Polish PM Donald Tusk survives vote of confidence as he bids to reassert control
Politicians voted 243-210 in favour of the government. There were no abstentions.
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Mr Tusk requested the vote following the defeat of his political ally in the recent presidential election, a loss that left him weakened and in need of a way to reassert his authority.
Mr Tusk has explained the need for the vote by saying that Poland is in a new reality after the election and that he was seeking a new opening.
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The National
44 minutes ago
- The National
Is age verification being used right in Online Safety Act?
Chelsea Jarvie, who is finishing up a PhD in online age verification, said the technology brought in to support the implementation of the Online Safety Act needs to be 'urgently' looked at as she accused ministers of failing to 'read the room'. She added that the legislation in isolation will not be enough to protect children online, and the Government had "work to do" to balance children's safety with public trust in the technology available. The legislation has sparked a huge backlash since it came into force on July 25. It mandates that websites verify users' age – often using facial recognition or photo ID – before granting access to adult content such as pornography, violence, or material on self-harm and eating disorders. READ MORE: Revealed: The full text of SNP's independence strategy But while the sentiment may seem well-intentioned, major websites such as Reddit, Instagram and Wikipedia have been caught up in the storm, with the latter launching a court case against the UK Government as it argues the legislation will hurt collaborators. Nearly 470,000 people have signed a petition calling for the act to be repealed. Jarvie, who has been doing her research at the University of Strathclyde, said the UK is attempting to take ID-checking methods from the physical world and expecting them to work in the digital one, when trust in both the Government and cybersecurity is at an all-time low. 'The public don't want to be giving up their ID because they're concerned about security, privacy, surveillance, and there is a general lack of trust in the Government,' she told the Sunday National. 'So I think the Government has come at this from the perspective of 'we all want to keep children safe and so people will give up their ID in order to meet that goal', and they've just not read the room at all on what adults actually want from their own internet experiences. 'I think people do want online safety for children, but do they have to give up their ID or their face or their privacy for that? No, I don't think that they should. (Image: Supplied) 'We're essentially trying to take the methods that we use in the physical world to do ID, where we look at someone's face or we check their documents, and we're trying to replicate it in the digital world, and that, for me, is not the right approach. 'We need to be more innovative and thinking out of the box of how the internet works – the fact it's dynamic, we're served algorithmic content and have a much slicker and more effective way of telling whether someone is an adult or a child and guiding them through their internet journey that way.' While she said facial age verification has its place, there should be more options for people to anonymously confirm their age. "We should have more options people can choose if they want an anonymous method," she went on. "I don't think the technology options are available to meet everyone's needs and wants right now." The legislation has come into force in the wake of major brands such as M&S and Harrods being victims of cyberattacks, putting the public on edge about giving sensitive information away online. Not only are there privacy concerns, but the public have also been angered at being blocked from accessing legal content and many have turned to downloading virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow users to appear to be browsing from countries with looser rules. While Jarvie believes the UK Government's goal of trying to ensure children do not stumble across harmful content will largely have been achieved, the legislation alone will not make the internet safer for children. Asked if she felt age verification was being used in the right way, she said: 'I think the Government has brought something in and put a stake in the ground to say 'this is what we're going to do with online age verification to make the internet a safer place', but the legislation itself is not going to make the internet a safer place for children. 'There's so much more needed. READ MORE: Erin Brockovich joins forces with Scottish university to launch course 'It's one of the things I'm writing about in my thesis, is that on the internet we need layers of care around a minor. Age verification has come in as one control but you have so many other things you'd need to put in place to really make the internet a safer place, and that includes education for everybody. 'Have they [the UK Government] done the right thing? I think prioritising online safety from a legislative perspective, yes, but in practice, the technology that is there, the sentiment of the public, the collaboration between Government and public, I think is not right.' Jarvie added she felt engagement between the public and Government on the legislation had been 'seriously lacking'. 'I think the technology to support the regulation needs to evolve and we need to look at what people are saying, how they're now using VPNs, and looking at what it is they want and need and how we meet those requirements,' she went on. 'I also think there's a huge amount of trust and engagement needed between the public and the Government on this, you cannot just force it out on the basis everyone is going to do it because they care about online safety for kids because that's clearly not enough.' A UK Government spokesperson said: 'This self-proclaimed expert is wrong. The Online Safety Act protects children without sacrificing people's privacy. 'Under the law, platforms are required to verify users' ages using secure, privacy-preserving methods that avoid collecting or storing personal data. 'The Information Commissioner's Office has significant enforcement powers to hold platforms accountable, including the ability to impose severe fines on services that misuse personal information. All online services – regardless of where they are based – must adhere to UK data protection laws.'
The National
44 minutes ago
- The National
Patrick Harvie on 10 things that changed his life
From joining the 'rainbow parliament' as an MSP in 2003 on the back of campaigning for the repeal of Section 28, all the way through to gaining a position in the Scottish Government, Harvie's journey in politics has been bigger than he ever could have imagined. You could say it's been a bit like a Tardis … more on that later. We sat down with him to talk about the 10 things that changed his life. 1. Mum's politics and environmentalism GIVEN he did not know he was going to be a Green politician until he was well into his 20s, Harvie would probably not say he was born and bred a Green. But at the start of our conversation, you could be forgiven for thinking it had been his destiny all along. He spoke with pride about his mum Rose and how she embedded in him some of the political beliefs he holds to this day. 'Both my parents, but principally my mum, have been pretty active in making their politics part of how they live in the community, so whether that's a recycling charity or going on CND marches,' he said. READ MORE: First Minister John Swinney on 10 things that changed his life 'My mum was a midwife and there was a young woman who was pregnant who lived in the Faslane peace camp at one point, and so she was giving support that wasn't available elsewhere.' Harvie has fond memories of helping his mum collect newspapers to recycle as part of her own charity, way back when recycling was not integrated into society as it is now. 'This is at a time when local authorities didn't do any recycling, so it was begun by community activism,' he said. 'It was about bringing people together to achieve something collectively.' 2. Doctor Who and sci-fi WHEN you walk into Harvie's office, you are left in no doubt as to how important Doctor Who is to him. There is memorabilia and figurines on the shelves, and throughout our meeting, he drinks tea from his iconic 'Gay Lord' mug, with a multicoloured Tardis on it. He first remembers becoming aware of Doctor Who when the great Tom Baker regenerated into Peter Davison in the early 1980s, but he has always had a sense that the series had actually been with him his whole life. 'Having watched all the old stuff before that, I'm convinced that I watched it and took it in because it's so familiar,' Harvie said. 'Even the music just feels so deeply embedded in my memory as though I must've heard it as a baby.' (Image: NQ) It was love at first sight with Baker, and Harvie considers the Fourth Doctor to be his favourite, though he has a soft spot too for Patrick Troughton, largely because of the mystery behind many of the episodes that are still missing. Harvie's early love of Doctor Who eventually gave rise to a much bigger passion for science fiction in general, and it is difficult not to be sucked in by the way he speaks about its power. 'There is something about telling stories in another worldly way that I think is more powerful in terms of its relevance to today,' he said. 'I've always found that there's something that allows you to tell stories that are difficult to tell if they were set in the real world. 'Star Wars has always been really good and I think not well recognised enough for showing you can have a society where people are absolutely surrounded by technological devices – AI and robots – and yet the vast majority of people are just about scratching a wretched living out of the dirt.' I only dabble in sci-fi from time to time, but after spending time in Harvie's company, I felt like I needed to kick off a Star Wars marathon as a matter of urgency. 3. Science and technology NOT only has sci-fi been a key part of Harvie's life, but he said he has always been encapsulated by science and technology more broadly. He is acutely aware of how much the technological eras we grow up in shape us, and he theorises that he may never have adopted the politics he did had he not grown up in the 1970s and 1980s. 'I live in an era where, as a child, humanity was just starting to learn through our scientific research the scale of damage we're doing to our life support system, and that gave rise to the Green movement,' he said. 'If I'd been born 20 years earlier, that awareness wouldn't have been there.' He continues to be fascinated with how technological advances change our existence on Earth. 'I've often reflected on if you had described smartphones that are in everyone's pocket now when I was a kid reading sci-fi stories, it would have felt like something utopian and incredibly liberating,' he said. 'And yet, it's turned into a bin fire.' 4. Coming out NUMBER four speaks for itself – a moment when Harvie took the brave step as a child of the 1970s and came out. He reflects on how he knew for a long time deep down that a feeling was there, but it took a while to put a name to it, while others took it upon themselves to do so, in quite unpleasant ways. But aged 17, he began going along to the Glasgow Film Theatre where he had to seek out a secret message before hanging out with people like himself. 'I started going to what I would now call an LGBT youth group in Glasgow, at the time I think it still called itself the Strathclyde lesbian and gay youth movement,' he said. (Image: Scottish Greens) 'It was a totally self-organised group of young people, there were no services. If you found out about the existence of this group – and I found out by calling the lesbian and gay switchboard helpline in the middle of the night after my parents had gone to bed – it's going to sound bizarre, but what you had to do was you had to go to the GFT on Rose Street at a particular time and look for someone holding a blue folder. 'Eventually, after I'd been going for a while, I would hang out with the group that would meet there, and you would see folks two or three weeks in a row walking past, looking at you, trying to summon up the courage, and going away again, and eventually saying hello.' 5. Going to university in Manchester ENTER a city which has always been proud of its gay community. Harvie went to university in Manchester where he reminisces that the 'volume was turned up' for him as he set about revelling in his newfound independence just after coming to terms with his sexuality. READ MORE: Author Andrew Meehan on 10 things that changed his life Like so many parts of our conversation, there was a deeply human moment where Harvie told me he didn't come out with a degree and how university had ended up being a bit of a turbulent time for him – but that he wouldn't have changed it. He said: 'I sometimes say Manchester kind of chewed me up and spat me out because when I came back, I was in a bit of a bad way emotionally. 'But if I could go back, I wouldn't make a different choice.' Speaking about leaving without a degree, he added: 'I had an office in the student union, staggering distance from the bar, and at the time, that seemed to matter a bit more.' 6. Campaign to repeal Section 28 HARVIE was not an MSP in the first session of the Scottish Parliament, but my word, did he become involved in one of its very first decisions post-devolution. Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, brought in by Margaret Thatcher's government, stated local authorities in Scotland, England and Wales 'shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality' or promote the teaching of homosexuality 'as a pretended family relationship'. After returning to his parents in Dumbarton after university, Harvie became heavily involved with the campaign to repeal the law in Scotland, something which proved highly contentious in the first session of a parliament just finding its feet. (Image: Scottish Greens) Harvie described the journey as an 'intense whirlwind experience' and was delighted to 'beat the b******s' at the end. And he feels it set out how things were going to be in a devolved Scotland for many years to come. 'It did establish the precedent that the Scottish Parliament was going to start voting the right way on these issues,' he said. 'This new parliament did the right thing the first time it was difficult. That set an expectation where, for about 20 years, the Scottish Parliament never voted the wrong way.' It was the start of Harvie's politics journey, as it wouldn't be long before he became an MSP. 'I joined the Greens because of that experience,' he said. 7. Getting elected HARVIE was elected in 2003 in what was known as the 'rainbow Parliament' when there were seven Greens, six Scottish Socialist Party members, one Scottish Senior Citizens member and several independents alongside the bigger parties of the SNP, Labour, Conservatives and LibDems. Harvie is the only MSP elected at that time that has been there ever since, and I asked him what had kept him in the chamber all this time. (Image: PA) 'I think it has stayed fresh partly because the parliament has changed so much every time,' he reflected. 'Most recently, we had the opportunity to be part of the government as well, so every session has been different, and the political dynamics in Scotland have changed so much, often in unexpected ways.' 8. Learning to make bread AT this point, it would be natural to flow into talking about the Bute House Agreement that gave Harvie and his fellow co-leader, Lorna Slater, the opportunity to be the first Green government ministers in the UK. But just before we get to that, Harvie was keen to talk to me about his love for making bread. 'There's something so wholesome about making a loaf of bread,' he told me. 'There's something so basic and tactile about it, it's like playing with plasticine but it turns into food.' READ MORE: 10 things that changed my life with composer Gareth Williams Alongside Doctor Who, number eight evoked the child that clearly still lives in this experienced political brain. Harvie tells me the book Slow Bread For Busy Lives by Andrew Whitley is what really opened up the world of bread making for him and allowed him to fit it around being at Holyrood. 'I'm in Edinburgh usually Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so the rest of the week I've got at home, so I can make a loaf on a Friday and eat that over the weekend. It's a really nice pattern to be in,' he said. 9. Bute House Agreement THE Bute House Agreement (BHA) was a huge moment for the Scottish Greens after the 2021 election, when first minister Nicola Sturgeon invited Harvie and Slater to be government ministers. Harvie felt the Greens had worked hard to make an impact in Parliament, working to collaborate with other parties where there was common ground, and pushing the boundaries where required, and he felt that was valued by Sturgeon and her deputy John Swinney. (Image: PA) 'To be the first Green Party in any of the UK nations to go into government was a huge step forward,' he said. 'Every Green campaigner who has ever knocked on a door will tell you they've heard people say 'I like what you stand for, but you're never going to get in, so I'm going to vote for someone else'. This was our moment to say Greens can actually deliver change.' As we all know, the agreement abruptly ended in 2023, which eventually led to the resignation of Humza Yousaf as first minister. There were tears, hurt and anger right across the party. But time is a healer, and Harvie still manages to look back on that period positively, and remains open to the Greens being involved in government again if the price is right. He went on: 'I want Greens to be able to make a difference, and make the biggest impact we can, for people and planet. 'I think what we had with the BHA was very consistent with our principles, it was very consistent with our track record of seeking the common ground and expanding it, so if we had an opportunity that's similar, then it will allow us to do far more.' 10. Getting a heart bypass EARLIER this year, Harvie had to take a bit of time off from politics, and he revealed to me why in an emotional finish to our chat. After experiencing chest pains in the previous year and going through tests, it was concluded he would need a heart bypass. I could sense a wee bit of emotion in his voice as he talked about the 'miracles' people work in the NHS, even under immense pressure. 'Everyone knows the NHS is under incredible pressure, but it was very clear to me that even under that pressure, people are doing scientific miracles every day,' he said. 'At the time, I was doing my best not to think about the gory details, I was thinking they're going to put me to sleep and then I'll wake up and start getting better, but if you do think about it, physically what they've done – shutting down your higher brain functions for a while so they can do stuff that would be agonising if you were awake, stopping your heart long enough to do the work – and less than a week later I walked out the hospital. 'I'm incredibly grateful to the folk at the Golden Jubilee in Clydebank. It's just a reminder of how lucky we are to live in a country with a national health service."
Daily Record
an hour ago
- Daily Record
SNP handling of Flamingo Land resort appeal 'appears unlawful' as scrutiny mounts
The Scottish Government is facing questions over its conduct in the ongoing appeal over controversial plans to build a holiday resort in Loch Lomond. SNP ministers have been accused of 'unlawful and biased' conduct in an appeal over Flamingo Land's controversial Loch Lomond resort. The claim is part of a letter of complaint lodged by Green MSP Ross Greer through his lawyer – which also raises fears key documents may have been falsified. It comes after the Scottish Government 'called in' the £43million bid for a resort on the shore at Balloch, Dunbartonshire, proposed by theme park operator Flamingo Land. Scottish Government civil servants had granted the planning application – overturning an earlier rejection by Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. But this was met by fury from campaigners and politicians against the bid – including Greer and Labour's Jackie Baillie, who threatened a parliamentary vote. Now ministers have been forced to reconsider the case. But Greer has now hit out at 'deeply questionable' decisions in the government's recent handling of the case – including sanctioning a new sped-up draft planning agreement led by Flamingo Land's developers. It follows the reappointment of a senior official, Reporter David Buylla, to organise the case and recommend to ministers despite being the one who approved the resort. Greer, who is running to be Scottish Greens co-leader, said: 'They refuse to hold any public hearings and have asked the same official who tried to approve the plans to mark his own homework by making recommendation for a fresh decision. 'Now they're asking Flamingo Land to draft their own planning conditions on their own terms, against the wishes of the National Park. Is it any wonder that local people get the feeling that the cards are being stacked against them?' It comes as lawyers for the National Park last week criticised the new process as 'highly unorthodox'. In a separate letter to Scotland's Chief Planner, Greer's lawyer Ian Cowan warned ministers aren't following proper procedure and their handling of the called-in appeal 'appears to be both unlawful' and 'tainted by bias'. He said the process should be 'abandoned' and replaced with a fairer one. Cowan added: 'My client does not question Mr Buylla's professionalism. But the recall of the appeal should have meant that he played no further part in it.' He also questioned 'anomalies' in key files published by the government's appeals division last month. A 'minute of appointment' reappointing Mr Buylla to prepare a report for ministers was published on July 4, but purportedly signed off by a senior planning official on June 24. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. However, the document doesn't carry the official's digital signature - and the document's properties show it was created on July 4 - 15 minutes after a different letter by Mr Buylla was published setting out the new process. Cowan has questioned officials on why the document was backdated. Greer told the Sunday Mail: 'I hope there is a simple explanation for this inconsistency in the date of the official's appointment, because it is hugely concerning. 'There needs to be full transparency here if the public are to have any confidence in this process.' The Scottish Government said it decided to recall the appeal as 'the proposed development raises issues of national significance'. It added: 'As this is a live planning appeal it would not be appropriate to comment further." Flamingo Land 's lawyers have said complaints about the new process are 'without substance'.
