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Glasgow To Be UK's First 'Smart City'

CowboyRobot writes "Once the 'Second City' of the British Empire, scrappy Glasgow — whose now-demolished Gorbals was once known for urban grimness on a par with Chicago's South Side or New York's Hell's Kitchen — has the chance for a whole new lease on life as the UK's first 'smart city.' The UK's government has just announced a $38 million (£24 million) grant to fund pilot projects in the city that show how mass deployment of sensors and real-time information can help local government run more efficiently while also boosting the quality of life for its 600,000 citizens. Glasgow won the prize in a competition among 30 British towns and cities for state help in looking at the possible contribution of smart technology."

66 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. waste of time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    They still believe electric lights are the devils work

    1. Re:waste of time by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      They still believe electric lights are the devils work

      They like electric lights, they can rip them off and sell them for smack.

      I can't believe a government sponspored array of sensors is going to do anyone any good.

  2. This is smart? by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "mass deployment of sensors and real-time information can help local government"

    Sounds as much like Big Brother as Smart City.

    1. Re:This is smart? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Arken's Law. All of three minutes.

    2. Re:This is smart? by TapeCutter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It has the potential to be either or somewhere in between, people who are certain they have fore-knowledge of the social consequences of this particular experiment are reveling more about themselves than the future.

      --
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    3. Re:This is smart? by sco08y · · Score: 1

      Arken's Law. All of three minutes.

      So your argument is "shut up." Thanks for sharing.

    4. Re:This is smart? by Yaa+101 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Knowing the reputation of various UK administrations, it will be put to use to spy on people and fine them for small misdemeanors.

    5. Re:This is smart? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I propose "Jane's Law":

      In any discussion of societal values, sooner or later someone will invoke Arken's Law or Godwin's Law, or both.

      Kind of puts things in a slightly different light, I think. People who call "stereotype!" can be stereotypes.

      (And yes, I realize that is recursive.)

    6. Re:This is smart? by foniksonik · · Score: 2
      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    7. Re:This is smart? by Canazza · · Score: 1

      Actually, back then the Gorbals were half shit half nice. The area around the Citizens Theatre was always reasonable, and the regeneration of the shit end had already begun back in '85 (or talks of atleast) and the first tower blocks (pretty much the source of all the gang culture) came down in 1993 (which shows you how long it takes to rehouse a tower block). As of 2011, most of the Tower Blocks have been demolished, and the area's bounced back quite a bit. The article talks about it like it's still a violence fuelled shithole.

      Red Dwarf wasn't so much as a prediction as just putting their faith in Glasgow City Council... Actually, in that case it's even more amazing that it came true :)

      Disclaimer: I'm a West-end Weegie, although from the less-rich end of the West End. We never had gang violence, just running street battles on Dumbarton Road between Old Firm supporters (and even that's been gone for the last decade) :P

      --
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    8. Re:This is smart? by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      Knowing the reputation of various UK administrations, it will be put to use to spy on people and fine them for small misdemeanors.

      That's absolutely certain. How could anyone trust any council that uses anti-terrorism laws to monitor things that are between minor civil crimes and nothing at all?

      http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/08/21/local-councils-abusing-anti-terrorism-powers_n_1819715.html

      http://casualsunited.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/councils-abusing-their-power-and-using-anti-terror-laws-to-harass-the-public-edl-abuseofpower/

    9. Re:This is smart? by Minwee · · Score: 1

      I propose "Jane's Law"

      I thought that name was already taken, and had something to do with somebody always mentioning the really nice hat.

  3. Good news by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    Good news for "the grey place"

    1. Re:Good news by Gordonjcp · · Score: 2

      I would have thought that "the grey place" would be Aberdeen, the Granite City.

      Glasgow is known as "the Dear Green Place", and if you look at it on Google Earth you'll see why.

    2. Re:Good news by History's+Coming+To · · Score: 3, Informative

      In Scots Gaelic, however, "glas" (ghlas) is grey, so yes, that works.

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    3. Re:Good news by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

      That works if Glasgow is a Gaelic name, but it isn't. There are very convoluted translations of "Glasgow" as "Grey Hill" or "Grey Field" but none of them actually make sense.

      I guess if you take the Glasgow Gael trendy-west-endie-hangs-around-in-the-Lismore dialect of Gaelic where if you don't find a word that suits you just make up a translation that fits your etymological theory, then you can get away with it. This part of the world was never Gaelic-speaking, and Gaelic only came here with the Highland Diaspora.

    4. Re:Good news by BertieBaggio · · Score: 1

      I guess if you take the Glasgow Gael trendy-west-endie-hangs-around-in-the-Lismore dialect of Gaelic where if you don't find a word that suits you just make up a translation that fits your etymological theory, then you can get away with it. This part of the world was never Gaelic-speaking, and Gaelic only came here with the Highland Diaspora.

      Let's not forget the ones in Deoch an Dorus.

      --
      If all you have is a grenade, pretty soon every problem looks like a foxhole -- MightyYar
  4. Re:Scotland by Gordonjcp · · Score: 2

    Yes, such a money sink that the loony right wing government in the UK is *desperate* to stop Scotland becoming independant, and keeping all the wealth up here.

    Sorry Maggie^WTony^WDavid, we're keeping the oil, and we're keeping the tax revenue. You'll have to pay for your own moat-cleaning now.

  5. Integration by kylegordon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And this is where integration with existing projects should come first, lest we end up reinventing the wheel. http://www.fixmystreet.com/ http://www.opentraintimes.com/ http://www.openstreetmap.org/ http://www.flightradar24.com/ the 45MB/min MIDAS Gold DATEX traffic information service from http://www.tih.org.uk/ - and many more. And by far not just travel related either, but lets not allow Glasgow to 'create' new apps and datasources that just replicate ideas and services that are already out there.

    I hope the administrators of this fund have a good long hard look through http://data.gov.uk/ for inspiration and partners to work with, and that we as users and techs can help push them to make the right choices.

    I've already emailed a few relevant parties. Have you?

  6. Re:Scotland by History's+Coming+To · · Score: 2

    Yes, but mostly of Scottish money. The value of single malt whisky at storage in the country at any given time far exceeds the highest ever amount of gold held by the bank of England. Scotland will be rich in 21 oak matured years, and always has been.

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  7. Scottish Smart City? by TWX · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sure, as long as nothing's voice-activated...

    --
    Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    1. Re:Scottish Smart City? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sure, as long as nothing's voice-activated...

      Voice Recognition Elevator in Scotland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAz_UvnUeuU

    2. Re:Scottish Smart City? by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      When using the voice part of the Nintendo DS e.g. on Brain Training, I have to put on a faux-American accent to get the bloody thing to work! :/

      Shouldn't be too hard, you west-coasters are all obsessed with American culture anyway! :-)

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    3. Re:Scottish Smart City? by Coisiche · · Score: 1

      Easily the funniest sketch I saw last year.

  8. Ah Now What Be the Matter with Glasgow? by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 1

    For it's going roond and roond!

  9. Misguided by lastx33 · · Score: 2

    This is yet another example of politicians throwing money at technology to try and solve problems of policy and administration. It's a bit like buying a new TV to cure a broken leg. Nothing but a distraction.

    --
    "You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead!" - Stan Laurel
    1. Re:Misguided by hughbar · · Score: 1

      I so agree but for different reasons. I'm doing a little open-source based work in the area of water/air pollution sensors, mainly for the grid/big data bit. I've talked to some of the usual suspects in London [I'm London-based] including 'Digital Greenwich'.

      An example: http://living-planit.com/ is closed source, supported by big corporates who would probably like their noses in this particular government trough and also harvest the big data so that they can trade energy/carbon futures and help themselves/other corporates do some predatory/on-demand pricing.

      So the £24m will probably run quickly into corporate pockets for the benefit of the status quo rather than the citizenry. At Accenture etc. rates, it'll be gone in a month or two anyway. I sincerely believe that the best way to do this is with small federated projects within an open framework. Then the benefit is maximised and transferrable elsewhere too.

      I'm sorry to sound so cynical about this, but it's the truth of the current state of Airstrip One [north].

      --
      On y va, qui mal y pense!
  10. big brother by ace37 · · Score: 1

    We went on a short self-guided car tour of Scotland this summer and were blown away at the number of cameras on the roadway. Many of the main roads had one or more speed camera covering all lanes of traffic every mile for tens of miles. I had no intention of doing any wrong, but all the 'invasion of privacy' bells were going off in my head.

    I never got feelings like the system was going to be abused in any type of near term scenario, but I couldn't help but think how easy it would be for a Stalin type leader to use that envoronment to make inconvenient people disappear. In many places it is technically legal (*not that it happens*) for a police officer to bring you to jail for speeding or neglecting a turn signal during a lane change. I frequently hear the average citizen of the US commits one felony a day by being normal.

    1. Re:big brother by Gordonjcp · · Score: 2

      Many of the main roads had one or more speed camera covering all lanes of traffic every mile for tens of miles.

      Where was that? I can't think of *anywhere* that matches that description, unless you were driving through motorway roadworks which generally has a 40mph speed limit enforced with average speed cameras.

      There are a lot of average speed cameras on the A77 in Ayrshire, maybe there? Even then, it's not "a camera every mile", it's about six average speed cameras covering 30-odd miles of extremely dangerous road.

    2. Re:big brother by Alioth · · Score: 1

      Many of the cameras are actually publically viewable. As a general aviation pilot, I find them quite useful in filling in the gaps between aviation weather reporting stations, the traffic cameras will show me at least what the cloud cover and visibility is like and if there's any precipitation.

    3. Re:big brother by BenJury · · Score: 1

      There are two sections of the M1 between London and Leeds, when it is a 4 lane carriageway, where there are speed cameras on almost every sign gantry over the road.

      However right now it seems they are only 'on' when the variable speed limit is in force, but there is no reason they couldn't turn them on all the time.

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    4. Re:big brother by Threni · · Score: 1

      >There are a lot of average speed cameras on the A77 in Ayrshire,

      To be fair, there are also a lot of really good ones...

    5. Re:big brother by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      We went on a short self-guided car tour of Scotland this summer and were blown away at the number of cameras on the roadway. Many of the main roads had one or more speed camera covering all lanes of traffic every mile for tens of miles. I had no intention of doing any wrong, but all the 'invasion of privacy' bells were going off in my head.

      Speed camera's are just there to collect money. If you are not speeding by 10mph+ they should not bother you. These now have to be bright orange and clearly visible following various local councils attempts to hide them behind signs and trees so they collect more money.

      Half of the other cameras are just traffic monitoring cameras, they are run by people who only really care about keeping the traffic moving along.

      The rest are run by the police who are vindictive abusers of terrorism law and really are out of screw over everyone for any reason. But there are few of them and very many cars. They only bother a tiny number of people.

      You are quite right that the police could single out any person and jail that person under anti-terror law forever with absolutely no evidence. However a normal street cop can't do that, it would take someone very senior in the police. Yes it's technically a police state with massive surveillance.

    6. Re:big brother by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Many of the main roads had one or more speed camera covering all lanes of traffic every mile for tens of miles. I had no intention of doing any wrong, but all the 'invasion of privacy' bells were going off in my head.

      I think paranoid twits like you need to decide whether speed cameras are evil because they catch people who break the law by speeding on public highways, or whether they're evil because they COULD be used to catch people who break the law by doing something else illegal on public highways.

      You don't have privacy when you're driving on a public road.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    7. Re:big brother by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Speed camera's are just there to collect money.

      No, they're not. I've said it before here on Slashdot, but many UK councils have turned them off as a cost-cutting measure in the current climate of pseudo-austerity (i.e. austerity for the poor and not the rich).

      Speed cameras are there to catch people speeding. Since the locations of fixed speed cameras are (a) obvious if you pay attention and (b) publicly available on the web/through satnav devices you have to be very unlucky or stupid to get caught by one. Hand-held mobile devices are a different matter in terms of avoidance, but again they're there to catch people speeding as a road safety measure, nothing else.

      Personally, I think that if there is a speed camera which forces people to slow down to 30 in a 30 limit, it is hard to complain, unless you want to make the argument that you shouldn't have speed limits at all. I know this would be what libertarians would say: that you should be able to drive as fast as you like, and if you cause death by your speeding, the victim's family can sue you for causing death by dangerous driving, even though it's not illegal to drive fast. Or something.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    8. Re:big brother by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      Speed camera's are just there to collect money.

      No, they're not. I've said it before here on Slashdot, but many UK councils have turned them off as a cost-cutting measure in the current climate of pseudo-austerity (i.e. austerity for the poor and not the rich).

      They turned them off because central government took the profits. Central government also forced the councils to end their practice of hiding these things in places where they could not be seen and to make them bright orange so they are clearly visible.

      If speed cameras are not about making money then why do they impose fines for speeders? How about a system where speeders lose their license after getting caught a few times? Or a day of community service? Or send speeders to a driving awareness course? Or a few days of jail? If you take money as absolution for a crime it's another tax, not a punishment.

      Clearly there is a certain level of speeding that's insanely dangerous but if I'm driving down a school road at 29MPH and staring at my speedometer out of fear of being hit with yet another tax I'm not a safe driver either.

  11. Re:Scotland by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    Yes, such a money sink that the loony right wing government in the UK is *desperate* to stop Scotland becoming independant,

    The UK government includes Scottish MPs. So are they desperate to stop Scotland from becoming independent too?

    and keeping all the wealth up here.

    The what?


    Sorry Maggie^WTony^WDavid, we're keeping the oil, and we're keeping the tax revenue. You'll have to pay for your own moat-cleaning now.

    OK, we'll keep your banks, then.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  12. Re:The irony here... by pdhenry · · Score: 1

    Either you've never been to the UK or you've never been to the US.

  13. I'll believe it by Muros · · Score: 1

    when it gets the Frankie Boyle seal of approval.

  14. Re:The irony here... by epyT-R · · Score: 1

    who said the US isn't well on its way to police state dystopia?

  15. Re:Scotland by Required+Snark · · Score: 1
    Scotland is voting on Independence from the United Kingdom in 2014. A cynic could look at this choice as being an attempt to sway voters to keep Scotland part of the UK.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_independence_referendum,_2014

    --
    Why is Snark Required?
  16. Re:Scotland by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

    I don't think it would take much to convince Scottish voters to stay in the UK. Latest polls show only 23% of Scots want independence.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  17. Smart is the new Organic by giantgeek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Smart" is another overloaded buzz word that works well for marketing but is too vague to use to describe a city. Did you really mean to use more descriptive word such as efficient, effective, informative, or economical?

    --
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    1. Re:Smart is the new Organic by volmtech · · Score: 1

      How about all four plus some. Like a "smart" traffic light. Efficient, no stopping through traffic for a left turn if no one is turning. Economical, dozens of cars don't sit idle waiting for the light to change while no one is turning. For an entire city the savings could be substantial.

    2. Re:Smart is the new Organic by Sockatume · · Score: 1

      "Smart" as in "having its own self-contained computer" (as in smart watch, smart lighting, smart meter etc.), in this case with the epithet transferred from city infrastructure to the city itself.

      --
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    3. Re:Smart is the new Organic by giantgeek · · Score: 1

      To you "smart" means having a self-contained computer probably because you work with computers. To a mechanical engineer "smart" may mean it has pulleys and to a dietitian "smart" may mean it has high fiber. To an economist "smart" may mean a good investment.

      By your definition "smart watch" would be better stated as "computerized watch" because that phrase contains more facts.

      Using "smart" to describe something is really "dumb" because its too general. It diminishes the facts from being communicated and that's why I'm opposed to its use and it annoys me to see it being used to describe so many things.

      --
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  18. Re:Scotland by Required+Snark · · Score: 2
    Scottish independence is probably a bad move for the people in Scotland. It's not likely that the country would economically viable in either the short or long run.

    If independent, would they use the Euro, the UK Pound, or float their own currency? Of the three options, they would be best integrated with the UK Pound right now, but why would England allow that? Not having an automomous economy defeats the point of being a nation. Joining the Euro Zone or having a native currency would require that they establish their own national credit basis. Doing that in the current ongoing world economic climate would be horrendously difficult. It is likely that a native currency would start with a very poor exchange rate and cause huge disruptions to Scottish economy. The future of the Euro is not secure, so that route also has a lot of risk.

    They do have an option to remain in the UK but have more local political control. This is happening all across the UK. It's not as nationalistically sexy as independence, but it is a heck of a lot more practical.

    --
    Why is Snark Required?
  19. Re:Scotland by mcpheat · · Score: 1

    The "latest poll" turns out to be 6 months old and from the people who failed to predict the last election correctly.

  20. Smart City? by nitehawk214 · · Score: 1

    What, are the rest of the cities dumb?

    --
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  21. Re:FYI by Anarki2004 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm a courier and I work all sides of Chicago. While I must admit 25th and Washington isn't exactly the first place I would choose to hang out, areas around 51st and western make me way more nervous (and that's not even actually going into the neighborhoods around there).

    --
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  22. Re:Scotland by MightyMartian · · Score: 1
    --
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  23. Re: 'Second City'? My arse by zebidee · · Score: 1

    Someone needs to read his history a bit better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow

    --
    -- "Hey kids, try this at home!"
  24. Re:Scotland by Alioth · · Score: 1

    I'm sure the UK would let them continue to use the pound sterling, after all Scotland is hardly going to be considered an "enemy nation" and the remaining UK has much to gain by keeping an independent Scotland close, as the Scots do by keeping the UK close.

    What would be interesting is if Scotland were to become independent, and an EU country, whilie the rest of the UK voted to leave the EU...

  25. Re:Scotland by Alioth · · Score: 1

    And whisky is much more valuable than gold.

    - You can't drink gold, but you can drink whisky.
    - Holding gold doesn't create wealth, whereas making whisky creates wealth.

  26. Re:Scotland by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

    I'm sure the UK would let them continue to use the pound sterling, after all Scotland is hardly going to be considered an "enemy nation" and the remaining UK has much to gain by keeping an independent Scotland close, as the Scots do by keeping the UK close.

    Sure. You can't stop someone from using a currency. The point is that then Scotland would actually have less independence. Currently, the UK controls the sterling which means Scotland gets a say in how the currency works. With independence, the currency stays the same, but Scotland looses all voting rights in it. How would that help?

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.
  27. Glasgow Effect by handy_vandal · · Score: 1

    Perhaps this Smart City technology can shed light on the Glasgow Effect:

    The Glasgow effect refers to the poor health and low life expectancy of Glaswegians compared to the rest of the UK and Europe. The hypothesis among epidemiologists is that poverty alone does not appear to account for the disparity.[1] Equally deprived areas of the UK such as Liverpool and Manchester have higher life expectancies, and the wealthiest ten percent of the Glasgow population have a lower life expectancy than the same group in other cities.[2] Various hypotheses have been proposed to account for the effect, including vitamin D deficiency, cold winters, higher levels of poverty than the figures suggest, high levels of stress, and a culture of alienation and pessimism.

    Source

    --
    -kgj
    1. Re:Glasgow Effect by Rogerborg · · Score: 1

      All the good genes emigrated. What's left is the dross (hello from Sunny East Kilbride). It's really that simple.

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  28. Ah, Glasgow! by fuzzywig · · Score: 1

    Last time I was in Glasgow I got stopped for drinking on the street (it was a fair cop), as the coppers were leaving one of them said to me, "Just remember, yea cannae drink in the street, yea cannae piss in the street, and yea cannae shit in the street".
    You stay classy Glasgow ;)

  29. Re:Scotland by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

    You do know that the "Conservative" party is short for Conservative and Unionist right? It's nothing to do with the wealth scotland has.

    The "Unionist" in the "Conservative and Unionist Party" refers to the fact they merged with the "Liberal Unionist Party" just over 100 years ago. The Liberal Unionists were formed in 1886 as a breakaway from the Liberal Party who were opposed to Irish home rule (which William Gladstone, the Liberal leader, came down in support of). That's essentially what it refers to.

    Despite the fact that the modern-day Conservative Party is ostensibly unionist, the "Unionist" in the official party title is therefore a bit of a red herring.

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  30. Re:Scotland by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

    You can also keep all your f*cking enormous debts from your crappy Scottish banks - that should burn thru a good few years of tax revenue...

    We're fine with that (*), provided that Westminster returns every penny of revenue relating to North Sea oil and gas from Scottish waters (i.e. most of it) received, adjusted for inflation, since the 1970s- all the time they've been bleating about Scotland being unfairly subsidised and scaremongering about how the oil was about to run out.

    So on balance, it looks like.... you're in the red. Never mind! You can deposit those billions in our Royal Bank of Scotland account. :-P

    (*) So long as you're happy to deal with the problems caused by the English and English-derived parts of these "Scottish" banks :-)

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  31. Re:Scotland by mcpheat · · Score: 1

    It may have been published last week but it was carried out between July and November last year. According to the Sunday Times it stands at 34%, it can't have gone up 11% in the last week.

  32. Re:Alex Salmond by 1s44c · · Score: 1

    Your "Stalin type leader" is pretty well in place already. And he's going to have to derive new revenue streams soon to bribe the electorate pending the Independence Referendum.

    Lucky you getting bribes!

    The UK will bias the question to fool the dumbest 51% of the voters into voting the way they want.

  33. Re:Scotland by 1s44c · · Score: 1

    Yes, such a money sink that the loony right wing government in the UK is *desperate* to stop Scotland becoming independant,

    The UK government includes Scottish MPs. So are they desperate to stop Scotland from becoming independent too?

    They are MPs. They do whatever makes them the most money and lie about it.

  34. Re:Hoots mon! by Coisiche · · Score: 1

    You got a superfluous 'd' in there.

    Here in Embra we refer to that other city as The Weeg and the inhabitants are weegies.

  35. Wellington's hat by coofercat · · Score: 1

    At least they'll know if Wellington loses his hat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Statue,_Glasgow
    (Sometimes he has a bottle of whiskey in his arms too, so presumably they could monitor his alcohol intake too, and make sure he's not drunk in charge of a statue horse).

  36. Re:Scotland by Elky+Elk · · Score: 1

    I think you mean the newly independent Orkney Islands' oil.