All right, welcome into another edition of the fan duel hurry up I'm Joe Ranieri and I am joined alongside John Sheeran of fan duel and Listen, we've heard and we all know the Kentucky derby It has been pushed back to September the fifth, but that has not stopped of course All the prep races from continuing to go on leading up to that derby now in September and John One of the biggest days of racing Regardless of when the derby is is going to be on Saturday at the fairgrounds, of course We're all looking forward to the Louisiana derby, which of course is one of those races the staples that has really given us a pretty good idea of Possibly the horse of the year and this weekend's card at the fairgrounds in New Orleans is Absolutely loaded. Sure, Joe. Yeah, it's an exciting weekend for the fairgrounds in Louisiana Obviously the Louisiana derby the main race of the day and as you say Change complexion this year for the three-year-old division with the Kentucky derby being moved all the way back to September It'll definitely be a first for all of us as strange to see it being run that point in the calendar But yes, the road to the Kentucky derby continues nonetheless And as I said, the Louisiana and a derby is a good opportunity for horses in the south and Shippers as well to get at the points that they need to qualify a hundred points Obviously go to the winner of this race down to 20. I think for the third and fourth place finishers So lots of points and lots of qualification on on the menu for Saturday for the fairgrounds and an interesting race in Prospect I would say as well on what is a really good card, Joe As you mentioned, we've got the Oaks to go before the derby and finite expected to be a very strong favorite for As muslin and Ricardo Santana, Jr. In that race, she'll likely be prohibitive odds But excited to see her You know cement her position among the three-year-old Phillies is possibly one of the best Phillies in the country and Interests to see how she runs too. All right So we've got a really exciting card this Saturday, of course It'll culminate with race 12 there that being the Louisiana derby But let's start in the seventh race John talk to us a maiden special here Talk to us about how you like this race and who you like in this race. Yeah, Joe I thought we'd start with this race as an interest and rate made in special weight over a mile and 16 On the dirt track and I thought the race shaped up really well The seven is likely to be a strong favorite here making his second start for Michael Stidham It's a good dolphin cult cult and they made his debut at the fairgrounds actually a month ago over six furlongs The horse was sent off a dollar eighty with his entry made favorite that day Came from a long way back as far back as five lengths and was only beaten a length and a quarter at the line He shaped very much that day like the step up and trip was going to suit him I just have a little doubt. He's going to take a lot of money. He's a seven to two morning line favorite I think he'll be under two to one on the day. I just think it's really well here for us to take a shot against him Obviously, it looks like a good move to step up and trip here for him He's bred to get it and he he will be the one to beat no doubt But as I said, he's going to take that money I think it feels better taking a shot against them now that he has to prove He can route as well as he can sprint very very different game And sometimes you see these horses finishing strongly over sprint trips, Joe That don't necessarily translate that to going a mile and beyond so The one horse was sick. It was actually second that day just a place ahead of him And I don't like him stepping up and trip at all. He battled on strongly But I think the step up and trip will find him out So I'm moving to the four which is a new shipper coming in from California from Santa Anita horse train by Neil Drysdale called reprobate He gets Joel Rosario back in the place After he wrote him on debut actually and he shaped encouragingly on debut that day I thought he was that he attracted money that day and was sent off a three to one shot He was beating four lengths, but I think that performance is on a par with pretty much everything else in there in the race here He then stepped up on that going up to a mile on a second star where he was slowly away He didn't really show a lot, but he was sent off 13 to one that day And I just wonder whether it came too soon from just three weeks after that debut He now gets blinkers on for the very first time and they give him Lasix and Neil Drysdale has a really excellent record book in Joel Rosario He's booked him 10 times over the last 12 months and on five of those occasions They've teamed together for a winner. I like this son of blame here And I think he'll really appreciate them more emphasis on stamina particularly with this race looking to have I think at least three horses that are likely to be vying for the lead. I'll take a chance on him I think he'll probably he's six to one on the morning line Joe He'll probably be more like a four to one nine to two shot on the day But I think his abilities on par with pretty much everything else we've seen with the seven taking all that money I'll just side with the four instead and hopefully Joel Rosario can get us off to a good start All right. I like I said loaded car when you got $50,000 made in specials that we're breaking down for you You know, it's gonna be a special race day. How about race eight the Tom Benson Memorial 100,000 $100,000 Tom Benson Memorial in fact, how is this race shaping up for you? Yeah, I thought this race was an interesting one as well Tom They're on the turf here going the same trip as the previous race a mile in a 16th and much more experienced horses It's for four-year-old Phillies and mayors. So all the females running here for a hundred thousand dollar purse as you said I think it falls between three horses here the one the two and the nine are the ones I would concentrate on they look to have the strongest form I think a lot of the money will fall to the two which is Althea for Chad Brown Joel Rosario teams up with Chad here to ride this horse who comes and ships here from Tampa Bay Ran in a grade three at Tampa recording a career-best 92 buyer that day when only beaten a neck Over this exact trip. So you don't have any concerns about stamina and on breeding with that French sire of CUNY That that's to be expected. This horse has had seven starts at this trip and finished in the money six times Although never recording a win and the strike rate for me is a small bit of a concern when you're talking about Chad Brown horses Joe, you know, you're gonna take a lot of money to wins from 17 lifetime starts usually on the premises But really dependent on a strong pace up front and that's my angle into this race I'm not necessarily sure you're gonna get a strong pace to run at and unless the rain comes and there is some forecast for Saturday I would look to try and get Althea beat here And the first place people will probably look will be to that nine horse who beat the one last time at you at Sam Houston Coming from well off the pace under Flaviam Pratt to win That was a mile and a 16th on the turf course But that race set up really really well for winning envelope came off a strong pace There was horses dueling on the lead and managed to get up in the last 16th and win actually going away by over three lengths I just think the one is the horse here. I think this race sets up really well for Brad Cox's Dream passage to the daughter of stormy Atlantic And this horse was coming back off a layoff in that race that I just mentioned Did really well to hold on for second invite further the lead the whole way around the racetrack and still managed to hold on for second I expect that horse to strip much fitter and Brad Cox is a very good strike rate all across the board But does really well with second off the bench 26 percent a strike rate out of a huge sample size of 425 does really well with Lauren Giroux who I love on the turf And I'm hoping that the one horse dream passage can just sit on the lead Dictate its own pace and try and kick clear and hold off the deep closers I think he'll be second or third favorite Hopefully Altea takes all the money in that we're left with a decent price on dream passage So the one in race eight for me, you know, it's funny interesting stat to dream passage You mentioned of course did a great job finishing second in the last race But was the chalk and trainer Brad Cox and this probably shouldn't surprise nobody he rebounds 31% with beaten favorites the race before so, you know, Brad Cox and a lot of people There John should kind of pay attention to who the trainer jockey combos are in a lot of these races here Especially at this track. Absolutely. I mean Brad Cox an excellent trainer Like I said, his stats across the board are all 20 25% plus and he teams up with Joel Rosario 26% of the time huge sample size again in the last 12 months 306 times they've teamed up and they've had a 26% strike rate and they even do even better here at the fairgrounds Which is obviously relatively local for Brad Cox 28% strike rate when they're teaming together And I think you get an awful lot of insight into Trainers and when their horses are really strongly fancied. I just like to look at this one Joel second up off the bench and Florence you're back in the irons. Love it. All right Let's move on getting closer, of course to the big race the 12th race the Louisiana Derby But let's talk about the three hundred thousand dollar Munoz memorial classic stakes grade two at the fairgrounds, of course in Louisiana This will be race 10 and tell us John. Is it another are we looking at the chalk in this race? Yeah, I think so. I'd be very very surprised if the 12 isn't favorite here Synchrony he's a really solid animal for Michael Stidham Joe Bravo rides it and they team together a 21% strike rate down there Which is really excellent. Joe Bravo would be much more well known up around these parts in Monmouth Obviously Jersey born jockey as well. So pretty surprising to see a good strike rate like that for for for him down there Um, this horse is just a really excellent turf horse Joe six times. He's run at the fairgrounds six times He's hit the boards.  Synchrony, it's always a really strong run again second off the bench I do like that angle trainers a 21 strike rate second up off this sort of a layoff teaming together with Joe Bravo I think this horse is littered with horses that are relatively so horses like um dot matrix You know these are good horses But without necessarily being wind machines channel makers another one the eight And that usually runs his race is very very solid in the grade But finds winning relatively difficult one win in the last And nine starts for example Whereas you look at synchrony and you see you know two wins from the last day four from six at the track three from Eight at the trip coming off a really really good run behind Factor this of Brad Cox's And I just think that this race will set up much better. There seems to be a little bit more speed in here I expect the likes of instill regard and those horses to push along early and push factor this on and leave it To one of the deep closers and I expect this horse to be coming with a really strong late run Joe and I'd be very very surprised. We don't get a really strong run for our money here He's a three to one in the morning line horse. I think he'll probably go off south of that He's been down there for some time and been working well I note there a first of 53 workers on march 7th as well Which gives me strong indication that that horse is ready in prime for a big big run and without record at the fairgrounds I'll be very very surprised this horse not buying there talk to me about Channel maker there will you mot out of the barn posted? Of course one of his best times round two you got a 16 percent angle here with mot at this track What do you think about maybe uh him somewhere in the exotics? Yeah channel maker is just a really admirable horse If you look at his his form joe, it's littered with grade ones and grade twos all the way through his career I just find him he's difficult to predict sometimes. He's off the speed and he's coming with late runs other times He's on the lead and not holding on he shaped. Okay Actually the last time he took behind a very easy winner in zulu alpha at Gulfstream park That would be a very very good prep for this run as you say bill mott an excellent trainer junior alvarado rides He's going to be bang there But this horse is usually a four to six to one shot And for me just one that you should be opposing a lot of seconds on his card He's finished second as many times as he's won and as I said in the last nine Nine starts only managed one. I do respect him. I think he'll be not very far away I just trust synchrony to put his head down when it really matters a little bit more All right, and then of course that leads into uh the big race of the day race number 12 the 1 million dollar Louisiana derby grade two and some fantastic horses in this race This is going to be a classic. How does it shape up for you? Yeah, it's a good race A lot of uh re opposing horses from the risen star Which was run a month ago in two divisions at the fairgrounds over a slightly shorter trip of a mile and an eight They go up to a mile and three sixteenths here on the dirt And this is as we said a good qualifier for The kentucky derby with the winner getting a hundred points in the qualification for that big race now in september that we're so used to being The first weekend in may Very interesting with those re opposing um horses from the risen stars. I said running two divisions I think the mr. Monomoy division is by far and away the stronger I think it was run nearly a second quicker than the secondary division Which was won by modernist for bill mott who runs here as well Um, I'm inclined to ignore Modernist major fed new york traffic. I just felt like that was a lot of slow horses. The time wasn't very good It was run on the same card the next race after Mr. Monomoy and therefore I think that that form is really really substandard So i'm taking a shot away from all of those horses I think by far and away the horse to beat is the 10 for mark cassey called enforceable Good owner there in john oxley and this is a nice horse's son of Of tapet who shaped really well in that risen star behind mr. Monomoy who was an all the way winner He got a little bit out of his ground and finished off very strongly And he got within two lengths of the winner and and definitely shaped like he was going to improve For that the only problem I have with him is he's going to take a lot of money here joey's an obvious favorite He shaped well everybody can see it on paper And I just have a little bit of a doubt about these horses that have run at the fairgrounds in those two divisions Of the risen stars that actually how really good they are Um, so I wanted to try and take a shot against all of those horses enforceable by far and away the one that you would have to prefer out of those races Um, I looked at portos the nine horse for todd plecher It comes off a decent run in the withers, but he just looked really slow He got a good set up that day and couldn't get within he ended up finishing third But he was still beating nearly four lengths. He didn't do anything very quickly for me So he's a horse. I would look to try and oppose as well. He didn't look that fast Um, and as I looked at this race, even though there was a potential for some speed to be on I wanted to try and find a new shipper Maybe something that had a little bit more pace than a lot of these deeper closers And I landed on the on the three joe another brad cox horse called wells by you And he ran really well in the south west stakes at oak lawn, which is another kentucky darby qualifier He was only beaten a length, but he was forced to kind of run pretty hard early It was his first race in graded company after Winning easily and an allowance are an option of claiming 80 grand race at oak lawn park I just think this horse a lot of upside I think he easily grabbed the rail under florin shiru And I think there's a decent chance here that the jockeys realizes a lot of slow horses going to be coming late And they may actually be able to steady it up a little bit better than it might look on paper on paper It looks like there's plenty of horses that want to go forward And but I'm hoping that florin can get out get the rail early slow things down and dictate This horse has got a buyer speed figure for that south west stakes of 96 Which is better than anything else already in the field And I feel like if he can get out in front and set his own fractions There's a decent chance he can improve. He should be a decent price. He's an eight to one morning line joe He's not going to be eight to one I would probably expect somewhere in the region of five to six to one instead But I think I'd rather take him at those odds than you know rely on enforceable coming from the back Yeah, and enforceable is going to come from the back for sure Hit the money I believe six of six of eight of his career starts But I'm with you wells by you that last race He gets a similar effort and a similar trip here He could be in the winner's circle here at a pretty good price. John. Yeah, I really do like him I mean I found it a tricky race initially because I was concerned about the pace makeup But the more I look at some of these closers the more I look at the horses that have been running around the fairgrounds In those two starts and the risen star and now here I just felt like it was a race where you could potentially take a shot with a new Form line and try and get them all beat and this this horse, you know at least on paper He maps out well There is a concern that he gets forced to race too hard too early and maybe vulnerable laid on but at those odds I think we can take a chance joe Yeah, and don't listen major feds got a what a win and two places I believe here at the fairgrounds He was coming. I mean he gave modernist this little extra, uh, you know 16th of a mile here. Maybe that could make the difference With him showing up somewhere in the money. I think Joel Rosario is a really good booking from I think Joel Rosario gets a lot of critics for some of his rides But what he is very very effective is deep closers late on the piece arriving late on the dirt And I think this this horse will really react well to him Again, it was just that slow race and I watched the race back a couple of times joe and I liked him As you said on paper, I liked him But then when I looked at the race, he just looked really slow to me He did work really really well two weeks after that risen star went a four furlong clip bullet in 47 And that was the fastest on that day. So maybe that race has sharpened them up a bit. I wouldn't discount him entirely Um, I just rather'd have something closer to the leads in terms of looking for the winner It's a huge weekend in racing, of course, uh on saturday at the fairgrounds It'll all culminate to that race race number 12 the one million dollar louisiana derby and of course the winner Will be taking a trip to uh churchill down september 5th for the kentucky derby on behalf of john shearan I'm joe renneri want to thank you very much for stopping by good luck to you this weekend with your plays It's been another edition of the fan duel hurry up


the process and the fact that £52 million was made available to support the college merger process, it is right that serious questions are not only asked as to whether it has delivered the correct political outcomes that the Government wanted to see, but also whether it has delivered value for money. When you look at some of the detail in the audit reports, there are some areas of real concern. I think that there are questions that have got to be asked of the Scottish Funding Council. It is absolutely clear that they did not provide proper guidance and oversight. The fact that the guidance on severance payments had been as old as 2000, 12 years old and it was not reviewed, re-issued or reinforced. I find that absolutely shocking in audit terms. I think that there are real concerns around the governance and the lack of audit trail. The fact that at North Glasgow College the chair of the Renumeration Committee and the chair of the College Board could be one in the same person when such big decisions were being taken around sums of public money again is just unacceptable. You really have to wonder how that could happen. Some of the sums of money involved people in my constituency who work in colleges or students who are struggling to make ends meet would be shocked. The top three remuneration payments in terms of severance in North Glasgow College totaled £700,000. The payment that has been under a lot of scrutiny in relation to John Doyle at Colbridge has been overpaid—it is reckoned to be £304,000—a million pounds of public money on those examples alone. It is absolutely correct that the audit committee has asked that Mr Doyle pay back that sum of money. It is clear that there was collusion in order to get a good deal, but it has clearly not been a good deal as far as the public are concerned. I think that it is very important that the SNP Government takes some responsibility for this. There is a theme that has run through some of the way that the Government operates that when something goes wrong it is an operational matter that somebody else has fought. That was a Government decision to go through that merger process. It backed it up to the tune of £52 million and there were serious errors as to the way that it was implemented and the lack of proper follow-through. The political points are clear audit and financial points that have got to be followed through in terms of lack of proper guidance and lack of governance, but in terms of how you operate the college sector when we see that there are 152,000 less places than there were in 2007, when you see something like that operating it demoralises staff, it demoralises students. I think that that is an example of why the SNP needs to wake up to what is going on in the college sector. They not only need to take the lessons from these audit reports but they need to examine the overall process as to why we have got so many less places than we had in 2007 and why we are not getting students out to fill the skills gap that our employers are asking for. I think that those issues have got to be addressed by the Government. Thank you very much and I now call Tavish Scott to be followed by George Adam. This debate would not be happening without Audit Scotland and Caroline Garner, the Auditor General of Scotland. It is on days like this that certainly a number of us reflect that Audit Scotland is one of the few parts of the public sector that keep the rest of the public sector and government honest and that is what happened in this case. Their forensic analysis of what went on at Coatbridge College, which the convener rightly drew attention to and our committee report draws attention to in some detail and through all those hours of evidence, only happened because Audit Scotland did the job that we frankly expect them to do and they deserve a heck of a lot of credit for that today, not least of which is because when the then principle or the principle that we are discussing today of the Coatbridge College turned up at Paul Martin's committee, the first thing he did was to attack the Auditor General and to cast out on the veracity of her findings and to basically impugn her reputation. Well what we found out afterwards was that the person who needed to apologise for his behaviour was not the Auditor General but was John Doyle and I agree with those members including Colin Beattie who said just now that he, I don't know how he can look himself in the shaving mirror in the morning but he should get up, he should write a check for £304,000 and he should pay back, not to the Scottish funding council, not even maybe to the cabinet secretary but to the students and staff at Coatbridge College, the £304,000 that would help that institution move forward and if we achieved anything as a committee and I don't suppose we will, it would be something on those grounds. The number of us also reflected during this process while this happened and I spoke and I think some members including Jackie Bailey have drawn some of that out. Now I completely understand the fact that the then cabinet secretary Mike Russell was determined to deliver a colleges mergers programme across Scotland, he had pretty strong but he suddenly had cross party support for that and therefore I suspect what happened is that the funding council were pretty well left to get on with it by the cabinet secretary and by the government of the day and you can understand that there wasn't a heck of a lot of parliamentary scrutiny of it at that time and that's an illustration of what's not good about public policy it's actually one of the points about constantly, even if you agree with it, constantly questioning why something is happening and as others have said there is no question that because of the merger process a number of college principals were going to go and senior managers senior people in different colleges were going to go and that was illustrated by one of the tables that we eventually dragged out of the Scottish funding council on the 14 individuals who left different colleges across Scotland under the merger processes with a total of £2.6 million of public money in pensions in on-cost annual leave and various other amounts of public money that they got. Now I don't think that would be really acceptable to any of us it's certainly not acceptable to the woman and man out in the street walking down market street just now that people who people can benefit to that extent by a process a merger process that was taken forward in that way and I agree with the comments both of the convener and of other members across Parliament today who've said that the lines of accountability I'll the minister made a good point about this about a risk assessment at the end of her speech there pretty that wasn't going on you know at the start but she's right about it now the lines of financial accountability just did not happen in the way in which frankly we should expect and there's no better illustration than that than in the in the public audit committee's report published on the 28th of September into the colleges into colleges 2015 when looking at the savings figures that were claimed for this whole merger process because the auditor general said to the committee in evidence on the 29th of April that at this stage that's the 29th of April the government the funding council and the government could not give us audit Scotland the information that we'd asked for to demonstrate the cost of the merger process so it's no wonder all this was going on behind the scenes when that's when this was first considered and I would just ask the government to reflect both on the committee report yes but also on what the auditor general said about the lines of account financial accountability and the governance of what happened not just for coatbridge college but for the future of public spending in scotland as well many thanks and I call George Adam to be followed by Patricia Ferguson thank you president of officer I am not on the public audit committee but sat on the committee during the first year of this term and I'm only too aware of the work programme of the committee and I appreciate the hard work by Paul Martin the convener and others on this and many other issues as a member of the education culture committee I followed this sorry saga with great interest but the whole purpose of the reform of colleges was for them to make a more powerful contribution to growing Scotland's economy more focused and employability we are all aware of the very challenging times that we live in and the public sector reform like college reform can deliver services in new innovative ways however this this process of reform is not helped by examples like mr doil who encouraged the public to be very cynical about the public sector and in his case greed overcame practicality and reality certain very senior management putting their own financial security above that of the educational institution that they serve forgetting about the college the staff and the students involved in these major reforms at a very difficult time I found Presiding Officer this whole solid little deal rather sickening situations like this although they are the minority make our constituents in the public very cynical about the value of public service it is an injustice to the men and women who commit themselves to the noble ideals of public service it shows an individual who is looking after number one and no one else. Presiding Officer at this point I would like to discuss part of the committee's report on the Scottish founding funding councils financial memorandum with colleges and the SFC's financial memorandum with colleges states the council the SFC must be able to rely on the whole system of governance management and conduct of the institution to safeguard all funds of the institution delivering from the Scottish ministers to achieve the purpose for which the funds are provided and there's also an extract from the 2013-14 audit of cope bridge college which is exhibit 3 which the extracts from the Scottish funding council guidance on severance arrangements to senior staff in fuller education colleges and paragraph 13 is colleges have a responsibility to use both public and any private funds in a prudent way that achieves value for money now this does not seem to be the case in this scenario in other words we need to actually have an institutions management structure to be robust transparent enough to deliver the desired outcomes but mr doil in the position that we've had to deal with with mr doil seems to have been the failing in these principles and perhaps it was the principles of mr doil that might have to come into question with this in mind I commend the public audit committee on their work and sitting through the evidence that they've had to look particularly when you see the recommendation that they came up with in the report on page 45 and recommendation one presiding officer states we recommend that john doil repay the 304,254 pounds he received and that his severance pay is then recalculated with reference to the agreed voluntary severance scheme applicable to all other members of staff and even they does not repay the money renewed consideration must be given to recover it for him I think that is probably one of the most important parts of this whole scenario but I also take on board the fact that as the cabinet secretary already said that since April 2014 the Scottish public finance manual the Scottish government has put in place a number of measures to ensure effective scrutiny of severance and settlement arrangements and colleges must comply with this manual and doing so seek approval from the ssc on both severance and settlement arrangements and these things we need to make sure that we are very prudent with public money because and presiding officer we need to learn from the excellent report that we have here in front of us and make sure that we do all we can to ensure that this does not happen in the public sector again for me presiding officer recommendation one from the committee report sums up this very solid affair it's time for mr doil to do the right thing many thanks for now called Patricia Ferguson to be followed by Stuart McMillan thank you presiding officer and can I also thank the auditor general for illuminating this entire saga and may I also thank the parliament's audit committee for the very thorough and analytical report it has produced on what has been a very sorry chapter in further education in Scotland my colleague Jackie Baillie was quite right to discuss at the beginning of her contribution the various ways in which colleges matter they matter to our communities they matter in terms of employability and they matter for Scotland's economy and I was slightly surprised that the minister on various occasions mentioned their importance to young people I think it was said if I'm correct three times that they were important to young people but surely their importance is not just to young people surely colleges are important to women returners for example or to those who need to be reskilled and I'm disappointed that the minister hasn't recognised that one of the suspicions that many people in and out of the sector have had for a long time is that the 152,000 places that have been lost have been lost at the detriment of these groups of individuals but my particular concern about the reports before us today concerns North Glasgow college which was located in my constituency and in its new merged form still is I have to say that I was very surprised when I read about the scale of the payments made to some outgoing members of staff but I was even more surprised to read of the many opportunities that there were to intervene and to question whether these payments were appropriate opportunities that unfortunately were not taken the audit committee drew our attention to the fact that the Scottish funding council provided guidance to colleges in the year 2000 about how to deal with severance for senior staff it then updated that guidance in 2004 as my colleague James Kelly mentioned but crucially the Scottish funding council didn't remind colleges of this guidance at the point at which these mergers were being discussed and happening now this isn't the first time that Scotland has witnessed the merger of public bodies and the auditor general has provided good practice guidance for such occasions so we also have to question why it was not followed in this case the mergers of these colleges was in fact one of the largest public sector reorganisations ever seen in Scotland and in those circumstances I think we could indeed perhaps we should have expected the funding council to be more proactive in this regard it is clear however Presiding Officer that North Glasgow College also failed in a number of important ways as the committee says North Glasgow College fell short of the required level of governance and that is just unacceptable but I have to say that the merger was an initiative of the Scottish Government and confirmed to their requirements so I don't really understand how they didn't foresee the possibility of this scenario now where people want to do something that is perhaps not up to the standard that most people would expect they will always find a way to get round the rules however these mergers were controversial at the time and some long-standing senior members of staff found themselves in a situation where there was no longer a job for them the way in which those members of staff would depart should surely have been concerned should surely have been of concern to ministers as well as to the funding council the committee's report exposed the fact that on 11 October 2013 the Scottish funding council received a request for funding from North Glasgow College which included payment for two senior staff members on 24 October 2013 the Scottish funding council apparently advised the college that funding would be restricted that they wouldn't get the full amount they were asking for however by that time just over two weeks after they made the initial request the payment to those senior members of staff had already been approved and authorised with the payments actually being made on 28 October that's a three week period between application and money being dispersed and that seems to me to be what could only be described as a deliberate attempt to pay money that perhaps shouldn't have been paid in the first instance it should also be noted that North Glasgow College's remuneration committee's decisions about severance were not reported to the college board because the chair of the board was advised wrongly that there was no need the cost of restructuring in severance at North Glasgow College was some £1.29 million and in the end £866,000 was provided by the funding council resulting in a shortfall of £424,000 of this £240,000 arose from the severance payments Presiding Officer that might not be a huge sum of money in the overall scheme of things but it is a sum of money which might have been better spent in supporting students, widening access or perhaps even in restoring staff morale. We must learn the lessons. As someone who studied at college before attending university I've got a huge amount to thank further education for and I was happy to support the proposals for college mergers as I believe that they would introduce efficiencies into the college sector. I also believe that by removing the layers of senior management we could ensure that more money would be invested in students where the money actually should go. You'll notice that I used the word invested and not spent and I believe that every penny invested in colleges should be an investment in people and also for the future prosperity of the country. I knew the merger process would have some issues to be addressed and I also knew that some bad apples would be found as the process occurred however I genuinely was appalled by the arrogance of some in the sector to think that they could use both taxpayers' money and also earned college income to ensure that they topped up their already substantial pension pots this at a time of public constraint when public sector workers were being offered 1% pay increases. For me the fact that this information has been uncovered proves two things. Firstly the government was right to change the college structure and to make it more accountable and secondly the greed is good moniker unfortunately was alive and well in the sector and that sector was long overdue reform. Audit Scotland deserve a huge amount of credit for the reports that we are discussing here this afternoon. Audit Scotland aren't there to curry favour with the government of the day but they do exist to shed light on how the public pound is actually being spent and my former colleague Andrew Welsh couldn't speak highly enough of Audit Scotland because the thorough auditing of Scotland's public finances didn't exist before the re-establishment of this Parliament. Four minute speeches are short for a topic of this nature so I'm going to focus the rest of my comments on Coatbridge College and the audit there. When Audit Scotland report provides the following paragraph then it's obvious that something has seriously gone wrong. In their report on Coatbridge College they stated there is absolutely no doubt that there have been very serious failures of governance indeed they are among the most serious that I have seen during my time as Auditor General. Liz Smith quoted this earlier on in her comments earlier today. As other members have highlighted we decided to investigate the matter further and I would commend our committee report published in the 13th of January of this year to anyone with an interest. It was clear that the overall governance wasn't as it should be and during our investigations we asked for a timeline of events to be generated to try to actually clarify the somewhat cloudy situation that had been put in front of us. Now this can be found in an XC of our report. Presiding Officer, I never for one minute thought that my name would go on a report, a parliamentary report, which we would actually send to Police Scotland and also to Oscar, the Charity Regulator. It did and we have and it certainly was the least that we could do as a committee. Ultimately money leaving the college sector over and above already budgeted and generous leaving packages is nothing short of removing money from the pockets of students. All members of the committee were shocked, disgusted and appalled by the actions of a few to the expense of many at Coatbridge College. Our report is clear on that. Our report has three recommendations. The first one being for Mr Boyle to pay the money back. We certainly didn't expect Mr Boyle to actually do this. We didn't expect that to happen because it certainly was clear during the evidence sessions that no admittance of wrongdoing was ever forthcoming. The second of our recommendations concerns are governance actions going forward. We have already heard from the cabinet secretary this afternoon the progress in this regard, particularly with the creation of the college task force. The third one concerns the Scottish funding council. I accept where the limitations placed upon the SFC at the time and the remit has now changed with the college restructuring programme. However, the Scottish funding council, in our opinion on the committee, could have been more forceful, could have deployed more scrutiny and been more attentive to what was going on. I do believe that the Scottish funding council will have some questions to answer. I will close by stating this. Audit Scotland having covered bad practice at best financial chicanery at worst. Our committee produced excellent reports on obtaining further detail to how bad things were and, as a result, we, as an audit committee, have actually done our job. The next step is for strengthening of the rules to ensure that Scotland students do not face this financial hit at the hands of the few again. Thank you very much. Many thanks. We now turn to the closing speeches, and I call on Liz Smith at maximum five minutes please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The cabinet secretary said when she opened this debate that it was the response to three very serious reports and she is quite correct in that. Stuart McMillan very eloquently has just explained to us once again why they are so serious. The Auditor General, I am sure, who is a very senior figure in Scottish public life, would not have made the comment that she did in the sense that it was one of the worst cases that she had ever overseen in her role had it not been true. I think that it is that alone that is one of the most important reasons why this Parliament has to take this matter so very seriously. I come back to the fact that the Audit Committee of this Parliament has recognised that, and I compliment the convener once again and his committee. They have obviously had to deal with thousands of different documents. Stuart McMillan has just indicated that some of those were of such a serious nature that had to be sent to Oscar and to the police. That is no small task. I think that the committee has done excellent work because it was very clear indeed that the audit trail simply did not exist. In fact, I really do believe that this is an extraordinary state of affairs. I will come back to that in a minute because I think that it is important how we react to that in the way that we take things forward. There are, of course, issues about the Scottish funding council. I think that it is very clear that the Scottish funding council had not done enough to uncover all the problems and to ensure that it was in its monitoring role, which I think is very important. I think that the structures of that Scottish funding council need to be looked at and the responsibility that they have to the minister. I think that it was James Kelly who made a good point about this, about what good audit actually means. I think that we have to be very clear in our own minds about whether there are structural issues about the Scottish funding council and whether we need to make changes that might spread across the whole structure for how they look at colleges and universities, or whether we feel that there have been some failures of leadership within that body, too. What we decide on that will be crucial in terms of how we react to, as I say, the very serious reports that we have had put before us. There are also issues, of course, about OSCAR. Whether it needs to have more measures at its disposal should it feel that there has been any kind of mal-practice. That, again, is something that we need to think carefully about, but I suggest that that is an issue that comes after we have examined the funding council mechanism. I mentioned when I opened in my speech that there are question marks over the tripartite relationship between the Scottish funding council, the Scottish Government and the individual colleges, particularly in the process of mergers that has been perhaps necessary in many cases, but it is certainly controversial, particularly as the pace of reform was something that was very seriously open to question, particularly amongst many of the colleges themselves. Some of them did not respond well to that, and I think again that is something that this Parliament has to take very seriously. I think that perhaps the most important thing that we can do is to restore trust, because that is the crucial word when it comes to our responsibilities to students and staff of the colleges who feel so badly let down. George Adam, I think that it was who described this as a very sorry saga. He is correct in that. We owe it as our responsibilities to students and staff to ensure that they can feel confident about their future. I believe that the Audit Committee has gone a long way to helping that process, but it will take robust action from both the Scottish Government and this Parliament to deliver on their recommendations. Specifically, I draw the chamber's attention to paragraphs 296 and 301 in which the committee asks for the consideration to be given to future powers of both the SFC and the Oscar, because it is obviously clear that the Audit Committee of this Parliament believes that these are central core issues to be discussed. Whether sanctions should be available to the SFC and whether there is an appropriate relationship at the base level between the funding council and the Scottish Government, because as Tavish Scott rightly mentioned, this is about lines of accountability. It is about democracy and it is about the transparency that we can provide to allow our college sector to have trust once again. Thank you very much. Before I move on, I can point out to Mr Kelly that he was mentioned in the member's speech and unfortunately was not in the chamber, so I point out to all members that you should come back for closing speeches when you have participated in the debate. I call on Mark Griffin up to five minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in the Public Audit Committee on the overview of Scotland's College 2015 and contribute to the general staff at Audit Scotland and the convener, committee members and clerks, on their dissection of the issue. Context is important when we come to talk about this. Scotland's colleges should be the envy of the world. Everyone, regardless of privilege or postcode, should be able to access the skills that they need to get on in life. Sadly, that is not the case. The Scottish Government's record on colleges has been symbolic. As Jackie Baillie pointed out, the students' unions have said that support is not fit for purpose, while the lecturers' union has said that the SNP's mergers have not improved learning and teaching quality. College mergers are one of the very few public sector reforms undertaken by the Government, and it has been a complete and utter failure for the 152,000 students who have been locked out of college courses. A large number of those women returning to work and adult learners are raised by Patricia Ferguson. The SNP should have spent the last nine years in power investing in colleges, not making nearly £3,500,000 college staff redundant at a cost of more than £90 million. Stuart McMillan pointed out that the parliamentary report into the former college principal accused of accepting that a vastly excessive severance payment has been passed to police, and that in itself should shock everyone here. The public audit committee has also called on John Doyle, the former principal of Coatbridge College in North Lanarkshire, to repay part of his £304,000 deal. In that case, that was described as an appalling abuse of the public purse. The report also criticised the Scottish Funding Council, which was responsible for overseeing the merger process. Last summer, the Auditor General, Caroline Gardner, issued a highly critical report of the severance deal to Mr Doyle. The committee also agreed with Ms Gardner's view that John Gray, the chair of the former college, colluded with Mr Doyle, and I quote to get the result that they wanted by withholding relevant information from the College's Remuneration Committee, which approved the payment. The report said that, given the significant governance and oversight failing, the Scottish Government must look at the operation of the Scottish Funding Council and the effectiveness of its supervisory role, and that is the context of where we are today, and that the amounts involved in the failure to get to grips with the issue will stun people outside the chamber. However, how do we move forward? An apology and a repayment would be a good place to start, but I will not hold my breath. The Government has insisted that, as part of the college's task force, it will review the circumstances that led us to that point, and I appreciate the update given by the cabinet secretary. I also note that the cabinet secretary did not want to pre-empt that update, but I would ask whether she has drafted new rules or regulations that would avoid that happening again. Is there a blueprint in place for future scenarios with public sector pay-offs that could be used and adopted more widely? There was a blame game at the time from the Scottish Funding Council to officials, to politicians, all scrambling to avoid taking the brunt of the criticism. Will there be a clear channel of responsibility for the size and nature of those packages after that review is complete? I welcome the public audit committee work in this area and commend the dogged approach that it has taken to seek to shed light on the issue. There must be more of an appetite from the Scottish Government to try to correct the perceived injustices of the packages that were delivered in this case. The only thing that we can hope for is that we do not see a repeat of the shambles again because one thing is clear—the point that was made by Colin Beattie, Stuart McMillan and others—that the money that has been paid in severance packages has come directly from funds that would have supported college students in my region and in colleges and regions across the country. I want to once again take this opportunity to reinforce how important the work of Audit Scotland is in helping us to focus on the actions that we can and should take. Just to say that, when I was first elected to this Parliament, one of the tasks that I had was to chair the Scottish Commission for Public Audit, which is in charge of auditing Audit Scotland. I am well aware and acquainted with the good and thorough work that Audit Scotland undertakes on behalf of us all. I also want to pay tribute to the members on the Public Audit Committee. We heard at the start of the debate from Mr Martin, who spoke of the 18 hours of oral evidence—the 34 witnesses, I was obviously one of them—and the task that they had was to go through such a volume of evidence. I want to pay tribute to the work of the committee. It is right that college governance has faced considerable scrutiny. We must understand the detail of what happened to ensure that there is no repetition. I want to ensure members of the Public Audit Committee and indeed members across the chamber that the recommendations from the reports from the Public Audit Committee and the Auditor General are all being actively pursued. As is often the case with debates in and around further education, the debate has touched on the pros and cons of the reform programme and, indeed, the outcomes for young people and other learners. James Kelly, Patricia Ferguson and Jackie Baillie have all touched on that. I will point to the fact that this Government has more than met our manifesto commitments to maintain full-time equivalent. Of course, I will accurately maintain that we are spending more in cash terms than our predecessors and we have invested more in capital also. I will also point to the fact that student support is record high and full-time students over and under 25 are increasing. For me, the crux of the matter for college reform and why I remain utterly of the view that it was the right thing to do is that having more full-time students studying recognised qualifications that relate the skills for work and for our local and national economy was exactly the right thing to do. I have spent much of my time as a minister looking at youth unemployment. What we failed to do as a Parliament, as a country, in times of economic growth and increasing budgets, we failed to tackle structural youth unemployment. The reform of the college programme is absolutely essential in getting to grips with structural youth unemployment in this country. I remain absolutely committed to young people and to the college sector in terms of what it can deliver, not just for older learners but ensuring that we tackle structural youth unemployment. It is important to recognise that the Auditor General and her evidence on the 4 November last year, with regard to the failures of governance in this case, with regard to Colbridge College, has incurred in her view because of the actions of a small number of people. That does not abdicate me, the funding council or anybody else in the chamber for exercising our responsibilities. We should remember that the crux of the matter was the actions of a small number of people. People who ignored guidance, we had situations, as we have heard from Mr Kelly and others, where he had the chair of a college board, also being the chair of a remuneration committee, and if I can say to Mr Griffin, that is certainly something that my task group is very interested in. Of course, when the funding council did say, do not do it, do not pay the money, they were indeed ignored. I want to reassure members that I agree with the assessment that the funding council itself made that they could indeed have been more proactive. I have been to a recent board meeting of the funding council to communicate that, and I have also communicated that through the recently published guidance letter. I do not want anybody in the chamber to be in any doubt that, if and when, action is required. I think that my actions today have demonstrated that if action is needed to prevent or deal with poor governance, I will indeed take whatever action is necessary to deal with poor governance. It is imperative that we learn the lessons and ensure that the appalling circumstances so eloquently outlined by a range of members in the chamber today do not happen again. I am grateful for her comments about governance. I wonder whether she was as surprised as I was at the very limited powers that Oskar seemed to have to deal with this kind of situation, and whether that is something that we might change. Cabinet Secretary, I will give you a few seconds more. Yes, and certainly Government officials remain in contact with Oskar to deal with any outstanding concerns that they have in relation to the powers that they do or don't have. As I was going on to say, the Auditor General has confirmed that the new controls that are in place are much more robust. As we all know before reclassifications, decisions and severance were the sole responsibility of colleges taking into account funding council guidance. Following reclassification in April 2014, incorporated colleges must now seek approval from the funding council for severance and settlement arrangements. Cabinet Secretary, I must ask you to conclude me first. I am doing so is a term and condition of grant, and ministers now have far more explicit powers to remove incorporated college boards for serious or repeated breaches of those terms and conditions. I now call on Mary Scanlon to wind up the debate on behalf of the Public Audit Committee, Deputy convener, eight minutes or so. Thank you, Presiding Officer. This has been an excellent debate, and in all the years that I have been on the Audit Committee, this is actually the first debate that we have had in the chamber. I hope that there will be more in the next session. I particularly like to thank every member who contributed, and I have to say that I detected a little bit of additional anger coming from those MSPs who are members of the Audit Committee itself. When Paul Martin speaks about the hours that we spent taking evidence, what he did not mention was the hours that we spent reading the hundreds and hundreds of pages of evidence that we all received. I acknowledge Colin Beattie and the cabinet secretary's point. Because things were so bad at Coatbridge and North Glasgow, I think that it would be wrong at the outset of this speech to say that all colleges are the same. They are not, and there is indeed absolutely excellent best practice in Scotland, and I think that we should all put that on the record. We regularly debate how money should be allocated in Scotland's public sector. We do that every week, and we do that in every debate, but we should maybe be a bit more thoroughly scrutinising how well the money is spent in delivering value for money and high-quality public services. When we meet someone like John Doyle, I think that it is right that he is named and shamed, and we were willing to use the Parliament's powers to compel him to give evidence, and I think that that is only right that that has been done across the chamber today. However, this debate highlights the work of the Parliament's Audit Committee. I commend the excellent chairing by Paul Martin, who ensured a fair, thorough and unmeasured approach to the volumes of information and figures brought forward. This inquiry has shown the Parliament's Audit Committee at its best doing the job that it is tasked to do. I have to say that this Parliament is at its best when every member on every committee works together, and we certainly did that in this event. We also received the Lincston report, which was conducted as a review of the major process at Coatbridge College. I thank the family of Francis McGeehy, who insisted that the committee see this report, which highlighted that the arrogant approach pursued by the principal allowed no duty of care at all to the rest of his staff. Tragically, Deputy Principal Francis McGeehy took his own life during the major process at Coatbridge College. Even the Coatbridge College trade unions were described as going ballistic when they heard of the principal's payoff, which was far in excess of anything they may have ever dreamt of. The Audit Committee has been monitoring the college measures, but we still don't have an accurate figure for the cost of this process, although £52 million was allocated for the purpose. Neither can we monitor the promised improvements in the quality of education, as it seems there were no baseline figures for comparison. The £50 million savings that were promised are hard to find, although the Scottish funding councils say that they are on track to achieve them. An Orange Scotland report in 2012 learning the lessons of public body mergers was available to guide organisations through this process, yet we found serious issues relating to police reform, a huge funding gap in the fire and rescue service and college reform, sometimes following the worst, not the best practice. The section 22 report on Coatbridge was described by the Auditor General as among the most serious failures of governance she has seen in her time as Auditor General. At the outset of the merger process, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council should have set out the parameters in terms of Severance payments. The information and guidance was there, but they allowed colleges to go their own way. The committee report asks that the Government look again at the operation of the Scottish Funding Council and the effectiveness of its role. That was quite a stark recommendation, and I do hope that we will hear back from the Government what the plans are. However, it was this lack of rigor that allowed Mr Gray to present to the remuneration committee a severance package for John Doyle, which was well over the guidance. When the remuneration committee agreed the package, there was no agenda, no formal papers. John Doyle received written confirmation of the deal, and it was a deal, within 24 hours, and yet the minutes of the meeting were not written up for nine months. It seems that the Board of Management at the college was not notified either, despite every member of the remuneration committee sitting on the board. There is no doubt that information was withheld from the remuneration committee members in order to ensure that John Doyle got the package of over £300,000, with no business case whatsoever to support it. Even the legal advice given was based on a lack of information, given that the lawyer was unaware of John Doyle's letter confirming his severance pay. At a time of a public sector pay freeze, we had John Doyle at Colbridge College giving his personal assistant a pay rise of 19 per cent on the basis of our communication skills. This college was out of control at that time. The audit committee has carried out a rigorous piece of work on Colbridge College, and it is now for others to follow through this process. I agree with others that John Doyle should pay back the additional lump sum that he received. However, it is now 11 years since this Parliament set up the office of the Scottish Charities Regulator, and the evidence that we received pointed to the need for extended powers in order to deal with the other John Doyle's around Scotland, who think that public money can be exploited to benefit themselves rather than for the purpose of educating and training people and providing high-quality public services. One of the most disappointing aspects of this inquiry and report was the failure of the Scottish funding council to hold to account FE colleges. Their lack of effectiveness and governance allowed for public money to be exploited at Colbridge, and it is the Scottish Government's responsibility to ensure that they now step up to the mark and carry out the job that they are tasked to do. There is substantial amount of evidence in this report and documentation that we received for Police Scotland to carry out an investigation. I trust that this recommendation by the committee will be fulfilled. Finally, I hope that this investigation in Colbridge will serve as a warning to other institutions and other individuals in Scotland that, when scarce public money is wasted, you will receive a polite invitation to this Parliament's Audit Committee to fully account for your actions. Thank you. That concludes the public audit committee's debate on the overview of Scotland's colleges 2015. The next item of business is consideration of motion number 15577, in the name of John Swinney. On the Legislative Consent and Motion Enterprise Bill UK legislation, I call John Swinney to move the motion, Deputy First Minister. This motion will put a decision time to which we now come. There are four questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first question is amendment number 15128.1, in the name of Maureen Watt, which seeks to amend motion number 15128, in the name of Ann McTaggart, on the transplantation, authorisation of removal of organs, etc. Scotland Bill, be agreed to. Are we all agreed? Parliament is not agreed, we move to vote. Members should cast their votes now. The result of the vote on amendment number 15128.1, in the name of Maureen Watt, is as follows. The next question is motion number 15128, in the name of Ann McTaggart, as amended, on the transplantation, authorisation of removal of organs, etc. Scotland Bill, be agreed to. Are we all agreed? Parliament is not agreed, we move to vote. Members should cast their votes now. The result of the vote on motion number 15128, in the name of Ann McTaggart, as amended, is as follows. Yes, 65, no, 48, there were two abstentions, the motion as amended, is therefore agreed to. The next question is motion number 15584, in the name of Paul Martin. On the overview of Scotland's Colleges 215, be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed to. The next question is at motion number 15577, in the name of John Swinney. On the Legislative Consent Motion Enterprise Bill, UK legislation, be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed to. That concludes decision time. We now move to members' business. Members should leave the chambers, should do so quickly and quietly.


Good morning, Hickets Tuesday. Today I would like to tell you my least relatable story. So back in 2015, Nat Wolfe, Cara De Levine, and I traveled to eight countries in the span of two weeks to promote the Paper Towns movie.   You do this every day for many days. Now as jobs go, this is not the hardest one I've ever had, but if you accidentally say something stupid, you can cause a lot of trouble not just for yourself, but for everyone who worked on the movie, and this happens all the time during press junkets, and so for me at least it was like this weird mix of absolute monotony and complete terror. Okay, so we were only in Paris for like 18 hours, and we saw very little of the city, except that they like drove us to the Eiffel Tower for a ridiculous photo shoot that included this picture that Sarah insisted on framing. But most of those 18 hours were spent in the hotel where my room was significantly nicer than my actual house, and also cost more per night than four months of my mortgage. Like I said, not a super relatable story. So Nat and I are sitting in this windowless room of this incredibly nice hotel in there, like 10 people crowded in there, camera techs and sound people and my publicist Elise and people from the studio, and of course Nat, who keeps reminding me to breathe and drink water between every interview, but even so the lights are very hot and the air is very stale, and I feel this pounding spiraling anxiety, and so I am clenching my jaw, and after a few hours of clenching I noticed that one of my teeth has begun to ache. The pain gets worse and worse until just before a lunch break I tell the movie people, I have a toothache, and then shortly thereafter the hotel concierge comes in and says you have tooth pain, and I say I have tooth pain, and he says you go to the dentist, and I say I go to the dentist. We only have like 40 minutes for lunch, so Elise and I are rushed off to, I don't know, somewhere in Paris where we walk through a door and enter what I guess is a dental office waiting area, except that it looks like a billionaire bachelor's living room. There's a cow skin rug and 19th century paintings on the wall, and designer furniture and this glass coffee table that has some regular magazines fanned out across it, but also issues of both Playboy and Playgirl. Elise and I are both trying to figure out if this is some kind of Parisian fever dream. When a guy comes up on a motorcycle walks in, unzips his leather jacket, pulls off his helmet, and then shakes out the most gorgeous head of hair you can imagine.  So this Parisian dentist with impossible levels of facial symmetry ushers me into an exam room where he takes him x-rays and taps around the tooth that hurts, and then after a while he says you have two pains, the physical pain and the psychological pain. And then with a drill he slightly reshaped the tooth that hurts so that I'm not clenching down on just it and tells me to stop clenching my jaw. I return to the press junket, I breathe, I drink water, I don't clench my jaw as much, and I feel better. In retrospect the Parisian dentist was the first sign that a psychological storm was brewing that would eventually derail my life for a while, and it's not like going to a fancy dentist saved me from that fate. Still he was a good dentist. What is the moral of this story? I guess it's a story about having a need that is capably met by a compassionate expert, which come to think of it should not be an unrelatable story at all. My hope for you is that your needs will be met by a compassionate expert. I think that's something that we all deserve. So thank you to that compassionate expert in Paris. How did he afford to those fancy impressionist paintings on the wall? Was he like a billionaire who sidelighted as a dentist? Like he was a dentist for the love of the game? Or was he like a wildly successful dentist who charges like a hundred thousand dollars for a hand on the shoulder and you have two kinds of pain, the physical pain and the psychological pain? I'll never know, but we'll always have Paris. Doctor, I can't remember your name. We'll always have Paris. Hank, I'll see you on Friday.


You know, I'm saying that was my answer. Yeah, okay.  It's time to go. Yeah, some stuff like that like that and intrigued you 2,500 Listen, that's not $25 Lockdown for how long I was in there three hours three hours And that was out of the map that was 24 it was more than that 2,500 was already guaranteed. Yeah, we on boss talk one-on-one Let me ask you this about how old were you when you had your first child 14 15 years old So that was after your dad passed your mom on cracking heroin you try and figure it out on your own really you pretty much Running your own lifestyle at that point, right?  Yeah I was in the same house You Because the fact that he sticked around with you to have all of those kids That whole situation with with my kids finding out the people that you got to understand that We same age. Oh, I used to hustle with him, okay, but I don't I don't that's a movie I But you know and I like that the fact that she shut it down right there because uh, yeah, there's something that's sacred nigga Well, let's move on When you okay you get to 18, let's go to 18. No, we got to go to 30 to get to the pin now We got to strip club man. I 18 you you didn't day I was trying to show y'all my moves early cuz the white girl she When you got in there the first time this is your first time going to strip club, but you had already Yes, my first time going to a strip club. Yeah, what happened? story My my first time going I went to a lockdown, you know, I'm saying I went to a lockdown It was a basilar party. It was a lockdown. So automatically. I made $2,500. You know, I'm saying that was my answer Yeah, okay.  It's time to go. Yeah some stuff like that and intrigued you Listen, listen, that's not $25 How long I was in that three hours three hours And that was out of that was 24. It was more than that but the 2500 was already guaranteed.  Hey, shake a little titty Because you you know, this was a long time back, but we had since a Molly on here the other day And she was like she was a dancer and she went and that tip-out, you know She couldn't make tip-out a lot of time. I mean she won't make it on money Yeah, she said that did you come in it's two people in the club name promote the club ain't nobody there It got tough to make tip-out.  Was there any tough nights on tip-out or you always had tip-out?  I know and I can do floor shows. Okay. Oh, what a floor show is you and another girl you put on a Slight porno.  We know I'm a bi-sexual Just is what it is. Yeah, we on boss talk one-on-one


Coming up on DTNS Wi-Fi 7 promises to be better than wired US before hopes to end cable confusion and using Minecraft as AI kindergarten This is the Daily Tech news for Tuesday September 3rd 2019 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt and from studio feline I'm Sarah Lane and from the Finnish countryside. I'm Patrick beta and I'm the shows producer and Swaltering in Southern California Roger Chang We were just having a wonderful conversation about Bonnie Tyler's the best as well as whether artificial meat is Bad good or indifferent on patreon.com slash DTNS is good day internet You can find it there go subscribe get part of the wider conversation. Let's start with a few tech things. You should know Huawei announced on Twitter it will unveil the upcoming at May 30 on September 19th in Munich, Germany Huawei is currently in its second 90 day pre from the US government's export ban Which if it keeps going would mean that Google can't certify new Android phones Which also means that no Google apps would be on the May 30 Huawei hasn't said whether or not it plans to launch the mate 30 with some other form of Android or possibly with its own harmony or Hong-Meng OS Nintendo announced a Nintendo Direct live stream set for Wednesday, September 4th Focusing on switch games still to come this year including two notable titles Luigi's Mansion 3 and Pokemon sword and Pokemon shield Nintendo says the presentation will last about 40 minutes and will be available on its YouTube, Twitch and Twitter channels at 6 p.m Eastern Time 3 p.m. Pacific Time Facebook face recognition notifies you as somebody uploads a picture of you anywhere on Facebook and starting now That setting will be turned off by default for all users They're rolling out that setting right now So once the new setting is rolled out to your account You'll see a notification in your newsfeed and if you want to get notifications of when your face is uploaded You'll have to agree to let Facebook scan your face Android Q which is officially Android 10 and not Android quite sugary Get it is rolling out to Pixel phones now with updates to other phones following soon Android 10 ads gesture navigation dark mode and action buttons on the notification panel It also includes Google Play system update which handles OS updates for components like open GL without needing a full system update Android 10 also has a new option to give an application info only if it's in the foreground Now we have lots of Wi-Fi and USB spec stuff that's going to really impact your life And it's good to talk about but let's start with something that probably won't impact your life foldable phones or Wanted because the nightmare the global nightmare that we've all been living in is almost over indeed After five months Samsung is once again letting customers Pre-register to purchase the Samsung Galaxy Fold which Samsung believes will launch later this month presumably at the 1980 American dollars price point it previously announced Pre-registering does not require any money at the same time Bloomberg reports that it has sources that say Samsung has a Different foldable phone in the works for next year The Samsung Galaxy Fold is a seven point three inch tablet that falls into a phone form factor But the new foldable that Bloomberg says is in the works would be a six point seven inch phone Form factor that would fold into a square like a flip phone It supposedly uses bendable glass where the Galaxy Fold uses bendable plastic Bloomberg Bloomberg sources say Samsung has entered a partnership with thorn brown on the looks and Lenovo is working on What sounds like it might be a similar foldable razor? So we are gonna get foldable more foldable phones although it'll be interesting to see if the galaxy fold a Gets anybody to buy it be if it passes through reviews and see if it doesn't do that Well, whether Samsung continues to push a foldable phone because to be honest the six point seven inch phone That folds up and it's pretty thin, which is what Bloomberg is saying Sounds like a more reasonable option for people especially if it's not a thousand nine hundred eighty bucks Yeah, I mean one of the problems with my my iPhone plus Max Pro whatever it's gonna be called in a week Is that it I like the screen size? But there are like tiny little purses or just little pockets that it doesn't fit into so if it if if I had an option to This is the exact same device But in transit it is smaller or perhaps the rear-facing cameras now are on the front given whatever situation I might be in That's really cool Yeah, I think the current generation of foldable phones of which there are a few Whether or not they do well doesn't really mean much for the future foldables The next generation or maybe even the one after that might be the one that decides it now It's really just beta not even beta. It's like pre alpha production Devices yeah, I think it's unlikely that that some kind of new form factor like what the Samsung Galaxy Fold is Attempting to do or the mate foldable mate is attempting to do really ends up taking off But just more practical things like flip phones We know flip phones were a usable form factor for a long time So if you can have a touchscreen and a flip phone, yeah, maybe I could see that working better CNET Steven Shanklin reports on the state of development of a Wi-Fi 6 and eventually Wi-Fi 7 expected to arrive in 2024 at Qualcomm's Wi-Fi day back in August VP of technology VK Jones said that Wi-Fi 6 is first improvement will be more capacity if US and European governments Open up radio transmission in the 6 gigahertz bands that may happen next year then an update to Wi-Fi 6 in 2022 Should do that for upload speeds should do for upload speeds What Wi-Fi 6 already does for download thanks to UL MU MIMO? And then upgrades to come in 2024 as part of 802.11 BE or Wi-Fi 7 would round out the changes That would have something called coordinated multi user MIMO or CMU MIMO Which if it works could use antennas from multiple devices together to get more out of the spectrum Good way to take advantage of mesh network systems Wi-Fi 7 could also be able to send data on multiple frequencies at the same time like 2.5 and 5 gigahertz simultaneously for instance and 4096 QAM could squeeze more information into the radio signal itself Yeah, so we did it was special on Wi-Fi 6 not too long ago If you listen to that, you know that one of the big advantages to Wi-Fi 6 is it can handle multiple devices at once So it's got the MU MIMO the MU MIMO, but that is tuned for download and so the UL MU MIMO that that's there just mentioned would be coming in 2022 would allow for better uploads and you could do streaming over wireless And that's when people start to talk about like at some point Wi-Fi is going to be as good if not better Than wired as far as latency and performance and then of course Wi-Fi 7, you know, that's that's not coming for five more years But they're they're they're working on it and if they get it working as well as they hope Would surpass wired in its ability to to transmit data, you know 30 gigabits per second You can do 1.3 gigabits per second with Wi-Fi 6 right now. I think I think I have that right It's certainly less than 2 so 30 coming over Wi-Fi that That that's a whole new world. Oh, I love the idea of Wi-Fi bypassing wired, you know, I mean for this office becomes the wireless office I don't know. I'm happy there already, but yeah I mean, this is I also like the the the being able to not have to choose between 2.5 and 5 gigahertz Which are both good for different reasons 5 gigahertz kind of works for me the most but there are certain instances where I switch back and forth and Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's it's interesting that Wi-Fi 7 isn't the official name, but I don't see why they wouldn't call it that They've been working up. Oh, it will numerically in increments for some time now. I I mean wireless it will always be a little bit more susceptible to Issues in the in the spectrum less in your house than weather Changes if you're using it outside But beyond that, you know, I really think they should just have worked on Wi-Fi 7 and you know At the time instead of Wi-Fi 6 what just waste time just just do Wi-Fi 7 and Actually, you know what they should scrap 7 and just start working on 8 now I don't understand why they they are being so inefficient. It's yeah, right Why are you working on incremental? Just give us the best possible Wi-Fi right now No, I I'm very excited about Wi-Fi 6 because I use a lot of devices as I think more and more people do At once and and under, you know, 802 11 a x the previous Wi-Fi, but I guess it's Wi-Fi 5 now retroactively It it can get clogged if you have too many things trying to communicate at once So Wi-Fi 6 is going to alleviate that Wi-Fi 7 is gonna leave you at that even more that whole thing You talked about with sending data on multiple frequencies at the same time Taking advantage of antennas even if they're not on the same device. That's that's all gonna help latency So yeah Patrick like you say in the home Or in a you know a fixed location versus out and about that's we're talking we're talking about a Different kind of thing than say 5g This this could really just end up replacing wired which as a longtime wired believer I'm wired right now because I fear Wi-Fi That's the old people in us Feeling that way, but certainly Wi-Fi 6 seems like one of the biggest jumps we've had in wireless technology in a while The other ones were cool as well, but 6 does a lot Mozilla launched Firefox 69. Why not 70? Launched Firefox 69 for Windows Mac Linux and Android Monday It includes the enhanced tracking protection on by default now So that'll block your third-party tracking cookies your fingerprinting your crypto mining among other things by default when you Install a new Firefox. It's just there. I'll also prompt you when you install Firefox 69 69 also improves performance on Windows 10 gives you better battery life on Mac OS And it will ask for permission before running flash Which is part of the eventual retirement of flash from use in Firefox in 2020 Firefox 69 for desktops available for download on Firefox.com Existing users can upgrade automatically and Firefox for Android rolling out slowly to Google Play users And of course as I mentioned Firefox 70 coming in mid October. Let me ask a really dumb question Just crypto mining off on by default to block it on by default Would I ever there would there ever be an instance where I say I'd like it off I'd like people to crypto mine in the background of my Firefox instance I did that's a great question I want drive-by websites to mine coins because I want to support them by letting them mine coins on my machine You're joking but there might be an instance where this is actually the case Which you can then go and whitelist versus Having crypto mining blocked by default Right. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not saying. Oh, it should just be blocked always I'm just wondering in what circumstance would I want the option like just let them all crypto mine. It's all good Yeah, I'm in a good mood today. Make some money guys All right, let's talk more about standards and communication and Wired this time the USB implementers forum announced the completion of the technical spec for USB For the successor to USB 3.2 That means companies can start building projects that use it devices with USB 4 are expected to arrive in late 2020 USB 4 will be capable of speeds up to 40 gigabits per second partly By incorporating Intel's Thunderbolt 3 USB 4 devices are also required to include USB power delivery also called USB PD That should help reduce the confusion over USB C cables and devices and USB 4 cables will be passive up to 0.8 meters though active cables will be an options an option USB 4 will be backwards compatible with older USB standards and it will use the USB C style port This is gonna solve so many things. It's not perfect It's not gonna solve every single problem you have with USB But the big cable confusion that you have now with like wait, that's a Thunderbolt cable not a USB C and not a cake USB cable Oh, wait, this USB cable has has a little power thing in it, but this one doesn't I thought that's why it's not charging That eventually goes away with USB 4 saying everything should support power delivery Everything can support Thunderbolt 3 although it doesn't have to so there might still be some confusion in there But it's just part of the spec now Your your cables will be passive Just shy of a meter. So you'll know if you're like, oh, I bought an extra long cable That's gonna have some electronics in it. That makes them less hackable if they're passive USB 4 backwards compatible means that your dongles and everything still work and It's just I I find a little not to love about this particular spec upgrade and I welcome it coming into my life in 2020 Well, the confusion bar was pretty low so Yes, we are we are moving in the right direction. I USB is I mean I I have a desk full of dongles just under me now And I've just gotten used to it because yes, this is an issue I and I still managed to rummage around being like, where is that one that I knew worked because this one doesn't work For all my various devices that are plugged and unplugged on the daily, but but yeah, it's the less confusion the better I have to admit for all the doom and and Naysayers or doom callers. I haven't had issues with usb-c And I was I'm very afraid every time I buy a cable But there are people whose lives have not been made more complicated by usb-c And as I say this, I know that tomorrow I'm gonna have you run into that situation Yeah, I've only run into it like once or twice if you're a professional reviewer I think this is a bigger deal because you have so many cables in your life And it is really hard to tell them apart by by viewing them So I think for most people it's not as big of a deal But this is definitely gonna help make it make it simple and it's gonna allow for usb-c hubs now So so that you can just if you only have one usb-c You can easily have usb-c multiple outlets instead of going to usb-a for your hubs So this is good. I'm very pleased The New York metropolitan transportation authority or MTA tells the Wall Street Journal It's considering a public service announcement asking commuters not to take their airpods on or off when entering or exiting train cars You know, you're commuting you're in a hurry. It's busy. Someone jostles you. What do you think happens? The number of lost earbuds rose significantly starting in March with the new version of airpods and Retrieval efforts causing delays the journal says on a recent Thursday MTA maintenance received 18 Request to fetch lost items that fell onto the tracks six were airpods Workers used a eight-foot pole with two rubber cups on the end to grab small objects like airpods Although some people wanted to do it themselves with one passenger using a broom and some duct tape Also very dangerous, I mean, it's not news like like Nick with a CSA in our chat room news small thing easily lost It's not news that it's easily lost. It's that the number of them Is increasing so much so to the point where they're thinking, you know what? We need to have an announcement that tells people not that the announcements really gonna do that much good Because they're probably just falling out when people are sweaty and running for the train or whatever, but yeah But yeah, it's it's it's a big deal People to pay attention. Yeah, maybe yeah, I think it's I have wireless earbuds They're not airpods because I've been told as somebody who's historically any of apples Wireless or or wired headphones just don't fit in my ears I've been told well neither will the airpods But my job is fit real nice But I have to assume that this is a widespread problem with anything wireless and people's ears I think many of the wireless air You're not the airpods, but your phones Fit better. Honestly, I love my airpods. I use them every day real of them But they they are very Apple like and that as you said if they don't fit you and they slide very easily I wouldn't be surprised if the Use to slipping ratio is higher on airpods than than it is in That would be interesting to find out like they call them airpods But I suspect it's a little bit generically like how many of these are airpods I would I would suspect it's the vast majority of them and how many of them are other other brands It's an easy solution Patrick just get ears like mine, and then they'll fit perfectly Duck tape While commuting like that smart person on MTA did the other day to get their You're both giving me a lot to think about I will take it under advisement I can't wait to hear the announcement that is That was a follow-up Wow, you sound just like him To get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes be sure to subscribe to daily tech headlines at com Researchers at Facebook are developing a virtual assistant to help minecraft players Now really this is to help develop a I if you're like with these lazy minecraft players They can't be bothered to play the game themselves. It's like well, okay That's not really the point Players type in requests in natural language to an in-game avatar and then the assistant can carry out requests like build a tower 15 blocks high with a smiley at the top stuff like that It's to see if you can get an assistant that can understand these sort of vague Requests as you know if you have a voice speaker in your house You have to know how to ask at things right and so what they're trying to do in Minecraft is carry out Sort of like natural language requests We don't have to know how to ask it how to do something and the researchers like to using Minecraft for this because of the Simplicity and here's a quote Instead of superhuman performance on a single difficult task like playing go or something We are interested in competency across a large number of simpler tasks Specified perhaps poorly by humans the developers are designing the assistant to learn from mistakes and get better as it's used Something that's often referred to as unsupervised learning which is a big deal in machine learning an early version of the assistant is available on GitHub if you wanted to play with it in your own Minecraft installation Patrick, what do you think of this idea of games being a training ground for AI I? think it's absolutely fascinating and the Task that the tasks that they are setting these assistants on seem like something that is What we are we should be? Aiming towards if we want to have actually useful Virtual assistants right because I never really thought of it until they actually said it But do we need a computer to beat everyone at chess or to be super humanly good at go? Or well, maybe we do but we would probably get Better use out of a an assistant that can understand me when I'm asking for coffee right and the really interesting thing about the Gaming environment is that it is a simpler rule set Then the other options we would have which are the real world we out yeah, so it's kind of training wheels for Artificial intelligence to perform complex Complexly expressed tasks Without having the amount of variables that would maybe make it impossible if it wasn't Kind of a sandbox type environment Yeah, I think the reason go and chess were attractive It was can we get an algorithm to understand the complexity of something? It's simple rules, but it's a complex behavior having to project chess moves and go-go moves Is it complex behavior? But it's defined enough that we can do it with Minecraft It's it's like they're they're saying okay, what if we have simple things for them to do But it's wide open how they're requested so the complexity that they're trying to master isn't the playing of the game the complexity is understanding humans and so they want an arena that's got simpler a This is a simpler situation than then chess or go which again, it's all about like what can we make them the program do I don't know how simple The tasks and requests are though Certainly, it seems to us with human brains easier to do those than to play go or chess and I wonder if the quest for having AI's that are better at those kind of extreme intellectual activities Isn't a byproduct of us thinking they are the pinnacle of intelligence just because they're really difficult for us But I don't think that if you can ask an AI and we don't know exactly how well it's doing in Minecraft But if you can ask it to do anything that is possible in Minecraft, it seems to me like a really really complex thing for an artificial intelligence to meet to achieve if I can actually ask a program to do Something in Minecraft and it will do it with a reasonable rate of success no matter what it is. I don't know if this is less impressive than an AI Winning it go. Yeah, I know. I think you're right. It's impressive in a different way One of the things that the the researchers said in one of the interviews I read was Minecraft has a large number an impressively large number of things you can do But there's a much smaller subset of what people will practically want to do in the game And that's the simplicity is like we we can we can make sure that the algorithm knows how to move a block around and Put a block on another one the complexity like you say Comes from when a human says well I want you to do this and it's a much more complex version of these these simple things that the machine knows how to do and That's where like you say it becomes really impressive because if it can understand The vagaries of our request like make a big tower with exactly on it You know being able to understand that is impressive and that's what they were and And using video games as as well we were saying simpler versions of Situations or environments is really interesting now. I want them to train these AIs There are a couple of games that would be interesting. I'm sure listeners could come up with their Suggestions for games that should be trained some of them We shouldn't like you know first-person shooters like doom or modern warfare Maybe not but things like job simulator or vacation simulator and teach them how to do these things actually wait a second I hope there isn't the podcast simulator Becomes not simulator and then just right right This is a terrible idea Facebook is is doing things that they shouldn't be let's stop it right now Thanks everybody who participates in our subreddit better than any simulator would ever be you could submit stories like a real human and Vote on others a daily tech news show dot reddit.com. We're also on Facebook join our group Facebook comm slash groups slash daily tech news show And now let's join in with Chris Christensen the amateur traveler He's got some insight on how blockchain is removing confusion between hotels and some travel management companies This is Chris Christensen from amateur traveler with another tech in travel minute Blockchain has been an important keyword in tech stories even being overused on stories that don't have a lot to do with it But one thing in the travel space that actually does make sense is a use of blockchain That's being done by travel port working with IBM and three hotel chains That is using blockchain to reconcile Commissions that hotels pay travel management companies and so the idea being that there would be information on this blockchain Registry in terms of who booked what through who that would be visible by all and would be auditable And so therefore it would make people feel better that they're getting paid what they should be paid Just what blockchain should do. This is Chris Christensen from amateur traveler Yeah, I think we're gonna see more of those those kinds of uses of blockchain and hopefully that brings down my hotel rates All right, let's check out the mailbag Mike in dusty Riyadh wrote in about our conversation last week about Windows Machines being in tablet mode He says I'm actually using a Windows 10 laptop in tablet mode while listening to this conversation Mike says I'm flat on my back due to a back injury and I wanted to monitor Twitter for work being able to read in Portrait mode is nice some of the Microsoft apps work well in this format However, during the course of drafting this email I've switched keyboards three times due in part to my screen being too big to type comfortably and Gmail putting the Compose window in the bottom third of the window and not adjusting for an on-screen keyboard This brings me to the biggest flaw in Windows as a tablet the lack of software or hardware support for Windows in tablet mode While I use my computer in laptop mode 90% of the time I find it helpful in tablet mode for note taking or reading or drafting on the fly Cramped in the back of a car. We're flying in coach Hmm good insight from someone actually using it and having to use it Thank you Mike and then Gary wrote in said a few weeks ago. You were talking about low cast Low cast is the non-profit effort to bring you your local channels in your local market streaming over the internet Gary said I'd never heard of that before so I checked it out. What a great service I like football but don't have cable or satellite So it's gonna shell out money to YouTube TV sling or one of the other providers so I could watch games But with low cast I don't have to since you saved a bit of money. I decided I should Thank in the form of patreon. I just signed up and I'm happy to support independent journalism instead of paying money to large corporations Thank you, Gary. Hey, I've got and I hope low cast wins their court fight Which was the story we were talking about so we'll keep you updated on that as well very cool Everybody wins. You know who else is a winner one Patrick Beja. I'll tell you what? Patrick let folks know where they can keep up with the rest of your work Ah Well, I we will be recording a new MVG be very soon where we talk about games with our good friend Scott Johnson But if you can't wait to hear stuff for me You could either go to Loan de Vutek if you speak French and want to hear tech news every week or If you speak English go check out the Phileas Club of which we recorded Recorded a new episode last week. We discussed news With people from different countries in the world and confront opinions in a respectful and friendly manner That is available at French spin comm if you want the spelling of that show It's Phileas like Phileas flog of fog around the world in many days French spin comm French spin comm go check it out folks Also, we are thinking of changing our patreon rewards Wouldn't change anything for current patrons so much, but we came up with a proposal We want you to look it over so let us know if there's anything you just can't live with You can find the proposed patreon reward changes at daily tech news show calm slash patreon Our email address is feedback at daily tech news show calm. We welcome it. Keep it coming We're also live Monday through Friday 4 30 p.m. Eastern. That's 20 30 utc Find out more at daily tech news show calm slash live back tomorrow with Scott Johnson as our guest talk to you then This show is part of the frog pants network get more at frog pants calm Club hopes you have enjoyed this bro