The next item of business is a statement by Nicola Sturgeon on the outcome of the UK general election. The First Minister will take questions at the end of her statement and there should therefore be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister, about 10 minutes. Thank you very much indeed, Presiding Officer. I'm grateful for the opportunity to make a statement on the outcome of the UK general election. Firstly, let me take the opportunity to congratulate all those elected or indeed re-elected to serve as members of Parliament. It is the greatest honour to be elected to represent our fellow citizens in Parliament, whether here in the Scottish Parliament or in the House of Commons. It's also, of course, an enormous responsibility and I know that all those taking up seats for the first time will be feeling a combination of pride, excitement and trepidation. I wish them all well as they get down to work on behalf of their constituents. My good wishes also go to those who lost seats last week. My party may have won the election on Thursday, but we also know from past experience what it feels like to lose. So while we may celebrate our success, we take no pleasure in the personal laws that defeated candidates will be feeling. I wish each of them and their families the very best of luck in whatever they choose to do in the months and years ahead. The result last week was of truly historic proportions. The SNP now has the honour of representing 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland in the north, south, east and west of our country. We secured 50 per cent of all votes cast. 1.4 million people in total voted SNP. The largest number of votes that any party has won in Scotland ever. The trust that the Scottish people have placed in the SNP to represent the country's interests at Westminster is unprecedented. We will now work each and every day with determination and with humility to repay that trust in full. I also want to make it clear that we will also work and work just as hard to win the trust of those who did not vote for the SNP last Thursday. As Scotland's Government and as the largest party in Holyrood and now the largest Scottish party at Westminster, we recognise the unique obligation that we have to reach out to and speak for all of Scotland. I pledge today that we will make Scotland's voice heard. We will stand up for the progressive policies that we put right at the heart of the election campaign, but we will also seek in everything that we do to build unity in our country. There is one final point that I want to make today about the nature of our task at Westminster. I spoke often about my desire to build a progressive alliance at Westminster to lock the Conservatives out of office. While Scotland voted for that change, Labour failed to win sufficient support in England and I regret that. Our determination to work with others of progressive opinion across the political spectrum in and out of Parliament remains undiminished. We will build alliances to argue for the protection of the vulnerable against deeper welfare cuts. We will seek to defend our human rights protections, to halt further privatisation of the national health service and to safeguard the UK's place in Europe. A clear majority of people across the UK did not vote Conservative last Thursday and they deserve a strong voice in Parliament. I promise today that the SNP and the Scottish Government will seek to be that voice. We will be a constructive, principled, determined and effective opposition to the majority Tory Government and we will seek to be so on behalf of people not just in Scotland but people right across the UK. The scale of the mandate that the people of Scotland gave to the SNP last week does ensure a much stronger voice for Scotland at Westminster. It also strengthens the hand of this Scottish Government in seeking to secure the very best deal for Scotland from Westminster, which in turn strengthens our ability as a Government to deliver for Scotland. Yesterday, I visited the emergency department of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary to thank our front-line NHS staff for the hard work that they are doing to improve A&E waiting times and to reaffirm our commitment to support our NHS to make the further improvements that are needed. The delivery of healthcare and other public services is, of course, the responsibility of my Government and we will rightly be judged on our performance. It stands to reason, does it not, that we can do more to support and protect our public services if our budget is not being cut year on year by Westminster. It is for those very practical reasons that we put an end to austerity at the very heart of the election campaign and we will now use our mandate to put an end to austerity at the very heart of the Westminster agenda. I spoke to the Prime Minister by telephone on Friday. Yesterday, I wrote to him to seek a meeting at the earliest possible opportunity and we are looking to meet later this week. Let me be clear that public spending and the protection of Scotland's budget will be key issues on the agenda when we do meet. The issue of more powers for the Scottish Parliament must also form part of our discussions. I want again today to pay tribute to Lord Smith of Kelvin. The work that he and his commission did provides us with a strong starting point for the further devolution of power to this Parliament that is so necessary if we are to grow our economy faster, support more people into well-paid work and lift children out of poverty. The Scottish Government welcomed the proposals that Lord Smith brokered, but we have also been consistent in our view that those proposals do not go far enough. The outcome of the election makes abundantly clear that this view is shared by a significant proportion of the Scottish electorate. If the Prime Minister and his Government mean what they say about respecting the outcome of the election in Scotland, they must now agree with us a process that looks again at the Smith commission proposals with a view to extending devolution even further. That must be a process that is made here in Scotland and one that involves wider Scottish society. As my party's manifesto made clear, we believe that the Scottish Parliament should move to full financial responsibility. However, as a matter of priority, we want to see devolution of power's over-employment policy, including the minimum wage, welfare, business taxes, national insurance and equality policy, the powers we need to create jobs, grow revenues and live people out of poverty. It is such a package of priority, job creating, poverty, tackling powers that we will now seek to build support for and agreement on. Let me say this sincerely. I very much hope that Scottish Labour will now become part of this growing consensus. This morning I met the STUC and they agreed to join us in calling for powers over the minimum wage, trade union and employment law, health and safety law, equality legislation and for greater responsibility on welfare to be devolved as a matter of priority to this Parliament. For Scottish Labour to want to leave these powers in the hands of a UK Labour Government was perhaps understandable, albeit not a position I agreed with. For Labour to argue that these powers should remain in the hands of a majority Tory Government with no mandate in Scotland would be simply inexplicable to most people across our country. I genuinely hope that Labour will now think again and join us in arguing for a powerhouse Scottish Parliament equipped with the powers we need to build economic prosperity and foster greater social justice. Last issue I want to address today is one that was ironically talked about much more by our opponents during this campaign than it was by the SNP, the issue of independence. It is no secret to anyone that the SNP supports independence we always will, but I made clear during the campaign that this election was not about independence. It was about making Scotland's voice heard at Westminster. I said clearly to people across our country that I would not take a vote for the SNP as an endorsement of independence or of a second referendum. Let me be absolutely clear that I stand by that. There will only be another referendum on independence if the people of Scotland vote in a future Scottish Parliament election to have one. That is democracy. Of course it cuts both ways. I cannot impose a referendum against the will of the Scottish people, but nor can David Cameron rule out a referendum against the will of the people. It will be the people who decide. What happens to public opinion on this question in the years ahead will depend not just on what the SNP and the Scottish Government do, but also on the respect shown to the decisions that the people of Scotland have made. How David Cameron, his Government and the Westminster system choose to respond to the message that Scotland has sent will be crucial to how we move forward. It is worth reflecting that last week's election did not just result in record high support for the SNP in Scotland. It also resulted in record low support for the Conservatives in Scotland. It was the lowest share of the vote won by the Tories in Scotland since 1865. It seems to me that the Conservatives now have a clear choice. They can ignore the voice of the Scottish people and carry on regardless as if nothing has happened and let people draw their own conclusions about the ability of Westminster to respond to Scottish opinion. Or alternatively, they can choose to demonstrate that Westminster does listen and that it is capable of serving Scotland better. For our part, we will work in good faith to get that better deal for Scotland. We will be constructive and seek agreement with the UK Government on issues where we can find common ground. We will always act in the best interests of all of the people of Scotland. We ask people to vote for us in this election to make Scotland's voice heard at Westminster. People placed their trust in us last week to make Scotland's voice heard loudly and clearly. We now intend in the House of Commons and here in the Scottish Government to get on with that job on behalf of all of the people we are so honoured to serve. I thank the First Minister for early sight of the statement, which I will reflect on in a second. First of all, I take this opportunity to congratulate the First Minister on a remarkable result for her party. Whilst her campaign was led from the top with dignity and fflair, I am sure that she would agree that the hard work and dedication of activists and volunteers cannot go unnoticed. In fact, one sentiment that we can share across this whole chamber is that pride in our democratic process, where people do not just stand up for their beliefs, but they make the case for them in town halls, on doorsteps, in cafes and in workplaces, and then the people decide. They decided to send a strong team of SNP MPs to Westminster, and I wish each and every one of them well. The First Minister referenced human rights protections in her speech. Can I assure her that these benches will do everything we can to oppose any attempt that Tories make to scrap the Human Rights Act. Enacted in the early days of a fresh Labour Government full of hope and aspiration for the future, the act embodies the civil and political rights which are fundamental to any liberal democracy. A threat to the Human Rights Act in my view and the view of these benches is a threat to those very rights, and it must be stopped. Secondly, and in closing, I have met and spoken with a number of constituents this week who are fearful of Tory government plans to further attack disability benefits. From mum's caring for disabled children to adults with long-term conditions, there is fear and trepidation in the air. What reassurances can the First Minister give those individuals that, whilst there is no question that she will give voice to those fears, that she will act here in this Parliament to protect them as well? First Minister. I thank Kezia Dugdale for her very gracious remarks. I can also agree with her absolutely in what she said about the efforts of party activists, the length and breadth of our country, and activists in all parties. I know for my part the SNP victory last Thursday was down to the hard work of tens, of thousands of candidates, activists, supporters and members right across our country, and I want to place on record very publicly today my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of them. I can also say to Kezia Dugdale that I welcome her comments on opposition to repeal of the Human Rights Act. I do think that this is one example of, I hope many examples, where Labour and the SNP in that progressive alliance that I spoke about can work together against some of the wrong-headed measures being put forward by the Conservative Government. Any suggestion that we should move back from human rights protection I think is appalling and completely wrong, and let me say on behalf of the Scottish Government that we will do everything within our power to ensure that vital human rights protections remain in Scotland and remain undiminished, and I welcome the support of the Scottish Labour Party in that respect. And also on threat to the support that people with disabilities rely so heavily on. I think of the mainstream parties in this chamber, and I will be corrected if I'm wrong on this, but I think we were the only party to stand very firmly and oppose the £3 billion cut coming from the Conservative Government to the support of disabled people across our country. In Westminster and here in this Parliament we will do everything we can to oppose that. Disabled people should not be paying the price of balancing the books they deserve, the support that they need to live independent lives. We will also continue as well as opposing these measures in the House of Commons using the new voice that we have in the House of Commons we will continue in this place to do everything we can to mitigate against the welfare cuts that we so passionately disagree with but let me say this and it goes back to what I said in my statement. Rather than us simply standing here in this Parliament trying to mitigate measures from a Westminster Conservative Government I say this in all sincerity to Kezia Dugdale let us join together in saying put the welfare powers in the hands of this Parliament and this Government so that we can stop the attacks in the first place. Members who wish to ask a question of the First Minister should press request to speak. I thank the First Minister for advance notice of her statement and congratulate the Scottish National Party for their performance at the general election. I will add that congratulations to those I have already expressed to David Cameron for managing what no Prime Minister has done since 1955 in increasing both the number of votes and seats that are still already in office. In Scotland we did not manage to add to the seat total we did contribute to the total of votes with 434,000 fellow Scots voting for the Conservative Party the most at any election since devolution. I am naturally delighted that the Conservatives have been returned to government to finish the job of an economic recovery which today's figures notwithstanding has already seen 175,000 more Scots in work over the last five years. Our goal is to reach full employment so that anyone in Scotland who wants a job knows that there is one there for them. In her statement the First Minister revealed a shopping list of requests including over business taxation and measures. Can I ask her what level of support from Scotland's business organisations did the Smith commission receive when it examined this very issue just a few short months ago? First Minister. I really hope that notwithstanding my opposition to the Conservative Government and I congratulated David Cameron on Friday it's no secret I did not want him to continue to be Prime Minister but he won the election and I congratulated him on that but notwithstanding that position I really do hope that in the days following this statement we have perhaps a different tone struck from Ruth Davidson. I said in my statement that the Tories scored their lowest percentage share of the vote in 1965. That is a fact. The SNP scored a record high share of the vote. What that means is that whether it is on more powers over business taxis or welfare powers or whether it is over continued austerity which people in Scotland have voted against I say this very directly to Ruth Davidson and her colleagues in the UK Government it cannot be business as usual because if you simply turn your face against what people in Scotland have debated support for them what you will say to people in Scotland is that Westminster cannot listen does not listen and is incapable of responding. Let's have the discussion about how we want to build on Smith. Ruth Davidson will put forward her views on business taxis I will put forward my views on these matters and others but let us move from this starting point the people of Scotland must be listened to I begin with and I hope it is the one Ruth Davidson will too. Kevin Stewart followed by Willa Rennie I am pleased to hear the First Minister say that SNP MPs will do everything to halt the plan £3 billion cut to disability benefits. Does the First Minister agree with me that the best way to stop the erosion of the welfare state is to devolve all social security to this Parliament? I do want to see social security powers devolved to this Parliament it is no secret and I am on record saying this before that the proposals put forward and broken by Lord Smith do not go far enough they would leave the vast bulk of decisions and the vast bulk of the budget over social security in the hands of Westminster. In a debate between politicians this can often sound as if it is an esoteric academic debate about where power lies this is very real for hundreds of thousands of people across our country there is no difference for disabled people over whether they get the support they need to live independent lives or not now having power in the hands of this Parliament does not put into the hands of this Parliament a magic wand tough decisions have to be taken but we will at least know we are taking these decisions with our values our priorities absolutely uppermost in our agenda that is where decision making should lie so I hope I am not expecting to get agreement today on this from the Conservatives but I do hope in the not too distant future we can form an alliance with Scottish Labour and others in this chamber to say that welfare powers the decisions over support for the most vulnerable in our society should not be in the hands of a majority Tory Government with one MP in Scotland they should be in the hands of the democratically elected Parliament and Government of Scotland Will there be any followed by Jackie Baillie I congratulate Nicola Sturgeon on her party's election victory last week it was a hard result for us we've got lessons to learn which we are absolutely determined to learn but this Parliament has got a job to do every single day of the week just this week police with guns on the streets of Stirling mental health services falling shot, unemployment on the rise accident and emergency times missed for months on end yet this First Minister spends parliamentary time with this self-congratulatory party statement that tells us absolutely nothing Order see they don't like it so can I ask the First Minister can I ask the First Minister when she is going to give us a statement on even just one of these important issues that she's got responsibility for First Minister I'll be standing here in this very place tomorrow at 12 noon to answer First Minister's questions as I do every Thursday at 12 noon I'm not sure if Willie Rennie's got a question tomorrow the strength of his party is such that he doesn't get one every week but that is hardly my fault I think it's really important for this Parliament to reflect on the result of the UK election and to reflect on how we use what people in Scotland said last Thursday to seek to influence the decisions that the Westminster Government takes why do I think that is important because the decisions that the Westminster Government takes are directly on the ability of this Government and this Parliament to serve the people of Scotland so I make no apology for saying that I want to use the mandate given to my party by the Scottish people to say to the UK Government that austerity must stop and that this Parliament must be empowered to serve the people of our country better. The day-to-day work of this Government never stops Willie Rennie mentioned accident and emergency figures and as I said yesterday when I visited Edinburgh Royal to speak first hand to the front-line staff delivering accident and emergency services yesterday there is work to do but yesterday's figures were the best performance since we began publishing weekly statistics. Let us all thank our NHS staff for the work that they do and be determined to support them to do even further and part of that support in my view, Presiding Officer is me as First Minister standing up and saying loudly and clearly I do not want to see further cuts on this Parliament. We have very little time for questions so can I ask the questions that are brief as possible and for my part I will do my best to call as many members as possible. Jackie Bailey for by Christine Grahame. Can I start by congratulating the First Minister on the scale of the SNP victory on Thursday last week. I want to ask the First Minister about national insurance and I know she wants it to be devolved in order that it can be reduced to create jobs. Can I ask whether the First Minister will publish an assessment of the scale of potential job creation that is envisaged and the flip side of the coin what impact it would have on pensions currently linked to national insurance so we can take a considered view of the proposal based on the fullest possible evidence. First Minister. Well as Jackie Bailey knows there is no such direct link there in terms of national insurance and the payment of pensions but that I will put to one side. I will be very happy as the debate about what further powers should be devolved and I hope that following my meeting with the Prime Minister that is a debate that starts in earnest with a proper process around that that allows as many voices and people in Scottish society to be involved as possible and as we go through that process I'll be very happy to publish analysis and assessment and evidence that makes the case that the more powers over job creation the more powers over business taxes the more power over welfare we have in the hands of this Parliament the more successful we can be growing our economy, growing revenues and lifting people out of poverty. Christine Grahame. In building alliances in particular regarding human rights and I'm heartened by the commitment and tenor of Kezia Dugdale's remarks on this issue can I ask the First Minister given the announcement by Theresa May about shipping desperate refugees back to the awfulness of the countries of origin will the First Minister when building alliances and human rights protection across the two parliaments also commit to building that alliance and reach out to the wider UK community? First Minister. I said during the election campaign I wanted SNP voices in the House of Commons to be voices for progressive change and the kind of progressive change we will argue for in Scotland is progressive change that I believe many people across the rest of the UK also want to see so we will continue to seek to reach out with a hand of friendship to build alliances with people of light mind across Scotland but across these islands for the kind of change we want to see I've already made comments about the human rights act I would hope that it will be possible to build an alliance in the House of Commons as well as in wider society against the repeal of the human rights act I think ordinary people across the country are appalled at the idea we would roll back on human rights protection you know these are vital protections for people in all walks of life in many everyday issues and we should work hard to protect them so I will and I say this very clearly the SNP will seek to work with others across all parties and people in no parties to build alliances for the kind of change we want to see and to build alliances in opposition to the kinds of changes coming from the Conservative Government that we don't want to see Iain Gray, followed by Patrick Harvie Had a Labour Government being elected last week it would have abolished the bedroom tax to the United Kingdom and devolved housing benefit to Scotland too I know the First Minister would have supported that instead the bedroom tax is likely to be increased and extended we worked together before to protect Scottish households from the impact of the bedroom tax will the First Minister undertake to work with us again to maintain that mitigation in the face of any extension of this iniquitous measure irrespective of any debate on where powers lie First Minister Yes I will we have mitigated the impact of the bedroom tax and we will continue to do as much as we possibly can within the powers and resources we've got to mitigate the impact of welfare cuts on the most vulnerable in our society and I very much hope that that will be something around which we can unite but you know what and I've said this in this chamber before I didn't come into politics to simply mitigate I came into politics and I want to be First Minister and continue to be First Minister so that we can be the author of the changes that we want to see and the author of the kind of society we want to live in so yes, let's work together to mitigate the bedroom tax but for goodness sake let's also work together to get the power over the bedroom tax out of the hands of the Tories into the hands of this Parliament Patrick Harvie, Paul Vouching Brodie Thank you and can I add my congratulations to those who were successful and commiserations to those who lost their seats in this election I'm glad that the First Minister chose to have an early meeting with the STUC given the very direct threat to the right to strike which is coming from the new UK Government it's ironic that that Government has formed with the direct backing of fewer than one in four of those eligible to vote despite the nature of the proposals they're bringing forward on the right to strike Does the First Minister agree that even if there was a popular mandate for this policy there is no justification for this direct assault on the right to strike of people in Scotland or elsewhere and if the STUC's proposals for workplace devolution come back on the agenda will she ensure that such proposals have no future in Scotland? First Minister I very much agree with that and gave an assurance to the STUC this morning that they would have the backing of the Scottish Government and indeed the backing of my party in resisting any erosion of trade union rights I don't believe that is the priority in Scotland I don't believe it's what a majority of people in Scotland want to see efforts being spent on instead I want as First Minister to work with STUC to make sure that we're doing what needs to be done to increase productivity to extend fair work to get more people onto the living wage to deal with exploitative zero hours contracts these are the priorities we should be focusing on and we need to work together on those priorities so I will and this Government will stand against any attempt by the Conservative majority Government to crack down on trade union rights and I hope perhaps with the exception of the Scottish Conservatives though I live in hope we will be united in this chamber in saying no to those kinds of attacks Chick Brodie followed by Ken Macintosh Does the First Minister agree that if the Prime Minister is successful and brings forward an early European in-out referendum then a double majority must be required to ensure Scotland is not taken out of the EU against its will First Minister Yes I do agree with that the indications are although we'll have to wait and see how solid these indications are that we might see an in-out EU referendum brought forward from 2017 to perhaps as early as next year let me make very clear the SNP opposes an in-out referendum but if there is to be one then we think it is absolutely unacceptable and indefensible for any constituent part of the UK to be put in the position of being taken out of the European Union against its will so we will if there is a EU referendum bill placed before the House of Commons our MPs will lay amendments to that bill to introduce what Chick Brodie rightly described as the double majority rule in order for the UK to come out of the European Union enough simply for the UK as a whole to vote for that each and every member of what remember we were told was a family of nations must also do so and I would hope that we would have support for that from every single quarter of this chamber Ken Macintosh, followed by Stuart McMillan I also begin by thanking those who won the right to represent Scotland in the Westminster Parliament and also thank those who stood down for all their public service to this country there are clearly going to be areas where we continue to disagree but the election revealed areas of agreement too including the need to tackle food poverty in Scotland the First Minister believes that we could do more if we had more powers in this Parliament but does she also agree with me that we could do more using the powers that already exist in this Parliament and if so what actions does she intend to take over the next few years I echo Ken Macintosh's comments about those who stood down I commented on those who won and those who lost but I think that it's a point well made to say that there were MPs who didn't stand for re-election and we wish them well too In the interest of trying to genuinely build agreement I agree with Ken Macintosh we stand in the disagreements we have across this chamber I do believe that the record of this Government stands close scrutiny in using every power and resource we have to seek to mitigate the impact that we have had coming at us from Westminster every year just now and the finance secretary will correct me if I am getting this figure wrong we spend over £100 million mitigating the impact of welfare cuts and we will continue to do that and we will continue to look for ways in which we can do that further and better as part of that investment we are investing money in supporting food banks and in supporting efforts to tackle food poverty and I will always listen to anybody who comes to me with ideas better and more effectively I will always caution this point there is a limit to what we can do to mitigate UK Government welfare cuts from within the fixed budget that we have and everybody has to understand and realise that so yes we will do what we can to mitigate but I will always continue to argue that the most effective thing we can do is get the powers out of the hands of Westminster and into the hands of this Parliament Stuart McMillan Thank you A number of third sector organisations including trade unions have said that the Smith commission proposals fall far short of their aspirations for Scotland and I welcome the agreement signed today between the Scottish Government and the STUC Does the First Minister consider that today's agreement goes beyond the Smith commission proposals which should now be seen as a starting point for more powers as she indicated in her statement? Yes I do agree The Smith commission proposals were published and members will recall that the STUC and I hope I'm not putting words in their mouth were one of the biggest critics of the proposals as they stood and said that they did not go far enough and the agreement that we have reached with the STUC today Scottish Government and the STUC don't agree on absolutely everything in terms of where we should go next in devolution but there are key areas where we do agree and we have agreed to jointly make these calls and all of these areas would take us on the starting point of the Smith commission proposals I think there are two points that when I meet the Prime Minister hopefully later this week there are two points we need to establish. Firstly, is there an agreement on the part of the UK Government to move beyond the Smith commission proposals I think there has to be but I need that confirmation from the Prime Minister and if there is that agreement as I hope there is and I think people in Scotland will be appalled if there is not then what is the process we then put in place to decide and determine the extent to which and the areas in which we move beyond the proposals of the Smith commission now? That process has to be robust it has to be transparent it has to be made in Scotland and it needs to give organisations like the STUC and other civic society organisations the opportunity to input their view so these will be the issues I take up with the Prime Minister and I have no doubt notwithstanding Willie Rennie's objections that I will report back to Parliament Stuart Stevenson, then finally Jameedy Would the First Minister agree that it would be a democratic affront if any politician rejected by the electorate were to return to Westminster by appointment to the House of Lords and in particular given that the Liberals have 101 members they are more even than the total number in the US Senate that now that they are down to 8 it is time for some 80 or 90 of the existing ones to consider resignation First Minister I would go slightly further I think the House of Lords is a democratic outrage in and of itself I look forward to the day which may not come within this time of Parliament now that the Tories are back in office but I look forward to the day when the House of Lords is no more because people with no democratic mandate should not be writing the laws of our land but to directly address Stuart Stevenson's point yes I do think it would be deeply democratically wrong for defeated MPs at this election to find their way back to Westminster via a seat in the House of Lords now my party is in a perhaps a unique position there that we didn't lose any seats in the election last year so we don't have defeated MPs and we don't appoint to the House of Lords anyway but I would hope Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats would each give a commitment that they will not seek to get round the democratic will of the Scottish people in that way and give a clear commitment that no defeated candidate from the election last week will find their way into the House of Lords Thank you When the First Minister meets with the Prime Minister will she make it clear that it is not acceptable for the UK Government to seek to repatriate powers from the European Union to the House of Commons while acting on the roadblock to the legitimate transfer of the further additional significant powers which this country was promised in the closing days of the referendum, powers which the people of Scotland have now demanded so loudly and so clearly in the election result last week First Minister As I think I made clear in my opening statement I will be seeking to have that conversation very directly with the Prime Minister Let us be quite calm and rational about this We have our differences of opinion We will not all agree on what powers should come to this Parliament but one thing I do think we can say very clearly is that there is now substantial opinion in Scotland that the Smith commission proposals however well meaning and well brokered they were do not go far enough so that's the first point we need to establish then as I say we need to put that process in place to determine how we go forward I will end with this simple point and it's a point I've made several times already this week The Conservatives, led by David Cameron simply cannot act as if it is business as usual in Scotland They cannot carry on as if nothing changed in Scotland last week because everything changed in Scotland last week and Westminster must listen That ends the statement from the First Minister Before we go to the next side of business Can I just remind members that we are probably going to have to drop at least one speaker from the next debate because I've allowed all the questioners on this one


My name is Andrea and I'm a volunteer here at the Society. If I could choose one thing within the society's collection to have my Christmas stuck in this year, I'm actually going to be quite greedy and choose two. So it would be this beautiful pair of portraits, which date back to the early 1500s of Edward IV and his brother Richard III. I love these portraits. I think not just because they are beautiful, but the fact that, as we know now, especially the picture of Richard is the earliest known portrait of Richard and therefore is probably the most accurate representation of him. And we know this now as well from DNA evidence that we got back in January from The Bones.


Rhaiddoi'n imbrug hynny, yn y gwnaeth Rhianna, a dyfod o'r cyffredin allan o gwahanol cwyddiant is the NHS healthy start scheme. So this is a scheme conducted by the NHS to allow children up to the age of four to have a free vitamin D supplementation. So this is our proposed strategy. We propose that children up to the age of 18, regardless of their socio-economic status, should receive a free vitamin D supplement. So in order to implement this strategy we need to have funding and we need to lobby to change the policy. The second part of the implementation is providing the education. So we'll need to train the presenters and volunteers to help run the training courses. And then the third part of the strategy is to advertise the strategy and we will do that by partnering with the NHS. So things that we need to consider, we need to ensure that postal questionnaires are sent out to parents over the course of the strategy. We would also obtain data from hospitals, although this may be difficult to you very much for inviting me to the end of year celebration today. It's really exciting to be able to share what I've learnt with you today. So I decided to join the human nutrition and health program because I wanted to retrain to become someone who works in nutrition and health. It's something that I've always been interested in. I've worked in several different industries throughout my 20s and it's something that I've always wanted to do but never really quite had the confidence to do. So I'm here now and I've never looked back since. I'm so happy I joined the course. We've got really supportive tutors and the lecturers are so knowledgeable. They really do help me with my learning and it's helped me to realise what area I kind of want to go into because it's such a broad subject, human health and nutrition. There's so many different avenues you can go down.


Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Monthly Commissioners Corner Program. My name is Lucia Campriolo. I'm a newly elected school board commissioner representing Ward 5, which is home to Champlain Elementary School. And I'm joined here this evening by my colleague, Polly Vanderpouten, who represents Ward 3, which is home to Sustainability Academy. For those of you who are newly tuning into this segment, we have resumed our Commissioner Corner Program after a bit of a hiatus from COVID. And so if you haven't tuned in in the past couple of months, I'll just let you know what you've missed, and also direct you to the CCTV website at cctv.org, where you're most welcome to dial up the links to our previous programs, during which you would hear a conversation hosted by our colleague, Commissioner Gulick, as well as myself and other newly elected commissioners, Saja Almagali, who represents Ward 8, and Akila Sokosu, who represents Ward 1. So we are rounding out sort of an introductory conversation with newly elected commissioners, and Polly and I are so excited to be here with you all this evening for a more specific conversation about the BHS-BTC 2025 project, which is a really important project that the entire community is undertaking, certainly a project that the board is explicitly focused on right now and will be for the next coming months and years. And we are excited to have the opportunity to share that project with you all this evening. And it will be, I'm sure, one of many conversations that we'll have and certainly one of many opportunities for you all to participate. On that note, I do want to mention that this is a call-in program, and so we really welcome hearing from folks throughout the show, and you're welcome to give us a buzz at<PHONE_NUMBER> at any point to ask a question, share feedback, or just tune in. So with that, I think I would love to spend a little bit of time hearing from Polly. I'm so excited that you are here to join us today. I know I have especially and personally appreciated getting to know you over the past handful of months. Thank you. Grateful for your leadership and to have an example to learn from as you've been serving for a number of years now. I thought it might be fun for folks to hear a little bit from you, maybe what inspires your service as a commissioner or what you value most about the Burlington School District, what's been keeping you busy this summer, and to paint us a picture of Polly Vanderputen, community member and school board commissioner. Okay, well thank you, Lucia. Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of this. So my name is Polly Vanderputen. I represent Ward 3. I have lived in Ward 3 since 2006, but I've really only been on the school board for a few years, so I appreciate the nod to my tenure, but actually I still also feel very new and like I'm learning a lot. I grew up in South Burlington and went to public schools there, and I came to this point in my life, I don't know, maybe five or ten years ago when I had a child where I really concretely realized the importance of the people who volunteered on my behalf. That I grew up in a family that was rich in cultural opportunities and education, but not really financially, but at public schools and people who were volunteering made a huge difference in my life. So when the Ward 3 seat was open, I decided to run for it. I'm also a public school teacher. I've been teaching for, sorry, doing the math over 20 years, but teaching public high school for about 15 years. And I have some familiarity with the teacher side of boards and contracts and negotiations and situations for students and curriculum decisions and all that stuff. So it's very interesting to serve and to see that other side. Fun stuff. I love to bike. I love riding my 1955 English 3-speed around. I rode to South Hero a couple weeks ago, which was Triumph. I love to garden. I love to swim and spend time with my family. I have a husband and a 10-year-old daughter. And we've been having a really nice time relaxing this summer. Nice. Thank you so much. Well, there are two things I want to respond to in that. One is just that I know we are both avid cyclists for transportation purposes. And so for those of you watching and those of you in Burlington right now, you know it's a very hot and sticky day out. And Polly and I met each other here on bikes. And so happy to share that hobby and passion with you. The other thing I wanted to respond to was just your acknowledgement that you are kind of on an ongoing journey and learning despite sort of your previous term serving. And I think that resonates with me so much and I think with many of our colleagues in that we are a volunteer board. And so we volunteer our service on behalf of students and teachers and families and the broader community. And that really it's our charge to be in that space of continual learning. And so I think one of the ways that we do that and we strive to do that and aspire to do that is through community engagement. And so it's really our, one of our primary roles is to be in constant engagement with the community. And we do that in a variety of ways. This is obviously one way. But there are many ways that we do that informal, more formal but also many opportunities for folks to connect with us both informally and formally. And we'll talk about those in just a minute. But it's fun to share space in that way and it's one of the things that inspires my own services. Just being around people who bring diverse perspectives and share a common passion and value for the work that, the charge of the board. Really that work around governance and community engagement. Great. Well, thank you. So I think we're going to transition and spend the majority of our time really in conversation about BHS, BTC, which like I said is certainly the kind of project and really it's more than a project. It's a really significant undertaking, not just for the board but for the entire community. And so it feels especially important and timely to continue to use platforms like this one and others to bring more people into the conversation so that we are moving toward the next series of decisions with as much support as we can for what will be a new school building and certainly what is just about the biggest need our community has at the moment. So I thought, Polly, just given that you have been serving for a bit longer than I have, I thought we might start with just bringing folks up to speed, sort of how did we get here? Could you share some of that context of what has led us to this point we are at today, which is needing and working hard to finance a new school building? And we'll spend a little bit of time in that space of where we are today and then a little bit of time where we're headed. Great, thank you. Well, I'll do my best to summarize how we got to 2020, which is when I started serving on the board. There were efforts made, numerous efforts made by a lot of different community members and committees and the school board to get a renovation off the ground. And I'm honestly a little bit fuzzy on the details because I know that it's been years in the making. And the main thing driving it was the age of the building and of Burlington High School and Burlington Tech Center and that they were not ADA compliant. So there were a lot of issues with the building and they had been acknowledged for a long time, but getting the right plan in place and getting community backing was another step. So I think many community members know that we passed a bond of $70 million in 2018 to fund a renovation for BHSBTC and to kind of bring it up to speed in terms of what was required. The bond passed and we started the renovation and that was when we discovered, I hope I'm going to say this right, polychlorated or polychlorinated biphenyls. PCBs is the shorthand for it. And they are toxic and as the renovations got a little bit deeper and testing went a little bit further, they found that not only were they airborne, but they were in the concrete and the masonry and the joists and pretty much everywhere in the building. So one of the questions that comes up a lot to this day is what happened to that $70 million? What happened to that bond money? Is what you're going to be asking for now going to include that money? And the answer to that is no, first of all. We used about $4 million of that money to get the information that we have now and then realized it was a much bigger project. And something that I learned about bonds and bond funding is that you don't get a blank check of $70 million. It's like here, almost like a credit card, you can have some access to this money but it's not like there was $70 million just sitting in a school district account. So we opted not to use the rest of that and I just want to clear that up in terms of what we're talking about now because it comes up a lot. Shall I continue? I think that is a really important point and I know we'll talk a little bit more about sort of what's on the immediate horizon for our work as it relates to financing this project and so I appreciate sort of that very concrete specific context around the previous bond. Thank you for that. Yeah, so another question that gets asked or something I've seen in comments in different places is why did we choose to close down the school as a board? And it didn't feel like a choice. It felt like completely irresponsible to keep functioning in a toxic environment and it was frankly illegal. The Vermont Department of Health had a certain threshold at which they said you can't operate with these airborne PCBs. They have changed it over time but it doesn't matter because we're now on the federal radar for the PCBs that are like I said in every corner of the building. So while we did have to vote on various steps in this process, the board had no choice but to close down that school and find an alternative and I am surprised to this day in the best possible way at how the community came together and Superintendent Tom Flanagan and our chairperson Claire Wool brought everybody together to get the downtown BHS which is the former Macy's as a space for us to be in person. It's like kind of a minor miracle when you think about the timeline of a shutdown very suddenly in August of 2020 and getting kids into a building in March of 2021. Absolutely and I would reflect as well that along with the support of the folks you mentioned there was also a level of advocacy with our state partners too and funding support made available to make that transition into the Macy's building and I also share that feeling of gratitude and good fortune that we are a community that had a space that our students could relocate to and I know that's not the case for other communities should they find themselves in this situation which hopefully they do not but we do, it's a great kind of moment to highlight sort of the way that community members and leaders and our partners at the state level came together to support that. Yeah, they absolutely did. Now we're on a lease until 2025 which is why our project is called BHS BTC 2025 because that is how long we have a lease for at that downtown BHS building. We were hoping to use it as swing space for other school projects across the district but currently the highest priority is for us to have a permanent high school to serve our community and also a permanent tech center to serve the entire region so we're really focused on that and not sure about the status of that as swing space. We'll see as time goes on but we do have a deadline and some urgency and that's another question that comes up. Why are we rushing this? We need to take down the old high school, okay it's full of toxins but can't we build first and then wait for funding to take it down properly or can't we use existing buildings that are there and save some money and I've been at pretty much every single meeting where we've had the architects and experts and paying attention to all the information and the answer to those questions is we absolutely need to remove the existing school before we build a new school partly for cost reasons it's going to cost us more money if we try to build and then deal with the old school partly for environmental reasons like why would we build a new school and then take one apart that's full of toxins that makes no sense and partly because all that stuff is just going to end up costing us more so we're looking at funding for this and getting that onto ballot language really soon because we are mailing ballots out now we want to have this bond vote in November but we also need to have everything set up by August everything approved by the city council in terms of how much bond we're asking for by mid-July which is like next week so we're thinking about all of these things but it's been really crystal clear to me over the past several months that we need to remove the old high school and we need to build a new school on that site that's how it needs to happen and to get it done by 2025 yeah thank you for that I think there are a few visuals that I'm going to refer folks to that really color in and provide a bit more context to some of the details that Polly's talking about and they can all be found at bsdvt.org which is the school district website there's a specific moment on that website that calls out this project and what you'll find there are conceptual designs which will move quickly into schematic designs but the first phase of conversations that we all had as a board with guidance from our management team steering committees, architects really a bevy of experts and community members was to give shape to sort of the requisite components of a high school and technical center building and so I think in April which was right around when I was sworn in in that first meeting or second meeting that I was a part of as this team we were presented with five conceptual designs that reflected that level of input that I just described from a variety of stakeholders and at that meeting the board was asked to vote on which of the five conceptual designs we would advance as a district and the design we chose was the least expensive of the designs but that's not the only benefit that it brought it really had some other programmatic aspects that made sense, were environmentally friendly were the most cost effective certainly and met the timeline that urgent timeline that we were working toward and so I think one of the questions that's come up for me and that's come up or been asked of me is tell us more about the budget and how it is that you arrived at this budget without sort of knowing what funding was available and I think that's a really good question and it's you know I think the inputs that were put into the project were and I'd love to kind of for you to close any gaps on this but you know was a reflection of the current programming and the student body that we serve and so some really sort of factual actual information around number of students where footage required to host the series of programs that we currently serve and desire to serve that will afford our students the best educational experience they can possibly have within our public school district and so sort of looking at that as a baseline of or guidepost of what we want to build that's where those five kind of conceptual designs came from I'm simplifying it somewhat and I know there is a lot more that went into it over the months leading up to April but what I want to say is you know really thinking about the student body the population, the square footage there are some really baselines that generate costs and size and space and programming are big generators of costs we know when we build any construction project and so I think using that conceptual design to then you know provide the next level of inputs and ask of our architectural team the next level of inputs around to move us from sort of conceptual to schematic is where we are now and we'll be having a look at those in more detail in the coming weeks but we also have some work to do on financing the project and so to that end do you want to share sort of where we are today as far as what the district has identified and some of the cost cutting measures that we have recently approved just as recently as a couple of weeks ago yeah and it's honestly fascinating to sit here and think about this as you're talking that last year at this time we were considering as a board considering a list of like 16 different potential sites because it was like where are we going to build this wonderful new high school and tech center to best serve our community so fast forward to now where we've decided on a site and we've decided on conceptual designs and even some of the schematic designs it's just had to pause for a moment to reflect on this process the most recent news, the most recent development is that we have altered the conceptual design because we've decided as a board to remove so-called high bay programs from the site at Institute Road in part because we have received a grant from federal government through Patrick Leahy toward if I hope I'm getting this right fact check me anyone who wants to but specifically toward education in tech and aviation and so our automotive program and our aviation program and our advanced manufacturing programs all things that had to be shifted anyway with the shutdown of the BHSBTC currently will be relocated out at the airport in partnership with community members such as Beta Technologies which is a growing company out there and it benefits us in a few different ways one it reduces the footprint of BHSBTC on the current site which reduces cost and it also creates a unified space for these other programs to be together like aviation and automotive they get to have each other as a community and they get to be in the community which is really optimal and important for this aspect of tech ed so we had a schematic design reframe conceptual design meeting at the end of June where the architects presented their information and I'm sure that it was filmed and posted and it's somewhere in an archive if people would like to look at it and we got to see some of the new ideas about what's coming up in terms of funding we had some surplus in the district that we're going to use some of our funds that were set aside some of our capital plan monies that were going to be used for renovations across the district and we've decided to repurpose some of that money for this because this is such an important project and then we're looking at a bond basically that we're going to ask the city of Burlington to consider we'll first city council then city of Burlington and hopefully approve great and so just to reflect those numbers if the first conceptual design began at sort of 181 with an additional 29 for remediation tear down of the existing site we sort of began this conversation at 210 and from that we have applied about 25 million of funding that the district has identified and we have reduced the cost of the building of the entire project to the tune of roughly 20 million dollars is the anticipated reduction because of that relocation so we are looking to to do what's best for our students and for our community first and foremost and consider how we can be most efficient with dollars not only because we haven't yet received support from our state partners though we will continue to ask for that support and to look to through the district's partnership with the consulting firm to continue to look at the state fiscal year 23 budget and all of the various programs that this project would be eligible to receive funding support for that work will continue and we know that what's upon us immediately is developing an ask to present to the school to present to the city council around the bond request and again that the timing of that is fast in that the language has got to be developed and finalized by about August 15 so that we can that language can be finalized on the physical ballots that will be mailed home to folks in time to vote so we've got a good bit of work ahead of us near horizon and I think we've talked about some of those upcoming milestones that the project will move through are there any other milestones that come to mind for you in addition to the work of the next six weeks of sort of working together to finalize that bond language which is really a lot of work going into that from again lots of partners including our partners and colleagues at the city council the mayor's office superintendent etc well I would just say it's never too late to get involved there is a form called the BHS BTC BTC involvement form I think on the BSDVT website I googled BHS BTC 2025 to see how does one find this information and it popped up pretty quickly I would say continuing to have conversations with our other local leaders so school board members but also city councilors and legislators particularly around funding to mitigate the old school we need specifically right now $29 or $30 million so any ideas for where that money could come from or how we might get that money would be great and continued pressure on people because I think that there is funding there it's just a question of how do we get it how do we access it deserve it of course I'm biased I choose to live in Burlington but we deserve an absolutely amazing wonderful high school for our community and for everyone in our community I've been thinking a lot about this and about public education and about democracy especially over the past few weeks and recently read a piece about a rural district where the residents realized that complacency is the central threat to democracy and I would say that complacency is the central threat to us getting or not getting a high school so get involved thank you Polly what an awesome call to action I appreciate your conviction in that and the variety of ways that you just offered folks to get involved I think that many of us I know you do as well join our neighborhood planning assembly we dial into our PTO meetings we have our own sort of social media presence or community presence in the wards and districts that we are elected to represent and I would also say that we are available by email by phone and you can find that contact information on the website as well but we really are here to hear your thoughts and I know I've appreciated the last handful of weeks the level of engagement that has come my way and that I have sought out because as you noted and I think what you reflected so beautifully is that you're also sourcing this input and this information continually and it's just about the most important thing that we can be doing right now is communicating the urgency and the importance of this project to our community members so that we are successful in November and beyond well I know that we are coming up at time and I just want to thank you again for joining me for this afternoon's conversation and thank all of the viewers for tuning in today we will be sure to post the link to this recorded program and share it out via front porch forum to folks who weren't able to dial in live and again please reach out to us we are here to represent you and eager to hear from you so look forward to being in touch in the next handful of weeks months and years I suppose to come for those of us who were just elected in March and again thank you so much for tuning in and for making this community what it is.


This paper presents an analysis of tropospheric NO2 column measurements from Tropomy-S5P satellite for an oceanic area in the central Mediterranean on 2 July 2018, revealing plume-like emission structures in tropospheric NO2 columns while automated identification signal, AIS, data of ship locations reveal a total of 185 ships in the area. Combined with information about wind speed and direction within 3H prior to the Tropomy-S5P overpass, the ship tracks can almost perfectly be aligned with the plume-like tropospheric NO2 structures. Information about ship length and speed, combined with an analysis of ship tracks and ship position, reveal that nearly all emission plume-like tropospheric NO2 structures can be attributed to the largest ships, mostly container ships and crude oil tankers. The study provides strong support for using satellite sun glint measurements to detect and attribute NO2 emission plumes from ships. This article was authored by Aristides K Jorgulius, K Fokker Borsma, Jasper van Vliet and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


What is going on everybody, welcome back from the YouTube video, my name is John Hammond and we're looking at MITRE CTF. Let's move into the grab bag category, we just got done with Linux a little bit ago, so let's check out this 50 point challenge. It says Nyan, it says Nyan, Nyan, Nyan, Nyan, Nyan, Nyan, Nyan, Nyan, Nyan, Nyan. It's the tune from the Nyan cat. Alright, cool, let's SSH connect to it. Let's make a directory for it, grab bag, cd grab bag, cd grab bag, not braggab, make directory 50, Nyan. Cool, we can make a little connect script, connect.sh, spin bash, blah blah blah. Boilerplate stuff you don't care about, but I do all the time, it's bad. So I connect to it and we have Nyan cat, Nyaning us for many seconds. Okay, trying to move it all, can't do anything really, control C out of that, kill it. So what I tried to do originally was just use this SSH command and kind of like we did before was in some of the previous Linux challenges, go check those out if you haven't. Try and run commands and that would give me nothing, it wouldn't give me the Nyan cat anymore, but it would also break my terminal cursor so I just reset to close that or to get it back anyway. So that didn't work, couldn't use DIR, oh, but I guess I'm getting some weird output. I don't know if you saw the flag just kind of flashing there for a little bit. That was enough testing to make me realize what was going on and at that point I'd said, okay, if it's just spitting out the flag along with it with the Nyan cat, then let's try and just rep through that output, see if I can get MCA and that doesn't work because it's including it in this line, it would be including that line with what we're seeing and it's also probably just being pulled out. I tried stuff like, okay, let's redirect this to just like a file and that'll take forever, right? But if I open that up, let's see, there's a lot of stuff in here, right? There's a last log in and there's an Nyan cat going on and is there a flag in here? Yeah, cool, okay, that'll work. Could try that, redirect it to a file, maybe, so there's the flag, right? You could do that. I had just ran grep like I've been doing before but I also used the only and extended regular expressions technique so I could use MCA dot slash or dot star in the curly braces and I would just get the flag only when it's being spat out, so that's a pretty cool visual, that's a nice Nyan cat, but that's that, that's the flag, it is being spat out and displayed with the Nyan cat, you just need to kind of avoid the noise and don't get distracted by the Nyan cat, filter out what you're looking for or just try and capture everything that it's sending you and I just again kind of determined that by testing other stuff, like can I run commands like who am I or ID and I noticed it was still sending me garbage, so okay there's got to be some valuable garbage in there, I don't know how else I can interact with it, so interesting tidbit, interesting point and stuff to keep in mind and keep to know, but did I save this flag? I did, yeah, okay, so let's jot that down, if you wanted to make a little get flag script with that where you just grep, tac, oe, Nyan cat, mca, etc, or pipe that, you know, you know how to do it, you just learned, you just figured it out, so that's how to get the flag man, that's it, hope you enjoyed this, hope you enjoyed this, hope you enjoyed this, it was fun, I hope you enjoyed this and I hope you enjoyed the video, thanks for watching guys, if you did like the video please do like, comment and subscribe, love to see you guys on the discord server, I'd love to see you guys on patreon or paypal, I'm incredibly thankful for each and everything that you guys do to help support and offer to keep this thing going and growing because I've been away for a little bit too long and I'm feeling really sad about it, thanks everyone, talk to you soon


You know, one of the biggest things I always want to stress to people because you see those stories out there where people are like, I'm a self-made man, I'm a self-made man. I don't believe that there might be exceptions, right? There's always exceptions to the rule, but especially in this business or in many other businesses, you don't do it alone. You do it with the help of other people, whether that be from people supporting you, people giving you knowledge, people giving you access to tools, people teaching you different ways, systems, things like that. Like there's always help out there. And so I think that that's one of the biggest draws to how awesome this is going to be is that everyone is coming together to understand that, hey, we're here because we want to learn from other people because we realize that in order to reach the pinnacles of success that we're after, we need to learn from others. But I'm going to share with the 8% nation my first appointment, how I fact find the things that I talk about, taking the complexity out of the financial word for your clients, that's what I'm going to be talking about. I'm going to take what I learned in two years, put it into a half hour, because I believe that it's your followers, that the people who are coming to the 8% nation, I believe that they have what it takes to get to this level, to be able to go out there and massively change their business and adding this financial stuff to there. Because I know that it's not difficult and I'm going to show you how easy this is. For me, it's a lot of it's about networking. I've always learned so much more going to these events, actually more, meeting new people, people I've talked to over the internet, over the phone, never met in person, like yourself.  Everyone wants to succeed. Everyone wants to create wealth.  Everyone wants certain things, but it's not always that easy.


California sorry Peter sorry but in any case what we're going to do and I'll give you the little technique and all that fun stuff for this afterwards and there's a whole bunch but where is it that you like to what do you want do you want an opener do you want something you can bring up do you want something I would say probably a comfort probably can then like a mid game okay so mid game all right cool as you guys may or may not know I've had this thing called the red stack forever and it's like kind of the only customized thing out there and I don't know why all right so which of these things of these categories do you relate with the most or would you want to know mid game about I would say so pick one for me you're saying sure okay so for good I would say social social and bad I was probably say awkward all right for afraid probably social reputation and failure okay and for curious or those again a sexual perspective how women view men how to make a woman's court make signals and passion probably how women view men how women view men yeah okay so what we got is we got this one we got this one we got this one we got this one and in mid game so what we want to do mid game wise is a lot of that has to do with storytelling and this actually fits for this what all like we've all heard of the term qualification right qualification just means to assert yourself and see if somebody accepts it all right that's it all right it doesn't mean that you need to get somebody compliant with it if somebody's compliant with it that's great you know if you're like escalating on somebody you know and you're making the moves and she's like escalating back and grabs your dick you're like hey that's good but if you're escalating on her and she's still there in front of you that's her accepting it so she's not complaining so what we want to do is we want to fit this in a template of qualification and what this is going to do is show you I'm going to give a couple demos of how to customize this stuff so you could you could be talking to somebody first off if you're in in a level of comfort tech tactically you should be isolated you should be somewhere where they're just in front of you and you're just talking to them her friends can be around or you could be like you know in some cave somewhere or whatever I don't know what your deal is but cave would be good and we have separate techniques for that you guys are slow crap always at the 21 convention so anyway what we want to do is we want to say hey you know this is really weird I really I've had like a good time talking to you but you know at the same time I'm a really social guy but at the same time I can be totally awkward all right so we're gonna bring it up in the first sentence and in that first sentence we're gonna show a little bit of intent right we say hey you know what I'm a really I'm a really you're cool chick I really like you and I'm really social but I'm also really awkward that's like kind of a weird dynamic because at the same time a lot of people see me from my social side but they don't want to see the inside of me or the stuff which really makes me work and I think women are kind of that way but you know what here's the thing women are so all over the place like I never get it like how the hell do women view men so what was your first impression of me so you're gonna qualify ask based on that and then you're gonna go into she should probably won't be able to give you a thorough answer she'll say like oh you're tall cuz dude you motherfucking are tall this guy's like 611 or some shit but but anyway so you say so what was my first what was your first impression of me and she'll say oh you were funny or you were tall you're gonna now man see that's not what I mean see what I value with myself is like how people really see me not just the social side of me but also that reputation that I build not just the social reputation but that side of me that's that's entirely there because when you can look at my awkward side and when you can look at my social side and have fun with that then you can have the complete me and then you can slip into all the sort of stuff like for instance we're talking right now but dude I don't want to be I don't want to be talking to the false you I don't want to be talking to the you that's afraid I and you know I'm not saying anything here but if we were if we were getting physical if we were making out if we were you know engaging in some sort of physical thing I wouldn't be wanted I wouldn't want to be engaging with the fear I wouldn't want to be engaging with the facade I wouldn't want to be engaging with any sort of nervous or nervousness or your reactions so let me ask you now what was your first impression of me all right so what's happening there and for you guys who came to layer talk on I'll write this down in a second there's a process which is happening you guys probably just thought those were words and Steve was saying some like crazy shit which is true but I'm actually qualifying I'm grounding I'm qualifying again and then I'm fitting a definition to it or framing it all right who else who else want something you're welcome you're welcome Venezuela just on the part of how to make women's court how would you open it okay so let's say in comfort and it is an opener is attraction or in comfort or seduction seduction we have to get like Erica you're the only one sorry not breast milk the vagina squirt right okay but yeah opening opening opening okay so if you wanted to open with something like that if you want to open and be sexual check this out all right when people hear a lot of my stuff in field I'll like say all sorts of sexually funny stuff that's not sexual all right that's like being sexual and being funny but sexual is actually like connecting and interacting and hopefully we'll have time to talk about that but in fact let's just fucking put that in an opener all right so mr.  I'm gonna be a part of that dinner and we're doing it because we need to raise money for Anthony it's not going to me it's 50 bucks to go to that dinner it's for the 21 convention it's for Anthony I get none of this it's my break time in between my workshop which is like from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night I'm gonna be there from 8 to 9 30 and I'll be talking to you guys and work with you and the best thing you can do for me is the best thing you can do for yourself for me and the whole thing is shake my hand and talk to me it ain't on the stage that's not where we come up with these solutions man it's when we look face to face and hopefully there will be other instructors they're working with you but look we need to raise some extra cash we do that to make this convention the best thing in the world he puts his whole fucking life into this thing that's why when he's talking about all his crazy ideas I'm just like okay because he's fucking passionate man and he believes in something but let's be there it's at 8 p.m. I don't know what restaurant it's gonna be at talk to him about it urban flats Ratis will be there hopefully some other instructor Orleans will be there Fuji will be there and look these are all service-oriented people man look all of us got workshops of sale all that bullshit but look let's connect and let's actually make this thing a good thing you know there's a few people that walk out of this room and thinking that it's an all-right experience and there's people you know that come back and say dude this thing changed my life there's a guy in Afghanistan who still e-mails me all about that about the weekend he spent here so let's make that happen anyway thanks a lot and talk to me afterwards all right