優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@yunod

Yuno Dinnie/杉本優 a.k.a. sustainable translator (Japanese<>English) · Salsa dancer ― ¡Sin Salsa No Hay Paraíso! · New Scot · Tofu-eating wokeratti · There is no planet B · #StopBurningStuff サルサ踊る英語翻訳者 · サステナビリティ翻訳 · スコットランド sustainabletranslator.scot

1.883 Folgt1.151 Follower58.948 Posts

Patreon Patreon YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube YouTube Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir yunod.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jul 5

👀👀👀

The conference will explore:

Political Change across these islands: The next decade

Claire Hanna MP
SDLP Leader and MP for Belfast South and Mid Down
Minister Jim O'Callaghan TD
Irish Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration
Minister Stephen Gethins MSP
Scottish Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Energy
Mark Drakeford
Former First Minister of Wales

Ireland, Britain and global relations: Trust, leadership and change

Matthew O'Toole MLA
SDLP Leader of the Opposition and MLA for Belfast South
Leo Varadkar
Former Taoiseach
Baroness Sue Gray
Former Downing Street Chief of Staff and Senior Civil Servant
Conleth Burns
Associate Director, More in Common
Ian Marshall
Former Independent Ulster Unionist Senator and President of the Ulster Famers' Union

The art of persuasion: How we talk about a New Ireland

Colum Eastwood MP
SDLP MP for Foyle
Linzi McLaren
Former UUP Councillor and Community Activist
Sinéad Gibney TD
Social Democrats TD for Dublin Rathdown
Kwame Daniels
North Star

Brexit myths: Populism, misinformation and constitutional change

Cara Hunter MLA
SDLP MLA for East Derry
Senator Conor Murphy
Leader of Sinn Féin in the Seanad
Duncan Smith TD
Labour TD for Dublin Fingal East
Orna Young
Co-founder and Managing Director, FactCheckNI

The next generation: Shaping the future of this island

Ellie-Jo Taylor
Youth Activist
Aoife Murphy
Youth Activist
Aaron Duke
National Chair of Irish Labour Youth
Joel Keys
Youth Activist and Loyalist Commentator

This event is for anyone interested in considering what the future looks like from all perspectives, and who wants to engage in respectful, inclusive and ambitious planning for the years ahead.

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jul 4

'The 2030 target is a manifesto commitment, meaning Andy Burnham is unlikely to retreat from it if he succeeds Keir Starmer as prime minister, as is widely expected – especially with the current energy secretary, net-zero champion Ed Miliband, tipped to stay in the cabinet.'

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jul 4

I mean, isn't it obvious?

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jul 4

(Sorry no tips from me - I just walk. A habit of a lifetime. These days I try to put 20k steps in each day. Sometimes the number includes salsa dancing and/or running on a treadmill, but mostly it's just walking)

August 2025 - July 2026

22,434 steps/day
Avg. 17.61 km 877 kcal
Total steps 7,582,893
Days target achieved 333/338

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jul 1

Good to see a robust rebuttal to voices bashing net zero in The Herald letters page. www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/2624...

Ian Lakin (Letters, June 29), suggests that the UK’s "reckless" (his description) net zero policy comes at great cost. I wonder if Mr Lakin has read the recent Confederation of British Industry's report on the "UK’s Net Zero Economy in 2025". Just in case not, here are a few highlights noted by the CBI:

1) The net zero economy sector now supports over one million full-time equivalent jobs in the UK; of these 105,000 are based in Scotland.

2) The sector generates around £105 billion in Gross Added Value.

3) It is underpinned by over 23,000 businesses, 3,000 in Scotland. The vast majority of these businesses are small or medium-sized enterprises.

4) Each £1 of economic value created by net zero generates another £1.85 across the wider UK economy.

5) 34% of the UK's energy infrastructure pipeline, worth £211 billion, is linked to Scotland.

Overall the CBI report states that net zero is "one of the UK’s most productive and geographically distributed industrial sectors" which anchors "the UK within one of the defining economic transformations of our era".

I would suggest that net zero is not a bad sector to be pre-eminent in in the second quarter of the 21st century. Far from net zero aims being reckless, I would suggest that ignoring or criticising this sector is highly reckless.

John Palfreyman, Coupar Angus.

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jul 1

Picked up a hardcover copy of this book from a local independent bookshop.

Cover of Cory Doctorow's book The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It's Too Late

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jul 1

Very humid - rain approaching? #イマソラ #Meadows #Edinburgh #sky

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 30

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Post-split, the EU has broadly demonstrated a healthy ability to move on and switch focus to the other crises life has thrown its way (a war on its border, a pandemic and two Trump presidencies to name just a few). It’s dating new potential member states, from Montenegro to Moldova. Conversely, the UK is the ex still consumed by the breakup a full decade later – increasingly accepting that it’s made them poorer, but a long way from asking if the EU fancies making another go of it.

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 29

Interesting the BBC have attached these numbers to this article...👀

UK migration data at a glance

Net migration (change in population), January 2025 to December 2025
171,000* down 48% over 12 months
ONS data, as of 21 May 2026

Immigration (people arriving), January 2025 to December 2025
813,000 down 20% over 12 months
ONS data, as of 21 May 2026

Emigration (people leaving), January 2025 to December 2025
642,000 down 6% over 12 months
ONS data, as of 21 May 2026

Asylum applications, April 2025 to March 2026
93,525 down 12% over 12 months
Home Office data, as of 21 May 2026

Returns and deportations from the UK, April 2025 to March 2026
39,007 up 7% over 12 months
Home Office data, as of 21 May 2026

Arrivals by small boat, 1 January 2026 to 25 June 2026
11,638 down 37% same period 2025
Home Office data, as of 26 June 2026

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 29

The traffic cone thing is catching on in Edinburgh

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 25

The wind direction has changed, and haar has descended on Edinburgh #イマソラ #Meadows #Edinburgh #sky

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 24

The article includes a link to this piece: www.heraldscotland.com/news/2619085...

Scotland's troubled transport agency faces the axe under SNP plans for one of the biggest ever shake ups in how ferries, roads and railways are operating, it can be revealed.

Transport Scotland, the Scottish Government body responsible for overseeing Scotland's roads, rail network and ferries, is set to lose its standalone status and be absorbed into the heart of the new SNP-led government in a move understood to be creating uncertainty within its near 600 permanent staff.

The move, revealed in a written election pledge associated with the party's manifesto seen by The Herald, aims to tear up the country's transport bureaucracy and bring key powers back under direct ministerial control.

It has raised further questions about the future of national transport bodies such as the ferries and port owners Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) and Scotland's seven regional transport partnerships, including Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which is responsible for the Glasgow Subway.

The new transport secretary Stephen Flynn confirmed that it was progressing the changes to Transport Scotland and was planning to deliver "bold reform".

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 22

Humid despite the blue sky. #イマソラ #Edinburgh #UnionCanal #sky

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 19

👇

Former Scottish Government special adviser Kate Higgins quote-replying to Stephen Flynn on X:

Flynn: “We lost Aberdeen South to the Tories in 2017, and we won it back two years later.

“I’ve no doubt that we can do so again. If we get things right.”

Higgins: "I do hope that "some" includes you Stephen Flynn - the by election was, after all, caused by your choices," she wrote on X.

Screenshot taken via Xcancel.com

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 19

A comfortable win for Andy Burnham, easily beating Reform+Restore+Tories combined

Andy Burnham sandwiched between Count Binface and a fox man for PROTECT BRITISH WILDLIFE

Makerfield
LAB HOLD

Votes
LAB Andy Burnham 24,937
REF Rob Kenyon 15,696
REST Rebecca Shepherd 3,111
CON Michael Winstanley 997
GRN Sarah Wakefield 308
LD Jake Austin 163

Turnout: 59% Majority: 9,241

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 19

SNP safely through in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry. Again, Labour dropping from close 2nd in 2024 down to 4th after the Tories and Reform.

Arbroath and Broughty Ferry
SNP HOLD

Votes
SNP Lara Bird 9,802
CON Jack Cruickshanks 4,524
REF Bill Reid 4,341
LAB Heather Doran 3,651
LD Tanvir Ahmad 1,452

Turnout: 31% Majority: 5,278

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 19

Interesting that SNP's vote share didn't actually drop all that much. Labour dropping from 2nd in GE2024 to 4th is understandable considering Labour's energy policies.

5m ago
01.58 BST
Tories win Aberdeen South with majority of 6,050 - results in full
The Conservatives have won a huge victory in Aberdeen South. Here are the full figures from the Press Association

C gain from SNP

Douglas Lumsden (C) 14,308 (49.51%, +25.13%)

Richard Thomson (SNP) 8,258 (28.58%, -4.25%)

Jo Hart (Reform) 2,478 (8.58%, +1.67%)

Nurul Ali (Lab) 1,550 (5.36%, -19.35%)

Mel Sullivan (LD) 1,270 (4.39%, -1.91%)

Jorg Shelton-Eckstein (Green) 974 (3.37%, -0.10%)

David Ballantine (ADF) 59 (0.20%)

C maj 6,050 (20.94%)

14.69% swing SNP to C

Electorate 76,033; Turnout 28,897 (38.01%, -21.93%)

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 19

A stonking win for the Tories👀

Aberdeen South
CON GAIN

Votes
CON Douglas Lumsden 14,308
SNP Richard Thomson 8.258
REF Jo Hart 2,478
LAB Nurul Hoque Ali 1,550
LD Mel Sullivan 1,270
GRN Jorg Shelton-Eckstein 974

Turnout: 38% Majority: 6,050

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 18

I refuse to accept it's a *Scottish* tradition until someone puts a cone on the head of Henry Dundas.

The controversial Melville Monument in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, which commemorates Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville.

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 18

Blue tit fledgling getting fed outside my window

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 15

The feeder on my (pretend) balcony is currently a magnet for blue tit fledglings😍

Two blue tit fledglings on a suet cake feeder half hidden behind a sage coloured planter hung on Juliet balcony railings, viewed through a window that needs cleaned

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 12

Edward Luce: Keir Starmer is apparently keen to stamp down on racial hatred [...] But as far as I know, he has taken no action against a man who uses his massively influential platform to call for civil war in Britain. Does Starmer have the backbone to run a county council let alone the country?

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://help.ft.com/faq/gifting-and-sharing-an-article/what-is-a-gift-article/.
https://www.ft.com/content/77affaa7-5da8-4a85-bc7c-eb59b75a72b0?syn-25a6b1a6=1

I am turning this week to my colleague, Robert Shrimsley, the FT’s must-read British politics columnist. Robert, I have two questions. First, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, is apparently keen to stamp down on racial hatred, while British police have been arresting people for quite arbitrary — and often comically trivial — cases of alleged racism online and off. Starmer obviously cares about what random citizens think about Black people, Israel, trans-activists . . . pick your target. But as far as I know, he has taken no action against a man who uses his massively influential platform to call for civil war in Britain. Does Starmer have the backbone to run a county council let alone the country? If that question seems too loaded, Robert, let me ask what British liberal democracy can and should be doing to protect itself from Musk?

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 11

👀 "All they want to be is Irish"?

Back of man in a black hoodie that bears text 'British born and bred'

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 10

👀

Under the thinktank’s plan to limit the impact of expensive gas generation, the government would effectively buy all the power generated in England, Scotland and Wales through contracts offered by a publicly accountable body to generators.

Gas-fired generators would join a “strategic gas reserve”, whereby generators would be paid to step in when renewables were producing less or nuclear reactors were offline, according to the research.

Meanwhile, the UK’s legacy nuclear power plants, older windfarms that benefit from generous past subsidies, and existing hydroelectric plants would be paid through “public power purchase agreements”. The report suggests the price offered through these contracts would be set through the average of the overall generation mix, rather than pegged to the price of gas.

“Our proposals would break the link [between gas and electricity prices], contracting directly with generators at cost-effective prices and eliminating wasteful practices such as paying for energy twice when the grid is constrained,” said Brown.

This centralised model is similar to one used in other markets around the world and would be closer to the way the nationalised power market worked before privatisation in the 1980s. Such an approach would in effect prevent gas companies from making higher profits when gas is in short supply.

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 10

A review into party political finances, independently led rather than conducted by parliamentary committee, remit applying to the funding of all political parties, including donations by extremely wealthy individuals👍

Motions as amended
That the Parliament believes there is a need to restore public trust in politics following multiple recent financial scandals, including those uncovered by Operation Branchform; further believes that an independent review into party political finances would go some way towards restoring this trust; believes that, to avoid this becoming a nakedly partisan process, it should be independently led rather than conducted by parliamentary committee, and that its remit must apply to the funding of all political parties; recognises wider concerns about the role of money in politics, including the scale of donations by extremely wealthy individuals, and the influence of organisations that refuse to disclose their funding sources, and calls for the devolution of power over the regulation of political parties and their funding to allow for the implementation of any recommendations of the independent review that would require legislative change.

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 10

Rain incoming? #イマソラ #Meadows #Edinburgh #sky

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 6

Ansy Maciver | Why Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell should not face a public inquiry www.heraldscotland.com/politics/hol...

Nonetheless, the state of the nation now depends on this government – the John Swinney government with the John Swinney mandate – righting the wrongs, turning the tanker away from the rocks and replacing platitudes with delivery. Irrespective of our politics, we should all hope he succeeds. We all live here.

And we should therefore ask ourselves whether we want the Government, and the Parliament, to have their political and intellectual capacity swallowed by a re-litigation of the Murrell/Sturgeon saga. We need to understand what this would mean; a Parliament split on the basis of being pro- or anti-Sturgeon and, as with the last Parliament, largely unable to work collaboratively to improve any of Scotland’s aforementioned problems.

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· Jun 3

With numbers like these, FPTP is absolutely brutal - SNP going up to 48 seats while Labour shrink back down to 2. And still no Reform 👇 www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/use...

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· May 31

Interesting - I didn't know that the wording of the standard caution re. right to silence in Scotland is different from the England & Wales version. www.scottishlegal.com/articles/cam...

South of the border, the standard caution includes an additional warning:

“You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court…”

That single line reflects a statutory regime, principally sections 34 to 37 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which allows adverse inferences to be drawn from silence.

Scotland has not adopted that approach. A Scottish court cannot invite a jury to conclude that a defence is fabricated simply because it was not disclosed in interview, nor can silence be used to supply proof. That reflects a deliberate choice to preserve the principle that the burden rests entirely with the Crown.

優noD🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿@yunod· May 28

👀