Mae'r ffrifonau yn ymgyrch, ac mae'r dweud, ddigestdyn niwedig yng ngwych iawn 5.761, oedd yn cymryd Majesty Wachelwyach, gan unrhyw ddif ar awgwrsg wraffol, yn gyfyrd, yn cywyrddiannol iawn. Mae'r ddibai'r prif? Rydw i gyda'r ddigestdyn wedi iawn, rydw i'n gweithio i gweithfaith yn cyfryd, ddigestdyn niw'r ddigestdyn niw'r ddigestdyn niw, rydw i'n gweithfaith. Felly mae rhai i gaes y trofodol i'r ffrindiau yn yr hyfrigiau, rwy'n rai chi'n eitahu i dd widenfalddau i ddannu eu ddwid如此au i knenwyr gwaith iawn. Felly, mae'r ddweud i ddweud i ddweud, ma'n ddweud i ddulltogau a'r ddulltogau i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud. Felly, gan rhai i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud As part of the motor neurone disease global awareness week, I thank all the members who have come along today in the chamber to show their support and to their continued support to help the motor neurone disease community and also to find a cure. I also warmly invite members to the parliamentary reception that I am hosting in the garden lobby later this evening at 6 o'clock. We can hear directly from motor neurone disease Scotland and their patrons and people who support them as well. As you know, motor neurone disease is indiscriminate. It knows no borders, no class, no race, no gender. It does not discriminate based on income or status, nor does it hold judgement on rich or poor. It is unrelenting, it is terminal and it is cruel. As events of the past few weeks have shown in Grenfell and in Finsbury, in the face of cruelty we find community. Global awareness day is that community, a specific day that binds people together, a day where we all stand united in awareness of motor neurone disease and, of course, we stand united in search of a cure. This awareness day does exactly what it sets out today, get people talking about MND, to spread the awareness of the issue, to campaign and to raise money. That money is vital, as it always is. It is precisely why the Scottish Government has listened to motor neurone disease Scotland and why we listened to the late Gordon Aikman, a friend to many in this chamber. The Scottish Government pledged to invest more into research for motor neurone disease and, as far as I can see, it is beginning to deliver that. The Scottish Government pledged to give motor neurone disease patients a voice. Through the inspirational work of Professor Shandran and his inspiring team, whom I have met many times at the Ewan MacDonald research centre, they are delivering to give motor neurone disease patients that literal voice, as well as a holistic care approach. However, we will not stop there, because we cannot stop there. The work of MND Scotland will guide the way that it is going to be done. I know that they are insistent in doing that, as many of us in the chamber commend them for it. As you know, I have a long relationship with motor neurone disease Scotland. The support, advice and advocacy for them, not only for me, but for the 450 people in Scotland who are currently living with MND, have been invaluable to not just my family but many families. Let us make no mistake about it. Those living with motor neurone disease do not have long, so we do not have long. It is a race against time that, until this moment, the race has only ever had one outcome. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is 14 months. In real terms, that is nothing. That is just mere hours with our loved ones, just brief moments with friends. As some might say, in Scotland in the United Kingdom, the equivalent of at least three general elections. I am just trying to bring a bit of likeness into that, but that shows you how short a time that people have. Every moment of that time is utterly precious. Every moment is accounted for. Whilst we celebrate in the time that we have left, we must also make the reality better for those who must go through that MND journey. That MND journey has just been made a little bit easier. In partnership with ScotRail—literal journey that I am talking about here—MND Scotland have only yesterday announced a journey to a cure, a pledge from ScotRail to increase the accessibility of their trains for passengers living with motor neurone disease and many other conditions. We must also realise that MND is not just neurological condition. Where possible, it is incumbent on us to make that journey just a little bit more comfortable for those with motor neurone disease and those who care for them. That is why I am reiterating my call today for the Scottish Government to let's get benefits right for MND patients. Let's grant lifetime welfare awards for those living with lifelong terminal illness, because that life is quite short. Time is precious. For those 14 months from diagnosis, time is running out. It's a countdown. The clock is ticking. MND patients shouldn't be at the behest of a DWP official. They shouldn't have to rely on the mercy of an individual in the welfare system. Let us all together ensure that those precious moments that they have left in this earth are spent with happiness and with dignity, not destitution and worry over their welfare. My relationship with motor neurone disease is well told and well versed in this chamber and wider, and I make no apologies for it. Ten years I have been raising this issue in this chamber, and in those ten years I have seen good advances. For me, since the age of nine, it was an all-too-familiar disease in my family. Now, at the age of 21, I understand that, maybe a bit older than 21, but I have become much more averse in how it affects other people's families, too. What do we do, Presiding Officer? We honour those people. We honour my dad. We honour my friend Owen McGee. We honour other friends and our friend Gordon Neckman, Ewan MacDonald and Jimmy Johnson. My family sends heartfelt wishes to the family of Doddie Weir and we honour him today and his brave decision to come out and tell us yesterday of his trials with motor neurone disease. How do we honour them? With debates like these, with the reception that you will be also welcome to tonight, with skydiving, with fire walking, with zips sliding and every other thing that motor neurone disease Scotland seems to be able to get us all to do. Our monthly charitable donations and contributions to research and development and support, all of those matter, all of that help matters. When our friends and their families lose their voices to motor neurone disease, we honour them by raising our voices in this chamber, outwith this chamber and any opportunity that we have. We raise our voices higher in seeking better systems, in seeking support for that research, in maintaining hope. Yes, hope for some people when all hope has gone is up to us to pick that up and run with it. If we can do that together in this chamber, across this land and across this world and global awareness day, together we can cure MND. I think that I call Kezia Dugdale to be followed by Clare Haughey, Ms Dugdale please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I start by asking members to take a look at my register of interests where it says that I give all my external earnings to motor neurone disease Scotland. I thank Christina McKelvie very much indeed for hosting today's debate. As she mentioned in her speech, she's got a long-standing, passionate interest in this disease and a long-standing commitment to finding a cure for it. She also, in her speech, referenced the news that we heard today about Doddie Weir, that Scotland giant of the rugby field, who now faces his own MND diagnosis. She also mentioned that this is not the first sport star that we've heard of who's got this condition. If you think of Fernando Rickson, Jimmy Johnstone, Yus Van Der Vest-Hazen, the South African rugby player that used to torment Scotland on the rugby field, even Lou Gehrig, who was an American baseball player in the 1920s, had the disease and for many years in America, MND or ALS was called Lou Gehrig disease in his memory. There's undoubtedly a link between MND and sport, at least we think there is. We don't know, because we don't really know enough about MND and why people get it, that's why we've got to do more research to find out about this disease and indeed find a cure. We think there's a link between head and neck injuries and people who get MND. Again, we don't know, which is why we need more research money. We think that 5 to 10 per cent of people that get MND get it genetically, 90 per cent of people get it through environmental factors. Again, we don't know. My dear friend Gordon Aitman was an international gymnast for Scotland. Again, he could be one of those sports stars who got it because of his history of competitive sport. We don't know and he'll never know why he got that. The last time I saw him was at the Ewan MacDonald centre visiting much of the work that I know that Christina McKelvie has seen over the years. It was in fact the last time I saw him was when we were both showing some fantastic new research that the Edinburgh University had done using zebrafish, a tiny, tiny little fish that can grow motor neuron cells, cells that regenerate themselves to affect your muscle tissue to help you to speak to do everything else. Experts at the Edinburgh University now think that they can produce drugs that will help those zebrafish to multiply those cells in their body. Once they've cracked that, they can take that technology and use it in humans and perhaps get humans to regenerate their own metronuron cells. That in itself could lead to finding a cure for it. It was truly inspirational to see that work and it's global and world-leading in its potential, but again it's poorly funded. There are three countries in the world that could find a cure to motor neuron disease—Canada, Israel and Scotland. Wouldn't it be fantastic if it was Scotland that set a national ambition to be the country that found the cure to motor neuron disease and would appeal to the Scottish Government to perhaps take on that idea? I left that centre kissing Gordon goodbye. I said that I would see him later and then I never did. Forever we debate the issue of motor neuron disease in this chamber, I will speak in his memory and some of the things I hope that he would want us to talk about. Christina McKelvie touched on this, but we can't ignore the fact that today is the day of the Queen's speech. That Queen's speech will contain further cuts to the social security system that we collectively built as a nation. One of the things that the Tories will cut is the motability scheme. This is something Gordon had. He got a car, a Jeep car, a high car, so that he could climb into it without having to move his legs too much. The car was adapted so that he could use the gear stick. It had additional sensors that acted faster for him whenever there was a danger so that he could respond in tight. That car gave him the freedom and independence that he needed for three months when he was still able to drive. I'm not sure he would get that today under the Tories and I sincerely regret that. The reality is that we now have powers in this place over PIP, DLA, attendance allowance and carers allowance. We have the power here to guarantee automatic entitlement to benefits. Like Christina McKelvie, I very much hope that the Scottish Parliament will grab that opportunity and run with it. It is MND global awareness day. We have to remind ourselves why we have to keep explaining what MND is and keep telling its story. Christina McKelvie made the point that so many people who get MND die so quickly. It is not commercially viable enough to spend money researching the disease because people die too quickly to get the drugs that they need to cure it. That is why each and every one of us who has been affected by MND needs to use that experience to speak up for the disease and aspire to find a cure here in Scotland. Thank you very much. Clare Haughey, to be followed by Donald Cameron. Can I thank Christina McKelvie for bringing this debate, allowing us the opportunity to recognise the important and inspiring work that is being done by MND Scotland? There can be no doubt that Gordon Aitman's brave and very public battle with this progressive condition, although at the same time raising more than £600,000 for MND research, has raised both public and political awareness of motor neurone disease and the profound effect that the condition has on both patients and their families. Gordon was full of praise for his specialist nurses and carers and, through his Gordon's fight-back campaign, was successful in securing his primary objective of getting the agreement of the Scottish Government to double the number of MND specialist nurses in Scotland. They are now also paid by the NHS and this allows charitable donations through which MND nurses were previously paid to be channeled into better support, care and research for a cure. We can only imagine how devastating an MND diagnosis is for the individual receiving it. Learning about how the condition progressively impacts all physical functions will be terrifying and coming to terms with the fact that the loss of mobility and, indeed, the inability to move at all is unimaginable. Understanding that intimate personal care will be required, the fear that the time will come when communication may come down to electronic aids, signals or even just the blink of an eye. The understanding that intensive support and loss of independence is inevitable and then there is the realisation of the impact this will have on your family and friends who have to witness it all. The absolute knowledge that you cannot do anything to stop this progressive disease. This diagnosis has an enormous impact on the lives and wellbeing of the patient's family and loved ones and there is no certainty about the future where patients experience the progression of the disease differently and at different rates of acceleration. 24-hour care is always going to be inevitable and the financial implications of loss of earnings brings added stress to already unimaginable suffering. Facing into a future of no certainty means that psychological and emotional support are essential for both patient and their loved ones. Importantly, for those affected, MND Scotland offer counselling services and complementary therapies for patients and their families. In addition to the excellent care given by NHS healthcare professionals, MND Scotland also provide a wide range of other supports for both patients and their families to help them to cope, not only just with the physical aspects of the condition with things like equipment loans services but also with practical aspects such as welfare and benefits. Whilst good progress has been made on several of the objectives promoted by Gordon's Fight Back campaign, work is still required in other areas and one of those is on fast tracking of benefits. It is simply not acceptable that people with terminal diagnosis such as MND should have to wait long periods of time before receiving the DWP benefit awards that they are due and urgently require. I therefore welcome the work that is being done on behalf of the Scottish Government by the disability and carer benefits expert advisory group to look at automatic and lifetime awards for those with terminal conditions. With our new powers over social security, the Scottish Government wants to stop the revolving door of assessments and the related stress and anxiety that brings for those with long-term illnesses, disabilities or conditions. In building a new Scottish social security system based on dignity and respect, the Government is committed to introducing long-term awards. MND is in the illness that currently has no cure, as we have heard, and research is vital both to help to find a cure but also to improve the lives of those living with MND. On this global MND awareness day, it is right for us to commend the work of MND Scotland in that area. This week, it has announced a further £583,000 of MND Scotland-funded research into this devastating illness. It is right, too, that members across this chamber should support the efforts of MND Scotland to increase research investment across the UK to bring more clinical trials to Scotland and to ensure that, as a society, we strive to bring a sensitive and dignified support system for those living and coping with motor neuron disease. I am delighted to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I would like others to thank Christina McKelvie for bringing it to the chamber today. Although we debated the issues around motor neuron disease back in February when the Parliament commemorated the life and achievements of Gordon Naikman, it is crucial to keep matters such as that in the public domain. Pressure and momentum must be maintained, and I commend the will of parliamentarians across this chamber in keeping motor neuron disease to the fore. The debate is particularly poignant after we learned in the news yesterday that one of Scotland's rugby legends, Doddie Weir, announced that he has been diagnosed with MND. Doddie Weir was one of my childhood heroes. Many rugby fans and others will remember his athletic prowess as he towered above others in the line-out. He was a true talisman in the Scottish rugby team to the mid-90s. That will understandably be an extremely hard time for his family and friends, but we can all be heartened by his commitment to spend as much time as possible supporting research of the condition through his support of the Ewan McDonald Centre, already mentioned by others, and raising awareness and funds. As Claire Hawking mentioned, the diagnosis of a condition like this must feel like a devastating hammer blow, but to have the ability to see light at the end of the tunnel and go out and make the best of the situation is truly incredible. What is especially inspiring about Doddie Weir is that he revealed his diagnosis yesterday in order to mark global MND awareness day and to raise public awareness. As the motion states, today is that day, and I would like to commend the Scottish Government for its establishment of the Gordon Aikman scholarship, which the Cabinet Secretary announced back in February. As she said at the time, the scholarship will fund professionals or individuals with knowledge of MND to take forward research into new and better ways of caring for people with a condition. I think that I am right in saying that MND Scotland has matched that funding, which is wonderful and welcome news. In my view, supporting research is one of the most important ways that we can do this, with the short-term aim of extending life expectancy of those with MND and allowing people greater personal freedom and dignity. Investment in research will crucially assist in the long-term aim of finding a cure. With all that in mind, I, too, would like to commend MND Scotland on its focus of research and welcome the news that it is committing a further 583,000 into research projects that will look at a number of things, look at protecting motor neurons, investigating issues around apathy in MND, links between metabolism in MND and how gene mutations react with proteins that help to protect motor neurons. I am particularly intrigued about the research into apathy, because even those who have taken on the Herculean project of supporting MND research whilst living with the condition will have days when they are too mentally and physically fatigued to do anything at all and lack motivation. The aim of this research is to assess the real-life impact of specific types of apathy on people living with MND and their families through the course of their illness. As MND Scotland says, it is an area that has not yet been explored to any great extent, and demotivational problems are rarely assessed in clinical practice. Hopefully, such research will help to guide intervention and management of symptoms and improve the lives and care of people living with MND, as well as their families. That is just one snapshot, Deputy Presiding Officer, of the important work that is going into MND research. I know that other members will go into detail into other areas, but it is so important that we in this chamber continue to talk about MND and the work of the many charities and individuals involved in research, in fundraising and in raising awareness. Once again, I commend the efforts of organisations such as MND Scotland who work day in and day out to improve the lives of those who live with MND and to find treatments so that eventually this condition can be cured. I would like to begin by giving heartfelt thanks to Christina McKelvie for bringing this important issue to the chamber today and for all her tireless campaigning over many years. Most of her neuron disease is an illness that has a devastating and sudden impact on the lives of those who are diagnosed with it and the lives of those who love them. Being diagnosed with MND, with its cause unknown and still with no cure at this time, is a truly life-altering event. Both the uncertainty of the illness, its pace and the different way that it impacts different individuals, in addition to the finality of the diagnosis, all contribute to what makes it so difficult to cope with. The all-too-quick deterioration from being able-bodied and healthy to succumbing to MND and then being unable to walk or even speak is a cruel and difficult experience for anyone to have to come to terms with.  I would also like to congratulate MND Scotland for their tireless campaigning work and add my good wishes to all who are looking forward to the reception hosted by MND Scotland here in Parliament this evening. I would like to use the rest of my time in this debate today to talk about someone that I know with MND, a constituent of mine whose families have known each other for many years and that I have had the fortune of being reacquainted with over the past few months for perhaps the most unfortunate of reasons. Frank Lyons, who lives in Hamilton in South Lanarkshire, was diagnosed with MND in September 2014. Just months after Frank himself took part in the famous ice bucket challenge to his awareness of the condition, he started experiencing difficulties swallowing and soon after began to find difficulty with his speech. He was living in Australia at the time when he'd lived and worked with his wife Ray since 2007. When he first went to Dr Frank was initially told that he'd had a minor stroke and Ray thought that perhaps it was MS or Parkinson's. It was almost another year before Frank received a formal diagnosis of MND just before he was due to return to Scotland for a family wedding. He put the length of time between his symptoms first appearing and a formal diagnosis down to the fact that MND appeared to be less well known about in Australia. Navigating the nuances of a foreign healthcare system was another barrier at first to the Lyons family, confused by the difference between public and private healthcare and unsure about where to go to or who to ask for help. Frank's wife said that their private healthcare often felt like pain more for no extra care or service. At first, they had different people coming to their home and there was no consistency or continuity of care, so it made a difficult situation all the more challenging to cope with. Being diagnosed with a life-limiting condition in a foreign country with few friends or family to support them, the very least that Frank was needing was someone in his healthcare team who could oversee his care. Once he had a permanent point of contact who had come once a month, things got better. The experience of the Lyons family underlines just how important specialist MND support is. No matter where you are in the world, that continuity of care brings a certain level of peace of mind, knowing that there is one specialist point of contact who can direct specialist care. Gordon's success in doubling MND nurses in Scotland and paying them from the public push simply cannot be praised enough. The difference that will make people like Frank across the country and in the years to come is simply immeasurable. Frank, who has returned to Scotland and is living in Hamilton, has been attending the Colbride hospice that serves South Lanarkshire as a day patient over the last year. Much like Gordon, MND has not slowed Frank down. Although he has lost the use of his voice, he has been campaigning hard to expand the inpatient provision at the hospice, sending countless emails and getting the backing of the local paper that East Colbride news to back his campaign. The work at the Colbride hospice of the staff there has given Frank and Ray a better understanding of the condition. He is certain that Colbride is where he wants to stay towards the end of his illness, should he require that inpatient care. Frank is an inspiration and it is my continued hope that he will be successful in his wish to be able to remain at Colbride hospice at the end of his illness. To close for us here in the Scottish Parliament, doing all that we can to support the work of campaigners like Frank and MND Scotland to improve the lives of those with that condition, including making sure that they receive automatic entitlement and lifetime awards of benefits and looking again at the provision of free social care for all who need it has to be the priority. Brian Whittle, who will be the last speaker in the open debate. Mr Whittle, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'd like to thank Christine McKinlay for bringing this motion to the chamber. Why are we here today? I've always felt that members' debates often present hollywood at its best. This chamber gives us a powerful platform to speak not only for ourselves but for others. Today's debate will be watched online, our speeches will be entered into public record and journalists perhaps will report what it said through social media. All those things help to spread knowledge and awareness of the important issues that shouldn't be obscured by the fog of party politics. Scotland is arguably more aware of the realities of motor neurone disease than most. That's thanks in no spot part to the work of Gordon Aitman and I'm sure my colleagues across the chamber will agree that one of the most important legacies of his campaign, Gordon's fight back, is the greater awareness of MND not only among parliamentarians but the public at large.  Yesterday, my friend— The last thing you are, Mr Whittle, is that— Yesterday, my friend, the former lion in Scotland, rugby international, Doddie Weir announced that he had motor neurone disease. No, he's going to call me a big Jesse. No, he's going to call me a small Jesse because he's the only man who could get away with calling me wee man.  It does highlight the indiscriminate nature of this horrible disease. His decision to speak out and commit to raising awareness about the condition is admirable and I intend to help him to do that in any way I can. MND sufferers like Doddie and Gordon, who choose to speak out about their condition, give us an incredible insight into the world of the MND patient. Deputy Presiding Officer, they say that a problem shared is a problem halved. It must surely follow that the more widely a problem is shared, the more manageable that problem becomes. Events like motor neurone disease global awareness day are vital if we are to address the kinds of complex problems that are involved in tackling diseases such as MND, both in how we support patients now and how we work to find the cure. I welcome the Scottish Government's creation of the Gordnagment Scholarship as part of the efforts in this country to make life easier for MND patients. Indeed, I hope that if the scholarship proves successful in generating innovative new ways to improve care of MND patients, we might see similar initiatives that are being supported for other life-changing conditions such as Huntington's or MS or dementia. In addition to improving our understanding, today it gives us an opportunity to recognise the work that has already been done across Scotland and the world to help people with MND. To MND nurses, researchers and campaigners, thank you. Perhaps the biggest thanks should go to the thousands of people across Scotland who have got out of their way to raise funds for causes such as MND Scotland. Their willingness to run marathons and pour freezing water over their heads or do anything else to raise funds should never be underestimated and never be taken for granted. To each and every one of you, we say thank you. Most of those people will go through life never meeting anyone with MND, but that has not stopped them. Those people do not need to know someone with MND to know its effects to those with the disease. They do not need to have someone in their family with MND to understand the heartache of watching a loved one's body slowly fail, aimed at their mind to remain strong. They did not need those things because they had awareness, and they have awareness thanks to the work of MND Scotland, Gordon Aikman and others who have chosen to speak out about their battles with MND. One of the oldest axioms in politics is that knowledge is power, but that is not just true of politics. The more of us who have knowledge of the conditions such as MND, the more power we have to do something about it. That is why today it is so important. That is why the work of MND Scotland is so important, and that is why Gordon Aikman's campaign makes such a difference. By sharing their knowledge of MND with us, they are giving us the power to change things. That began today by asking why we are here today. We are here to change things. It is only by talking about MND and conditions like it that we can change things for the better. Winston Churchill said, if you have an important point to make, do not try to be subtle or clever. Use a piledriver, hit the point once, then come back and hit it again, and then hit it a third time, a tremendous whack. I intend to keep harming away until things get better, and I hope that colleagues across the chamber will do the same. I call the minister to close with the Government. Seven minutes are there about, Ms Watt. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I am very pleased to be able to respond on behalf of the Government this afternoon as we mark MND Awareness Week and Global MND Awareness Day. I thank Christina McKelvie for moving the motion and securing this important debate. Since entering Parliament in 2007, Christina has tirelessly championed MND awareness as a result of her own father succumbing to the disease. In the contributions that we have heard from across the parties, there have been very powerful and personal stories on how MND touches the lives of many, many families across the country. As Brian Whittle mentioned, just yesterday, his friend Dodie Weir revealed that he had been diagnosed with MND, and I am sure that we all have our thoughts and prayers with him and his family. So many members in this chamber are knowledgeable about MND that we must, I think, be able to crack it, as Kezia Huss has so clearly said that we should be able to do. It is clear from the remarks of so many members how much of an inspiration the late Gordon Aitman was and the impact his work with MND Scotland has had in transforming care for people living with the condition. As others have said, his campaign raised in excess of £600,000 for MND Scotland. That is an exceptional sum invested in research that is aimed at finding a cure for MND. This Government is proud to have worked with Gordon and MND Scotland on the hugely successful campaign. We are honoured to have played our part in helping to achieve some of the goals that he set, not for his own sake, but to make life better for others. We have invested an extra £2.5 million annually in the specialist nurse and care fund. As Clare Hock Hock said, it has more than doubled the number of MND specialist nurses across the country and ensured that all of them are now funded by the NHS. Monica Lennon made an important point about specialist nursing care. The Borders Health Board access MND nurses from NHS Lothian. There are 14 MND patients in the Borders Health Board area just now. The Borders numbers are added to the Lothians to give the nurses that work in this area a ratio of 1.36 patients. I just wondered if the minister would be able to tell us if there are any plans to lower this ratio to ensure that patients with MND do receive the best possible care. Each and every health board will have the specialist in relation to what numbers we are, and if we can make sure that we have a bigger body of nurses and the cross-border health board working can achieve that, that is important. On the specific issue, I will try to find out if there are any plans to reduce the ratio, and if indeed it is necessary. We have doubled the number of MND specialist nurses across the country and ensured that they are all funded by the NHS. We have legislated to give a statutory right to communication equipment and support to give a voice to people who do not have a voice or are at risk of losing their own. We are also paying a real living wage to social care workers, which was another key aspect of the campaign. We have provided local authorities with £6 million in 2016-17 to increase the thresholds at which people start to pay for their care. Working with COSLA, we have already ensured that no one in the last six months of a terminal illness pays for the care that they receive at home. As we have set out in both our manifesto and our programme for government, we are carrying out a feasibility study on extending free personal care to people under 65, regardless of their medical conditions. The findings of that study will be given to ministers at the end of the summer. Significantly, we are investing in MND research, which we all know was hugely important to Gordon. Over the next three years, there will be six new-funded MND dedicated PhD posts in our universities as a result of Gordon's campaign. Kezia and others will want to know that we are working with the chief scientist's office to hold an MND research symposium later this year, bringing together experts committed to finding a cure. Members may also recall that during the debate following Gordon's passing in February, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport announced that we would create the Gordon Aitman scholarship programme. That programme will commemorate Gordon's contribution to improving the provision of specialist care and research for those with MND. I am pleased to confirm today that the scholarship, a joint partnership with MND Scotland, is now open for applications. Furthermore, thanks to MND Scotland matching the Scottish Government funding of £25,000, the scholarship will be doubled to £50,000. The fund will support individuals and professionals to develop, implement and evaluate practical interventions to improve the quality of life for people who are affected by the condition. The scholarships will continue to drive forward the improvements to MND care that Gordon had kick-started on Scotland and will be a fitting tribute to a truly inspirational person. The scholarship scheme will be administered by the nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals research unit at the University of Stirling. I am especially committed to learning from those affected by MND and a significant amount of the funding will be invested in funding a project led by those with MND themselves or their carers. I want to make sure that the momentum that Gordon created and the good work that followed continues to be taken forward. Christina McKelvie mentioned social security, and I would like to underline our commitment that when the powers for disability benefits transfer to this Parliament, a fast-track system will be in place for those who are terminally ill so that payments can get to those people affected as soon as possible. In building our own social security system in Scotland, we have committed to a rights-based approach and will exemplify the founding principles of dignity, fairness and respect. We will do so from the ground up, basing our policy, design and delivery decisions on the lived experience of those currently using the UK benefits system, those with expertise in providing advice and support, and those with experience and delivery. The recruitment of more than 2,000 volunteers to our experience panels will help us to design and test our communication channels, our application processes, our appeals framework, our decision making, our assessment process and our IT systems. We have agreed on on-going engagement with MND Scotland to ensure that they are involved in the development of our disability benefits policy on eligibility and assessment, particularly in relation to award duration and automatic entitlement. I would like to close the debate by paying tribute to the work of MND Scotland and, indeed, the tireless efforts of the late Gordon Aitman. I give my commitment that we will continue to work with MND Scotland and others to ensure that Gordon's legacy of lasting practical improvement in the lives of people with MND is delivered. I thank members for their personal and heartfelt contribution. As Mr Whittle said, it shows Parliament in a different light to the public. I thank you all for your contributions. I close this meeting and suspend till 2 o'clock.


You've got a clear choice this Thursday, one that will affect the future of your local area, the future of your town, your neighborhood, and your street. And the choice is a stark one between the Conservatives or Labour and the Liberal Democrats. And I, as the Tease Valley Mayor, know how important it is to deliver on the people's priorities. And Conservative councillors across the country are doing just that. They're delivering on the regeneration of our high streets, on delivering better public transport and protecting our heritage and culture. We Conservatives charge the lowest council tax in the country. Conservatives fix local roads and fill in more potholes, reducing the wear and tear on your car. We're also very focused on protecting the local environment. By recycling more, town halls run by Conservatives are focused on keeping council tax as low as possible. They work with central government in London to secure funding for the best local public services. Labour and Lib Dem councils recycle less than Conservative councils. They fix four times fewer potholes on average than Conservatives. Labour and the Lib Dems have no plans. They just waste time and money, your money. Labour have driven several councils into bankruptcy with their mismanagement. Nationally, the Conservatives are tackling the cost of living. There's 20 million households benefiting right now from our £150 rebate on your council tax bills. We've cut fuel duty by five pence per litre, saving the average driver £100 a year. From July, you'll be able to earn up to £12,570 without paying any income tax or national insurance. That's £330 back in the pockets of over 30 million people. The Conservatives introduced the national living wage, and now we've raised it by a record amount, a boost of £1,000 a year. Now that's real action to tackle the cost of living and reduce your household bills. So wherever you are, wherever you live, the choice is a clear one. Vote for Conservative councillors who will deliver better public services, lower council tax or vote Labour, Lib Dem or independent councils in, and you'll get the same old nonsense. They'll undo all of the hard work. The choice is clear. Let us get on with the job of delivering the people's priorities. On the 5th of May, vote Conservatives. Board Conservative. Vote Conservative. Vote Conservative. Board Conservative. On the 5th of May, vote Conservative, because we're getting on with the job. We're getting on with the job. We're getting on with the job. We're getting on with the job. We're getting on with the job.


Welcome back to 353. So today, another short lecture. So if you haven't already, you can get your laptop out. Make sure you have a copy of Lab 6 so you can work on after this because you'll probably have enough time and I will be around to answer questions. So we are wrapping up memory allocation and what the kernel actually uses to allocate memory for itself because, of course, it would not have malloc. So one common memory allocator is called the buddy allocator and it restricts the problem a little bit in order to actually implement something that's a bit more efficient and a bit more easier to implement with most of the nice benefits of just the general technique using a free list. So typically, on a computer anyways, allocations are like powers of two anyways. So like 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, da, da, da. Page size may be even larger than that. So what the buddy allocator does is it restricts every single allocation to be a power of two in order to have a more efficient implementation which we will get into. But basically, what it will do is split blocks into two recursively until you can handle the request. So if it has a big block of memory like 4,096 and you're requesting eight bytes, well, it would split that 4,096 into two and then split one of those 2,048 into two, then one of the 1,000 whatever into two until you can actually fulfill the allocation and then the reason we mostly do this is for fast merging. So every time we split a node into two, we say that those two are buddies. So they're beside each other in memory, they're contiguous.  So how you actually implement this is, well, it's everyone's favorite link list except you have multiple link lists. So you would restrict the request to be some powers of two like two to the K. So at most I can fulfill an allocation of, I don't know, pick your favorite number like 30, maybe I can fulfill it one up to a gigabyte, maybe a megabyte, maybe a kilobyte, whatever you want. And for your implementation, whatever that to the K of the maximum request is, you would actually implement it using n plus one free lists. So you have a free list for each block size. So for instance, I might have a free list that keeps track of all the free blocks that are size 4096, then a free list that keeps track of all the free blocks that are 2048, then a separate list that keeps track of all the free blocks that are 1024. And that way, well, each free list, all of the free blocks are the same size. One is as good as any other, so it doesn't really matter. Then if a request comes in for some memory, that would be a powers of two, you just search the free list until you find a big enough block. So if you have an allocation that comes in for, I don't know, for example, like 128, well, there's a free list that corresponds to every free block that's 128. If you can find a free block that's exactly 128, great, you are done. If you can't, well, then you have to move up. You have to be like, okay, well, there's nothing that's exactly the size that fits. So I'll check the 256 free list, see if there is a free element there. If there's not, then I have to go up and check the 512, so on and so forth until we actually find something that is free. And then as soon as you find something that is free, you would recursively break it off into two. So you recursively break it off into one half and the other buddy half, and then you would just go ahead, insert all the broken house back into free list for the other sizes, and then fulfill the allocations. And then for deallocations, you would coalesce or merge the buddies back together. So if you free a node and the buddy is also free, then they just come together and they form, well, reform that bigger block of memory and you could do this recursively as well. So if you and your buddy are free, well, then you coalesce them into one bigger block. And then if that bigger block also had a buddy, coalesce them or merge them. And if that bigger block also had a buddy, then you merge those as well. So what would that look like visually? So here's what we could imagine where somewhere using a buddy allocator at the top here, I'm just putting the total amount of memory the buddy allocator is using and anything that's just kind of housekeeping is done with a block background. So this buddy allocator is managing 256 bytes of memory. And then at some point, it had to break this into two buddies here that are 128. And then it had to break off both 128s into two buddies that are 64. And in this case, there's two allocations, there's a red one that's 32 and then a blue one that's 64. So this 64 byte block got split off into 232s. One of the buddies was used for the red allocation here and this 32 byte entry is free. And for the 64 bytes, there's two 64 byte entries that are free. And then here we have the blue one that has the 64 byte allocation. So we would have, in this case, we would have four free lists. So we would have a free list for 256, that's empty. There's no free 256 byte ones, free list for 128, also empty, nothing is free, free list for 64. So we would have two free entries here, this one and this one. And then we would have a free list for 32 byte entries that has one free entry. So now we can see what happens. What if you were to use this and you requested 28 bytes of memory? What would probably happen? So is 28 a power of two? All right, so if I have to do powers of two, what power of two should I probably do for a 28 byte allocation? Probably 32, right? You just round up to the nearest power of two. Can't round down because if I use 16 for 28, probably not gonna work. So how it works is, well, I would just round up to the nearest power of two, in this case, 32 bytes. And then technically I am losing some space due to internal fragmentation because I'm going to allocate 32 bytes to it and it only needs 28. So I'm essentially wasting four bytes due to technically internal fragmentation. So what would happen? We round up 32 and then we would go ahead and we would just use that free 32 block. That would be our new allocation. We can put it in green. All right, now what happens if we get another request for 32 bytes? Yeah, I just split up a 64 byte block into 232s. And then while that's the size I need, I would have two entries on my free list so I can go ahead and use one of them for the allocation. So let's just say we break up the first 64 byte, break it off into two 32 byte buddies, and then now it looks like this. We put the allocation in purple and now for a free list, there's one entry in the 32 byte, one and one in the 64 byte. Good, everyone great, good great grand. All right, so what happens if I free the six? Oh, yeah, sorry. So what exactly is in the free list? So the free list would just be a link list of pointers to the free blocks of that size. So there'd be a free list for all free 32 byte blocks. So there'd just be one pointer to here and be stored in a link list. Yeah, and then link list for 64 byte, one entry just points right here. Okay, yeah. Yeah, so the free list for the smaller size depends on the implementation. Usually you just create them all ahead of time in, it would just be empty initially and then you just add them and remove them as they come in. So you probably just initialize them, yeah. Yeah, so the question is, does the free list kind of know what the buddies are? And the answer to that is because it's set up in powers of two, you can actually like look at the memory address to actually see whose buddy is which because the lower bits would match depending on the level. So you can kind of play around with the bits and mess around with memory to know exactly who your buddy is, right? But yeah, so turns out that's another reason why they did this in powers of two because computers like powers of two and you can just kind of figure it out from the memory address. And playing around with memory addresses is good old fun, everyone loves doing that, right? And doing bit manipulation and all that stuff. So I won't go into the details, just know that it is possible. Okay, so what happens if I free the 64 byte block here in the blue? So I just free it and then I have 264 bit or 264 byte entries. No, why? Because it's got a buddy, right? So they can get together and do buddy things, I guess, and become one, doesn't that sound great? All right, I should just stop talking. All right, so I would free this, it's buddy's free so they get to merge into one and then I would have one big 228 byte block free list. All right, that's basically how it works. Any questions about the buddy allocator? Yeah, yeah, so if I allocated one byte, then yeah, technically I would have a free list for like 16, eight, four, two, one, or maybe I just say, I'm not doing one byte allocations, I make my smallest one four and then if someone requests one byte, maybe I just give them four and then I just say three or lost to the internal fragmentation, I don't care. So it depends, yeah. Yeah, the free list would only just keep pointers directly to the blocks. So the buddy blocks are figured out just to where they are in memory. So like for the 32 byte block, what? The last five bits would be the same and then the only difference would be like if you have a one bit difference in the six bit or the bit at index five and then you know they're buddies. So you can just kind of figure it out from the memory address. Yeah, so what's the purpose of merging blocks? Just so, because you want to merge them together because you need to know that your memory is contiguous. So if a bigger allocation comes in, you can actually go ahead and fulfill it. Like if I just had the 264 byte ones there and someone requested 128 bytes, you might look at them and be like, oh, I don't know for sure that they're contiguous because they might not be if there was a lot of them. I don't know if they're contiguous or I don't know if I can actually do that allocation. So for all the memory allocators stuff, usually if you were to implement that free list thing we saw yesterday, figuring out if you can merge two nodes and doing that is like really, really slow for this. Like it's logarithmic, right? And it's fast. You can just do some bit manipulation. Oh, I pulled my shoulder. All right. So buddy allocators actually used in Linux. So they're fast, simple, compared to dynamic memory allocation. If you are weird like me and for some reason you look at the Linux kernel sources, you will see buddy allocators used everywhere because well, they're great and it avoids external fragmentation for the most part by keeping everything fairly contiguous. All the free physical pages doesn't really matter. The disadvantages of this is there will always be internal fragmentation if you do not allocate empowers of two. Luckily for the Linux kernel developers, they're sane so they know what they're doing. It's usually always empowers of two. So when you give it to a user, you cannot be sure but if you need to make this work for something that is not a power of two, you just round up and then you can go ahead and you have some internal fragmentation. So the other topic is slab allocators and they are four things that used a fixed sized allocations. So if I allocate objects of the same size from a dedicated pool, like all the structures are of the same type, they're the same size. If you have started lab six, this looks familiar to you because this is basically that pool of inodes or that inode table. It's basically a giant array. Everything's the same size. One is as good as any other. You just need to keep track of whether or not it is used. Since they're all the same size, doesn't matter. There's not going to be any internal fragmentation, not gonna be any external fragmentation. I can just use it as long as there is space in that array. And people will also use this in programs if they allocate a bunch of weird things that are all the same size. Well, if you use malloc, it's gonna use some variation of the free list of everything and it's going to be really, really, really slow. So if you know that your program is going to use millions of things that are all going to be the same size, you can go ahead and implement the same idea in lab six. For your own means and it will be a lot faster because, well, it's basically just one giant array. So each allocation has a size. They're all the same size. And then there's like a slab of slots, basically an array and a slot is just like an element in the array. So instead of keeping track of the allocations in a link list, we use a bitmap. So all you need is one bit of information to know whether or not something is in use or not. And there's going to just be a mapping between the bit index and the slot. So for allocations, it's really, really simple. You would go ahead, search the bitmap. As soon as you find a free slot, so it's not full of ones. Well, figure out what the index of that zero is and then that's the slot, like address of the slot you should give back. And then you just set that bit from a zero to a one to indicate that, hey, it's now in use for something. Please do not allocate this again. And then for deallocations, whoops, you can be really, really, really lazy. And you just set the bit from one to zero. You don't have to free the memory if you don't really want to because it's slow. You just clear the blit. It's going to be really, really fast. And if you wanted to, you can mix and match memory allocators. So you could use a slab on top of a buddy allocator. So that would kind of look like this. So this picture is a bit weird. So bear with me. So consider we have two object sizes, like an A and a B. Well, in here, I have four different slabs. So two for A objects, two for B objects. And then maybe this slab that I call 1A, maybe that's a big hunk of memory that I got from a buddy allocator. So it's some power of two. Let's just assume it's like, I don't know, it's 256 or something like that. And then on top of that, I have some room for a bitmap. And then I can fit, in this case, I can fit four A objects on it. And then I have some internal fragmentation represented with the dark bit here, because it doesn't quite line up exactly. And then maybe I have another slab called A2 that's also holding A objects. And I got that from the buddy allocator. So maybe it's 256. And then maybe I have the slab with a bigger object called B. And I get another 256 back from the buddy allocator. And then maybe I can fit exactly two B's on that block. And I don't have any internal fragmentation at all. Then maybe I have another slab that I got from the buddy allocator. So you could do something like this. So you're using that general buddy allocator for everything and then having little slabs on top of it. And then this may or may not work as well, because you might look at this picture and be like, oh, well, instead of having two smaller slabs for A objects, what about if I just had a bigger slab for A objects and then maybe instead of being able to fit in eight, I can squeeze in nine. So maybe you could do that. Kind of depends on the implementation and how flexible you want this to be. So any questions about that? Yeah. So the question is, how are slabs different than just static allocations? So at least in this picture, each of those slabs could be done dynamically. So I could just get one slab that holds four. And then I use five, so I allocate some more memory to hold some more A objects. And I just do that so I can do it dynamically. And you could do it on top of malloc. So usually what some programs will do to implement this, if you know you're going to use tons of objects that don't live that very long, they're all going to be the same size. You'll just do malloc and just say, give me a megabyte, malloc a megabyte. And then you start managing that yourself. And you just use it all for those objects.   I'll do something better with it. Yeah. Yeah, so in this case, the question is why would I even put a slab on top of a buddy allocator isn't fine by itself? Maybe the objects are like weird sizes. Maybe they're not a power of two size. And it's also going to be a lot faster to do the allocations and deallocations. Just accessing a bitmap is a lot easier than a link list. And they could also just be weird sizes. And that could be why, too. Yeah, if you're doing it dynamically in their weird sizes and you use a buddy allocator, then it'll just round up to the next power of two, right? You have no choice. Yeah, so y slab A2 also has internal fragmentation. So I'm assuming that A has a weird size. So say this is like 256.  Is that a weird size that works? Yeah, that works. So each of them are like 60 bytes. So this would be like 240. And then this would be like 16 bytes wasted, right? And if there are two different slabs that could be not contiguous, well, I can only fit four of them on them anyways, right? All right, any other questions with this? But yeah, usually, I mean, you could just malloc and do that. OK, yeah. Yeah, so the bitmap would probably be within the slab itself, or you're managing it somewhere else in memory. So yeah, but it's kind of up to you where you want to put it. You just have it somewhere. Maybe it's somewhere else in memory. Maybe you put it at the beginning of the slab or block. Maybe you put it at the end. Up to you. OK, other last thing that I forgot to mention about file systems is there are things called a journaling file system. Wait, did I mention this? I did. OK, screw it. I did mention it. All right, I fixed it. OK, that was, I guess, there before when I forgot. All right, so wow, I think this is a new record today. Sweet. So we got even more allocations. The kernel restricts the problem. So instead of doing general memory allocation where users can just say any old size they want, the kernel restricts it so that you can only allocate in powers of two. And because of that, it can actually implement something called the buddy allocator because, well, that's a restricted problem. It only allocates in powers of two. So it needs a free list for every power of two size, but then they're all the same size. So works out really well. And one is as good as any other. And then, most importantly, merging becomes really easy once you play with memory.  So that just takes advantage of everything being a fixed size to reduce fragmentation. And yeah, I will be around otherwise. So just remember, we're all in this together.


Today on the breakfast, the Independent National Electro-Commission, INEC, has identified and listed 240 polling units across 28 states of the Federation. What does this mean for the elections? Also on the breakfast, economists say the adoption of a cashless policy in an economy forces people and companies to convert their paper money to bank deposits or deposits to help increase spending of what is Nigeria's future in a cashless policy environment. And don't forget, we have some analysis of today's New Super Headlines, where we sincerely apologize for bringing you the program behind schedule today due to some technical reasons beyond our control, but we're glad that we can finally come your way with the breakfast right here on Plus TV Africa. My name is Kofi Bartels and of course with me this morning is Merci, Epopo will be starting with a look at the top training stories today and of course a lot to talk about as we usually say we bring conversations in the social space on your screens every single morning and we'll start off with this particular story. Let's roll the tape. Wow, well you can see the, it's clearly a school bus, clearly a school bus and it looks like that of a private school. You can see that the bus was being lifted up from a canal of sorts and that is a bizarre one. It makes me feel somehow sick to see because the school bus is meant to carry school kids and if it's one of the private schools like you're seeing it's a day, maybe a nursery school or a crash or something like that, it's quite sad. Well, thankfully no casualties were recorded when that school bus plunged into a canal while the driver was rushing to pick up students according to reports, the accident involved that school bus and it had to be removed from a canal where it landed. That's really bizarre and we thank God, we just thank God really when things like this happen you just only can thank God. That's all you can say, it could have sunk and life could have been lost. So when we hear that the bus was removed by with the help of a crane, you can see that crane there, which means that it probably must have spent some time in the canal and we just thank God really. All right, so that crane left the bus and parked it on the road. It had been seriously damaged as you can see from the video and details are sketchy but we just want to thank God that that particular incident recorded no casualties and this for me, I was speaking yesterday to a friend who records a relative who happens to be a school administrator and I said, you see, you have to call your driver, your bus driver and just give the bus driver a warning and tell him to take it easy when he's driving. Let him see this video. Okay, so it's a day and boarding primary and secondary school crash, nursery primary and secondary school as you can see from the bus. Tell the driver to be careful and I shared a story with this relative of mine to say, hey, I've seen school bus drivers, private school buses speeding as if there is no tomorrow. So I saw one particular one, I was trying to get the number on the bus to see if I could call the school and tell them the driver was speeding and some of these schools don't take particular care to monitor the drivers because they have so much on their hands. So when they employ someone, they don't test the person and then they just put him on the wheels and some of these school and the kids in the bus. So the kids can't shout on the bus driver, they can't tell him, usually he, to slow down and then he's trying to rush up to meet with maybe a particular time for dropping the kids off or picking them up and they have them at different parts of town. So he has to rush sometimes, just meet up in time, sometimes it's just his attitude, the attitude of the drivers. I've seen it in time without number. So it's a call to the schools, private schools especially in Nigeria to take particular attention, monitor your drivers and see how they drive. Let them know that they are being watched, they are being monitored, it's very important. Always time because we've taken a lot of time already. Let's look at the next top trending story. I think we should roll the tape so you can understand where we're coming from. By language you say it's what is for you to see, not for you to be told. So let's see it and we'll come back to you. Not use your past to manipulate you. That is why we need to carry out and defend our faith, pass to the future, but it does not use your past to manipulate you. That is why we need to carry out and defend our faith. I'm sure if you've not seen that video anywhere on social media before, you will be like, what just happened? Can we roll it again very quickly please, because some people just see it for the first time and they'll be like, what happened? Can we roll that tape again one more time? Future, but it does not use your past to manipulate you. That is why we need to carry out and defend our faith, pass to the future, but it does not use your past to manipulate you. That is why we need to carry out and defend our faith. All right, so yes, yes, yes, that's a rifle. That's a rifle. That's an AK-47 rifle. That's a Kalashnikov, what they use in the fighting war. If you've been in the war zone, you've watched the soldiers. That's a Kalashnikov, AK-47, believe it or not. And that's a preacher. You can see the logo there. If you are a good Christian like myself, you would know that that is the logo of house on the rock. I almost feel like I lifted it up like that. I swiped the gun up. I almost dodged from my seat right here, because you don't swipe up an AK like that. So that is the house on the rock. His name is Pastor Uche Aigbe. Pastor Uche Aigbe is a pastor of the Abuja branch of house on the rock. And he costs quite a stare amongst many when during the second service, the second service of their Sunday worship, he, Pastor Uche Aigbe, walked into the church carrying an AK-47 rifle. I'm sure some of the members were like, Pastor, OK. The pastor's entrance, of course, would have then gone on to cause some sort of commotion and confusion and concern among members of the congregation who were trying to understand what was happening. So he walked up to the lectern, aware of the tension he had created without looking at his worshippers. He then opened his Bible and said, some people are looking for my trouble and I came here prepared, is what he said. Some people are looking for my trouble and I came here prepared. So the preacher's statements threw the entire congregation into the fit of laughter as he continued preaching on the topic, guarding your hearts from false teachers and faith without works is dead. That's what he said, you know. So it was bizarre, all right, for a lot of people and his actions sparked a lot of discussions about the role of firearms in church and the responsibility of religious leaders, you know, what they have to do to make sure that they stay on the right track where a lot of people had views to share on this. But I think one other highlight of this whole incident is that we must also inform you that the police was invited to pass so we can say arrested him and detained him for brandishing an AK-47 rifle on the altar. That's what happened following the leaking, let me say, of this video. Right after that Sunday service. According to the police public relations officer, that's Mu'yua Dejabi, he said that the investigation had commenced on the incident. When you say the same investigation, I don't know what the police will usually mean, they want to interrogate the suspect. Because for me, I always say that police never hardly investigate beyond confessional statements. You know, oh, the suspect confessed to kidnapping this one, the confess, but investigation is that all it's about. But anyway, they said they're investigating the incident. And we hear that a police inspector, Musa Aoudu, is the one who handed the gun over to the Abuja pastor. Because you be wondering, OK, does he have an AK-47 rifle or not. So an inspector of police handed the gun over to him. His name is Musa Aoudu. And we also hear that the Commissioner of Police in the FCT, that's Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Sadiq Abubakar has made a recommendation to the inspector, General of the Nigeria Police Force, Al-Kali Usman Baba, to dismiss the inspector, the police inspector, Musa Aoudu. So that's what we hear. But interestingly, we hear also that he'll be facing an orderly room trial going forward.  It's an internal control, it's a sort of a police unit. Talking about the Marshal, I'm trying to get the correct team, but it's not coming back. So the police, they have what they call their marshals. And what the marshal does is that they investigate and then they try, police officers who are airing, who have been found wanting, they actually have a trial. All right, so they'll take their belt off, take their cap from them, you know, detain them, and then match them in before the officer in charge. It's called something marshal. Okay, so that's what happens. Sorry about that, I just went blank, you know. So in the army, I think they call it a guard room or something like that. So it remains to be seen if he will be dismissed as the recommendation has been made. But the church has released a statement. I just want to go to that right now. Why are pastor mounted the pulpit with AK-47? I just want to read a statement from House on the Rock. Okay, and what the church is saying that is that he carried the gun to illustrate his message to the congregation. So it's simply an illustration. I want to read the exact words of the church. So this statement reads, quote, on Sunday, February 12th, a resident pastor of House on the Rock Abuja Church pastor Uchi Aigbe in a message about fighting the good fight with spiritual weapons carried an unloaded gun to illustrate his message on guarding your faith. Pastor Uchi Aigbe has been a leader in House on the Rock Abuja since 1999 and has always shown exemplary leadership. However, he realizes that even with the best of intentions carrying a gun to illustrate his message was ill-advised and regrettable. He says, without hesitation, Pastor Uchi Aigbe has acknowledged the gravity of his actions and apologizes unreservedly for them. He says, as a church, House on the Rock rejects all forms of violence and we stand on the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ which embraces peace and goodwill for mankind or for all mankind. We're cooperating fully with the authorities as they carry other investigations into this incident and we will continue to engage in tenly to ensure this breaking protocol does not happen again is what House on the Rock is saying. All right, so that's that. I think we can move on from that incident and we'll wait to see if the police will indeed dismiss the inspector who handed a police weapon, a police weapon, an AK-47 to a pastor so he could preach with it. The word I was looking for, the name I was looking for was Provost Marshall. Yes, the police have what are called a Provost Marshall who is like their own judge. When you go to the court and you face trial, they have their own internal trial so the Provost Marshall will gather the evidence if their witnesses invite them. For instance, when I had a human rights case with a police and some officers did what they did to me, I didn't actually lay a complaint but the police invited me to attend the trial and the officers that assaulted me were marched in before me and the Provost Marshall interrogated them and then interrogated me. They had a chance to interrogate me and they took his notes and they would make his recommendations to the authorities, the CPU or the IGP as the case may be, if it is miss all, that's what he will say. But it's not always usual that you see the police recommending that one of them should be dismissed. So we'll have to keep our eyes on this. Some people will say they can bet that this inspector will not be dismissed. Maybe he'll be transferred somewhere else. Maybe not, we will see what happens with that. But it juries out as to the judgment that the pastor exercised and the question pastor's always right will pop up at this point. Clegemen always right because in this part of the world, they're seen as next to God, all right? Next to God. In fact, they're seen as, in some congregations, members see their pastors as God, really. Yes, yes, yes. Because they believe they can do everything.  Their pastor sticker on their door will save them from a armed robber. So I mean, some Christians see their pastors as God, actually, so some see them as next to God, some see them as God. But I think this should go a way to show that pastors are human beings. Sometimes they are wrong. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes pastors are wrong. But everything a pastor says is right.   Okay, with the scripture, with the word of God. So if a pastor is wrong and he makes a mistake and tells you to do something, you go set the scripture, pray about it, and say, okay, what is saying? Is it true? Okay, that's what you have to do. Okay, even sometimes Paul himself will tell, you know, in the scripture, say I'm not the one, it's not God speaking through me now. This is me telling you how I feel. All right, so we need to make that distinction.  Okay, for me, I never get carried away when a clergyman makes a mistake or does anything that is controversial. Because why? They are men first. Man of God. Man. And as a human being, he's not an angel that can appear and disappear. He's a human being. Okay, he breathes in air. He can make a mistake. And if he makes a mistake and I see that he's telling me to do the wrong thing or acting wrongly, I will not jump into him. I won't do what he's saying. I'll say, see what my scripture says. No, this is not right. Okay, and when he makes a mistake, I won't judge him. I'll say, he's a human being. I also make mistakes too. All right, and let him go and, you know, God will forgive him. That's it. So, I think we're just gonna leave it at that for now. We'll take a break and then when we come back, we'll look at what the rest of us have to do. They still have us.