Shortly Monday after they announced the trade for Jamison Tyone the Yankees then traded reliever Adam on a vino in the final year of his contract to the Boston Red Sox They sent another player along a minor league or Jack They'll eventually get a player to be named later and some cash considerations What was this move all about in your opinion? Well, we've talked on our shows about how they were looking for some payroll Flexibility they still have some things they would like to do out of Vino's name has been out there. I'm not surprised. He was moved I'm a little surprised that it was to the Red Sox that he is going to stay in the division because When he is on and he's sowing that slider He can be lethal against right-handed batters and the Yankees have a lot of right-handed batters in their lineup But as much as we talked on our shows about out of Vino trying to redeem himself And I think for him it comes down to throwing his slider for strikes You can't just have a slider that sails out of the zone You have to let the hitter know that you're going to throw sliders for strikes The Yankees have told you what they have thought about him recently He has been a spectator the last couple of post seasons So going into this season the Yankees decided he was a pitcher who was expendable and I expect that now They will pivot and make some other moves. Yeah, I mean the economics of baseball in the world that we're in today I mean that's all part of it. We just saw in that graphic gonna make eight million dollars I mean this is one of those deals that Brian Cashman freed up some money And if you think about the tie-on deal he makes two and a half million So he slides in there a very affordable pitcher with some more control But from out of Vino standpoint a change of scenery. He went to college in northeastern up in Boston He's familiar with that city, but maybe he can get himself back on track to Jack's point when he is right He is devastating, but we also saw he has trouble with the running game There were a lot of things that maybe didn't work out with the New York Yankees It wasn't for a lack of effort wasn't for a lack of trying to get better and with all the analytics It just came down to the end of the last couple of years if there wasn't a whole lot of trust there anymore


Let me just go ahead and lift a burden off of you this evening. You're there in Ezekiel chapter 33.  Look down at Ezekiel chapter 33. Here's the thing folks, you know, let me just ease your mind about this one thing. You can't make people believe. It is not our responsibility to force people to believe. Look down at Ezekiel chapter 33. Look at verse number 2. The Bible says, Son of man, speak unto the children of thy people and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts and set him for their watchmen, if when he seeeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people, then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and take it not warning. Here the Bible is saying that the people take a man and they set him up as the watchmen. And this watchman, he sees danger coming and he blows the trumpet. You know, he's up there and he do-do, he blows that trumpet. He blows the trumpet and he warns the people. If the sword come and take him away his blood, so whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and take it not warning.  So here there was a watchman. There was a watchman and he did sound the trumpet. He did give a warning and this person didn't listen. The Bible says that's not the responsibility of the watchman. But now look at verse number six.  We see the terror coming. We see people that are lost. We see what is coming. We know what is coming. And we're out there and we are trying to warn them. We are trying to tell them and many times we'll go out and no one will listen. No one will take heed to that warning. That is not on you. That is not on you. And remember, even if we could, look, if you could go out and you could force people and you could just argue with people and debate people about the Bible and you could get people to believe that way, you know, I wouldn't be so against it. But here's the thing. It doesn't work folks. It doesn't work. We are here to warn. We are here to hear to offer, you know, the word of the Lord to the people and the answer to that sword that is coming. And if people don't want to listen or don't want to heed, take it's not that warning. They take it's not that warning. That's not on you. That's not on you. But look at verse number six. The Bible says, but if the watchman see if the sword come and blow not the trumpet. This is the real problem for the watchman right here. And the people are not warned. Look, they didn't know it was coming. If the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity. But see, look, to the lost, to the lost, the results is the same. They're taken away in their iniquity. They're taken away in their iniquity because the lost, look folks, the lost are going to be judged by their works, whether or not someone warns them or not.   I believe if I'm a good person, I'm going to go, the irony is they're going to get what they want. They're going to be judged by their works. They will be at the great white throne judgment and they will be judged and they will be taken away in their iniquity. But the difference here is that the watchman didn't blow the trumpet. The result is the same. The watchman didn't blow the trumpet. So the Bible says with his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. That one, the Lord says, is on you. That one, the Lord says, he puts blame on us for because they didn't know. So look, it's the Lord who saves, folks. It's through the belief in the heart. It's only our job to present that truth, to warn. If people have heart issues and they don't want to hear, or they hear and they don't want to believe, that's a heart issue. That's God's wheelhouse, not ours to deal with. Now look, let me just say this one last thing. You could be a good watchman and you could be a bad watchman. I mean, the bad watchman wouldn't blow the trumpet at all. That's really not even a watchman. But here's the thing. Some watchmen will be better than others. In Luke chapter 14, the Bible says go out and compel them to come in, nor to compel people to come in. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, Paul says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. We are to compel. We are to persuade. And here's the thing. People can tell if you care. You will be much more persuasive of a watchman. You will be much more compelling of a watchman if people can see that you care. So it's important that we have that compassion for people. That we have that real heart for the lost because that will make us the best watchman. And you say, well, you know, I just don't care. I'm just phoned it in out there when I'm soul winning. Well, you know, that's a heart issue on your side. You have to ask yourself, why don't you care?


Efallai, gweld i'n trwy newid i'r un eich mewn busnes, dwi'n gwasanaeth i'n gael amgoedraethu i'r ysgolion pethlu i'r cyffinol i'r wychau'r cyffinol na g birlikteisio'r cyffinol, i ni'n gwneud bethau gael newid iawn o'r eich cyffinol pellol. Urfiad eu gwneud hefyd, mae'r ysgolion yn gyflawn i'r cwylio'u cyffinol i'r ysgolion fydd yng Nghymru. My decision is in line with the Parliament's commitment to invest in online access to allow members to work digitally. It is part of my ambition to promote a modern, accessible Parliament that the decision is effective as of now. If members wish to use devices in the chamber for social media in a parliamentary context, I also have no difficulty with that. However, I would emphasise the need for courtesy and respect for other members and to the parliamentary business at hand. That translates as you can tweet, but you certainly cannot play Candy Crush. I will write to you all this week to give further guidance on the implications of this change. In the meantime, I remind members that they should, at all times, maintain courtesy and respect for each other and should not behave in a way that interferes with the proper conduct of business in the chamber. Thank you. The next item of business today is the selection of the Parliament's nominee as First Minister. A note explaining the procedures to be followed this afternoon has been placed on each member's desk. I have received two valid nominations for selection of the Parliament's nominee as First Minister. I will now announce the nominations in alphabetical order. The nominations are Willie Rennie and Nicola Sturgeon. I will ask each nominee to speak in support of their candidacy for up to five minutes. After the nominees have spoken, members will be asked to cast their vote for their preferred candidate. A separate vote will be called for each candidate and members can only vote once. Once all voting has been completed, any member who has not yet voted will be invited to cast a vote to abstain. There will be a short break of a few minutes while the result is verified. I will then announce the results of voting. A candidate will be elected if a simple majority is obtained. Therefore, no account will be taken of any votes to abstain in establishing whether a simple majority has been achieved. Members should ensure that their cards are inserted correctly in their consoles. O dad, you are not, are you? Those are the encouraging words from my unimpressed 12-year-old son when he heard on the radio this morning that I was standing for First Minister. I told Stephen that I was inspired by a woman nationalist leader who stood up against the odds, but, unlike Leanne Wood, I will not be relying on UKIP votes today. This is the first time that I have stood for First Minister in this Parliament. I did not stand in 2011 or 2014 because the SNP had a majority then. No longer. They have lost that majority. In part, that is why I am making this stand today, and that is the point that I am making by standing for First Minister. We are all minorities here. No manifesto commanded the support of a majority, so we all need partners to win votes. We are all equal in that respect. Whoever becomes First Minister today cannot compel this chamber to agree to their demands. Whoever wins the vote will need to work hard to persuade others to back any proposal. I want this Parliament to make Scotland the best again so that everyone can have the opportunity to succeed no matter what their background is, where people can live as they wish as long as it does not harm others and where we pass on the planet in a better state than we found it. The next five years must deliver a step change in mental health services, so they are treated on a par with physical illness. I am proposing extra resources directed to primary care so that mental health professionals can work alongside GPs for work in accident and emergency and in partnership with the police and for extra capacity in child and adolescent services. The next five years must deliver policies that enable us to exceed our climate change targets. I am proposing a warm homes act, low carbon transport and no open cast coal so that we can deliver real change. Cutting air passenger duty by 50 per cent won't help. It will cut funds for public services and cause damage to the environment, so I am not proposing that cut. Fracking won't help either. That is where the SNP must remember that its rhetoric about the Tories may come back to haunt them. The SNP may have to rely on the Conservatives for a majority from time to time. We should use the next five years to make Scottish education the best in the world again. I am proposing a £500 million transformational investment so that we can deliver extra resources for nursery schools and colleges to get our education back up the international rankings. We have already persuaded the SNP of the merits of a pupil premium to get extra support to children who need it no matter where they live in the country. Now we need to have a change of heart from the SNP on the use of tax powers so that we can make that big investment. Or will we look to the Conservatives to help them to block that investment? Those next five years should be used to guarantee our civil liberties, no return to armed police on routine duties or industrial scale stop and search, and we need to kill off the much delayed but still possible intrusive super ID database. I am proposing to bring back local democratic oversight of the police. I am positive about the Liberal Democrat agenda for this Parliament. I am positive about our ability to bring people together, and I am more positive about our chances of winning today. There are signs of change, those important signs of momentum that is with me. I do not want to upset Joe Fitzpatrick, but some of his members are indicating that they may cast a vote for me. Mark McDonald smiled at me in the garden lobby just last week. Jamie Hepburn shook my hand and everyone knows about the special understanding that I have with Bob Doris. With those positive signs, I will leave it to members in this chamber to choose the best programme and the best person to lead the Scottish Government for the next five years. I thank Willie Rennie for his candidacy. I was delighted to hear that I start today with the full support of Willie Rennie's son, but having provided some of what I can only describe as the most colourful imagery of the election campaign, I think that it is only right that we heard from Willie Rennie today. Willie Rennie and I were chatting earlier on about what we might do if this vote ends up in a tie today. We have decided that we are going to settle matters with a race down a giant inflatable slide, so there is an incentive to ensure that that does not happen. However, seriously, if elected today as the Parliament's nominee for First Minister, I look forward to working with Willie Rennie and colleagues across the chamber as, collectively, over the next five years, we confront the challenges and harness the massive opportunities that our country has. Today, I am asking MSPs across the chamber to support my nomination for First Minister. Since Parliament first elected me to this position back in the autumn of 2014, I have worked hard to repay that support. Eighteen months on, I am a little bit older and a lot wiser. The experience of being First Minister has made me more acutely aware of the challenges that our nation faces but also even more aware of our vast potential. The challenge for me and for all of us is to harness that potential for the good of our country and those of us lucky enough to live here. I said during the election campaign that closing the attainment gap in education would be the defining mission of a Scottish Government led by me. I look forward to working across this chamber to ensure that that is not just the mission of government but of Parliament as a whole. The economy and jobs will also be at the top of my list of priorities that is reflected in my intention to create a new dedicated Cabinet Secretary post with responsibility for the economy. With new powers coming to this Parliament, the responsibility placed on us and, in particular, on the First Minister is greater than ever before, but that is a responsibility that I am ready and eager to seize with both hands. During the election campaign, I described the SNP manifesto as my application for the job of First Minister and the election allowed the people of Scotland to deliver their verdict. The SNP increased our constituency vote share, we won a record number of constituency seats and we became the first party in the devolution era to secure more than one million constituency votes. There is no doubt that the SNP has a mandate to govern and that I have a mandate to continue as the First Minister of our country. I hope that Parliament will recognise that clear mandate today. However, I have also made clear my intention to lead an inclusive Government. Being an inclusive, open and outward-looking Government is, of course, about much more than what happens here in this parliamentary chamber, but there is no doubt that it starts here in this chamber. That is why I have already made suggestions to strengthen Parliament's scrutiny of the First Minister. I would like to see more time allocated to the weekly session of FMQs to ensure that backbenchers are given more opportunity to ask questions. As First Minister, I would welcome the opportunity—welcome is perhaps not the right word, but embrace the opportunity to appear more often before the Parliament's committee conveners. Those proposals might in themselves be relatively minor, but I hope that they serve as an indication of the tone that I want to set in this fifth session of the Scottish Parliament. I firmly and passionately believe that there should be no limit to our ambitions for our national Parliament and no limit to our ambitions for our nation. If I am successful today, the First Minister's door will always be open to people across this chamber and outside this chamber, to people with constructive ideas to make Scotland the prosperous, fair country that we all know it can be. I will work every day to serve this country to the very best of my ability. We now move to voting. May I remind members that they must vote once only and must only use their yes button when voting. If any member records a vote more than once or records a vote other than a yes vote, their vote will be treated as spoiled. Once the voting for candidates is completed, members who have not voted for a candidate will then be given the opportunity to vote to abstain by pressing their yes button. I will announce the result once all the votes have been cast and verified once only and only the yes button. The first vote is for Willie Rennie. Members who wish to cast their vote for Willie Rennie should vote yes now. If voting time has ended, there will be a short pause while we print the vote. Thank you. The next vote is for Nicholas Sturgeon. Members who wish to cast their vote for Nicholas Sturgeon should vote yes now. If voting time has ended, there will be another short pause while we print the vote. Thank you. That concludes the votes for all candidates. The next vote is for any members who have not yet voted and who wish to record an abstention. Members wishing to abstain should press their yes button, not the abstention press the yes button. Voting opens now. That concludes this round of voting. There will now be a break not just to print the votes but to verify so be a few minutes longer. Thank you. In this round of voting, in the selection of the Parliament's nominee as First Minister, the number of votes cast for each candidate is as follows. The total number of votes cast is 127. The number of votes cast for Willie Rennie is 5. The number of votes cast for Nicholas Sturgeon is 63. The number of abstentions is 59. There were no spoiled votes. As the result is valid, and as Nicholas Sturgeon has received more votes than the total number of votes for the other candidate, I declare that Nicholas Sturgeon is selected as this Parliament's nominee for appointment as First Minister. As required by the Scotland Act 1998, I shall now recommend to her Majesty that she appoint Nicholas Sturgeon as the First Minister. For my congratulations to Nicholas Sturgeon as the new First Minister. I now call on Ruth Davidson. Presiding Officer, I begin by offering my congratulations and those of my party to the First Minister on her election today. As I said, in the day after the result, it is a significant achievement to win three elections in a row. If nothing else, it presents a test of stamina for the Government and for the First Minister as she gets back to work, so I wish her, her family and wider support network well in the meeting of that challenge. I also take this opportunity today to salute Willie Rennie for offering himself up as this afternoon's willing human sacrifice. Like my own attempt to persuade this Parliament to hand me the job of First Minister 18 months ago, Willie's bid for this summit has fallen just short. However, the challenge itself helps to demonstrate a serious and key point, that it is this Parliament that approves who is the First Minister of Scotland, and that it is this Parliament to which the First Minister is accountable. Perhaps that is something that we need to be reminded of, given the last five years of majority rule, a period in which the Scottish Government repeatedly exercised its executive power to the detriment of the authority of this institution. Now, with a new minority Government, I hope that we can look forward to five years where the Parliament is once again able to demonstrate its authority, its oversight and its challenge. There has been a lot of talk of mandates in the days following the election, and again from the First Minister today. The truth is that it is this Parliament that holds the real unchallenged mandate to decide on our First Minister, on our cabinet secretaries, the ministerial team and, once that is done, to scrutinise their decisions, their actions and the legislative programme that they bring forth, to question and to challenge, to argue and to offer alternatives, to promote better governance in this place, not for its own sake but for the people of Scotland. That is the task that I and my team dedicate ourselves to today. Unlike Mr Rennie, I chose not to stand against the First Minister, and that was by design. As some of you may have noticed during the election campaign, we did not ask for votes to form a Government, but rather the strong opposition that the Parliament and this country so desperately require. Now that we have been returned to this as the job, we are determined to fulfil over the coming five years. We will engage with the people and the institutions of Scotland to listen to their concerns. In Parliament and in committee, we will provide the challenge required to ensure better law. We will use the job of opposition to provide real alternatives for the Scottish Government to consider. The debate over those alternatives needs to start immediately. We know from the election campaign the scale of the challenges that face us. We see unemployment on the rise up 20,000 in the first part of this year and now above rates on the rest of the UK. We hear warnings from business figures saying that our economy is on a knife edge. We see school results going backwards and cuts to colleges meaning fewer places to train and to retrain for the world of work. It is now this Parliament that will hold sway more than ever before over how the country moves forward. The new tax powers coming here over the coming months mean that we are about to embark on a new chapter of devolution. For the Conservatives' part, we intend to bring not just principal to this debate but also evidence and expertise. That is the least that people expect of us. Where there is consensus or common cause, we will work with others. Where there is difference, I pledge always to be a positive opposition, providing challenge yes but alternatives too. Out of the fire of honest and principled differences, we will bring debate back into the public discourse, creating a stronger Parliament, demanding a better Government and building a more positive future for Scotland, the country that each of us here loves and serves. There is more that unites us than divides us across this chamber. Today, every party in this place will wish Nicola Sturgeon well and offer her congratulations as she begins a fresh term as First Minister. It is the votes of MSPs in this chamber that officially nominate her for the office and title of First Minister of Scotland again, but it was the votes of the people of Scotland that have really put her there. Nicola Sturgeon will be acutely aware of the responsibility on her shoulders. She is the leader of the first Scottish Government to achieve three terms in office, and she is the most powerful First Minister that this country has ever seen. With the mandate that the people have given her, I hope that she uses it to be bold. I hope that she has the courage to change course, to use her power to challenge vested interests, to stand up for the majority and to do everything that she can to make Scotland a country where your destiny and life is determined, not by your postcode but by your potential. The Scottish people have delivered a result in this election that has matched a strong Scottish Government with a strong Scottish Parliament to keep it in check. The people have changed the balance of power in this Parliament and they have deprived the Government of a majority. That means an even greater responsibility on the First Minister to build consensus and to reach out to parties that represent the wide and varied interests of people across Scotland. Each time she reaches out, she will be faced with a choice, a fork in the road. She can look to the left where she will find allies in progressive parties who believe in the power of Government to transform lives, or she can look right to Conservative forces who ask Government to do less, who cut more. I hope and expect the First Minister to use her mandate to be radical and progressive and to use all the powers available to change the lives of the people who live in our great country. In navigating minority Government, the First Minister might want to take a leaf out of her predecessor's book when he said that the Parliament will be one in which the Scottish Government relies on the merits of its legislation, not the might of a parliamentary majority. For my part, I will take some advice from one of my predecessors, Donald Dewar. When he was nominated as First Minister, he said, we are indeed a country with a past. The past has shaped us, but our task now is to shape the future. Since Donald was First Minister, we have written new chapters in Scotland's story. We have seen the parties in power change. Our Parliament has come of age, and we have had a referendum that has changed the face of our nation forever. So whatever roads we may choose to go down in the future, this Parliament cannot be a prisoner of the past. We have to take the best of what we have learned and use it to take our country forward. Our job, as at the birth of this Parliament, is to shape the future. So let us be inspired by our past, let us not be bound by it. For the next five years, this chamber should echo with the same energy and passion that we saw in 2014. It should be fuelled by the same hope and expectation that people felt when they voted both yes and no. It should be the place where we do not just debate the kind of society that we want to build, but the place where we lay its foundations, and that is the responsibility that we all carry. May I offer my congratulations and those of the Scottish Green Party to Nicola Sturgeon on her re-election as First Minister and express a little bit of relief on your behalf. The first time that the Parliament met to choose a First Minister, the process was interrupted by no fewer than eight points of order of various levels of brass neck. Some of them came from members still with us—Fergus Ewing, Mike Russell. There were a couple from the late Phil Galley and from former members, Dennis Canavan, Ben Wallace—here's a couple of obscure names—Tommy Sheridan, Alex Salmond. Someone should look these people up and find out what they're up to these days. I'm very grateful that you've been spared that level of chaos. Just a few days after that exchange, Nicola Sturgeon, in what I think was her first speech in the Scottish Parliament, said that we, as members of the first Scottish Parliament, must be guided by the principles that guided the consultative steering group. That group envisaged an open, accessible Parliament in which power would be shared by the Parliament, the executive and the Scottish people. I hope that this session, with a second minority Government, might be a chance to recapture that spirit. Indeed, yesterday, Nicola Sturgeon was quoted as intending to lead a Government that seeks to win votes not simply by the force of our numbers but by the strength of our arguments. Very reminiscent of a speech by Alex Salmond on taking the office in 2007, though how quickly that intention was forgotten once the Scottish National Party no longer required the parliamentary numbers. In truth, minority Government sometimes worked well, sometimes less so, but, at its best, it was an opportunity for creative thinking and for the broadest range of ideas to come forward without being shot down by parliamentary arithmetic alone. Green influence in that session included some successes that are still with us, such as the climate challenge fund, which has enabled hundreds of communities across the country to put their own ideas into practice to reduce their environmental impact while building a stronger community and addressing related challenges such as fuel poverty and a dysfunctional corporate food chain. Despite our strenuous efforts in that session, there was less success on the energy efficiency agenda, which continues to this day to see budget cuts. On a number of issues, the challenges that we face today clearly require the combined effort and creativity of MSPs across party lines. The case for progressive taxation to protect our public services is strong. This Scottish Government will have the responsibility, but also for the first time much greater power to protect Scotland from the impact of austerity economics and the continued destruction of the welfare state by the UK Government. The First Minister must resolutely ignore the increased number of cheerleaders for this vandalism. She must be clear that in seeking Parliament's support for her budgets, she should look to those who oppose austerity, not to its advocates. On our climate targets, even though during the election campaign some SNP candidates appeared to be an outright denial of the fact, the Government has so far missed all four climate targets. Now, with a promise of new, even higher targets, the Government has a chance to raise its game to match the increased ambition that is expressed in the Paris agreement. What must absolutely be avoided is a repeat of the 2009 act, where targets were agreed but without the clear and radical programme of action that would be necessary to meet those targets. On parliamentary reform, in attempting to recapture that spirit of an inclusive Parliament, all of us will have a role to play. I am convinced that, in this, the most networked generation there has ever been, we can create new opportunities for public participation in our work, which can add to the quality and depth of our scrutiny. The past few years have shown that, when it matters, when involvement in the political process is meaningful, the appetite for it is strong. May I end by offering Nicola Sturgeon the good wishes of the Scottish Green Party as she approaches the work ahead? We have always tried to be constructive where we can be and challenging where we must be. It is an approach that has achieved results in the past, and we look forward to the opportunities that will arise in this fifth session of the Scottish Parliament. I congratulate Nicola Sturgeon for her personal and political achievement today. It is significant that she has secured the position of First Minister for the second time, this time with her own mandate. Her family, who are up in the gallery today, will be proud of her and so they should be. I would also like to take the opportunity to pay tribute to two of my former colleagues who were not re-elected at the election. Jim Hume and Alison McInnes were great servants of my party and this Parliament. I am sure that Nicola Sturgeon will mark the loss of eight of her SNP colleagues who were not re-elected also, but I would also like to pay particular tribute to my predecessor in North East Five, Rod Campbell, who was graceful and generous at the count and afterwards. I know many people in the constituency who were grateful for his advice and support. This Parliament presents us with many opportunities. All members in this chamber have a responsibility to do things better so that we can make Scotland a better country. Because we are all minorities, we need to hunt for agreement with others. Of course, there will be times when we oppose. If we strongly disagree, we will strongly oppose, but it will be based on principle and belief. We will not hunt for those differences, so SNP members should avoid knee-jerk reactions to any opposition to their plans. If SNP members seek to portray any defeat of the Government as a Conservative alliance, they surely must expect similar portrayals of any time the SNP and Conservatives vote the same way. It may be the case that the SNP will need Conservative support to secure a majority on, say, tax or fracking, as well as other issues. I am pleased to hear that, because that is a good indication of the policy that might come. I was pleased that Nicola Sturgeon also did not include independence in her remarks today. That was wise, because we should respect the result of the referendum and focus on the challenges that our country faces and the ambition that we should have to make our country the best again. I have already set out the changes that we need in mental health. In primary care, emergency services and child and adolescent services, we have a lot of work to do, as the share that is spent on mental health has fallen in each of the past few years. The Government's mental health strategy expired last December. The failure to renew that strategy means that tens of millions of pounds of funding remains unallocated this year. That has real consequences. A young constituent had to wait for months for urgent treatment. Another self-harming teenager waited for a year to see a consultant. After a debate, a mother told me how she had been on the phone every day, sometimes all day, for weeks to get help for her son. When 673,000 working days are lost every year in Scottish business from depression, the First Minister needs to make this a priority. Early education is another top priority for the Liberal Democrats. I will work in partnership with Nicola Sturgeon to deliver an expansion of early years, especially as the SNP Government has struggled to roll out already what has been promised. Nicola Sturgeon can count on our support when she brings forward plans to boost mental health services, so they are treated on a par with physical illness. We will support plans to exceed climate change targets. We will be with her when she guarantees to ditch the intrusive super-ID database, injects local democratic oversight into the police and agrees to push power down into communities rather than centralising it in Holyrood. She can count on our support when she brings forward plans to make a transformational investment in education for nurseries, schools and colleges with a penny on income tax. Let's now get on with the job that we were elected to do. Thank you, Mr Rennie. I now call on the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Thank you, Presiding Officer, for your kind words. I can also take the opportunity to thank all of the other party leaders for their contribution today and for their words of support. I deeply appreciate all of them. Thank you to my fellow members of Parliament for selecting me as Parliament's nominee to be the next First Minister of Scotland. There is, quite simply, no greater privilege than to be elected to serve as the First Minister of our country. I pledge that, for each and every day that I hold this office, I will strive to fulfil the duties that are placed on me to the very best of my ability. I promise to use all of the powers that this office places in my hands to make our country an even better place to live. Presiding Officer, it means a great deal to me to be joined here today by my family. I want to take the opportunity to thank them, especially my husband, my parents and my sister, for the unwavering support that they give me. I know that I don't tell them often enough—I suspect that they would say that I don't tell them at all—but I simply could not do the job that I do without their support, and I want them to know how grateful I am for it. I also want to say a special thank you to my niece and nephews here today. Each of them has what I can only describe as a unique ability to keep my feet firmly on the ground and remind me of what really matters in life. Presiding Officer, this is a Parliament of new beginnings. I lead a third term SNP Government, but I am a First Minister elected for the first time in my own right. More than a third of MSPs are new to this chamber, giving Parliament a renewed sense of energy and a fresher feel than at any time since 1999. We have a new principal party of opposition, perhaps making the choice of the kind of country we want to be sharper than it has been before. We are a Parliament preparing to assume important new powers over tax and social security as we take the next steps as a country on our journey of self-government. With these new beginnings come new and higher expectations. It is the duty of each and every one of us to live up to those expectations. We represent different political parties for a reason. Each of us wants what is best for Scotland, but we have different ideas—sometimes very different ideas—about how to achieve it. We should not seek to mask those differences. Politics at its best will always be a creative battle of ideas. However, just as importantly, we should not allow our differences to obscure the areas of agreement that do exist between us. I hope that this session of Parliament will see us expend as much effort on finding common ground as we do on debating our differences. That will not always—perhaps it will—rarely lead to unanimity, but we must be prepared to reach out beyond our party boundaries to build alliances across the chamber and in the country as a whole for the common good. As First Minister, I recognise my duty to lead by example. On 5 May, the people of Scotland gave me a clear mandate to govern but also an instruction to do so inclusively. It is that verdict of the people that will determine the tone and the substance of my Government. I will lead a Government that seeks to win votes not simply by the force of our numbers but by the strength of our arguments and by the support that we are able to build for our policies in the country as a whole. When we make mistakes, as all Governments do, though we will make strenuous efforts not to, we will try to have the courage and the humility to face up to them and put them right, and we will not assume a monopoly of wisdom. Good ideas exist across this chamber, and I promise that we will always seek to judge ideas on merit rather than on their party of origin. That is the open, inclusive and outward-looking approach to Government that I will endeavour to take. If it is matched by Opposition parties determined to be robust but also constructive in how they discharge their duties, then I believe that it can make a real difference to how we do business in this chamber and ultimately to how well we serve the people of Scotland. Of course, in seeking to make common cause, we will be guided by principle and by the manifesto that we were elected on. We are a left-of-centre social democratic Government and so the alliances that we seek to build will be progressive. We stand for an economy founded on inclusive growth for fair work and fair tax. We stand for strong public services. We stand for universal services such as free prescriptions and free education and for a social security system with dignity at its heart. We stand for human rights and trade union rights. We stand for fair and transparent land ownership. We stand strong in our determination to protect our environment for the generations that come after us. Above all, we stand for a society that offers opportunity for all. As I accept nomination as First Minister today, the promise that I am making to the country, indeed the promise that I am making to myself is that I will do everything that I possibly can to ensure that this moment in our history marks the beginning of a new age of national self-confidence. Confidence, of course, in our strength, our wealth and our potential as a country, but much more than that. Confidence that ours is a country where opportunity can flourish for everyone lucky enough to live here. Confidence that wherever you were born, whatever your gender or family background, you will have the opportunity to make the most of your talent and fulfil your potential. That is why education is so firmly at the heart of everything that my Government will aspire to do. Transforming early years education, raising standards in our schools and ensuring fair access to the opportunities that come after school will not just be the hallmarks of my Government and the issues that we ask to be judged on. They are also the foundation of the kind of society that I want us to build. They will be the building blocks of our new age of confidence. I have no desire to be First Minister for its own sake. I want to use the opportunity that I have as First Minister to change this country for the better. My passionate and lifelong belief that Scotland should be independent is well known and it is enduring. In this Parliament, a majority of MSPs are from parties that support independence, but we know that Scotland will only become independent if and when a majority of the people are persuaded. I also know that my job as First Minister now and at all times is to govern for all the people of our country. That is what I pledge to do. Two weeks ago, I asked for a personal mandate as First Minister and I was given one. The people of Scotland have put their trust in me to lead. My task now is to repay that trust, to take tough decisions knowing that I might not always get them right, and to lead a Government with purpose, a Government that is bold, ambitious and creative. I know that the next five years will throw up challenges aplenty. There will be ups and downs. I will work every day to ensure that there are many more of the former than of the latter, and I will strive to meet whatever comes my way with strength, courage and always, I hope, with a positive outlook. What I know beyond doubt is that I will be inspired and sustained each day by the support of my family, my colleagues and by an unshakable belief in the potential of our country and the people who live here. Like many of us, you were present in this chamber when it was officially opened in 2004. On that day, Liz Lochhead, who would become Scotland's second macker, read a poem written by the late Edwin Morgan, our first macker. The poem closes with those words of wisdom. They are words penned by a macker on behalf of the people, words that every man and woman elected to serve in this Parliament now and in the years to come should carry in their heart. We give you our consent to govern. Don't pocket it and ride away. We give you our deepest, dearest wish to govern well. Don't say we have no mandate to be so bold. We give you this great building. Don't let your work and hope be other than great when you enter and begin. So now begin. Open the doors and begin. This Parliament, with its new powers and responsibilities, its new members and its newly elected First Minister, has a renewed mandate to be bold. So let us approach the next five years with a passion for hard work, a sense of great hope and a determination not just to live up to but to exceed the expectations of the people we serve. That is what I will strive to do each and every day. So now let us begin. Can I thank the First Minister and the next item of business? It is consideration of business motion 61 in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick on behalf of the parliamentary bureau setting out our first business programme. I would ask any member who wishes to speak against the motion to press their request-to-speak button now. I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion 61. Formally moved. No member has asked to speak against the motion, therefore I will now put the question to the chamber. The question is that motion 61 in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The next item of business is consideration of business motion 63 in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick on behalf of the parliamentary bureau setting out the number of members of the parliamentary corporation. I would ask any member who wishes to speak against the motion to press their request-to-speak button now. I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion 63. No member has asked to speak against the motion, therefore I will now put the question to the chamber. The question is that motion 63 in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed to. Before I close this meeting, members are reminded to remain in the chamber. We are going to take a photograph shortly, so I will ask all members to remain in the chamber. I will ask Andrew Cowan shortly to take over proceedings from the gallery. I close this meeting of the Parliament.


This sub-record is an appended data extension to the full Logos record upon the subject of the Blackstone Fortresses. Should you wish, please use the ident tags included to navigate to said records location within this archival stack. In the processing of one's research upon the subject of the Blackstone Fortresses, your humble servant was able to uncover an archived recording of a conversation pertaining to their possible origins. The recording had been mis-filed and was scheduled for deletion from this particular librarian before my intervention, mercifully, timely, saved it from the grinding wheels of adeptus administratum efficiencies. Its provenance is questionable, at best, presumably being what led to the mis-filing in the first place. It purports to be a conversation between Lord Inquisitor Thaddeus Horst, Ordo Xenos, and a representative of the Adeptus Mechanicus, named Alagos, concerning the possible origin legends of the Blackstone Fortresses derived from ancient Eildari texts and extracted from interrogations of captured Xenos specimens. The results are interesting, to say the least, and lend somewhat further credence to the existence of some vast, impossibly ancient progenitor species, the hand of which I fear to say I have been seeing more and more as my studies into the foul Xenos races of our galaxy continue. Nevertheless, I have included the recording here in order for any acolytes examining the full record of the Fortresses to draw their own conclusions. Subsequent to this extract, I shall also elucidate further upon the origins that Inquisitor Horst is referring to. Recording begins. Endeavour to tell me where I should furnish you with knowledge that has cost me the majority of my lifetime to procure tech priest Alagos. The Fortresses were not all destroyed, as you know, my Lord Inquisitor.  Do not presume to tell me that which is ingrained upon my memory, instead. Begin by telling me what you think this has to do with the recent Necron attacks. My apologies, Inquisitor Horst. It is believed by many of my order that the Fortresses were created by a Xenos race for this very eventuality. If we were to regain possession of one of the Fortresses and unlock its secrets with the benefit of your researches, we believe the Xenos threat could be nullified. Do not seek to gain answers by flattery. Even my life's work could do no more than hint at the complex and arcane technology of the talismans of all. Talismans of all, my Lord? I have not heard this term. Of course you haven't, few have. It is the true name of what we call the Fortresses. They were created either by the Eldar, by one of their gods, or both. Surely Eldar gods? They only exist in the legends of the Xenos. Do they not? I distinctly remember your predecessors being possessed of, at the very least, rudimentary intelligence. How can you seek to fight the gods of the Necron tier without acknowledging the fact that beings of such incredible power exist? So you do have knowledge of them? Of course. Despite your insolence and disrespect, your answer comforts me a little. I trust your memory and grams are operative. If I'm to recount this tale, you'd better make damned sure you're recording it. All the communications of the Adeptus Mechanicus are recorded, my Lord. Then take heed and deliver this message to fabricator general Vilvoi. You don't know it, of course, but it will have been he who sent you here. If you must ask a question, try and make it brief and to the point. Is that understood? Yes, Lord Inquisitor Horst. Vall is believed to be the Eldar god of the forge, crippled physically, but mighty in artifice and skill. He was not the apex of their pantheon, but the brother of Azurion, the Phoenix King. It is said he was equally skilled at creating both things of beauty and tools of war, and he was able to forge the souls of the departed into the things he made. In this matter, he defeated the necrons who were preying on his people. Do you believe he forged the fortresses for this purpose? Patience! This has brought to light in the knowledge I am about to impart. There was a time before even the birth of humanity when the Eldar fought hard to stop the works of the necron gods, who they called Yignir. One of these, the most powerful of its kind, was exterminating the Eldar. They named it the void dragon Oblivion itself, a figure of wanton destruction and devastation in Eldar mythology. It had such mastery over the material realm that its warriors were practically invincible. Just one of its servants could slaughter hundreds of Eldar before falling only to rise once more. They could channel lighting into their foes, and it is said the battlefields of that time were thick with the charred remains of those who dared oppose them. The necrons with the ability to discharge electricity have been encountered in a metallic loop. Quite so. Although bear in mind the necrons of that time, or perhaps that allegiance were far more powerful than those emergent of the last few years, the Eldar simply could not defeat them. But Val was resourceful, and no doubt necessity spurred him on to the achievement that held the necron invasion in check. Classma technology has proven to be effective against standard pattern necrons. Did the Eldar know of a better way? You'll never cease to amaze me with your lack of insight, tech, adapt, and largos. Therefore, when you receive this, I advise you to employ an emissary with a remnant of imagination. We speak of gods and souls, and this one assumes the smith god's gift to the Eldar was plasma weaponry. These events occurred eons before the Eldar had mastered such things. They fought with swords, spears, and their own twisted version of faith. And it was found wanting. So, Val took the souls of the departed and forged them into new bodies. He placed their essences into the chests of an army of iron knights, animated by the souls of the Eldar dead. He intended to fight the necrons on their own terms. In this form, they marched to war once more. I believe the Eldar still employed necromancy in this way. Indeed, a loathsome and inexcusable practice, nevertheless. The iron knights towered over the necron foes, and the lightning blasts that would have ravaged an Eldar warrior had no deadlier effect upon them than a light breeze. They were led by wraith giants, inhabited by the souls of the greatest of the Eldar heroes. Fully three times taller than a necron, and virtually indestructible. The knights they led carried arcane weaponry that could channel and project soul fire, ripping the foes apart in a split second. Wave upon wave of necrons, each deadlier than the last, was sent from the tombforges against the indefatigable warriors Val had created. None could defeat them. In this way, Val bought enough time to construct the Tarrismans. Our information states there were six fortresses prior to the Gothic War. True enough, but their real potential was never realised by the Imperium, nor even by the Dispoiler. The Tarrismans of Val were controlled by the spirits of those Eldar seers killed by the necron invasion. At the heart of each Tarrism sat one of the Eyes of the Witch. These were gifted to Val by Moray Hague, the crone goddess of the Eldar, whose domain was secret knowledge. They enabled the departed spirits to channel vast amounts of energy straight from the Imperium into real space. In this way, Val intended to banish the dragon for eternity. But how could he locate the necron god? The void dragon, its dreams of conquest halted in their tracks and decided to lead its minions on the battlefield. None could stand before a fully manifested god, not even the Eldar assault constructs. To ensure it was at the zenith of its power, the void dragon began draining the energies of a binary star. It took the form of a cloud of dark light, surrounding the stellar anomaly and leaching energy from it until it was sated. Val knew the stars as well as he did the forge. And when the twin suns began to dim, he set forth to battle. And how did the conflict resolve? It didn't. The myth ends there. It is a mistake to assume the Eldar legends for all the same patterns as our own. For what it's worth? I believe Val failed in his appointed task. True, the void dragon was stopped in its methodical slaughter. But there are Eldar left in the galaxy.  I believe it to be dormant. We're waiting the right moment to reappear. Are you aware of the location of its refuge? Don't be absurd! Nobody has that knowledge. Of course. My apologies, Lord Inquisitor. Farewell. What? I have assumed you wanted to find out more. We have learned the requisite information. Farewell then. Tech Priest, the Logos. Judging from the contents of this log, it would appear Inquisitor Horst was involved with several members of the Adeptus Mechanicus in high-level discussions concerning the origins of the Blackstone Fortresses, including the ear of the then Fabricator General himself. His disappearance has left something of a large hole in the Ordo Xenos' knowledge base where the Blackstone Fortresses are concerned. But through Horst's sea's writings and Mechanicus' own expeditions, we have been able to discern other elements surrounding their origins and capabilities. Horst appeared to be under the assumption that the Fortresses were created by an Eldari god entity, the Smith Deity Vaul, in order to combat the hosts of the Necrons during the Mythic War in Heaven. Inquisitor's notes additionally record segments taken directly from Eldari mythology, including the very telling line, In pearls of Vaul is dragon becalmed. Highlighted again and again. Extrapolating beyond the poetry, this line would appear to refer to two specific figures. Before mentioned Vaul, the Necron Star God referred to in mythic cycles as the dragon, or void dragon, depending on the translation and Eldari tense. The latter entity, one of the behideous catan that ruled over that metallic race, was known to be a wicked thing of exceptional technological skill and power, very much the antithesis of Vaul in many respects. It is possible that Vaul created his talismans, the Fortresses, to specifically combat the dragon. This theory would gain further credence, and indeed Horst's writings insist so, given that the main weapon of the Fortress is a device used to channel the energy of the warp itself, long known to be utterly lethal to the catan. The mention of the catan is important because, again and again, the mention crops up within Horst's writings, especially with regard to one particular entity known as the Deceiver. Inquisitor Horst appears to believe that this catan, or at least a large shard of it, has manipulated historical events in order to bring about the destruction of the Fortresses where possible. Whether Horst means to accuse this being of having orchestrated the entire 12th Black Crusade is unclear. One finds it hard to conceive of, but, given what little one knows of the catan, it appears to be unwise to underestimate their capabilities. Concerning the necrons and their former masters, they themselves form another intriguing piece of the puzzle of the Fortresses. Upon further entreaties to the Adeptus Mechanicus, it would appear that their name itself, Blackstone, refers not simply to the colour of their hulls, but to the material they are made from. Blackstone is a substance fully known now to the Mechanicus, if only a privileged few, for its effect upon the interaction of reality and the warp. The pylons, on long last Cadia, appear to have been constructed from the same material. Pylons which, for so many uncounted millennia, actively kept reality stable and the hungry tides of the warp itself at bay in the regions around the Eye of Terror. Similar pylon structures on other planets in the vicinity of the Great Eye still exist and continue to exert a calming effect upon the imiterium in their local volumes, although one need only cast one's eyes to the skies and observe the stain upon reality that is the Great Rift to see the damage wrought by the loss of so many pylons with mourned Cadia. Based upon the events of the 13th Black Crusade and the testimony of Belisarius' call regarding the Necron creature that provided him aid, it is a safe assumption to operate under that the Necrons were the original architects of the pylons, moulding Blackstone into devices to shield their star gods from the depredations of warp-born psychic weaponry. The question this raises is obvious. How can a Blackstone fortress, a weapon that quite literally channels warp power as its main weapon, be of the same material of the pylons, devices that utterly repel it? The answer, according to the Mechanicus, is polarity. While the exact details of just how are occluded from my sight by Mechanicus' secrecy protocols, if even Red Mars actually is aware, the explanation extant is that Blackstone can be polarised into one state or another. In its first, it actively repels the warp, firming up the veil that separates dimensional planes. While in the other, it enhances it, allowing through means arcane for the raw energy of the immaterium to be directed through it. If such a thing is indeed true, the substance is perhaps one of the most valuable and dangerous materials in all creation. Through it, the Necrons have combated the warp, and yet, conversely, the Dispoiler has annihilated stars and destroyed one of the Imperium's greatest bastions, with the device made from it. The emergence of the new Blackstone Fortress in the depths of Wildspace casts an enormous question over most of what we have discussed herein. If Inquisitor Horst is correct, and the Fortresses are indeed the creation of the Eldari God of all, this one, appears, at least initially, to predate the admittedly uncertain timeframe of this creation, give or take tens of millions of years. That being said, this could simply be due to the Fortress's known ability to confound attempts to accurately date their superstructures, and the lack of a concerted Adeptus Mechanicus presence in the near space surrounding this new Fortress. Currently, the only reports the Order can obtain are from a motley collection of rogue traders, bounty hunters, and treasure seekers that, free from the chains of imperial bureaucracy, have descended upon this place in the hopes of scavenging riches or archaeotech. Unlike the Fortresses of the Gothic Sector, however, this one appears to be much less dormant, with accounts speaking of uncanny angles and actively shifting internal structure and aggressive defense systems. The oft-rumored sentience of the Fortresses has been whispered that this one is more alive than its fellows, although what could motivate such an intelligence if one exists within this Fortress's dark reaches? We can only imagine. Additionally, it has been reported to be playing host to a frankly bizarre range of denizens even before the arrival of the explorers. The missiles have been lurid, claiming everything from heretic astartes and guardsmen to mutants, to Xenos creatures, to utterly unknown construct things, contrasting again with the Gothic Blackstone Fortresses, which were utterly devoid of life upon discovery. This new citadel appears to be entirely contradictory, bucking expectations and maddeningly heaping questions upon a subject that was largely questions to begin with. Even the adeptus mechanicus has renewed interest in Blackstone, as well as the rising tides of arch-enemy activity, galaxy-wide and on the vigilus specifically, as well as the reawakening Necron dynasties the galaxy over. It is doubtful the secrets of this newest Fortress will remain hidden for long. It is too great a prize to simply be left in the hands of pirates and renegades. But as to who will eventually claim it, that remains another question, also unanswered. Should further information come to light, I shall update this record with all haste, although given the nature of these things, one does not hold one's breath. Until such a time. Ave Imperator. Gloria in Excelsis Terra. Thank you for watching.