true. The streets and the buildings, the people and their lives, the jobs they do for a living. Say it isn't true. And when you think all the people in the cities of the world, you could vanish. Say it isn't true. Say it isn't true that there always has been and always will be more. Say it isn't true that there always has been and always will be more. Say it isn't true. I'm alive in a city, a country of the world. And I want to go on living. I want to see my life unfold. You know, it's hard to go on looking at the stories of our day and the dangers we're all facing, going worse in every way. And you would think with all of the genius and the brilliance of these times, we might find a higher purpose and a better use of mind. Say it isn't true. It has been all the fine things so it isn't true. I did up a story that my friend, Joseph Gerson told me last week when we were talking. Joseph is the author of a book called with Hiroshima eyes and he has spent many, many years working for the abolition of nuclear weapons.  One of the very few scientists who walked away from the Manhattan Project when he realized what the intentions for the use of the bomb were going to be. In 1955, Rothblatt, who spent the rest of his life working against nuclear weapons, pulled together scientists, philosophers, educators from around the world, where they all signed a statement to the governments of the world calling on them to abolish nuclear weapons, to ban the bomb as it is called in the 50s. Albert Einstein was one of the signers of that document. It was the last document he signed before he died that year. And Joseph said that the document was long and it called on the nations of the world to abolish nuclear weapons. But the message was very simple. In fact, it was the same message that the Hibakusha, the survivors of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific, the Hibakusha, the same message that the Hibakusha had. It's a very simple message summed up very easily. Remember your humanity, forget the rest. I know, can everybody hear from way over there? We'll get the lyrics. Well, it's really an honor to be here with everyone today. And a special honor indeed. Because my wife, Mariana, came along. Her mother, Crystal Holzer, spent most of her life working for peace. And she would have been here. And she not passed away 13 years ago. I'm just very excited. And so I thought that we can see what the lyrics that they have are. Last night, I had a strange dream. I never dream or pray. And the bees below were dancing round and round. And guards and guards and uniform were sad. Last night, I had the strangest dream. This is a song that you all know. Now, I learned a lot of the music that I play from working with folk singer Pete Seeger for many, many years. And it was this was one of the first songs that I played with Pete. And I want you to sing it out loud. Okay, so that I can hear you from the other side. Okay, I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield that Prince. This little holzer asked me to write for peace rally. She said, she goes, Rick, I want you to write this song. And I don't need no Nambi Pambi song. I want one that's gonna get everybody singing. If you met Crystal, you know what I'm talking about. And so I, you know, when I wrote this song, I had some I had a lot to learn. Because this this song has changed a bit in in the in the year since I wrote it because it needed to be updated. Because things changed a lot. And so I'm going to go like this. It's up to you to carry on lift your voice and sing along. One day Lord will all be gone. It's up to you to carry on. But you know, I said, it's not up to you. It's up to us. So I thought that was the first major change. And then there's other changes I made. But let's try that. It's up to us to carry on lift your voice. Don't hesitate. If you're old, it's not too late to us to carry on.


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There was fury among Sudanese youth as they gathered Tuesday evening outside the Army headquarters in Khatom. They were demanding justice for the protesters who were killed during anti-government demonstrations in 2019. The protesters held banners and photos of the victims as they cried out for justice. Mother of Mohammed Hashim Mata, a protestor killed in 2019, accused the regime of being behind the killings. And don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


So endings we all we all know about them and a lot of people like to complain about them especially when it comes to TV shows for some reason like Rarely will a TV show end in a way where people don't whine about it I I don't know why that is but you know endings are kind of hard to get right I'll admit that whether we're talking books movies anything else and even when it's bad Usually that doesn't bother me Because usually even when it's bad It doesn't really affect the journey that we took to get there You know I enjoyed everything that I read up until that point and then it's like oh the finish line They kind of stumbled but eh whatever that doesn't change it too much, but that's not always the case sometimes Sometimes the ending of something is so bad that it actually does negatively affect everything that came before it Sometimes it's so bad that it actually is really annoying. You know, it's not just the bad guys lose and the good guys win it's something really Stupid or something that contradicts things that came earlier or just a million little things that could go wrong and So today I'm here to talk about the ten worst endings to books. I have ever come across in my life now quick Quick explanation these are endings to series or endings to standalone books Like so I'm not gonna be talking about how oh the ending of order of the Phoenix was really bad Like that's not gonna be on this list because the ending of order of the Phoenix is not the end of the Harry Potter saga You know it like there's still more after that so it's not really the ending Anyways, I think you get the point of these top ten lists by now. Let's let's get going. This is the introduction song It's not very good, but it's not too long starting off at number ten. We have fallen so I Already did a whole long long review of this book series and if you've seen that You should probably remember why the ending was bad so the basic concept is that we have this main girl Lucinda who Is cursed with reincarnation and she's in love with an angel. So basically once every 17 years she will be born grow up meet Daniel the angel's name and then she'll die horribly and They can never be together and the cycle starts over again. You know, that's that's their curse They were cursed by God himself to be in the situation and in the final book you learn that it was because During the conflict between God and Lucifer they Refused to take sides, you know, they said, you know, we love each other.    I'm glad they finally got to do this and The thing is I think the epilogue is cute I think at least the idea of them losing immortality but getting to Finally reincarnate and be together because that's all they've ever wanted. I think that's a cute idea In fact, I would say this Would would be a cute ending if they had to work for it in any way and that's the thing that it really comes to they didn't have to work for this and so It feels unsatisfying when they find they get it and the thing is there is a spin-off book Which actually takes place after the final fallen book or final fallen book and it's about a different character And I'm not gonna get into the whole plot of that one But it ends with a whole bunch of demons deciding hey, we're gonna overthrow Lucifer now Let's go do that and he's like, okay. Sure.  He tried to kill me and my girlfriend Let's let's go do that and just that that's the end It doesn't end with them overthrowing him and saying yeah, the day is saved now No, it says let's go overthrow him and that's the end which is just a giant middle finger to anyone who cared All right, I'm cheating a little bit with number nine, but I gotta say it it is a song of ice and fire and Okay, the thing is I'm not talking about the ending of the show here Whatever your thoughts on that it is It's the show. It's different from the books because The final two books have not been written yet We're never going to get an ending like if you it's been ten years if you think that the winds of winter is ever going to come out at this point then I Wish I had the same kind of hope and belief that that you do but it's just not going to happen And even if it somehow does We aren't going to have another 15 or 16 years for George double R Martin to write a dream of spring Like it's it's just not ever going to happen. We're never going to find out exactly how things were going to wrap up and Granted the show ended at least in broad strokes the same way that the books were planned on ending You know, I'm sure that in the books ending if it ever came we would still get Daenerys finally succumbing to her tyrannical tendencies and killing a bunch of innocent people and then someone would have to kill her to save the day and I'm sure we would most likely still end with Bran as king of Westeros, maybe not necessarily Bran, but you know someone who was you know Elected as it were and they would probably still set up a system where they aside. Okay, you know what? We're not gonna have a hereditary monarchy anymore. We're gonna have an elected one, which is an improvement on things but We'll never know for certain, you know, like the fine details will we'll never get to see those You know, we'll never find out if John actually survives the assassination attempt at the wall Or if he's brought back the way he was in the show. We'll never we'll never find that out We'll never see Ramsey Bolton get his comeuppance. We will never Find out what's going on with Lady Stoneheart, which I'm actually okay with because I think that's a dumb Plot point it people complained about her not being in the show But I'm just like, well, what was the point of her being in the books? You know it if anything it detracts from the red wedding, but you know, that's that's not the point Basically, we're never gonna learn about any of these hanging plot threads we're never gonna find out what happens to the characters we like or what happens in this world that we're into and That just kind of sucks, you know, so this one's cheating a bit But yeah, the fact that we're never gonna get an ending to this makes it a bad ending Number eight is one that I've talked about in the past. It is Island in the Sea of Time now this one the plot to this one is At the time I read it. It was unique to me. I didn't realize that there were actually a Lot that have a similar idea, but it's basically The island of Nantucket in Massachusetts undergoes some sort of weird mass time travel events So the whole island and its population gets sent back in time to 1250 BCE Which is right in the middle of the Bronze Age and then with all their new technology and everything They have to just stop and say okay, let's survive now but The big thing is that one of their own Goes off on his own and decides he wants to conquer stuff. He wants to be a ruler. So he forms his own empire in Greek it's centered in Greece, but it does expand out into other places and One day those two things are gonna have to fight each other And that's mostly what the second and third books in the series are about and the war up until near the end Is pretty satisfying, but then at the end The bad guy just gets poisoned by some of his underlings You know him and most of his lieutenants all get poisoned so his empire falls apart and the good guys win the war and That that's kind of it. So It's just a really quick Unsatisfying ending where we don't get much of a climax You know, we don't have any sort of climactic battle or climactic Political maneuver which forces him into a corner and he can no longer fight. He has to surrender It doesn't force him out of power or anything like that. It's just Hey, suddenly these people who were barely mentioned earlier are gonna be on the good guy's side And then they bam they killed a bad guy for you. Everything's good now.   I suppose but they don't really focus on that storyline I think he gets literally one chapter where we see him going around building stuff And then he's barely even mentioned after that which is Unsatisfying and there's two or three more just like that. It's like all these little Ideas which like could have been good for sequels, but we're never exploring them And so this this book just couldn't commit it couldn't decide if it even wanted to be an ending or not And so for that reason it's one of the worst I've ever come across number seven. This is why I hate you by Onision, so If you're familiar with Onision's books, this shouldn't surprise you like the first one stones to Abigail Is the best one?  It's it's not good Okay, by any means it's it's not a good book. It's Terrible, but then we run into this is why I hate you which is just about I Don't know it's a violent teenager with daddy issues who joins the Air Force and then there's even less of a plot in this one like he He gets two girlfriends and they enter into a polyamorous Relationship and then he is also going around being super violent Walling the Air Force and still avoiding getting in trouble for it Like he's gouging out people's eyes and breaking ankles for really no reason dudes a crazy psycho absolute psycho And so when we get to the end, it's not like there's any build-up to our climax or anything but he still tried to Greg still tried to make a climax and it's Okay, so basically he gouges out a guy's eye the guys mad at him So he lures Greg away and then him and some of his friends Break into the apartment where his girlfriends are and then they're about to rape them as revenge for Greg doing stuff and then Greg comes in and he gets angry and he kills them all but at the last second the last one kills him And then the final chapter is one of his girlfriends saying how she finished off his journal Which is not a thing that human beings do Like that's that's just a shitty weird writing trick to begin with I'm not sure why he thought that was a good idea, but okay, and then they also explain how Oh, Greg was just such a good person. He was so Amazing.  I don't want to get into but and it's just using rape and molesting of children as a Plot device and he's not doing it well, which is just I don't know the whole thing leaves a nasty taste in my mouth and As I said, this book doesn't really have anything of a story So this climax to it was immensely unsatisfying And that's uh, that's about it.  It's terrible.  It's it's neat But then it's revealed that oh It was a vision of the future like this is what happened if you will fight us So don't do it. And then the bad guys are just like, okay, and then they leave so that's unsatisfying and I don't like the ending of the movie But I think the ending of the book is worse in a weird way because at least in the movie we got that little Uh bit of something before it got taken away from us in the books. It is The bad guys the volturi want to come in And they're planning on killing Bella and her whole family because they think that they created a vampire child Which is a no-no because vampire children tend to cause a lot of chaos.  It's not actually Here's our evidence. Well, I still think she is well, it's not here's more evidence I still think here's more evidence and it's just this kind of obnoxious back and forth and then It gets to the point where the battle starts in the movie But in the books, it's just like, okay, we'll leave now And the thing is This is like there one chance to defeat the volturi, you know, it's it's hinted at and built up that they are going to Have to deal with them at some point in the earlier books And so I was reading this thinking, okay, this is it. This is it.  It makes them all seem like a bunch of cunts and The thing is twilight is just a story about a girl meeting a vampire falling in love becoming a vampire and then living happily ever after I get that But for a little while this book pretended to be something else, you know It pretended to be something like okay, we're gonna have an actual Battle with some stakes and people will have to make sacrifices and they'll have to work to earn their happy ending But in the end we didn't actually get that so it was pretending to be something It wasn't and then it pulls the rug right out from under us and so For that reason even though I think that like the twilight books, they're they're bad. Don't get me wrong I don't think they're good by most metrics But I also generally think that people who say like they're the worst things ever it destroyed civilization. It melts of my brain That that's kind of stupid because they're not really that bad But when we get to the ending of this like yes, this is one of the worst endings I've ever come across and I will fully agree with you guys that at least this part of the books is mind meltingly awful Number five is one that I have talked about before it is house of night.  They have to fight off all her minions and then they fight nefarate herself And eventually they defeat her and that a couple of them die along the way But you know, they died fighting for a good cause and they really had to work at it. So It it sounds fine. It sounds like a pretty standard good guys win bad guys lose story, but For a couple of reasons It's much worse Then it sounds like for starters the way they defeat nefarate is with A magical circle, which is where you know, they all come together and link their powers and then Using those powers they can do stuff that's That they couldn't do individually And the thing is that almost every book in the series ends with them Using some sort of magic circle to cast some sort of spell to defeat the bad guys It's only temporary in most of them, but in this one, it's just permanent So and keep in mind there are 12 books in this series It's not like they did this two or three times before and now it's just getting a little repetitive No, they've done it like 10 times like 10 of the books and in basically this exact same way up until this point And then So it's just unsatisfying to see the same thing done over and over and over and over And the second big reason is that after Oh, man I'm trying to think of a way to explain this without getting into all of the weird details about the series But basically after they defeat the villain They get rewarded and the reward for the main character zoe is that she gets to be The head of the house of night in tulsa and one of her friends gets to be head of the other house of night Which is in the sewers. I'm not explaining that it would take too long now number one Zoey is really really young so it's kind of stupid that she's in charge here and honestly Zoey is the ultimate Mary sue, you know, like it's been up until this point She's been like touched by the vampire goddess She's gotten to speak personally with the vampire goddess.  I hate seeing Mary sews get everything they want but It also weirdly enough her becoming the head of the house of night feels Like a small reward for everything Like, you know, if they had, you know, saved the whole world And then zoe became vampire queen It would still be really dumb, but at least it would Fit with the tone of the rest of this But instead she's just the head of this one house of night It's like if you saved the world and everyone said congratulations Now you get to be a city council member in diluth minnesota. It's like It feels weird because Yeah, I'll admit in this series the characters did have to, you know, work and struggle and sacrifice to get their happy ending But their happy ending then feels weirdly anti-climactic, I suppose like their reward is just so small.  It's very unsatisfying very anti-climactic.  So yeah, this one Even though it has some aspects which could be worse It deserves to be in the bottom half of this list number four the young world so Okay, I've talked about this one before and the premise sounds fine And I think the first book is actually really good Or not really good, but it's it's enjoyable enough Basically, there was this pandemic outbreak disease whatever you want to call it That went around and it killed all of the adults and it killed all the young children The only people that survived were people that were in puberty. So basically from the ages of like 12 or 13 to around the ages of 18 and The thing is they they still die after they exit puberty. So not long after they turn 18 and their hormones start Decreasing the virus hits them and they die and so it seems like oh the world is going to end We're all fucked But there is this one person in new york who thinks that they know how to get a cure So they decide to go on a journey to see if they can do that and The first book is just about that and it's enjoyable enough.  I suppose But then it turns out that the rebel guys who helped them get into new york and helped them find the cure in the first place Actually released the virus in the rest of the world.   They need our blood and all that Okay, um Here's the thing I found myself rooting for the authoritarian governments that were trying to kill all the kids in north and south america So that they could recolonize without anybody getting infected I I was on their side in this because the thing is it if you release that disease and it Infects a whole bunch of people people are going to die. There's no way you can get the cure to all of them in time Like you can just look at the covid vaccine roll out for proof of that Like there's places that have handled it badly places that have handled it pretty well And but nowhere has done it perfectly. There's nowhere where everybody has gotten vaccinated and so Even if this cure works in 100 of cases It's not going to get to everybody in time.    I I don't know man. It's just It starts off good, you know, it starts off as Aliens come and attack the world vast majority of the human population dies Uh main character girl gets separated from her younger brother. So she decides to set off and go find him That sounds pretty good and it's focused enough that the beginning of this story works well You know, it is actually a pretty solid opener But then once they're reunited, they don't have any grand plans after that. They aren't going. Okay.  I don't know. We never actually get a solid reason for why the aliens are doing what they do Nor do we ever directly interact with the aliens all we interact with are their proxies on earth Okay, and then they go through this whole rigmarole and main character girl accidentally downloads like 10,000 other Mem personalities into her head So she has all these other people would start blending with her and she's like, whoa, this is crazy Okay, I gotta go save the day now because all of a sudden she wants to save the day That that's just what she does and she grabs a bomb goes up to the alien ship and before they get the chance to launch Their load on earth She blows it up and destroys everything there and so the aliens are gone and then the few remaining humans can rebuild uh Okay That just comes completely out of nowhere is the main thing. This was not built up towards You know the main character's girl goal. None of the main character's goal was to save the world they were just trying to survive so Them suddenly deciding that they want to save the world Feels out of place. It feels out of character and I don't know. It's it's just odd and then we get the real main character girl cassie I mentioned in my review of it that I don't think she's a mary sue. She has elements of being a mary sue but she she skirts the line sometimes but she never crosses that line and The fact that she has to nobly sacrifice herself at the end of the story Definitely puts a lot of uh Credence to mary sue idea like I still don't think she is one but Yeah, having your main character die or sacrifice themselves at the end of a story That's a delicate line to walk because if you do it wrong then it just makes it feel like Oh, everyone misses them because they were so good They they gave up everything for the rest of us because they were just such good cool guys It's like it's like the ending of this is why I hate you all over again. You know what I mean? And so it comes out of nowhere Uh, the main characters don't really have to work that hard for it. Um Admittedly they do sacrifice some things like a couple of people die along the way but uh I don't remember any of their names.  And then cassie main character girl also dies, but I mean, I wasn't that attached to her and I kind of went over the whole Uh, mary su thing. I don't I don't know. I could probably sit here and talk about that a lot longer But I just I don't want to man. This this was a terrible ending for a couple of reasons and It just felt really unsatisfying Because looking back at it, I can see places where the series could have uh Made a different turn or did something slightly differently and it would have been better It wouldn't have been great necessarily I don't think but it would have been better and it could have led to A better ending or even an ending that's very similar to this one and it would have just felt more satisfying But it didn't it was very unsatisfying and I'm honestly kind of surprised.  So that's what we're gonna do we're gonna build up an alliance of gods and others and just bring everyone together and hopefully we can Defeat this great evil and by this point they accept that like yeah, they're never going home and So the last book is mostly about them trying to rescue thor and boulder who are imprisoned in the underworld And then they go down there and as i'm reading this i was thinking wow, they're gonna wrap all this up in 50 pages That's crazy. They're gonna wrap all this up in 20 pages. That's crazy And then it ends with them rescuing thor and balder and they're like okay We're gonna build our alliance now and then that's it. That's the end We never find out what happens next and Man I do i even need to go into much more detail about that. It's like it's no ending You know like if we had just one more book after this or maybe two because they're not that long We could have had you know a final conflict and An actual ending a satisfying conclusion But we don't have that. It's just like yep use your imagination.  It has The it'll oh man. How do I even go into this the book will in little chunks have separate stories I suppose or mostly separate stories that all follow this one same guy like it'll have Oh, okay.  We never find out how he does this He just kind of does and then he basically just snaps his fingers other guys dead And a god is also kind of his father. I I think it's not explained well And then he eventually tracks it down to this god of gods named call who He did bad things because he wanted his daughter back because his daughter was a god But she's dead now and it's impossible to bring a dead god back to life And then dan Daniel slash greg the character's name in the book is daniel But it's clearly just a self-insert for greg and they actually refer to him as greg several times in the book. It's It's horrible. Uh, but then yeah, greg just sort of snaps his fingers and cool The other god is back and the other god is also his mom somehow And she never gets a name Which is dumb now in addition to this just being the easiest most Unsatisfying conclusion of all time like somehow worse than fallen It uh, it gets kind of worse because Greg and his mother like remake the world in their image and it's their idea of like a utopia But they just straight up destroy all cultures and artworks and everything that they find pointless or that they think are bad So they're kind of ruling over the earth with an iron fist. It's a tyrannical regime. It's treated as a good thing But but It's not like you don't even really need to read between the lines that much You just have to read exactly what's going on and think whoa, this is This sounds horrible. Why would anyone like this because well Greg's ideal world is one where he gets to rule over other people like a god and on top of that All of the other little chunks throughout the book all the other little Storylines such as it were Individually they all sound kind of okay at least as a premise obviously you would have to have someone other than omision write them because They're he's he's not a good writer at by any stretch But the thing is they all sound at least kind of fine on the surface, but then Once they none of them have a good conclusion either, you know, it's not like here's a short story with its own beginning middle end And then here's another one with its own beginning middle end It's just sort of here's something with a beginning and a middle and then we'll just kind of forget about it And then here's something else with a beginning and middle and then we'll forget about it So like we have the plot line where main character lives in a dysfunctional family and he tries to escape that by uh entering an inappropriate relationship with an older girl and that just never really gets concluded It's just it's treated as though they have some real romance even though she's an actual fucking pedophile At the end it's like, okay, we're together now and we're gonna have kids and stuff and that's just gross And then there's another plot line where it's like, oh dead bodies keep appearing in the creek Behind my house. I wonder what's going on with that and it Never really gets a satisfying conclusion. That's like, oh, I keep getting abducted by aliens every night By the way, if you haven't read the book I know that seems like I'm just putting that in and it feels very out of place It feels pretty out of place when you read it too But Yeah, the alien plot line doesn't get a real satisfying conclusion.  This is not a long book either. It's like I mean most copies when he sells them are like 190 pages, but they're all double spaced so less than 100 pages really is what the this should be and So it's barely a novella is what i'm getting at and I don't know. What else do I even need to say? It's like another book that Tries to get me to side with someone who's clearly the bad guy and he was a crazy narcissist but then He's he's not so it's not a satisfying ending It's not like a fun action-packed ending because none of this was built up to and the climax is Not fun or satisfying in any way I I don't know man. Just Reaper's Creek is the worst book I or the worst ending to a book I've ever read I wouldn't call it the worst book I've ever read just because it is funny going through it And also because I kind of knew what I was getting into when I read it, but that's I don't know That's a whole thing But yeah, it's it's a terrible ending if you can think of a book that has or book series that has a worse ending than this I I kind of doubt it exists, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on that and that's I don't know. That's all take care. Bye Special thanks to all the names you see here. These are all my patrons and especially thanks to my 10-dollar and up patrons Oppo Savalainen, Olivia Rand, brother Santotis, Carolina Clay, Christopher Quinten, Echo, Great Griebo Joel, Karkat Kitsune, K.R. Stevenson, Liza Rudikova, Lord Tiebreaker, Madison Lewis Bennett, microphone, Moritz Fuchs, Sad Martigan, Samuel Nevin, Tobacco Crow, Tom Beanie, and Vaivictus As well as you know everyone who's watched this far if you want to get your name on here or get access to stuff like early access to my videos and Voting on what topic I'll cover next then consider becoming a patron if you don't want to do that Then you could also just subscribe and like this video and share it around or become a youtube channel member Really, there's a lot of things you could be doing to make my life better and that's really what this is all about It's all about what you can do for me. So get on that. Bye


Super excited to have our Romanian partners and allies with us this morning with the mixed teams. I want you to give it your all, right? Don't leave anything on the field, put everything you've got into the event and we're gonna have a really good time today, all right? But take the time, get to know each other, right, push each other and build that cohesion at team level that we need to fight together if we get called tonight and respond to whatever tendencies could happen while we're on our deployment in a European theater war, all right? Tied to real-world stuff, right? If we have to infill through helicopter, on ground, by truck, whatever it is, right? We've got to do physical activity to get to the objective. You still got to be able to fight, right? So this is just to replicate that stress on our bodies and minds and then still have to fight. This is a culmination of a week of partner training and so no better way, I think, to cap this thing off than getting after a tough physical event and leaving it all out there on the field, all right?


The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 8.317, in the name of Fiona Hyslop, on the future of St Michael's hospital in Lillithgo, West Lothian. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would ask those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the request of speak buttons. I call on Fiona Hyslop to open the debate around such minutes, please, Mrs Hyslop. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and to all members cross-party who signed my motion, allowing me to bring this important debate to the chamber. I would also like to thank my constituents and the friends of St Michael's hospital for their work on this campaign, some of whom are in the public gallery this evening. St Michael's is a community hospital providing end-of-life care respite and step-down intermediary care, as well as supporting patients waiting for care packages or placement in a care home. Situated in Lillithgo, in the north of the county, it supports patients from all over West Lothian. St Michael's hospital is the only NHS facility of its type in the north of West Lothian. The land for the hospital was owned by St Michael's Church and gifted to the health authorities at no cost in 1854 on the stipulated condition that it would remain a hospital facility and garden for the people. Indeed, I understand the then Conservative Secretary of State, Michael Forsyth, MP confirmed to David Steele, not our former Presiding Officer, but his father, the Minister of St Michael's, at the time, that the land would revert with the buildings in it if the land ceased to be used for the purpose that it was given back to the Kirk Session. In August 2021, West Lothian Health and Social Care Partnership, IGB, took the decision to close St Michael's temporarily using emergency powers under pressure of short-term staff shortages across the NHS. A decision was taken to move patients and staff to Tippithill community hospital in Armadale, allowing staff to be reassigned to St John's hospital in Livingston. It remains closed. In June 2022, a report to the West Lothian Intuition Joint Board contained two recommendations that St Michael's should remain closed or a public consultation be held with all relevant parties to review future bed space requirements at St Michael's. If the minister is told that there were a few patients previously, that is because the IGB did not refer them. Organised by the Friends of St Michael's, West Lothian's Health and Social Care Partnership held a public information meeting in February this year on the future of the hospital. Hundreds of people attended the standing room-only public meeting in the Kirk Hall, and the health and care management were left in no doubt of the importance of St Michael's hospital to the community. Many of those who attended the public meeting had relatives cared for there. The IGB then launched a review of bed capacity consultation, citing moves for care at home, which is due to report next month. Minister, the same IGB has since announced that it wants to outsource care at home and six care of the elderly residences in the future. Taken together, that points to an IGB that wants to own no community properties for elderly care and exists simply to contract out home care services. That is not on. We need the public provision of the quality of care and certainty of a home for current and existing older people in our county and community hospital care when they need it. I implore the minister to look at what whistles in the IGB are doing carefully. Stealth tactics over a number of years are removing public facilities. We know that their finances mean that they have to make savings, but we also know that they hold significant reserves. With such drastic action planned, now is the time to allow them to release reserves to support care for our elderly population. When I raised the need for step-down care and facilities like St Michael's—I specified St Michael's—with the First Minister when he was health secretary in October 2021 in questions on his winter planning and social care statement, he agreed to stress the need for community-based elderly nursing care and rest-pite in the north of the county as a priority with local partners. My constituency of Llynydd is the largest in Scotland by population. West Lothian as a whole has a growing and an aging population. Over the next 25 years, it is forecast to have the fastest growth in population of pensionable age in Scotland, with an increase of 44 per cent, twice the Scottish average. There are also no hospices in West Lothian, meaning that without St Michael's families in West Lothian who require end-of-life palliative care to support the loved one, we will have to travel almost an hour to St Columbus and Granton in the north of Edinburgh or to the Marie Curie hospice in Edinburgh south. The IGB has previously used statistics under reporting the scale of population growth in neighbouring Winchborough and with the high price of property in Edinburgh and major population growth in Queensfrey and Curt Liston, surely joint provision for elderly cler at St Michael's with the west of Edinburgh would make sense. There is a clear moral and needs argument to keep the site for health purposes but possibly a legal argument if the health board thinks that they will sell lucrative land for housing and that it might revert to church ownership. The friends of St Michael's are a dedicated and committed group of volunteers and I thank them for their work and their support and care over the years for the patients and their families. They were a lifeline to the families of those staying at St Michael's, providing emotional support to many. They also provided financial aid and help to families who needed that extra help. They paid for taxis and other public transport to make sure that patients got to see their loved ones when they were at their most vulnerable. As the local MSP for Llythgo and on behalf of all the patients and families who benefited from care at St Michael's in the past and hopefully in the future, I thank them. We know that there are continuing challenges in securing and resourcing staffing for any expansion of care at home and we recognise that senior managers at Wessels in health and social care partnership have been clear that no decision has been taken about St Michael's and have made commitments to maintain the fabric of the hospital pending their review. However, I reiterate my call to the partnership to take a strategic view in favour of using the physical, social and community assets of St Michael's for the benefit of the growing population in the north of the county. It is clear that there will be an on-going need for a health facility providing end-of-life and step-down and intermediary care and potentially new support services to match the increasing home-based care for a rapidly growing elderly population in the north of Wessels in. The strong spirit and solidarity of local people who support the retention of the hospital exists because of the extraordinary nature in which St Michael's hospital and the friends of St Michael's have cared for their loved ones and their families. St Michael's hospital must be retained to benefit the communities and the families who depend on it. I welcome the chance to speak in this debate today about the future of St Michael's hospital in Llythgo. I thank Fiona Hyslop for bringing the issue to the chamber today. I believe that local health services are a vital part of our local communities. As we know, St Michael's hospital has been serving the community for many years. However, the current situation demands that we take a hard look at the hospital's viability and its role in meeting the healthcare needs of the community. St Michael's was first shut in August 2021 in response to acute staffing pressures created by Covid-19 and is a clear indication that the hospital was struggling to provide the level of care that was needed. Importantly, it was a temporary closure and it was used by emergency powers. We have a growing population in West Lothian that is well in excess of that of Dundee. As one of the highest proportions of older populations, West Lothian needs a healthcare system that can meet the needs of the community now and in the future. As Ms Hyslop said, West Lothian has the fastest growing population of a pensionable age, with an increase of 44 per cent projected twice the Scottish average. I would also like to put on record my support around the concerns with data that is being used around the population growth across West Lothian. The importance of this hospital to the local community cannot be overemphasised. I would also like to draw parallels with what is happening elsewhere in the NHS Lothian boundary with the editing hospital in East Lothian, which remains closed for very similar issues. That is not just an isolated incident for West Lothian. Supporting, developing and protecting our workforce is vital. To ensure that that happens, there will need to be an active talent management and succession planning across NHS Lothian in addition to recruitment and retention initiatives. That is key to keeping our local services in the communities open and thriving. Although I acknowledge the campaign to maintain the hospital and the health services at St Michael's, we must take a view that considers the future needs for patients and families in the area. The West Lothian Health and Social Care Partnerships consultation on the current closure of St Michael's hospital and its community bed review was an important step in understanding what direction needs to be taken. When I visited St Michael's last year, it was clear that the building was not in a good state of repair and would need a significant investment to restore it to what would be expected of the standards that are required for modern healthcare. However, the Scottish Government funding decisions have resulted in the West Lothian IGB needing to save an eye-watering £17 million. Therefore, any decision to close St Michael's hospital must be accompanied by a clear plan to ensure that the healthcare needs of the community are met in a way that is sustainable, effective and equitable. Unfortunately, there is a funding shortfall in NHS Lothian relative to other health boards or the National Resource Allocation Committee, NRAC. In the financial year 2022-23, that equates to approximately £14 million, which is a huge challenge alone. I would also like to emphasise that, over the past decade, that equates to more than £100 million. If we are to continue services in the community across the Lothian region, that must be rectified, in particular when we reference the changes in population specifically in West Lothian. In conclusion, although the history of St Michael's hospital is important, we must prioritise the needs of the community and ensure that we have a healthcare system that can meet the needs in the future. I urge my fellow members to work together to find a sustainable and effective solution that meets the healthcare needs of the people of West Lothian. I thank my colleague Fiona Hyslop for securing this member's debate. I should also point out that my wife is a district nurse in West Lothian. As Fiona Hyslop outlines, St Michael's is the only hospital facility of its kind in that part of West Lothian. If it was to permanently close patients and their families, we would be forced to use other sites such as Tippett Hill and Armadale, which are one of the two respite and end-of-life centres here in Edinburgh at St Columba's Hospice to the north of the city and the Marie Curie Hospice in my constituency of Edinburgh-Pentlands. I visited the hospice at Fairmail Head on a number of occasions, and I recognise the dedication that the staff have to provide compassionate end-of-life care, but they only have 20 in-patient beds, which are already increasing pressure without that proposed closure in West Lothian. The friends of St Michael's hospital group have been unwavering in its support for the families of its patients, both in terms of emotional support and financial assistance, and as Fiona Hyslop highlighted, she has paid for many family member's taxis from different parts of West Lothian to the hospital. Something I am not certain other hospitals would be in a position to offer, particularly if the journey was into Edinburgh, which is obviously more costly. This is not just about the financial costs but the time taken to travel and the ease of travelling, especially at peak times, given the congestion on the A71 into Edinburgh or indeed on the city bypass. It is especially difficult for those without a car and who are reliant on public transport, given the recent cuts in bus services across West Lothian. By closing the facility and forcing patients to other facilities such as Marie Curie or St Columba's hospices, you are immediately creating a huge, stumbling block in terms of the patient's most basic needs, spending time with her family and friends. How do those family and friends, especially the elderly and vulnerable, get to the hospital to visit their loved ones, given the transport issues that I mentioned previously? That proposed permanent closure is at a time that West Lothian has a growing older population, therefore the need for access to healthcare facilities will only increase Hospital sites such as St Michael's will be in demand from uses a step down facility to relieve delayed discharge, to providing respite and end of life care. Not to mention the fact that if you are diverting those patients elsewhere, indeed out of West Lothian, you are not only reducing the availability of local healthcare but the jobs that are required to offer a fully functioning service. Of the suggestion that West Lothian patients could be moved to the city hospitals, well, Edinburgh's population grew by 10 per cent in the 10 years to 2021 to 526,000 and is expected to grow by another 26,000 people by 2028. Edinburgh's 75s and overs is also projected to see a 25 per cent increase in the period to 2028. Presiding Officer, I believe that this closure of St Michael's would be a retrograde state and it should be paused until we understand the impact of the national care service bill which is proceeding through this Parliament. Stripping services at this point I believe would be reckless. Fiona Hyslop has raised this issue before and I know will continue to raise this issue both here in Parliament with NHS Lothian and other stakeholders until a positive outcome for both the community hospital and those that need to access its facilities now and in the future is secured. I thank Fiona Hyslop for bringing this motion to the chamber today to discuss the important issue. In January I wrote to the chief executive of NHS Lothian Scotland expressing the concern of my constituents where they were worried about the lack of end-of-life care at the nearest hospitals St John's. I also addressed the lack of GP surgeries in the area and that the possible closure of St Michael's would be catastrophic if no alternative palliative and respite care is available. They were also concerned that this may lead to nurses retiring earlier adding to the overall pressure on the NHS. The original purpose of St Michael's hospital was to provide a service for the local communities thanks to the friends of St Michael's groups amazing dedication and commitment. I know that for so many of my constituents St Michael's hospital is not only vital for providing hospital and crucial end-of-life care but also acts as a community hub supporting families with loved ones being cared for at the hospital. The SMP have been in power for the last 16 years yet the state of health and social care sector has deteriorated due to the chronic underfunding and mismanagement. Local government and the integrated joint board IGB in West Lothian have been starved of resources and have been left between a rock and a hard place. St Michael's hospital is just one example of the current crisis in health and social care in West Lothian. Many of you may have been aware of the public meeting last evening about the privatisation of care homes in West Lothian where more than 200 local residents turned up. Residents were there to express their concern for the future of social care in West Lothian and the local residents they rely so heavily on it. I attended the meeting on behalf of my Lothian Scottish Labour colleagues and there was a clear frustration and anger toward the insufficient resources and funding for health and social care. This has happened due to cuts made by the Scottish Government that are putting councils under pressure. It is important that all Lothian MSPs meet together now to discuss how we can get extra resources and funding allocated to health and social care in West Lothian, Lothians and how we can move forward and tackle this on-going crisis. A cross-party approach to tackling this crisis is essential. Once again, I thank my colleague Fiona Hyslop for bringing attention to this issue. I look forward to meeting with my Lothian colleagues soon to deal with this crisis in health and social care in West Lothian. I now call on Minister Marie Todd to respond to the debate around seven minutes. First, I thank Fiona Hyslop for bringing this debate to Parliament today. I am very grateful for her commitment to champion the role of St Michael's hospital. I am also grateful to the friends of St Michael's hospital and similar groups across the country who work so hard to support those who benefit from community hospitals. St Michael's hospital, as others have said, was originally gifted by St Michael's Church in the 19th century for the wider benefit of the community, and that is a principle that still endures today. Caring for individuals, whether they are our own loved ones or members of our wider community, is a fundamental shared responsibility of us all, both personally and as a wider society. I am committed to ensuring that we do this with the utmost care, dignity and respect for those who need it. I want to pay tribute to and place on record my thanks to all those individuals and teams who make that happen right across the country, from our unpaid carers, social care staff, allied health professionals and clinicians. We are all indebted to the teams who provide care right across our health and social care system. We all know that the best bed for us to be in is our own bed, and where that is not possible, being close to home, is extremely important for the individual and their family. Ensuring that people are cared for in the right place at the right time is absolutely at the heart of everything that we do. Community hospitals play a vital part in that. They provide care closer to people's homes, which is personalised, holistic and patient-centred. Our community hospitals, including St Michael's, can provide a wide range of services, including non-acute and patient services, rehabilitation services and palliative care. They form a crucial element in facilitating service integration locally, and they function as an integrator of services. That is a local for the development of a single point of access to services. Palliative and end-of-life care spans a wide range of professionals and sectors, with clinical and social care delivered in acute hospitals, community hospitals, hospices, care homes and people's own homes. The Scottish Government committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high-quality palliative care. We are developing a new strategy to achieve the very highest standards of care right up to the end of life, and we will develop a strategy that reflects what matters to people, experiencing serious illness, dying and bereavement. We are reviewing the information and evidence that we have about people's experiences of palliative and end-of-life care and bereavement in order to inform our strategy going forward. That will contribute to a holistic, integrated and multidisciplinary approach that will ensure access to palliative and end-of-life care wherever and whenever it is needed and which has the person and their families and carers at the centre. As we look to ensure that our services reflect the changing needs of patients and wider society, we must harness the advancements in technology. Home health monitoring, community alarms and near me, we are constantly looking to develop clinical and care pathways to prevent people from being admitted to hospital. For example, our hospital at home programme is a really innovative approach to providing hospital-level care for patients in the comfort of their own home. We know that it assists with the recovery of patients as well as alleviating much-needed pressure on acute sites, emergency departments and the ambulance service. Hospital at home currently provides levels of virtual capacity matching that of St John's hospital in West Lothian. I am pleased that we are continuing to fund the expansion of the programme by providing health improvement Scotland with a further £3.6 million in this financial year to support more than 150 additional virtual beds. Innovations linked to the advance of technology such as hospital at home enable health and social care partnerships to be more creative and pragmatic when designing the future service provision. Designing of those services must always put the patient at the centre working with them and for them to provide the best level of care to suit their needs. However, it is really important that decisions on how services are delivered are made at a local level, in consultation with those who use the services to ensure that local needs are met in the best way. I am aware that the consultation regarding St Michael's is on-going and at this point I do not want to influence the outcome of that consultation in any way. My officials will continue to engage with the West Lothian health and social care partnership as the consultation progresses and stand ready to support where appropriate. More generally, we will also continue to work with partners and with people with lived experience to make sure that our social care services work for everyone. On the point that was raised around the population levels expanding and growing, I am absolutely comfortable with my officials reaching into the HSCP and making sure that they are using the most up-to-date and relevant data on population levels as part of their strategic planning, if that would be helpful. On the issues that were raised about funding, the door is always open for NHS boards to discuss funding with the Scottish Government health officials. Enrack, as raised by Sue Weber, is always contentious. The point around local authority funding raised by Fausal Chyder is that the real-terms increase of £376 million or 3 per cent to local government supply. West Lothian is getting £405 million to find fund local services, which equates to £17.5 million to support day services. I am not sure whether the minister is aware, but West Lothian Council received 8.9 per cent of an uplift and increase in this financial year. Secondly, I understand the city of Aberdeen. I was not aware, but that is a very, very good point to make at this juncture. Funding is undoubtedly challenging. I share the concern that IGPs and HSPs have. As a Government minister, we have to balance finite resources and make tough decisions, but, undoubtedly, there is an open door policy with the Scottish Government where concerns need to be raised. I would like to conclude today where I began. The cornerstone of our health and social care system is the people who work tirelessly day in and day out to support individuals. I am grateful to them all. I am grateful to our communities, like that of the Friends and St Michael's group, for their dedication to providing care to individuals and to their families.