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I am in the curious position of being employed after 35 years of self-employment, and the novelty of having somebody putting money into my bank account at the end of every month without having to send them an invoice that threatens them with legal action or anything else is amazing.
On our database, we have approximate dates for when properties became empty, so we have an idea of properties that have been empty for a longer period of time.
There were private landowners around Scotland who were much worse. We used to go on holiday to Sutherland and the Vesteys, who were domiciled in Argentina, never paid a penny in tax in decades and were much more adverse in the way that they dealt with things.
In weekend 4 in 2013, there were 66; this year, there were 25, and that was because it was a long public holiday—St Andrew’s day—weekend. The numbers that we are talking about, comparing 2013 with 2017, have reduced by 400 per cent or so.
I have heard from countless people that work has been done with teachers and that schools and education authorities are up to date on resources for training their teachers.
It may be just that they saw the armed forces day parade, saw an advert, or saw a jet flying overhead when they were on holiday. There are so many variations and the reasons are very difficult to pin down.
That does not take into account the huge amounts of money that come from the EU for research in Scotland, and we as a Government have said that we will honour the guarantee from Westminster that funds agreed before the date that we leave the EU will be supported.
To ask the Scottish Executive what talks are being held with British Waterways regarding the spread of non-native invasive plants such as Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed on canals, river banks, tow paths and adjoining land in Scotland.