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SNP's defence snub shame as ministers fail to attend key UK-funded national security projects for THREE YEARS Click here to visit the Scotland home page for the latest news and sport By GEORGIA EDKINS SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY Published: 18:08, 23 November 2024 | Updated: 18:08, 23 November 2024 e-mail View comments SNP Ministers have been accused of stoking constitutional division rather than prioritising national security as files show they have snubbed a number of key UK-funded defence projects. A probe shows Scottish Government Ministers have failed to meet Babcock, one of the UK’s largest engineering firms which works on the Royal Navy’s Dreadnought Class nuclear submarines and runs a Naval yard at Rosyth, Fife, for at least three years. Meanwhile, the devolved administration neglected to send a Minister to the steel-cutting ceremony for the new HMS Formidable frigate last month – despite it representing a significant milestone in the construction of the Type 31 warships, documents show. Invitations were sent to both John Swinney and Kate Forbes to celebrate the programme. However, official documents disclose there was ‘no Scottish Government representation at the event’. Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes failed to attend a steel-cutting ceremony last month Babcock chief executive David Lockwood and Minister for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard MP at the Steel Cut ceremony for the Royal Navy Type 31 frigate, HMS Formidable, in October Ministers were also absent from the steel-cutting ceremony for HMS Birmingham at BAE Systems’ Govan yard in April last year, part of the £4.2 billion Type 26 frigate programme. Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and then-Finance Secretary Kate Forbes were invited but declined due to ‘other commitments’. Last night Labour MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, Graeme Downie, slammed the SNP for failing to meet one of Scotland’s biggest defence employers. He said: ‘It is disgraceful the SNP have not met the largest engineering employer in Scotland. Babcock employ 2,500 people in my constituency alone and are the largest employer in the area with well-paid high-skilled jobs. ‘The SNP need to start putting Scotland’s national defence, employment and jobs ahead of constitutional division.’ Documents released under freedom of information laws – and handed to this newspaper – show that since May 2021 not a single Scottish Government Minister has met a representative of Babcock International. The company is currently part of a team of defence contractors working on the Royal Navy’s new generation of nuclear submarines. It also owns the Naval yard in Rosyth, Fife, where five additional Type 31 warships are being built. Construction work underway on the Type 31 frigates at Babcock's yard in Rosyth, Fife When the steel-cutting ceremony for HMS Formidable took place, Babcock’s chief executive officer David Lockwood said it was a ‘real demonstration of UK sovereign shipbuilding capability’. Yet FOI documents supplied to the UK Defence Journal show that First Minister Mr Swinney and Deputy First Minister Ms Forbes failed to attend. An industry insider told the trade publication: ‘It’s really disappointing not to see senior government figures at these key milestones. ‘It makes you wonder if they truly value the role this sector plays in the economy and in supporting communities.’ The Scottish Government said it ‘recognises the role of the sector in the Scottish economy and regularly engages with the industry body ADS Scotland on key areas such as skills’. SNP Kate Forbes Share or comment on this article: SNP's defence snub shame as ministers fail to attend key UK-funded national security projects for THREE YEARS e-mail Add comment
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NoneNAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Angel Yin was making putts from across the green and threatening to build a big lead until Jeeno Thitikul finished eagle-birdie for a 9-under 63 to share the lead Saturday going into the final round of the CME Group Tour Championship with $4 million on the line. Yin had a 69 after another day of big putts and one chip-in from some 60 feet for eagle on the par-5 sixth hole that put her comfortably ahead at Tiburon Golf Club. She holed a 30-footer on the eighth hole, another birdie from about 25 feet on the ninth hole and another one from the 30-foot range on the 12th. Thitikul seemed to be an afterthought until she lit it up on the back nine for a 30. The Thai started the back nine with three straight bogeys, but she made up quick ground at the end with her eagle on the reachable par-5 17th and a birdie on the closing hole. The birdie briefly gave her the lead until Yin made birdie on the 17th to join her. They were tied at 15-under 201, three shots head of Ruoning Yin, who birdied her last two for a 66. Charley Hull had seven birdies in her round of 66 and was at 11-under 205, along with Narin An of South Korea. Nelly Korda, who got back into the mix on Friday after a sluggish start, lost ground with a 69 on a pleasant day that left her six shots back going into the final round. Korda has won four of her seven LPGA titles this year coming from behind. This could be a tall order. At stake is the richest payoff in women’s golf, $4 million to the winner, nearly as much as Korda has made all year in her seven-victory season. Thitikul already picked up a $1 million bonus this week through the Aon Risk-Reward Challenge, a competition based on how players score on a designated hole each week. Now she could leave Florida with a total of $5 million. “Actually, $1 million is really good enough for me,” Thitikul said. “If I can get more, it’s definitely going to be a nice, because as my team know I spend a lot of money. That’s why I have to keep playing good golf, like spending on shopping day.” Angel Yin heard plenty of cheers for her long birdie putts, and the chip-in for eagle. She also was helped by a couple of pars after bad drives. She went well to the left at No. 10, did well to blast out on a blind shot just short of the green and then got up-and-down with a pitch to 4 feet. And then on the 13th, another tee shot went well to the left. She tried to get it back in play from just in front of some bushes, and from 50 yards hit wedge to about 15 feet. She holed that putt, too, that kept her in front. “I’m scoring still,” Yin said. “Making some mistakes, but saving a bunch, so a lot of positives.” ___ AP golf:
Jeffrey Fleishman | (TNS) Los Angeles Times The national furor in recent years around banning books on race and gender in public schools is intensifying as President-elect Donald Trump threatens to shut down the Department of Education, emboldening conservatives to end “wokeness” in classrooms. Battles over books in school libraries have become emblematic of the country’s larger culture wars over race, historical revisionism and gender identity. A new report by PEN America found book bans increased by nearly 200% during the 2023-24 school year, including titles on sexuality, substance abuse, depression and other issues students face in an age of accelerating technologies, climate change, toxic politics and fears about the future. Book censorship has shaken and divided school boards, pitted parents against parents, and led to threats against teachers and librarians . It is part of an agenda driven by conservative parental rights groups and politicians who promote charter schools and voucher systems that could weaken public education. The issue goes to the heart not only of what students are taught but how federal and state education policies will affect the nation’s politics after one of the most consequential elections in its history. “It’s not just about taking a book off a shelf,” said Tasslyn Magnusson, an author and teacher from Wisconsin who tracks book censorship across the U.S. “It’s about power and who controls public education. It’s about what kind of America we were and are. We’re trying to define what family is and what America means. That comes down to the stories we tell.” She said she feared Trump’s return to the White House would further incite those calling for book bans: “I don’t have lots of hope. It could get a lot worse.” Over the last year, PEN counted more than 10,000 book bans nationwide that targeted 4,231 unique titles. Most were books dealing with gender, sexuality, race and LGBTQ+ storylines. The most banned title was Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes,” about a school shooting that included a short description of date rape. Florida and Iowa — both of which have strict regulations on what students can read — accounted for more than 8,200 bans in the 2023-24 school year. “This crisis is tragic for young people hungry to understand the world they live in and see their identities and experiences reflected in books,” Kasey Meehan, director of PEN’s Freedom to Read Program, said in a statement. “What students can read in schools provides the foundation for their lives.” Trump’s calls to close the Department of Education would need congressional approval, which appears unlikely. Although public schools are largely funded and governed by state and local institutions, the department helps pay to educate students with disabilities, provides about $18 billion in grants for K-12 schools in poor communities and oversees a civil rights branch to protect students from discrimination. But Trump’s election has inspired conservative parental groups, including Moms For Liberty and Parents Defending Education, to strengthen efforts to limit what they see as a liberal conspiracy to indoctrinate children with books and teachings that are perverse, amoral and pornographic. Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, has criticized schools that she says spend too much time on diversity and inclusion when only about one-third of U.S. children are reading at grade level: “We’re talking about public school libraries and content for kids,” Justice told NewsNation after Trump’s victory. “I think it’s very clear that there are certain things that are appropriate for kids, certain things that are appropriate for adults. We’re just getting back to commonsense America.” Trump’s threat to deny federal funding to schools that acknowledge transgender identities could affect curricula and the kinds of books school libraries stock. During his rally at Madison Square Garden in October, Trump — who has has accused schools of promoting sex change operations — said his administration would get “transgender insanity the hell out of our schools.” Vice President-elect JD Vance has accused Democrats of wanting to “put sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries.” Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told Newsmax that she was excited about Trump’s calls to remake education and “clean up a lot of the mess” he has inherited from the Biden administration. Trump “has centered parental rights back in his platform, which is incredible. He has prioritized knowledge and skill, not identity politics,” she said. “American children deserve better, and it is time for change.” In nominating Linda McMahon to be his secretary of Education, Trump appears to be pushing for more conservative parental control over what is taught and read in classrooms. A former professional wrestling executive, McMahon chairs the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-connected organization that has criticized schools for teaching “racially divisive” theories, notably about slavery and a perspective about the nation’s founding it views as anti-American. “Today’s contentious debates over using classrooms for political activism rather than teaching a complete and accurate account of American history have reinvigorated calls for greater parental and citizen involvement in the curriculum approval process,” the institute’s website says. Culturally divisive issues, including race and LGBTQ+ themes, cost school districts an estimated $3.2 billion during the 2023-24 school year, according to a recent study called “The Costs of Conflict.” The survey — published by the Institute for Democracy, Education and Access at UCLA — found that battles over books and teaching about sexuality and other topics led to increased expenses for legal fees, replacing administrators and teachers who quit, and security, including off-duty plainclothes police officers. “Are we really going to spend our tax dollars on these kinds of things?” asked Magnusson. “After Trump was elected, I saw a bunch of middle-class white ladies like me who were saying, ‘This isn’t America.’ But maybe it is America.” One school superintendent in a Western state told the study’s researchers that his staff was often consumed with correcting misinformation and fulfilling public record requests mainly from hard-line parental rights activists attempting to exploit cultural war issues to discredit the district. “Our staff are spending enormous amounts of time just doing stupid stuff,” the superintendent said. “The fiscal costs to the district are enormous, but [so are] the cultural costs of not standing up to the extremists. If someone doesn’t, then the students and employees lose. ... It’s the worst it’s ever been.” The survey found that 29% of 467 school superintendents interviewed reported that teachers and other staff quit their profession or left their districts “due to culturally divisive conflict.” Censoring books in school libraries grew out of opposition to COVID-19 restrictions. A number of conservative parental groups, including Moms for Liberty, which invited Trump to speak at its national convention in August, turned their attention to lobbying against “liberal indoctrination.” Their protests against what they criticized as progressive teaching on sexuality and race were focused on increasing conservative parental control over a public education system that was struggling at teaching children reading and math. That strategy has led to a national, right-wing effort that is “redefining government power to restrict access to information in our schools,” said Stephana Ferrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project. “This movement to protect the innocence of our children believes if children never read it in a book they won’t have to know about it and can go on to lead harmonious lives. But books teach us cautionary tales. They instruct us. You can’t protect innocence through ignorance.” School districts across the country have removed “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson, which are about gender identity and include graphic depictions of sex, along with titles by renowned writers such as Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, George Orwell, Maya Angelou and Flannery O’Connor. Related Articles National Politics | Trump transition says Cabinet picks, appointees were targeted by bomb threats, swatting attacks National Politics | Southwest states certify election results after the process led to controversy in previous years National Politics | Political stress: Can you stay engaged without sacrificing your mental health? National Politics | Trump fills out his economic team with two veterans of his first administration National Politics | Trump chooses controversial Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead NIH Surveys show that most Americans do not favor censorship. The Florida Freedom to Read Project and similar organizations around the country have called for thorough public reviews of challenged books to prevent one scene or passage from being taken out of context. Moderate and liberal parents groups over the last two years have also become more active in school board politics. They have supported school board candidates who have defeated those backed by Moms for Liberty in Texas, Florida and other states. “People say the pendulum will swing back,” said Ferrell. But, she said, conservatives want to “stop the pendulum from swinging back.” Picoult is accustomed to conservatives attempting to censor her. Her books have been banned in schools in more than 30 states. Published in 2007, “Nineteen Minutes” explores the lives of characters, including a girl who was raped, in a town leading up to a school shooting and its aftermath. “Having the most banned book in the country is not a badge of honor. It’s a call for alarm,” said Picoult, whose books have sold more than 40 million copies. “My book, and the 10,000 others that have been pulled off school library shelves this year, give kids a tool to deal with an increasingly divided and difficult world. These book banners aren’t helping children. They are harming them.” ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. 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AAI Recruitment 2024: Apply For 197 Vacancies By December 25SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — With Mitt Romney set to exit the U.S. Senate, Washington will be without one of its strongest conservative critics of Donald Trump when the president retakes the White House in the new year. At a final news conference Friday in Salt Lake City, the retiring senator reflected on his two-decade political career, which included the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, a term as Massachusetts governor and several skirmishes with Trump loyalists in Congress. In what could be his final jab at Trump, Romney reiterated his concerns about the incoming president's character and “relaxed relationship with the truth.” He said he hopes his own legacy will be that he stayed true to his values. Romney, 77, chose not to run for reelection this year after representing Utah in the Senate since 2019. He said he has reached the end of his career as an elected official and wants to focus on getting more young people involved in politics after he leaves office in January. Once the standard-bearer of the Republican Party, Romney watched his brand of moderate conservatism shift from establishment to outlier as Trump took hold of the party. “I’m a narrow slice, if you will, of what we used to call the mainstream Republicans,” Romney told reporters Friday. “The stream has got a little smaller. It’s more like the main creek Republicans. At some point, it’s going to be under the sand, and we’ll have to dig it up.” He became the voice of Congress' centrist core, leading negotiations for the $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure law — one of the Biden administration's crowning achievements — and a major COVID-19 relief package. Political observers worry his departure may create a vacuum of strong centrist voices who can keep bipartisanship alive at a time of increased polarization in Washington. Bipartisanship could very well go dormant under Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress, Romney said. But he does not think moderates should lose hope that the GOP could reverse its rightward shift. “There’s kind of a fissure that exists between Republican voters and Republican policy, and that may present an opportunity for some kind of realignment,” he said, noting that the party is now composed of many working-class voters but tends to oppose minimum wage increases and pro-union policies. Romney will be succeeded in the Senate by Republican U.S. Rep. John Curtis , who has developed a reputation for pushing back against party leaders such as Trump who falsely claim climate change is a hoax. Eyes will be on Curtis and other moderate Republicans who might break with the party in votes to confirm Trump’s cabinet picks. In 2020, Romney became the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president from their own party in an impeachment trial. He was the sole Republican in Congress to vote to convict Trump at both of his impeachment trials. Trump was acquitted by the Senate both times. Earlier this year, Romney pledged not to vote for Trump but declined to join some other high-profile Republicans in endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris , saying he wanted to preserve his future ability to help reshape the Republican Party.
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