Peter Murrell embezzlement trial

[Sunnnyday]

Peter Murrell is in court in Edinburgh today. This is for the preliminary hearing which was postponed from before the election. It will be interesting to see how the criminal proceedings proceed.

www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/peter-murrell-arrives-at-court-ahead-of-hearing-on-embezzlement-charges/ar-AA23Ybuy?ocid=msedgntp&pc

Absolutely. Other than RE where kids learn about many different faiths of the world we live in, religion has no place in schools. Catholic, CofE, Muslim, Jewish. All should be non denominational.

I very much agree with this. There should be no religion in schools other than academic study or world religion RMPS style. No Ministers coming into non-denominational schools, no "broadly Christian ethos". We are not a religious family and my kids went to non-dom provision. DD is a student teacher and was placed in a Catholic shool for her last teaching practice, it blew her mind that the local priest was in and out the school all the time and they went to mass once a month. As well as prayers regularly through the school day. It is a thing of the past and needs to be stopped.

However, this is controversial and the nationalists in particular know that there is a huge crossover between SNP/Celtic/Catholic/Pro-Palestine/Irish Republican so just don't want to go there. Any politician who raises this as an issue and wants to change it is opening themselves up to a massive shitstorm so just don't want to go there. Easier to maintain the (toxic) status quo.

I was at school in the 60s, my school was basically CofE with church once every half term. Us Catholic girls had RE every week with an elderly nun who was amazing. A Rabbi came in on Fridays as did the Imam, a Catholic priest held a Mass every half term. I'm grateful I went to school in such an enlightened and inclusive school.

With all due respect though @TheignT , if you were at a CofE school that wasn't in the west of Scotland where the segregated education reinforces the tribal sectarianism.

You must live in the West of Scotland, because your description certainly isn’t one that can be seen across the rest of the country.
And it seems to be the case that it’s the Catholic schools who have continued to do well in exam tables , in spite of the SNP’s incompetence, and to note that it’s Catholic schools holding the line against the gender ideology being pushed by the SNP / Greens.

If it’s s bad in religious schools why are so many parents desperate to get their children into them, especially the Catholic ones ?

Do you think it's right that schools are segregated on religious grounds?

This isn't a WoS thing, it's a central belt issue - where about 70% of the population lives.

True, one side of my family are very orange from NI but schools can be inclusive and welcome everyone while still having religious connections. Id never met an Imam or Rabbi to talk to until I met them at senior school, others had probably never met a nun and our nun was a wonderful example for them to meet as she was kind, non judgemental, very intelligent and highly educated. I suppose my view is meeting people and seeing they are actually just like us is important. You might say that would happen if religion wasn't in schools but the whole point at my school these people were both different and exactly the same. This one chooses to be celibate, these ones wear funny clothes but they demonstrate being not just polite but friendly.

Maybe in some places there needs to be an incremental move before schools there could be like my school but it could happen.

I do live in the west but grew up in the east. Growing up in Edinburgh yes there were kids who went to the Catholic schools but there was none of the toxicity around it. Hibs/Hearts matches were not tribal warfare and "what school did you go to" was not a loaded question. It just didn't matter. It's very different in the west of Scotland and given that Glasgow is the biggest city it influences a lot more than other parts of Scotland.

Yes , I do , because if it isn’t broken, why change it? Our schools used to have one of the best education systems and results in the world, and that had to do with the quality of the teaching , the high standards expected and frankly the moral guidance that was the norm.

As for supporting the SNP/ Celtic/ Ally Pally shower and IRA , again maybe that’s in your neck of the woods but don’t label the whole of Scotland as being of that mindset.

The whole reason that separate catholic schools were set up in the first place was to address systemic discrimination against Irish/Catholic people in the wake of the mass immigration of people fleeing the famine in the 1850s and after. I think we can all agree that the anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment is something which is a relic of the past and should have no place 175 years later in a modern and multicultural Scotland.

So why are we perpetuating this by keeping segregated education? And yes, St Ninian's is way up the league tables as a RC school but that's because of its leafy East Ren location, just in the same way as Bearsden or Douglas Academy does well because of their leafy East Dun location.

And yes, I'd make Calderwood Lodge fully non-dom too.

Change it because there is no need for it - religion and education should be separate, unless you don't think there's anything wrong sectarianism and its perpetuation. Focus on improving education across the piece.

It might not be across Scotland as a land mass - but it's across the majority of the population.

moral guidance that was the norm.

Agree schools should be reinforcing core moral standards like sharing, being thoughtful, contributing to your community, caring for the environment etc etc but it's adding the religious element which to me is unacceptable.

If you want your child prepared for their first communion or taught Hebrew, you do that on your own time. That should not be part of the remit of state education.

I have to wonder if Nicola knew nothing about all these purchases of makeup etc who they were for? Is Murrell going to come out as a woman? Is that why the SNP are fighting so hard for men in women’s prisons so Murrell can get an easier ride?

Wtf is a motion sensor make-up mirror?!

It lights up when you sit in front or walk past it.

It is maybe that OR Nicola just gave him a shopping list for her stuff she needed/wanted.

Peter Murrell has an older sister too. And Sturgeon has one (famously social media friendly) sister. I don't imagine even Sturgeon would want 9 make up organisers. He was spending willy nilly and dishing out the embezzled goods wide and far.

I just keep thinking, nobody liked him so he just kept on giving them presents so they would!

That sounds a bit pointless, but I’ve never used one so maybe they’re very good. Certainly they can’t be more useless than the SNP’s embezzlement sensors.

Can you imagine being in receipt if these gifts and thinking shit !

I wonder if they’ll be made to hand them over?

@GargoylesofBeelzebub who knows but what a creep

Going back so long it may well be the case that the recipients don't have the goods any more. And if they do, they will be worth peanuts. Nobody wants a second hand outdated games console or used make up organiser. Also, members of the Murrell/Sturgeon family seem to have well-documented memory issues with their lack of recall about anything important. GameBoy? what Gameboy?

The Irish settlers mainly settled in the west of Scotland, not far from where the boats landed, which is why eg Ayrshire, where I am from, is particularly sectarian. Migration from Ireland had a huge effect on the communities in Ayrshire - we can see parallels today.

My great, great grandmother's family came to Ayrshire from Ireland. The men worked in the quarries and the women in the thread mill.

Those who came over were often the poorest of those leaving Ireland - if you had the money you were more likely to go to America or Canada.

There was so much antagonism towards the newcomers, which turned into antagonism to Catholics. Where I lived, Catholics were discriminated against jobs wise and mostly couldn't find well paid work. For example, my mum worked as a secretary at a thread mill. Catholics could work on the shop floor but not in the office.

I live in England now. There are Catholic schools here too. The difference is that Catholics were not discriminated against to the same extent.

The community campus recently built at Winchburgh has two secondary schools, one denominational, and one non-denominational, which surprised me