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Russell Findlay
Russell Findlay is a Scottish politician and journalist who has served as Leader of the Opposition in the Scottish Parliament as well as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party since September 2024. He has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since 2021. A member of the Scottish Conservatives, he served as the party's director of communications. Journalist career Findlay worked as a journalist for Scottish Television, the '' Scottish Sun'' and '' Sunday Mail''. His investigation into the disappearance of Margaret Fleming was used to help prosecute her killers. He has written three books, one of which is about his acid attack, and co-authored a fourth. Acid attack In December 2015, while working as a journalist for ''The Sun'' reporting on gangs in Glasgow, he was subjected to a doorstep acid attack. William Burns disguised himself as a postal worker and threw sulfuric acid on Findlay before attacking with a knife. Findlay manag ...
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Shadow Cabinet Of Russell Findlay
The Shadow Cabinet of Russell Findlay was formed on 8 October 2024, after the election of Russell Findlay as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party on 27 September 2024. While there is no Official Opposition in Holyrood, Findlay, as leader of the largest party not in government, acts as the Leader of the Opposition. Background and formation Findlay won the 2024 Scottish Conservatives leadership election, succeeding Douglas Ross who stood down after the 2024 general election. Appointments to the Shadow Cabinet and frontbench were reported as being expected to be made after the Conservative party conference. Rachael Hamilton was appointed the Deputy Leader on 28 September. Findlay appointed his Shadow Cabinet on 8 October. It was confirmed that Craig Hoy would continue as the party chair for an interim period. Shadow Cabinet (2024–present) Junior shadow ministers {, class="wikitable" ! colspan="4" , Shadow junior ministers , - !Position !Shadow minister , - , De ...
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Member Of The Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; ; ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation, where each constituency has its own representative, and each region has seats given to political parties to reflect as closely as possible its level of support among voters. Each registered voter is asked to cast 2 votes, resulting in MSPs being elected in one of two ways: * 73 are elected as First past the post constituency MSPs and; * 56 are elected as Regional additional member MSPs. Seven are elected from each of eight regional groups of constituencies. Types of candidates With the additional members system, there are 3 ways in which a person can stand to be a MSP: * a constituency candidate * a candidate named on a party list at the regional election * an individual candidate at the regional election A candidate may stand both in a const ...
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Disappearance Of Margaret Fleming
Margaret Fleming (1 November 1980 – c. December 1999/January 2000) was a Scottish woman who was murdered by her nominated carers Edward Cairney (1941 – 2023) and Avril Jones (b. 1960) in the village of Inverkip, Inverclyde, Scotland. The case was one of a murder conviction without a body. Background Margaret Fleming was born in 1980. She had learning disability, learning difficulties which had been identified at a young age. After her father died in 1995, Fleming began to live with a couple he had been close friends with and who he had named as her guardians in his will – Edward Cairney and Avril Jones. Living with them at their house "Seacroft" in Inverkip, they became her full-time carers, with Jones managing Fleming's disability benefits. In 2016, Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, changes to the social security system meant Fleming was required to reapply for disability benefits. Jones completed an application form for new benefits on Fleming's behalf which rai ...
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Meghan Gallacher
Meghan Gallacher (born 17 January 1992) is a British politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives from 2022 to 2024. She has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Central Scotland region since 2021. Gallacher was a councillor for the Motherwell West ward from 2017 to 2022, serving as the Conservatives party's group leader in the North Lanarkshire Council. Gallacher was a candidate in the 2024 Scottish Conservatives leadership election, finishing 3rd. Early life Education Meghan Gallacher was born on 17 January 1992 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire and was brought up in nearby Holytown. She studied political science and government at the Hamilton Campus (now New Lanarkshire Campus) of the University of the West of Scotland from 2010 to 2014. In her final year of university, she wrote her dissertation on the "decline of the Conservative Party from Margaret Thatcher to the present day and the impact f then Scottish Conservatives lead ...
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Murdo Fraser
Murdo MacKenzie Fraser (born 5 September 1965) is a Scottish politician who served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2005 to 2011. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Mid Scotland and Fife region since 2001. As of 2024, he serves as Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Business, Economic Growth and Tourism, shadowing Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes. Early life Born in 1965, Fraser was educated at Inverness Royal Academy. He studied law at the University of Aberdeen, and was chairman of the Scottish Young Conservatives from 1989 to 1992. During this time, he said he had "appropriated" a plaque marking a TV lounge that had been named to honour Nelson Mandela, as a prank to annoy left-wing students. In 2016, Fraser said he returned the engraved "trophy" to students, although Aberdeen University Student Association disputes the claim. After undertaking a postgraduate Diploma in Legal Studies, he worked as a solicitor in Aberdeen and ...
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The National (Scotland)
''The National'' is a Scottish daily newspaper owned by Newsquest. It began publication on 24 November 2014, and was the first daily newspaper in Scotland to support Scottish independence. Launched as a response to calls from Newsquest's readership for a pro-independence paper in the wake of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, it is a sister paper of '' The Herald'', and is edited by Laura Webster. Initially published on weekdays, a Saturday edition was added in May 2015. ''The National'' is printed in tabloid format, and is also available via online subscription. Details of its launch were announced on 21 November, with further information given at a Scottish National Party (SNP) rally the following day. Upon its launch, ''The National'' stated that it is a separate entity from the Scottish National Party. It was launched on a five-day trial basis against the backdrop of a general decline in newspaper sales, with an initial print-run of 60,000 copies for its first edit ...
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Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill is a bill passed by the Scottish Parliament. The bill seeks to amend the Gender Recognition Act 2004 of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, making it simpler for people to change their legal gender. On 17 January 2023, the United Kingdom government used section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 to block the bill from receiving royal assent, the first time section 35 has been used. Background In July 2002, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the ''Goodwin v United Kingdom'' case that a trans person's inability to change the sex on their birth certificate was a breach of their rights under Article 8 (privacy) and Article 12 (marriage) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Following this judgement, the UK government had to introduce new legislation to comply, which became law as the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA). To obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC) under the GRA, an applicant must a) provide evidence o ...
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Elaine Miller
Elaine Miller aka Gussie Grippers is a Scottish physiotherapist, women's health campaigner and gender-critical activist. Miller performs comedy shows around the subject of women's health, highlighting issues related to urinary incontinence, and her shows have won awards at Fringe World, Australia and at Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She came to mainstream media attention for flashing a pubic wig in the Scottish Parliament during a debate on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. Career Miller is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. Both her physiotherapy and her comedy feature a specialism in pelvic floor dysfunction. While working as a physiotherapist in Scotland Miller developed a comedy show designed to engage audiences in understanding how physiotherapy can be used to tackle and prevent urinary incontinence. She began her career in the field of sports physiotherapy, but after her own experience of becoming incontinent after having delivered three childr ...
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Merkin
__NOTOC__ A merkin is a pubic wig. Merkins were worn by prostitutes after shaving their mons pubis, and are used as decorative items or erotic devices by both men and women. History and etymology The '' Oxford Companion to the Body'' dates the origin of the pubic wig to the 1450s. According to the publication, women would shave their pubic hair for personal hygiene and to combat pubic lice. They would then put on a merkin. Also, sex workers would wear a merkin to cover up signs of disease, such as syphilis. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' dates the first written use of the term to 1617. The word probably originated from '' malkin'', a derogatory term for a lower-class young woman, or from ''Marykin'', a pet form of the female given name '' Mary''. Contemporary use Film Sometimes in filmmaking, merkins can be worn by actresses to avoid inadvertent exposure of the genitalia during nude or semi-nude scenes. The presence of the merkin protects the actor from inadvertently p ...
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Westminster Lockdown Parties Controversy
Partygate was a political scandal in the United Kingdom about gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when public health restrictions prohibited most gatherings. The scandal contributed to Boris Johnson's downfall as Prime Minister and his resignation as an MP. While several lockdowns were in place, gatherings took place at 10 Downing Street, its garden and other government and Conservative Party buildings. Reports of these events later attracted media attention, public backlash and political controversy. In January 2022, twelve gatherings came under investigation by the Metropolitan Police, including at least three attended by Johnson, the prime minister. The police issued 126 fixed penalty notices to 83 individuals, including Johnson, his wife Carrie and Rishi Sunak (then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who also subsequently became prime minister), who all apologised and paid the penalties. The first reporting ...
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Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He was previously Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom), Foreign Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Mayor of London from 2008 to 2016. He was Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Henley (UK Parliament constituency), Henley from 2001 to 2008 and for Uxbridge and South Ruislip from 2015 to 2023. In his youth Johnson attended Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, and he was elected president of the Oxford Union in 1986. In 1989 he began writing for ''The Daily Telegraph'', and from 1999 to 2005 he was the editor of ''The Spectator''. He became a member of the Shadow Cabinet of Michael Howard in 2001 before being dismissed over a claim that he had lied about an extramarital affair. After Howard resigned, Johnson became ...
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Additional Member System
The additional-member system (AMS) is a two-vote seat-linkage-based mixed electoral system used in the United Kingdom in which most legislator, representatives are elected in single-member districts (SMDs), and a fixed number of other "additional members" are elected from a closed list to make the seat distribution in the chamber more proportional representation, proportional to the votes cast for Electoral list, party lists. It is distinct from using parallel voting for the list seats (also known as the ''supplementary-member'' system) in that the "additional member" seats are awarded to parties taking into account seats won in SMDs (referred to as ''Compensation (electoral systems), compensation'' or ''top-up'') – these are ignored under parallel voting (a ''non-compensatory'' method). AMS is the name given to a particular system used in the United Kingdom that aims to provide proportional representation. However, in theory it can fail to be proportional, a situation called ...
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