Friends, friends, friends, welcome back. So as a continuation on the last video I did, which was a preface for reading this book, I'm going to start right in on reading this most brilliant book by Salvador Dali called Hidden Faces. It's a World War II period novel. And this was my pick for the best novel in the world, The Illuminated Plane, part one, The Friends of Count Hervé de Grandsai. For a long time the Count of Grandsai had been sitting with his head resting on his hand under the spell of an obsessive reverie. He looked up and let his gaze roam over the plain of Croix de Libreau. This plain meant more to him than anything in the world. There was beauty in its landscape, prosperity in its tilled fields, and of these fields the best was the earth. Of this earth the most precious was the humidity, and of this humidity the rarest product was a certain mud. His notary and most devoted friend, Maitre Pierre Herardine, who had a weakness for literary language, liked to say of Grandsai, the Count is the living incarnation of one of those rare phenomenon of the soil that eludes the skill and the resources of agronomy, a soil molded of earth and blood of an untraceable source, a magic clay of which the spirit of our native land is formed. When the Count went down toward the sluice gates with a new visitor on a tour of the property, he would invariably stoop to the ground to pick up a muddy clod and as he shoved it, as he showed it, modeling it with his aristocratic fingers, he would repeat for the hundredth time in a tone of sudden improvisation. My dear fellow, it is undoubtedly the somewhat rough ductility of our soil that accounts for this miracle of this region. For not only is our wine unique, but also and above all we possess the truffle, the mystery and treasure of this earth on whose surface glide the largest of snails in the whole of France, vying with that other oddity, the crayfish, and all this framed by the most noble and generous vegetation, the cork oak which treats us to its own skin. And in passing, he would tear off a handful of cork oak leaves from a low branch, squeezing them tightly and roll them in the hollow of his hand, enjoying the sensation against his fine skin of the prickly resistance of their spiny contact, whose touch alone sufficed to isolate the count from the rest of the world. For of all the continents, of all the globe, Grand Sy esteemed only Europe. Of all Europe, he loved only France. Of France, he worshipped only Vaucluse. And of Vaucluse, the chosen spot of the gods was precisely the one where he was located, the Château de Lamont, where he was born. In the Château de Lamont, the best situation was that of his room. And in this room, there was a spot from which the view was unique. This spot was exactly limited by four great rectangular lozenges in the black and white tiled floor on whose four outer angles were exactly placed, the four slightly contracted paws of a svelte Louis XVI work desk signed by Jacob, the cabinet maker. It was at this desk that the Count of Grand Sy was seated, looking through the great Regency balcony at the plain of Croix de Libreau, illuminated by the already setting sun. There was nothing that could so lyrically arouse the fervor of Grand Sy's patriotic feelings as the unwearing sight constantly offered him by the changing aspect of this fertile plain of Croix de Libreau. Nevertheless, one thing egregiously marred for him the perennial harmony of its landscape. This was a section about 300 meters square where the trees had been cut away, leaving a peeled and earthen baldness which disagreeably broke the melodic and flowing line of a great wood of dark cork oaks. Up to the time of the death of Grand Sy's father, this wood had remained intact, affording to the vast panorama, a homogenous foreground composed of the dark undulating and horizontal line of oaks, setting off the luminous distances of the valley, likewise horizontal and gently modulated. But since the death of the elder Grand Sy, the property, burdened with heavy debts and mortgages, had had to be subdivided in three sections. Two of these had fallen into the hands of a great landed proprietor of Breton origin, Rachefort, who immediately became one of the Count's bitterest political enemies. One of the first things Rachefort did on entering into possession of his new property was to cut down 300 square meters of cork oaks which fell to his title and which had lost their productive value by being separated from the rest of the great wood. They had been replaced by a planting of vines which grew poorly in the exhausted and excessively stony soil. These 300 square meters of uprooted cork oaks in the very heart of the family wood of Grand Sy, not only bore witness to the dismemberment of the Count's domains, but also to this gap had brought completely into view, but also this gap had brought completely into view the Moulin des Saucers, now inhabited by Rachefort, a place keenly missed for it was the key to irrigation and the fertility of the greater part of Grand Sy's cultivated lands. The Moulin des Saucers had formerly been completely hidden by the wood and only the weather veins of the mill tower emerging between two low oaks had been visible from the Count's room. Next to his devotion to the land, his sense of beauty was certainly one of the most exclusive passions that dominated Grand Sy.  Indeed, since his last electoral defeat five years previously, the Count of Grand Sy, with the intransigence that characterized all his decisions, had abandoned politics to await the moment when events would take a critical turn. This did not imply a disgust with politics. The Count, like every true Frenchman, was a born politician. He was fond of repeating Klausowitz's maxim, war is only the continuation of politics by other means. He was sure that the approaching war with Germany was inevitable and that its coming was mathematically demonstrable. Grand Sy was waiting for this moment to enter into politics again, sincerely wishing that it might come as quickly as possible, for he felt his country day by day growing weaker and more corrupt. What then could the anecdotic incidents of the local politics of the plain matter to him? And while he was impatiently waiting for war to break out, the Count of Grand Sy was thinking of giving a grand ball. And while he was, and no, it was not only the proximity of his political enemy that oppressed him at the site of the Malum des Sorcelles. In the course of these five years, during which the heroic and unswerving devotion of Maitre Herodine had succeeded in stabilizing his fortune and in organizing the productivity of his lands, the last wounds that the division of his property had inflicted upon his pride and his interests seemed slowly and definitely to have healed. It should be added that if Grand Sy had been relatively indifferent to the dwindling of his former domains, he had never despaired of buying back the properties that had been taken from him and this idea, dimly nursed in the depths of his plans, helped provisionally to make him feel even more detached from his ancestral estates. On the other hand, he could never become accustomed to the mutilation of his forest. And each new day he suffered more acutely at the site of that desolate square on which the wind-broken grapevines of a moribund vineyard pitifully rung their twisted arms at geometrically distributed intervals, an irreparable profanation on the horizon of his first memories, the horizon and stability of his childhood with its three superimposed fringes so lovingly blended by the light, the dark forest of the foreground, the illuminated plain, and the sky. Only a detailed study of the very special topography of this region, however, could satisfactorily make clear why these three elements of the landscape, so linked and constant, achieved such a poignant emotional and elegic effect of luminous contrast in this plain of Libro. From early afternoon, the descending shadows of the mountains behind the chateau would begin progressively to invade the wood of cork oaks, plunging it suddenly into a kind of premature and pre-twilight darkness. And while the very foreground of the landscape lay obscured by a velvet and uniform shadow, the sun beginning to set in the center of a deep depression in the terrain would pour its fire across the plain, its slanting rays giving an increasing objectivity to the tiniest geological details and accidents, an objectivity which was heightened even more paroxysmally by the proverbial impidity of the atmosphere, it was as though one could have taken the entire plain of Libro in the hollow of one's hand, as though one might have distinguished a slumbering lizard in the old wall of a house situated several miles away. It was only at the very end of twilight and almost on the threshold of night that the last residues of the reflections of the setting sun regretfully relaxed their grip on the ultimate in purple heights, thus seeming to attempt, in defiance of the laws of nature, to perpetuate a chimerical survival of day. When it was almost nightfall, the plain of Croix de Libro still appeared illuminated. And it was perhaps because of this exceptional receptivity to light that each time the count of Grand Sly experienced one of his painful lapses of depression, when his soul darkened with the moral shadows of melancholy, he would see the ancestral hope of perennial and fertile life rising from the deep black forest of the spiny cork oaks of his grief. The plain of Croix de Libro bathed in warm sunlight, the illuminated plain. How many times, after long periods spent in Paris, when Grand Sly's spirit would sink into the idle skepticism of his emotional life, the mere memory of a fugitive glimpse of his plain would revive in him a new and sparkling love of life. This time Grand Sly had found Paris so absorbed by political problems that his stay in town had been extremely brief. He had returned to his château de la mort without even having had time to be affected by the progressive disenchantment, eventually produced by two continual indulgence in relationships based exclusively on the tense drama of social prestige. This time on the contrary, the Count had come back to his domains with an unquenched craving for sociability, which induced him to invite his closest friend, as he once used to, to come and spend weekends with him. It was two weeks now since Grand Sly had been back and dined as usual on snails or crayfish in the company of his notary, Pierre Herardine. These were meals over which they held interminable low-voiced conversations, served on tiptoe by Prince, the old family servant. Mitre Herardine, as has been noted, concealed turbulent literary leanings beneath the strict and modest severity of his profession, just as his everyday laconic and objective phraseology concealed a succulent, metaphoric and grandiloquent verve, a modest expansiveness to which he gave free reign only in the presence of intimate and trusted friends, among whom the Count of Grand Sly was the first to be privileged. Grand Sly took a voluptuous delight in his notary's long tirades, full of images and often touched with grandeur, and not only did he savor them, but he also put them to good use for if it is true that the Count possessed a remarkably eloquent style and spoke the French language with a wholly personal elegance, it was no less true that he was capable of inventing those unexpected images that came so naturally to Herardine, images of a slightly acid and cynical fancifulness that had the peculiar faculty of effectively penetrating the vulnerable zone of seduction and of dream in the suggestible and chimerical minds of women of refinement. Grand Sly would note Herardine's lyrical inventions and bizarre ideas in his memory and often, not trusting his memory, would jot them down in a tiny social engagement book and handwriting fine as a gold thread. On such occasions, Grand Sly would often beg Metra Herardine to repeat the end of a sentence and the latter then experienced the moments of his greatest pride and was forced in spite of himself to display the double row of very white teeth in an almost painful smile wrenched from the severe contraction of modesty. Metra Herardine would lower his head, respectfully waiting for the Count to finish his fine scrawl and on his bowed forehead, blue-tinged veins, normally quite visible and prominent, would swell even more and reach that swollen and shiny hardness characteristic of arteriosclerosis. In Pierre Herardine's set and embarrassed expression, there was not only pride compressed by the humble willingness to keep his distance, but also there was a shade of uneasiness, barely perceptible yet impossible to dissimulate. Yes, Metra Herardine was embarrassed. He was ashamed of Grand Sly for he knew exactly the use the latter made of his notations, which was simply to enable him to shine in society, and it was in truth thanks to the occult inspiration of his notary that the Count had acquired his unique reputation as an original conversationalist. He availed himself of these jotted notes also and more especially to seduce women and above all to keep alive that latent and consuming passion composed of idle talk and artificiality, which may be the growing addiction which by the growing addiction to its slow and fatal power linked him to Madame Solange de Cléda. In fact, Grand Sly, who had a poor memory, would go so far as to study the course of his meetings with Madame de Cléda in advance, and his conversations were always woven around three or four lyrical and flashing themes that had usually developed in the course of the long evenings spent in the company of his notary. It is true, to do justice to the Count, that with his natural gift of speech and his mastery of the art of social intercourse, he would often achieved real gems of style, while with the restraint of his rare good taste, he developed and polished the excessive succulent and picturesque elements which had sprung from his notaries somewhat plebeian lips, but which, if he had presented them without modification in an ultra Parisian salon, might have seemed pretentious, ridiculous, or out of place, if not all three at once. Grand Sly, who had had Pierre Herodine as a playmate at the Chateau during his whole boyhood, had also gained from his notary an immediate, trenchant, and elementary understanding of human relationships, which only a person sprung from the most authentic stock of the common people, like Herodine, could have given him. Thus each time it was said of the Count that he was a great realist in spirit, it was in large part to the logical virtues of his notary that people unwittingly alluded. The Count of Grand Sly not only usurped his poetic images, his profound remarks, and his almost brutal sense of reality from Maitre Herodine, but he had even imitated the latter's way of limping. Five years previously in an automobile collision during the tragicomic events of the Electoral Campaign, Count and his notary had both suffered a similar injury in one leg. Maitre Herodine was completely cured in three weeks, but the Count, whose leg was badly set, retained a limp. He had nevertheless time to observe the way his notary walked during his convalescence, and immediately took to imitating his limp, which struck him as having an impressive dignity. Indeed, by giving a slower and more serene inflection to the rhythm of his defective walk, Grand Sly only added to his perfectly proportioned and manly physique, a note of melancholy and refined distinction. The Count also kept from this accident a long and very thin scar, which extended in a straight vertical line from the left temple to the middle of the cheek. Now this cut, which was very deep, was barely visible, but like a barometer it would appear sharp and purplish on days of storm, and at such times it would itch violently, forcing the Count, who did not want to scratch himself, to bring his hand sharply to his cheeks, to which he would hold it pressed with all his might. This was the only incomprehensible tick among all his gestures and movements, which were so deliberate as to touch the fringe of affection. The Count of Grand Sly was giving that evening a dinner by candlelight to 25 of his closest friends, who, having all arrived in the course of the afternoon, were now in the midst of primping before going down into the reception room at half past eight. Grand Sly was all dressed an hour ahead of time, and as in the case of his love trists, his evenings in society, or even a meeting with an intimate friend, he liked to slip without haste along slightly and delightful anguishing weight, during which he had time to prepare himself for the kind of effect and the situations he would like to bring about. He had a horror of anything that betrayed the barbarous love of improvisation, and on this particular evening, ready even earlier than usual for the reception, the Count set down to wait at the desk in his room. Pulling his little engagement book out of the drawer, he began to consult the notes taken in the course of these last two weeks by means of which he expected to give brilliancy to his talk. He neglected the first three pages, written confusedly and with little conviction, and containing phrases and themes intended for general conversation. Then smiled as he came upon a page full of surprises, exemplifying clever ways of breaking into a discussion, and finally stopped at a page on which was written only the phrase notes for tête-à-tête with selange. He remained for a long time absorbed in the contemplation of this page, and a kind of invincible indolence prevented him from proceeding, at the same time urging him irresistibly to follow the confused and agreeable course of a seductive reverie. It was a bizarre passion that united Hervé de Grandsay and Selange de Cléda. For five years, they had played at a merciless war of mutual seduction, more and more anxious and irritating, having as yet crystallized only to the point of exacerbating a growing impulse of rivalry and self-assertion, which the slightest sentimental avowal or weakness would seriously have threatened with disillusionment. Each time the Count had felt Selange's passion yield to calms of tenderness, he had come forward eagerly with new pretexts to wound her vanity and re-establish the wild and rearing aggressive attitude, which is that of unsatisfied desire, when whip in hand, one obliges it to overcome more and more insurmountable obstacles of pride. It is for these reasons that after their long sessions carried on in the semi-langerous tone of a light idol sprinkled with feigned indifference and delicate play of wit, while both of them were in reality stubbornly hiding from themselves the frenzied gallop of their passions, Grandsay was always tempted to tap Selange on the buttocks and give her a piece of sugar as one does to a thoroughbred horse, prancing up with the supple elegance of his movements to place his boundless energy at your disposal. For the Count regarded all this with the same good nature as a horseman covered with dust and bruised who has been thrown several times during a spirited ride. Nothing is more fatiguing than a passion of this kind based on an integral coca tree on both sides. Grandsay was telling himself this when he heard the clock in the drawing room strike half past eight. He raised his head, which he had held for a long time, bowed, leaning on his hand and looked for a few moments at the plain of Croix de Libreau, which because of its special topographical configuration still held the reflections of the last gleams of day in spite of the raining semi-darkness. Casting a glance at the plain, the Count of Grandsay promptly got up from his desk and, limping in his characteristic fashion, crossed the corridor that led to the reception room.


The next item of business is a statement by Shona Robison on Scottish Government's provision of information to the Covid-19 inquiries. The Deputy First Minister will take questions at the end of her statement and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Shona Robison, Deputy First Minister. Presiding Officer, the loss and trauma experienced by people across Scotland throughout the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be overstated. We remember all those who have lost their lives or had them permanently changed. It is my hope that through the Scottish Government's co-operation with both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 public inquiries that we can help to provide some answers and some relief. I know that the chamber will appreciate that we would not normally make a statement regarding engagement with public inquiries while their proceedings are live. However, as the minister responsible for Covid-19 inquiries, I am making this statement to address issues raised by the UK inquiry at the preliminary hearing on 26 October and to give our reassurances on our commitment for a full response. In order to ensure that the inquiries can take forward their necessary work without undue speculation, I hope that the chamber will also appreciate that we do not intend to provide a running commentary on the work of either inquiry. The Scottish Government established the first public inquiry in the UK to examine the response to Covid-19 in December 2021 ahead of the UK Government commencing the UK-wide public inquiry. It is important to note that both inquiries have made all their requests to witnesses in confidence and those requests are not public. All those receiving requests, including the Scottish Government, have been told by the inquiries not to share their content. It is entirely up to and wholly a matter for the independent inquiry chairs to determine where appropriate whether to publish the material they receive. The Scottish Government is obliged to comply with this requirement and, as such, I will not and cannot provide precise details on any of the requests that the Scottish Government has received to date, including specific information on what has been asked of individuals who have received requests from the inquiries. How can I discuss in detail what materials individuals have or have not provided? Let me say from the offset, where there has been any lack of clarity from the Scottish Government about the material to be provided to the inquiries, then I do apologise to the families bereaved by Covid for any distress caused. That certainly was not our intention. The First Minister has reached out to the representatives of the Scottish Covid bereaved and offered a meeting to provide further reassurances where we can. What I can assure those families in this chamber is that the Scottish Government has and will work tirelessly to provide the UK inquiry with the materials that it has requested. The material provided to the inquiry to date includes emails, messages, submissions and advice to ministers on papers from key decision making meetings, including the Scottish Cabinet. In total, more than 19,000 documents have already been provided to the UK inquiry and this figure continues to grow. The initial requests received from the UK inquiry focused on decision making. As we have stated previously, it is not the culture within the Scottish Government to routinely use systems such as WhatsApp for decision making. Decisions are routinely made in minute meetings or through formal submissions to ministers. All relevant records of both of those have been provided to both inquiries already. The UK inquiry asked in June for summaries of all WhatsApp and similar groups related to co-ordination, logistics and day-to-day communication, greatly expanding the scope of what the Scottish Government needed to collate and process accordingly. The request was followed in September by a request for the actual messages exchanged within those groups. In examining the messages collated, it was clear that a number of them were of a particularly personal nature, including photos of individuals' children and personal medical details. In order to reconcile our obligations as data controller for the contents of the messages with our desire to co-operate fully within the inquiry, the Scottish Government wrote to the UK inquiry on 5 October requesting a section 21 notice to provide the necessary legal basis for providing the information within the messages. The Scottish Government received a section 21 notice yesterday and I can confirm that work is well under way to fully comply in accordance with the timetable set by the UK inquiry. This will mean that all requested messages held will be shared in full and unredacted by 6 November. In addition to the hundreds of messages already handed over to the UK inquiry, the notice will allow us to share over 14,000 mainly WhatsApp messages from various groups and individuals over the period of the pandemic, mostly concerning routine co-ordination of work and meetings by officials. I can confirm that messages from ministers and former ministers are included, but I have not seen them nor should I, as that is for the inquiry. We will, of course, continue to fully co-operate with both inquiries and will share any additional messages should more become available or further material be requested. Following questions in Parliament last week, I would also like to highlight that the First Minister has asked the permanent secretary to ensure that all steps are being taken to meet the inquiry's request and for the Solicitor General to satisfy herself that the Scottish Government has met all its legal obligations. It will be for individuals to explain to the inquiries any actions they have taken in relation to records retention. As the First Minister recently stated, should either Covid inquiry want more information, then we expect every minister pass on present and every Government official to comply. I can confirm that the First Minister will, when submitting his final statement for module 2A in the coming days, hand over WhatsApp messages unredacted to the inquiry. Presiding Officer, I would now like to offer some insight and reassurance regarding the handling and retention of records, including but not limited to informal communications by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government has clear record management policy, including transcribing and storing salient information from informal communications such as evidence of decision making to a centralised record system. The Scottish Government's duty to create and retain records has remained consistent throughout the period looked at by the inquiries, and we have complied with that. The Scottish Government has maintained a detailed record and evidence of key decisions taken during the pandemic. Our policies fully comply with our legislative obligations under the Public Records Scotland Act 2011 and other legal obligations. The Scottish Government's records management policy makes clear what must be recorded in the official record, as it is not practical, cost effective or necessary for any organisation to retain every single exchange that everyone working within that organisation creates. To be crystal clear, there has never been a need for material without business value to be retained as part of the corporate record. Colleagues exchanging pleasantries, chatting electronically about inconsequential or personal matters while working from home during lockdown should not be retained. No Government, no organisation of any size routinely retains that material because it has no business use. It should also be noted that there are clear legal requirements not to retain data and particularly personal data for which there is no legitimate purpose. Prior to the development of a dedicated mobile messaging policy in November 2021, the retention of mobile messages was covered in the Scottish Government's record management policy. The records management policy continues to apply to all records. The guidance has always been clear that, regardless of the platform, information relevant to the corporate record must be saved. The mobile messaging policy drafted by civil servants is intended to ensure responsible and effective use of messaging applications. It is consistent with and supplements the established records management policy. The policy covers a range of applications that are used on mobile devices, including but not limited to WhatsApp. The policy does not prohibit the use of messaging applications but requires people to consider the benefits and risks of using these apps and to ensure that any usage is compliant with records management responsibilities and data protection requirements. The policy encourages consideration of security and privacy when using mobile messaging apps, including whether the application allows for the automatic deletion of messages after a set period to address the risk of messages being misused if a mobile device is lost or compromised. Let me be clear, however, that, contrary to some reports, there is not and has not ever been a requirement for any official, let alone ministers, to auto delete messages without ensuring that relevant information from them is captured and saved appropriately first. The Scottish Inquiry wrote to the Scottish Government's permanent secretary on 5 August 2022, requesting that all material of potential relevance to the inquiry be retained. The UK Inquiry to date has not written to the Scottish Government with a specific request for record retention. However, the UK Government wrote to permanent secretaries in each devolved administration in June 2021, February 2022 and October 2022, asking that material of potential relevance to the inquiry should not be destroyed. Those requests were cascaded through the Scottish Government and the significance and importance of storing material of potential relevance was made known to all relevant staff, as was the instruction that this material should be saved on the official record. For the avoidance of any doubt, the Scottish Government has consistently acted in line with its records management policies and relevant legal obligations with regards to the collating and storing of corporate information. Before closing, I note my gratitude to those working in the UK and Scottish Covid-19 inquiries. I am conscious of the immense responsibility that they hold and the enormity of the tasks that they face in understanding and distilling the events of the pandemic and the lessons that can be taken away. We all stand to benefit from the work that they take forward on our behalf, and I am pleased with the constructive relationship that has developed between both inquiries and Scottish Government officials, including in the context of challenging deadlines and detailed scrutiny. I am happy to reiterate the Scottish Government's pledge to continue the highest standard of co-operation already established with both public inquiries. Those affected by the pandemic, particularly those who bore some form of loss, have placed a great deal of trust in the Scottish Government. Not just to take on the challenges that Covid-19 posed, but also to be open and accountable about our performance. That trust is of the most importance to me and to the Scottish Government, and we will continue to work to make sure that we are acting accordingly. The Deputy First Minister will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 30 minutes for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business. I will be grateful if members who wish to put a question were to press their request-to-speak buttons. The UK and Scottish Covid inquiries were set up to give answers to thousands of families who lost loved ones during the pandemic and everyone who suffered. They must be at the forefront of our thoughts today. I also want to state at this point that the Scottish Conservatives believe that it should be the First Minister delivering this statement today and being held accountable in this Parliament today. With respect to evidence to the inquiries, Nicola Sturgeon, who is in the chamber today, promised in August 2021 that nothing would be off limits, including WhatsApp messages. However, the stench of secrecy from this Government is overpowering. At the weekend, it was revealed that Nicola Sturgeon had manually deleted messages. It has also been revealed that Scotland's most senior clinician, Jason Leach, deleted WhatsApp messages on a daily basis. So, while today the Deputy First Minister has said that the SNP Government will now provide 14,000 WhatsApp messages almost a year after they were originally asked for, does that figure include all messages from Nicola Sturgeon, from Jason Leach and any others who had deleted messages? If so, how were they recovered? If not, how does the Deputy First Minister defend this cover-up? We know that in June 2021 the Scottish Government was told not to destroy any communication relating to the pandemic. So, can the Deputy First Minister tell us if any messages were destroyed after that date? If they were, does the Deputy First Minister accept that any SNP minister or former minister, including Nicola Sturgeon, would have broken the law if they had done so? Finally, many of the issues that are causing concern just now relate to disappearing messages. We have seen correspondence that suggests that the Deputy First Minister herself has had disappearing messages turned on on her WhatsApp account. Is that true, and does she still have disappearing messages turned on on her WhatsApp account? Where I do agree with Douglas Ross is that the families are at the forefront of this. That is why it is important that we give as much information as is possible to give. That is why 19,000 documents have already been given. I need to explain again something that I explained in my statement. That is the first tranche of queries and asks from the inquiry related to decision making. That was the response of the 19,000 documents to that request. It was then in June that the inquiry came back asking for groups of WhatsApp messages, what the title of those groups were and who were members of those groups. It was then September when they came asking for those individual messages. It is not correct to say that it has been a year since that request was made. It has only been just over a month. We then had to ask for the section 21 order because of the nature of those messages. That order came in yesterday and those 14,000 WhatsApp messages will be given to the inquiry by the deadline of 6 November. I said in my statement very clearly that I cannot say who those messages are from and what the content is because I am not allowed to. I do not see them. That is a confidential set of information requests. Deputy First Minister, can I just ask members to ensure that we can all hear the Deputy First Minister? That is the confidential nature of what the inquiry has asked for. If I were to breach that and ask for information from officials that do not share that information with anyone, that would be a breach of the confidential requirements of the inquiry itself. I do not know who those 14,000 messages are from other than they include ministers, former ministers and officials. The only person that I know of that will provide those WhatsApp messages as the First Minister himself because he has publicly stated so. Beyond that, I do not know who those 14,000 WhatsApp messages relate to. If those messages are published, that is in the gift of the inquiry itself and they will decide whether or not any of those messages are released. In terms of the disappearing messages, let me say this. In terms of my use of WhatsApp with my private office, for example, any decision around I ask for information or I ask for something to be taken forward, that is then recorded on the system because otherwise it would not happen. So it is recorded on the system. Other messages like do I want a coffee or what is my time of arrival, we would not hold on to those messages because that would not comply with the data management policy. So I hope that I have managed to give Douglas Ross the answers to his questions that he has. Thank you. I call Jackie Baillie. Presiding Officer, evidence being taken at the UK Covid inquiry today demonstrates why transparency in government is just so important. People were discharged to care homes without testing, too many people died and people lost their livelihoods. So we absolutely need to understand why decisions were taken and what happened so we can learn lessons for the future. Both families were promised nothing less than full co-operation by the Scottish Government with both the UK and Scottish inquiries, yet they have been treated with disrespect. Promise transparency and a guarantee from the First Minister that all messages would be handed over, but instead the Government and individual ministers have so far failed to deliver. Messages from those closest to the decision making have been destroyed on an industrial scale. What we have seen instead is what can only be construed as deliberate and co-ordinated with holding of information. A public inquiry was talked about in May 2020. Why did ministers not retain evidence from then? The Deputy First Minister points to individual responsibility to co-operate with the inquiry. Surely it is the collective responsibility of the Scottish Government to ensure that its own procedures are followed, not least by the former First Minister and former Deputy First Minister. Does she agree with me that it is inconceivable that a former First Minister would not understand the importance of that evidence? Finally, all the 70 people in the 137 WhatsApp groups, ministers, special advisers and civil servants, have been issued with individual section 21 notices or was this to the Scottish Government? Does that include the First Minister and Deputy First Minister? Can she confirm that she will be able to comply fully and have not destroyed any evidence? Let me agree with Jackie Baillie first of all that in the midst of all this are families who have lost loved ones and have been profoundly affected. Many of us have families affected ourselves. It is not in my interest or the Scottish Government's interest to not provide that information. We have already provided 19,000 documents about decision making and at least 14,000 WhatsApp messages will be provided by 6 November. The section 21 order covers all those messages because of the nature of the sensitivity of some of that personal information that is required. As I said in my statement, the permanent secretary and the Solicitor General have also been asked for reassurance in terms of the policy being followed. Ultimately, it is the requirement of each individual to comply with the policy. The recommendations and requirements were made very clear to everybody concerned. The inquiry itself can, of course, interrogate the information provided to individuals in the course of the hearings if they consider it relevant to do so. For the Scottish Government's purposes, I have set out in great detail in my statement what the management of information policy was and the requirement and the clarity to ministers and officials of their requirement to follow that policy. I call Jackie Dunbart to be followed by Megan Gallagher. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I take this opportunity to put on record my condolences to the families who have been bereaved? I hope that the inquiries can provide the answers that they so desperately need. I am grateful that the First Minister has committed to handing over whatever the Covid inquiry asks for, in contrast to the Prime Minister's attempts earlier this year to block Baroness Hallot's request for information. Given the concerns that the representatives of bereaved family members have highlighted, can the Deputy First Minister give an assurance that the Scottish Government is doing everything it can to provide maximum transparency? As I said in my statement that the Scottish Government is wholly committed to co-operating with both the UK and Scottish Covid-19 public inquiries and will continue to fully comply with all requests for information that we receive. On a couple of occasions now, that is why the Scottish Government has already provided more than 19,000 records to the UK Covid-19 inquiry and we are providing more than 14,000 messages by 6 November now that the inquiry has provided a legally compliant way for us to be able to do that. We will continue to work with both inquiries to ensure that we respond fully to any future requests that come in beyond the information already provided. Last week, the SNP Government told the Covid inquiry in reference to WhatsApp messages that relevant information would be recorded in the Scottish Government's electronic records and document management system. Deputy First Minister, the public deserve to know the truth. How many WhatsApps were saved through the Scottish Government's electronic records and document management process in relation to the pandemic? Have any of those messages been subsequently deleted from that record and will the Covid inquiry be given full access to those records? I went through in quite some detail in my statement how the records policy works. That is the responsibility of the official, the minister and indeed the minister's private office to make sure that anything that is material that is discussed on WhatsApp is recorded on the record. As I said in my statement, WhatsApp is not routinely used for Government decision making. You can see why. Anything that is about a decision has to go in the system, otherwise it will not be acted upon, so it is not routinely used for decision making. I have set out clearly the expectation of every single person that was required to follow that policy. I have set out how that was communicated. Ultimately, it is the requirement of each individual to comply with the policy that was clearly set out. As I said in my previous answer, the inquiry itself can interrogate the information provided to them by any individual in the course of the hearings if they choose to do so. The Finance Committee recently held an inquiry into Government decision making. I wonder if the Deputy First Minister would agree with what I think was the committee's feelings that there does need to be space for informal chats and sharing ideas. Can she say how we get the balance right between formal discussions that should be properly recorded and informal discussions that need not be? John Mason makes a reasonable point that free and open discussions between ministers and officials in both formal and informal manners are a key part of the functioning of Government and other organisations. They help to ensure the generation of ideas and solutions are a very quick way of communicating, but if any decision or anything that is pertinent to the organisation is discussed, that should be recorded on the information management system. The Scottish Government already has record management policies that are extensive and that ensure that any discussions with corporate value, particularly those around policy decisions, are transcribed and stored in the corporate record appropriately. That is how WhatsApp or any other teams or any other platform should be used. As I said in my statement, the Permanent Secretary and the Solicitor General are making sure and assuring the First Minister and the Scottish Government that that is the case and that that is fully understood by everyone in the organisation going forward. Daniel Johnson to be followed by Audrey Nicholl. Do not destroy notices were issued to ministers and officials on August 2022. In her answers so far, the Deputy First Minister has been clear that it is a matter of individual responsibility as to whether they comply or not. So can the Deputy First Minister tell the chamber how many individuals have complied and how many individuals have yet to comply? As I said clearly in my statement, I have no sight of any of that information because it would be against the enquiries rules for me to have any of that. Let's hear the Deputy First Minister. This is really important and it's important that the chamber understands this point. Rule 9 requests come from the inquiry to the individual. No one is sighted on the content of that and no one is sighted on what the response is. That is completely confidential. It would be quite wrong of me to ask to see those... I would be grateful if members could allow us all to hear the Deputy First Minister respond and that can be difficult when others are talking at the same time. This is actually a very serious matter, a very serious matter. Members, it's a very serious matter and it's very important that people understand the nature of an inquiry. The inquiry itself is the guardian of the information of what they request from whom and what they receive back. That is confidential. I will have no sight of that so I do not know for example how... Many ministers, past or present, are included in those 14,000 WhatsApp messages because I have no sight of that. I have no sight of who they are and what the content is. And neither should I because if I was to that would be a breach of the inquiry rules. That is how an inquiry works and I think perhaps it might be helpful for us to circulate some information exactly about how the inquiry works because if people don't understand that basic concept then we have a problem about the confidential nature of the information being provided. Before I move to the next question, members will appreciate that there is a great deal of interest in the statement. There are many members wishing to put questions so we will require concise questions and responses. I call Audrey Nicholl to be followed by Alex Cole-Hamilton. The First Minister was clear last week as the Deputy First Minister has been clear today that the Scottish Government decisions were not routinely made over WhatsApp, which is very welcome. We know that this hasn't necessarily been the case elsewhere in the UK. Can the Deputy First Minister provide an update regarding steps being taken to reinforce this practice across government? The Scottish Government has internal practices to ensure that all record keeping around decision making follows those internal policies that are referred to in some detail in my statement, as well as legal requirements for information management. The record management policy is available to all staff on the Scottish Government's internet as well as being available to the public on gov.scot. We will of course reinforce those practices following the statement from today going forward with an all staff communication to be issued reminding officials of their responsibilities to ensure that good record keeping practices are maintained. That applies to ministers as well. The interaction between ministers and their private office is making sure that any decision making is recorded is a really important interaction within government. That is what I reiterated in my statement earlier. Alex Cole-Hamilton to be followed by Emma Harper. Thousands of grieving families are looking to these inquiries for answers. UK Government WhatsApp shows minute by minute what was really going on behind the scenes and how decisions were made. It shows that the discussions behind an order were often as important as the order itself. Did those life and death judgments ever hinge around Nicola Sturgeon's desire just to be different from Boris? We may never know, because messages deleted at the very top of the Scottish Government erased the process by which ministers weighed the politics and the science behind the decisions required of them. If anyone else had acted in such a conspiratorial way, the SNP would now be in uproar. This will all come out in the wash. The Deputy First Minister, if she personally believes those grieving families will ever see the correspondence of most importance to them, that being all relevant messages to and from Nicola Sturgeon. I agree with Alex Cole-Hamilton that families are looking for answers, and he is right about the context of some of that decision making. That is why the 14,000 WhatsApp messages that I referred to in my statement, and that will grow without a doubt, are so important. Some of that will provide the context of the environment that decisions were being made in. The inquiry will see all of that. It will see the First Minister's WhatsApp messages, which he will provide as part of his final statement to the inquiry. What I do not know is what the inquiry itself will put in the public domain, because that is a matter for the inquiry. There might put all of it in the public domain, but none of it might be put in the public domain. That is for the inquiry because the information is there information in terms of what it was requested, what it holds and what it will release. That is for the inquiry, not for the Scottish Government. Emma Harper will be followed by Murdo Fraser. A substantial number of people will be involved in Government decision making processes. What engagement has been undertaken with civil servants to ensure that their views inform robust decision making processes? All civil servants receive training to ensure that ministers are receiving the best possible advice. That includes training in using data and evidence and working with partners and communities so that advice coming to ministers has the relevant information and different views and perspectives. The civil service also regularly works with external experts too, who can peer review information and ensure that ministers receive high quality advice on which to base decisions. The advice, as I said earlier, is then stored within the corporate record in line with our records management policy. That is the crucial part of how decisions are recorded. I have made that point a number of times because the importance of it cannot be understated. Murdo Fraser will be followed by Willie Coffey. The First Minister said yesterday that there was a policy of deleting social media messages after 30 days. In her statement, the Deputy First Minister has told us that policy was introduced in November 2021 after the height of the pandemic was over. Can the Deputy First Minister confirm that anyone in the Scottish Government, whether a minister or a civil servant who deleted messages before that date, would be in breach of the Government's records management policy? The records management policy, as I have set out in detail in my statement, is very clear. It is very clear that WhatsApp is not routinely used as a decision making tool, but any decision made, whether it is on WhatsApp or any other platform, had to be recorded on the official management system. That has always been the case. Nothing has changed in relation to that. The issue that I pointed out in my statement around the deletion of messages is about being able to distinguish between messages about cups of coffee or when someone is arriving at an event from important information that is about decision making or has corporate value. That is a distinction made, because no organisation in the world will retain every single WhatsApp conversation between every individual and its organisation. It just wouldn't. The policy is clear about what has to be retained and where it has to be retained. That has always been the policy. I could not be clearer about that. In relation to the messages that will be handed over, some of that will be in the category of chit chat on WhatsApp. Some of it will be more pertaining to the context of decisions that were being made at the time. All that information that the Scottish Government holds will be given to the inquiry by 6 November. Any other information that is requested beyond that will do its best to provide the inquiry with any additional information requested. Willie Coffey to be followed by Gillian Mackay. Can the Deputy First Minister provide any further information about steps that are being taken to ensure that there is a comprehensive understanding of the Scottish Government's record management policy across Government, including any further guidance on the use of messaging or other apps for any relevant purposes? Senior officials have issued a number of emails to staff, reminding them of their obligation to understand and adhere to the Scottish Government's record management policy. Detailed advice on the policy and others related to it are available to all staff via their intranet. The Scottish Government's senior information risk owner is also preparing a further all-staff communication to be issued to direct officials towards this information to make sure that everyone is reminded about the key aspects of the Scottish Government's records management policy. Gillian Mackay to be followed by Michelle Thomson. It is critical that, in this important discussion, we are all clear exactly how and where Scottish Government decisions are made and how those decisions are recorded and acted upon. Can the Deputy First Minister clarify whether decisions were made on WhatsApp during the Covid pandemic and what safeguards were in place to ensure that good governance standards were adhered to during the height of the crisis? Let me be clear again that WhatsApp is not routinely used as a decision making tool. The reason for that is that, if a minister wants a decision to be acted upon, it has to go into the system to be acted upon. That is why any decision communicating, for example, to a private office from a minister will then be transcribed into the system so that it can be acted upon. If there were any decisions made, that would be the process to make sure that it would be put into the system. That would happen not just in terms of WhatsApp messages, but if there was a communication, a conversation, a phone call that had to then be followed up by action, that would be recorded into the management system to make sure that that was then acted upon. Michelle Thomson, to be followed by Katie Clark. The independence of the inquiry's paramount. However, the need to gather accurate reflective detail can lead to long timescales for any inquiry. Can the Deputy First Minister set any expectations as to timescales for those relatives desperate for answers? I very much understand the desire to see the findings and lessons learned from both inquiries as soon as possible. This is a key underpinning of the Scottish Government's desire as well. Section 17 of the 2005 Inquiries Act gives an inquiry chair alone, rather than ministers, responsibility for deciding how an inquiry should operate. Therefore, operational matters such as the timetabling and timescales of the inquiry's work are for the chair to decide entirely independent of government. Katie Clark, to be followed by Alistair Allen. The Deputy First Minister has not made clear whether the Scottish Government complied with its own policy, which is that salient WhatsApp messages should be saved at least on the centralised record system. Can the Deputy First Minister confirm that this is normally what happens and confirm whether it happened in relation to Covid messages, and can she confirm whether Covid records policy was reviewed on receipt of the do not destroy notices? On that final point, any further information and requirements would have been cascaded through the organisation to make sure that everyone was fully aware of their need to comply. As I have said throughout my statement and then the follow-up questions, the guidance has always been really clear about what should be transcribed from WhatsApp messages is ultimately the requirement of each individual to comply with the policy. As I have said, if there is any concerns from the inquiry, once they have all the information in front of them that they feel that has not been the case, then of course they can interrogate the information provided to them by individuals or not provided to them by individuals in the course of the hearings if they consider it relevant to do so. Anything that the Scottish Government was asked for, that we had, has either already been handed over in the 19,000 documents or will be handed over in the 14,000 WhatsApp messages now. We have the section 21 legal underpinning in place to be able to do so. Can the Deputy First Minister advise what steps have been taken or indeed changes made to maximise transparency in terms of the Scottish Government's records, management, policy and processes? The Scottish Government continually acts to make sure that its own policies and processes are fully understood. In aid of this, the Scottish Government's records management policy is available to officials, as I said earlier, on the staff internet and to the public via gov.scot. I am also happy to confirm that the Scottish Government has published its mobile messaging policy on gov.scot this afternoon to make sure that the wider public can see that. I would like to declare my interests as a practising NHS GP, which I performed during the pandemic. The current First Minister told reporters that government policy was that they should delete WhatsApp messages, but in response to my question in December 2022 about whether WhatsApp messages are covered by FOIs, George Adam said all recorded information that is held by ministers or officials including WhatsApp that relate to the business of Scottish Government is subject to FOI requests. Deputy First Minister, how can I FOI messages that are deleted? In some ways, the member answered his own question because he said that relating to the business of the Scottish Government is the key point here. Anything contained on WhatsApp or Teams or anything else relating to the business of the Scottish Government should be transcribed. The deletion issue, as I set out my statement, is about all the other information not relating to the business of the Scottish Government, which no organisation would keep. We meet our legal obligations in regard to the deletion of that information that does not relate to the business of the Scottish Government. It is clear that the advice and policy and the legalities are that organisations should not hold on to information that does not relate to the business of the organisation concerned. How many individuals involved in government have failed to comply with the Scottish Government's internal processes, including the Scottish Government records management policy, since February 2021? As I have said already to a number of questions, only the inquiry knows what they asked for and what has been provided. I have no oversight of what the inquiry has asked for because that is direct to the individual through a rule 9 order and that information goes back to them. In terms of the wider ask of the inquiry about what the Scottish Government holds more generally, all the information asked for by the inquiry, held by the Scottish Government, has been provided in relation to decision making, 19,000 documents already provided. That wider ask about all communication on WhatsApp and other message platforms is being provided through the over 14,000 messages that will be provided by the 6 November timeframe. The Deputy First Minister cannot confirm whether or not the former First Minister manually deleted her WhatsApp messages as was reported in the press at the weekend. Would the Deputy First Minister agree that it would be in order for the former First Minister to make a personal statement of this Parliament as to whether or not she deleted her WhatsApp messages as has been reported? I have made clear throughout my statement and throughout all the answers to all the questions that I cannot comment on on any individual because I do not know what they have been asked for. I do not know what they have provided and I do not know any of that information because I should not know. Members, let us hear the Deputy First Minister. Let us conduct our business in an orderly manner. It is a confidential matter between the inquiry and the individual concerned about what was asked for and what was provided. I imagine that if I were to suddenly be asking for all that information to be given to me then members across this chamber would be asking me why I was breaching the rules of the independent inquiry. The rules are clear. It is confidential information that no one other than the inquiry, the person concerned and indeed the group of officials who are working completely independent of ministers to provide that information and those are clear channels of communication. I think that the chair of the inquiry would take a very dim view if we were to do anything other than that. On the ministerial statement, the next item of business is consideration of two parliamentary bureau motions. I asked George Adam on behalf of the parliamentary bureau to move motions 11043 on committee membership and 11044 on substitution on committees. The question on those motions will be put at decision time and there are four questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first is that amendment 11027.1 in the name of Rachel Hamilton, which seeks to amend motion 11027 in the name of Paul MacLennan on rural and islands housing action plan be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will have a short suspension to allow members to access digital voting.


Hi everyone, Joe for jaspyscasebrakes.com coming at you with the brand new release 2021 Panini National Treasures Football 4 Box. Pick your team number three from jaspyscasebrakes.com. A very big thanks to this wonderful group here for getting in on the action. Thanks to the people who bought their spots straight up and I appreciate the people gotten to the filler. If you have a little rooftop next to your name, that means you won that spot. So thanks everyone for that. Appreciate it. So let's see what we can get out of here. Let me also turn this top camera over here and get more of a bird's eye view from this angle. There it is. NT football. Thanks everyone for getting in 2021. There's Al with the Patriots, good luck. See what we got. All right, we'll use this blank card right here. All right, 14 out of 49, Taysom Hill for the Saints. That's going to go to Steve Locke, Dash looking for Greg's looking for some Anthony Schwartz maybe. We got 53 out of 99, DJ Shark or a Garrett, maybe a Garrett, Garrett Gilbert. Wasn't he a backup quarterback for the, no Miles Garrett, that is, sorry, I was thinking of the Saints, Jaguars, DJ Shark going to Christopher. There's Heinz Ward, 28 out of 99. Century materials. That will be for the Steelers, Carl and the Steelers. Dual Relic, 8 out of 25, Daryl Henderson, two-color dual Relic for Jerry and the Rams. Aaron Rodger, 22 out of 25, Century materials. After all that, he ended up sticking with the Packers. There you go, that'll be for Green Bay, Carl won that in the filler, Green Bay Packers. We got a randomizer, Trevor Lawrence, Mac Jones, Justin Fields, 30 out of 99, NFL Gear Trio materials.  I think Mac Jones had a pretty nice season last year. Continue what he's doing.  We'll do that randomizer at the end. The redemption is Jacob Harris, Rookie Patch, autographs Green at Jersey for the Rams. That'll be for Jerry and the Rams. There's Ricky Williams, three out of 25, three-color patch and autograph. Who do I think will have the best second-year season? I think Trevor Lawrence is due for a big second year. He's going to have his buddy Travis Etienne. Ricky Williams going to Corey in the Dolphins. He'll have his buddy Travis Etienne back. Got a competent coaching staff on there now. Got a year of NFL experience under his belt, and I'm sure he wants to do really well this second year. Jim Kelly, nice. 90 out of 99. Jersey and autograph. Carl with the bills. Buffalo. Looks like maybe Dolphins colors. Yeah, it is. It's Jalen Waddle, one out of 10. Rookie Jumbo prime signatures. Woo! Look at that.  Nice. That's pretty awesome. It's a good-looking card. Miami Dolphins, Corey with the Dolphins. Congrats. That was just box one. Fatter box here.  Redemption on the bottom. And a really thick book here. All right, eight out of 10. Baker may feel ho. Greg was just saying, watch the one card I get via Baker. I hope not. There better be more here for you. No, it's just the regular box. It's the boxes from last year, Rex. No wood box this year. There's Drew Bledsoe for the Patriots. That's going to be for Alfred. I think Al got last spot in Mojo. Not the Patriots before we pulled them out for fillers. Dallas Goddard, 57 out of 99. Eagles, Carl with the fly, Eagles fly. Callen Mann, Kina Inwangu. NFL gear combo materials, two out of 25. That's for Minnesota. That's going to go to Carl and the Vikings. More NFL gear combos materials. Jalen Hertz, Devonta Smith, 80 out of 99. Nice two-color dual relic for the Eagles. Carl with the fly, Eagles fly. Could be in a great year for Jalen Hertz. The big book. 32 out of 49, Rookie Triple Booklet, Jamar Chase. Jalen Waddle, Devonta Smith. Three excellent young receivers in the NFL. And that's a randomizer. One happy person, one sad person. And we got Killin' Hill, one out of 25. His autograph for Carl and Green Bay. We got Josh Palmer, 46 out of 49. Two-color patch and autograph for the Chargers. That's going to be Tim with the Bolts. Jersey and autograph, Frank Orr. Nice, 92 out of 99. The boxer now, Frank Orr. Running back, turned boxer. LaTan with the Niners. No one guessed redemption. Well, here we go. Guest window closed for bragging rights. Prodigy, patch autographs, hollow silver away. It is K, Y, Kyle Pitts. That's Carl in the ATL. Halfway through this full case NT football break. Good luck, ladies and gentlemen. Out of 10, run CMC, Christian McCaffrey. Panthers, that's going to go to Carl. Drew Bletzo again to 99 for the Patriots. Omari Cooper, 38 out of 49. Century material. Cowboys edition, going to Carl and the boys. CD Lamb, 48 out of 49. Another cowboy for Carl. We got Joe Montana, 77 out of 99. That's for Han and the 49ers. Rondale Moore, 62 out of 99. Tremendous Treasures Relic for Paul and the Cardinals. No Christian Kirk. No Deandre Hopkins for six games. Might be this guy's time to shine. Rashawn Slater, 53 out of 99 for the Chargers. That's going to be for Tim. Ooh, look at this. Field pass autograph, Najee Harris. Two out of 99. I like that gold ink right there. That's a pretty sharp looking card, going to Carl and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Nice. Kind of a higher number, but I like that photography. I like that design. There's eight out of 25. Old Jeff George, remember him? Colts. Michael with the blue horseshoes. And back here, is that more Dolphins colors? No. It's Jaguars colors. 13 out of 25. Trevor Lawrence, RPA. And that's Christopher Gerrard, who bought the Jaguars straight up. Two color patch, on-card autograph. You'll be able to tell there's actually a window that's over the relic. I don't know if people notice that. I don't want to take it out of the top loader again, but there's actually a clear plastic window that's over the relic. That's pretty nice. There you go. Box four. And then we'll do some randomizing. There is Tracerm, 14 out of 25. Han and the Niners. Chase Young. I feel like that's a good spot for an autograph right here, two out of 99. Chase Young, Scott and the Commanders. Should be an autograph right there. Giant's Relic, 25 out of 99. Michael Strayhand for big blue. The G-men. Michael P, the big blue. Darius Slaton, 23 out of 25. Another one for the G-men. 10 out of 25. Terrace Marshall Jr. He called the Baker ride before he should get a Jaspy hat or something. And if we had to do that, there'd be people retroactively coming on and being like, hey, I predicted a lot of hits too. Where's my stuff? All right, that's for the Panthers. That's going to be for Carl. Got a Tralance Relic, 67 out of 99 for Han. 97 out of 99. Josh Palmer for the Chargers. Tim, two wrinkly on the penny sleeve there. It's a little bit cleaner right here. Three more to go. We've got, for the Rams, 9 out of 99. E.D. Eric Dickerson, who sometimes does some local sports talk radio in the afternoon, guys. That'll be for Jerry. Second to last one is Kyler Murray. 39 out of 99. Paul with the Arizona Football Cardinals. Always thought he had a really, really nice autograph.  No, it's a Remandrie Stevenson. So we had that prodigy, Kyle Pitts, that's going to look like this. So nice colors in there. One, two, three, four color patch on card autograph. Seven out of 25. And that is for Al. And the New England Patriots. Nice, there you go gang. That is your break. Now let's do some randomizing. So I need three randomizers, two cards, and then the wax party. All right, let's flip back over here. Then we had the NFL gear trio materials, Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville, Mac Jones, New England, and Justin Fields, Chicago. Then we had the three relic book, those receiver, Cincinnati, Miami, and Philadelphia. And then let's gather everybody's names. Everyone's got a shot at winning that wax party spot. And that might win you a case of NT basketball. That'd be pretty awesome. One dice roll for all the lists, and it's gonna be five out of two lucky seven times. The triple relic first. One, two, three, four, five, six, and seventh and final time. Good luck, go into Jacksonville. What a break for the Jaguars. Christopher, you got the T-Law RPA, and then you get this triple relic here as well. Congrats. Now the rookie triple book. Five out of two seven times. One, two, three, four, five, six and seventh and final time. After seven, going to Miami. And that will be for Corey and the Dolphins. Nice triple relic of these excellent young receivers. Hopefully they have good years this upcoming season as well. Last but not least, gotta give away that wax party spot five out of two seven times. Name on top gets the invite. One, two, three, four, five, six, and seventh and final time. Fingers crossed, get those lucky charms. Paul, very close, no cigar there, Paul. But I appreciate you two down to 32. I appreciate all of you for making your way into this break, giving yourself a shot at that wax party spot. Name on top though, there can be only one winner after seven times and it's gonna be Han. Nice. With the spot that you won in the filler. That gets your name on top after seven and you get yourself a wax party spot. Check out the details on jaskyscasebreaks.com. I'm Joe, I'll see you next time for the next one. Bye bye.


Hey everyone Shaber 1000 here today You've got this backpack blower here. It's a friend of mine's I talked about it a little bit about it in the last video On my free stuff video. This is my friend Ryan's He bought it off me like three three and a half years ago and he's been running it and Just one day he went to start and wouldn't start we in the last video. We pulled this plug out and looked at it So it looks like he's replaced the plug because I don't remember putting that plug in it What you guys are seeing I'm trying to stay out of your light, but So we're first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna check up for spark The fuel looks good in it. There's little bit. There's not a lot, but the fuel does look good I'm thinking I rebuilt the carburetor or something on this. I Believe I did a video on it before he bought it off of me I can't even remember where I got it Just trying to that could be clogged it doesn't look bad just needs clean It is a little dirty inside of here. All right guys, so first thing. Let's do. Let's check it for spark Then we'll we'll go see what we can do from there hang tight. Okay guys, so I know I'm in the kind of in the shade here I Just want to I got to see if this light's gonna work This light will tell me whether I've got spark to the plug It's not gonna tell me if the plug's sparking or not, but let's see this should light up I'm not seeing it Could be you know, maybe my bulbs blown in my tester. I don't know But we can also do the same thing with a test light This one should beep it's getting spark It'll also light up, but I won't be able to see the light Sounds like the recoil needs some work All right. Well, I'm not seeing Any signs of spark so let's go ahead and I'm gonna touch this and it should get shocked Because I'm holding on to this and touching that plug. It's got spark. It should shock me. I Feel it very weak And then it's gone So I don't know the switch.  I gotta check this just recoil anyway so I Think what I'll do is I'm gonna go ahead.  We got to check the recoil anyway. We're gonna take all these screws out We're gonna pull this this off And we're gonna check that switch first It's very rare, but I have seen them Where they'll like stick inside the contacts But I felt a weak spark and then I felt no spark so Let me get let me go get my tools for this Look like they're all the same Couple way down in here, too. Now. Let's get this side cover off of here That way I can get to that switch. I can check this recoil Now the recoil on this side. It looks like I don't know let's tear it apart Okay guys, so I think I can get most of these with this thing except those two down there I'll have to switch over to this Yeah, I can't remember what the issue was with this Okay guys, so we know this thing's right this thing runs and I can tell you right now It needs fuel lines. I don't see any fuel lines. They should go in right here. This needs a primer bulb No idea what that shit is There's part of the old fuel line down in here. There's the filter This is the coupler. It's all gummed up when I got it but Sure, wasn't anything major Thinking it might have had a carburetor issue I'd just have to go I'd have to look over the my footage Again, I don't know For sure how long ago it was. I know it had to be three years now. That's weird that they got You know one here one here and then right there right there, so they got like that that far apart weird All right, now let's switch over to This I'm trying to stay out of your light the best I can So there's really no way we can mix these up Because I remember I think I was gonna keep it The monkey bought that electric one I ended up selling it Pretty sure it's a vac Like a vacuum too because this will open up Here For another attachment. Nowhere with that. We did get to the switch Here's the switch We did get to that I mean is that a ground how's that gonna ground? That's that's in plastic. How's that even ground? You can't ground. I don't understand that. That's all plastic Let's unplug this Let's see if we got spark now Not feeling any spark so I Guess what we'll do We'll pull the side off of here Get down in here. I think I just pulled. Well, I didn't I wanted to check that switch I think it's a spark issue That thing should have been zapping me and it wasn't That time I didn't feel nothing not even a little bit Where I should say I didn't feel anything And those are Torrex Well Wait, there's one down here This may this tank may not have to come off. I know where that should be another screw Little bit of leakage there Looks like maybe the headbolt Needs to be tightened up on it. That's not gonna tell me why there's no spark Yeah, I see a head gasket. It's been leaking there. Okay, let me get a bigger size of this We'll check it out inside. Here's your crank Sometimes if it blows this seal They won't run but that's not telling me why there's no spark That head is definitely loose. Look at that. Still why is there no spark? All right Let me get the right size bit. Okay. I actually have my bits out here. Oh Look that I'm turning that I'm turning that by my hand Why would that come loose I never had to head off of this guy's that must be that's the next size up This size is too small. Well, I got two of the same size. That's why that's what's going on there Okay All right, I got to go find the right bit. This one's too big. All right hang tight. Okay, so Got me a little setup made here. I mean that'll definitely make it not run or at least run funny, you know, but That's got nothing to do with spark That's supposed to come out Can we get down in here? No, we can't All right, let me come up Let me sit.   How can it ground somebody explain that to me? All right guys, so I decided I got to take this this off So I can get to that That head bolt up here, which I'm gonna use this on but this is kind of hindering me so We're gonna pull this fan off There's a couple screws there. I don't know if there's any behind here Yeah, there's two there So we'll go ahead and get those off. I can find my setup. I was using Okay, those are Torex Man I'll be back. All right. We're back. I'm back. You guys have been here. I am gonna set these aside I think they're a little different So what we're what we're doing essentially is pulling the engine which These blowers are just pretty much an engine with a fan on it I'm gonna go ahead and take this gas tank off and I believe the engine should just pull out of here Just done hooking from the carburetor here Well, at least we get down That feels pretty good now I'll shoot some oil in it. I may have to adjust this coil coil might be bad First let's tighten this head bolt up before we forget make sure this one's tight I'm sure it probably going to need a head gasket. But sometimes you can get by with them Not blowing or you know, yeah, well essentially you're not blowing. I should be able to spin this feel spark and not So I'm gonna clean these magnets up and readjust this coil It's like a pretty big gap there Let me get some Sandpaper I'll clean this up And then I'll try to adjust it again. Okay guys, so we're gonna set this coil I'm gonna bring it around This is what I like to use You can use filler gauges if you want A lot of guys will use a business card matchbook, but who carries matches anymore Also hardly, you know, if you don't smoke you're not gonna have a cigarette box cigarette pack Okay, so now all I got to do Is loosen this coil up and once I loosen it It should drop right up against there right up against the magnets That card that cardboard there will give us the gap we need and there it goes. It's up against it Just gonna make sure Now I like to hold it up against there because sometimes when you got to tighten these bolts it'll back off just a little bit Most of the time that won't the magnets are pretty strong All right Now I may put the drill on here and spin this over with the plug in it and But usually you go like this and you can feel it. I'm not feeling Any kind of spark I'm not touching metal. Oh, yeah, well I'm gonna spin that over with the drill don't use a hammer on it use a drill I'll spin it over and we'll see See if it's got any spark. Well, that didn't do us any good. All right. Let me grab my drill I don't know if I want to hold on to that or not Let's put spark plug in So I don't get shocked Wherever I put it there it is. I should See some spark here No spark. I'm going the right direction. Yeah, I'm feeling no spark at all. I don't have a coil like that Unfortunately, I'm gonna unplug this just in case you never know no spark. Well The only thing I can do with that is Change the coil And I don't have one I'll go look but I don't think I do sit tight guys. All right guys So I did away with this plug. I Got a plug out of the other backpack blower And I just unscrewed it because I guess no one tighten the spark plugs anymore But this thing has got a major spark now. I Took I took the coil off. I cleaned it. It was rusty Because I wouldn't even get in a spark with this one which I showed you guys But for some reason reason you wasn't watching or you wasn't looking probably maybe because I didn't turn turn you on but now Nice pretty blue spark. I don't know Let me zoom in on here. See if you guys can see that now Well, yeah looking right here Right here on the top of that But it is sparking So I'm gonna clean that up and we'll get this put back together. I did shoot some oil Hound into the recoil that should be a good to go. So let me get this Spark plug clean and then we'll put it back together. We'll see if it runs now.  I brought this out to check the gap. I was gonna tell you what the gap of that plug is I think it's about 30,000s Can't read this Feeler gauge, so All right now I'll speed you up. Let's put this back together All right guys, sorry about that.  I don't know why But I did Get our throttle hook back up here Forgot that one washer. I don't know if you saw that or not being in fast forward But one washer I don't know why I put it down by the flywheel didn't belong there Let the other two screws are four down there at the bottom. Plus it helps hold it together. Okay I'm on it now. Anyone see that fall out. Let me find out where it goes with them. We'll continue Okay, I'm gonna continue. I don't know where it came from I don't even have a wrench or socket out here that size, but it wasn't here on the table when I started that's for sure So where it came from I do not know I do not know. Okay Better run now. All right, let's continue I found out where this goes it goes right in there. It's for this thing Let's see if this thing will start first choke it. That's what I'm talking about Explain to me how that switch is working like that I don't think it's that ground. I think there's there's two little wires. I think they're switching up in there I don't know what the grounds for cuz it's plastic, but all right Let's get this puppy back together All right, we're gonna try this out here in just a second I'm gonna go clean this off real quick and I'll be right back with you All right, so I'll give it a give it a quick rub down Clean the filter. All right now. Let's put the snorkel back on it Like I said, he uses this thing. He He came down. He blew off our roof for us one time Yeah, that nut goes right on the back of here. I was like, I know I didn't take anything out that side Let's find some Something to blow around 200 mile an hour it says Probably pretty close to it. All right guys, so there you go. That was a pretty easy fix. Why that head came loose. I Don't know I've seen them loose before But I don't know why that would have but it did As far as the spark goes I think it was just a bad spark plug because I can't get a spark out of that nice new shiny one But that one I took out of my backpack blower Which now I got to find a spark plug for Worked in it and you saw it it was you know all carboned up and stuff Two strokes, you know, they will carbon up. It seems to be running good.  I'm not changing anything I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm gonna do and Posting when I post so hang with me guys, you know, I mean I Know it's hard to watch a video a day, but it's hard for me just to post one a week man because like Right now today.  I mean, I like to be that day if I can if at all possible So anyway guys she bear them at the middle edge. I'm gone for now. We'll see you guys in the next one Have a great year everyone. Bye. Bye and take care