[thread]

Drug policy is a complex area

It falls across social, health and criminal justice areas

I will leave the question of what Scotland is capable of in terms of devolved powers and what is reserved at Westminster

I just want to focus on "SNP cuts"

These statistics are dreadful and heartbreaking. Every death is a tragic loss of life that could have been avoided.

Drug deaths have doubled in a decade, and there's no doubt that the SNP's cuts to drug rehab and addiction programmes have a large part to play. https://t.co/MkmCFRAvir
— Scottish Conservatives (@ScotTories) December 15, 2020

More from ScottishPanda

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[thread]

As we approach "the last throw of the dice"

I would like to do something I haven’t done enough of

Congratulations to 37.4% of the electorate

On the 23rd June 2016 you won

Congratulations

No one can take that away from you

You

Indeed I would like to be the first one to congratulate Boris Johnson

Whatever happens in the next few days

Well done Boris

Whether he gets as a deal

Or indeed no deal

Congratulations on the "win"

You will desperately sell what you won was a "win"

If a deal then with a sale of a side measure of scapegoating narrative as to why it wasn't better

If no deal then the side sale will be the scapegoating as to why

As it will always be someone else's fault

Can I firstly apologise - its obviously because I didn't believe enough or talked the country down

I am not certain which will be sold more desperately

A really shitty deal

or no deal

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[thread]

Can I be the first to congratulate Boris Johnson

On getting a "British shaped deal"

On a "gold standard" trade deal

On making the UK "mightily prosper"

/joking

He won't

But he will sell it as such

And that is all that matters

British PM Boris Johnson will visit India in January to boost trade ties, his first major bilateral trip since taking office https://t.co/EjfCeYAaNK via @bpolitics
— Joe Mayes (@Joe_Mayes) December 15, 2020

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[THREAD]

Beware the "baying mob"

Beware the "revisionist purge"

There must always be a culture war

There is a statue that needs protection from a "baying mob"

As they piss/spaff on her every time they walk past https://t.co/RiIkJVdOtp

EXCLUSIVE in this weekend's Sunday Telegraph

Every statue will be given greater protection from "baying mobs" and road names could be saved from the "revisionist purge" of Labour councils, under law changes to be published on Monday https://t.co/hMVElO2qHq
— Christopher Hope\U0001f4dd (@christopherhope) January 16, 2021

Thatcher

“Britain does not renounce Treaties.

Indeed, to do so would damage our own integrity as well as international relations.“

Anyone remember "in a very specific and limited way"
Or lying to Queen to unlawfully prorogue

[thread] a simple question

What are you prepared to sacrifice for brexit ?

Boris Johnson and his historic wordshttps://t.co/nFkevENjqB
— ScottishPanda (@PandaScottish) October 17, 2019

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[thread] on the state of 👇

"I think endless talk about a referendum without any clear description of what the constitutional situation would be after that referendum is completely irrelevant now to the concerns of most people"

ScottishPanda
@PandaScottish

[thread] A small round up disassembling this desperate bullshit from Michael Gove

It's well written btw - deliberately so

Great piece by @michaelgove in @TheSun on the Union - and guaranteed to leave we are family tune stuck in your head all weekend. https://t.co/ZuMcBKqLmW
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) January 29, 2021

"Scottish independence would break up our family… and families are strongest when they stick together"

A reminder: Over 100,000 dead due to the incompetence of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and an entire government of sycophantic cronies

"THIS terrible pandemic has brought home to us all the importance of family. "

This is like when Stanley Johnson said that the UK only took coronavirus seriously when Boris Johnson got infected.

No - it didn't take a pandemic to remind me of the importance of family.

॥ॐ॥
अस्य श्री गायत्री ध्यान श्लोक:
(gAyatri dhyAna shlOka)
• This shloka to meditate personified form of वेदमाता गायत्री was given by Bhagwaan Brahma to Sage yAgnavalkya (याज्ञवल्क्य).

• 14th shloka of गायत्री कवचम् which is taken from वशिष्ठ संहिता, goes as follows..

• मुक्ता-विद्रुम-हेम-नील धवलच्छायैर्मुखस्त्रीक्षणै:।
muktA vidruma hEma nIla dhavalachhAyaiH mukhaistrlkShaNaiH.

• युक्तामिन्दुकला-निबद्धमुकुटां तत्वार्थवर्णात्मिकाम्॥
yuktAmindukalA nibaddha makutAm tatvArtha varNAtmikam.

• गायत्रीं वरदाभयाङ्कुश कशां शुभ्रं कपालं गदाम्।
gAyatrIm vardAbhayANkusha kashAm shubhram kapAlam gadAm.

• शंखं चक्रमथारविन्दयुगलं हस्तैर्वहन्ती भजै॥
shankham chakramathArvinda yugalam hastairvahantIm bhajE.

This shloka describes the form of वेदमाता गायत्री.

• It says, "She has five faces which shine with the colours of a Pearl 'मुक्ता', Coral 'विद्रुम', Gold 'हेम्', Sapphire 'नील्', & a Diamond 'धवलम्'.

• These five faces are symbolic of the five primordial elements called पञ्चमहाभूत:' which makes up the entire existence.

• These are the elements of SPACE, FIRE, WIND, EARTH & WATER.

• All these five faces shine with three eyes 'त्रिक्षणै:'.

Simon DeDeo
@SimonDeDeo

"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."

As a dean of a major academic institution, I could not have said this. But I will now. Requiring such statements in applications for appointments and promotions is an affront to academic freedom, and diminishes the true value of diversity, equity of inclusion by trivializing it. https://t.co/NfcI5VLODi
— Jeffrey Flier (@jflier) November 10, 2018

We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.

Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)

It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.

Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".