AHOY SCOTLAND: FULL STEAM ASTERN!
By Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197 — More money to keep us afloat. Less investment to help us move forward — Since the Labour government’s budget last month, there has been quite a bit of talk about Westminster giving Scotland an additional £600 million to ‘spend’. But there’s a little more to that story than meets the eye — or the ears for that matter. Firstly, the £600 million isn’t an annual payment. It’s the total additional funding spread across four years. And secondly, when you look at where the money is going, things become a wee bit less impressive. It … Continue reading AHOY SCOTLAND: FULL STEAM ASTERN!
UK (sic) youth job crisis is 55% greater than anything in Scotland
In the Guardian today: Fixing UK’s [sic]youth jobs crisis demands much more investment, TUC boss warns. Paul Nowak also calls on government to avoid arbitrary benefit cuts before much-anticipated Milburn report is published this week. Fixing Britain’s youth jobs crisis will require ministers to drastically increase investment in employment support while avoiding arbitrary cuts to benefits, the head of the trade union movement has said. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/nov/09/uk-young-people-job-work-employment-crisis-paul-nowak-milburn-review There is, of course, not mention of Scotland in the above. Here’s why:: BBC Breakfast 18 June 2026 had the above headline story of 1 012 000 16 to 24 year-olds not in employment, … Continue reading UK (sic) youth job crisis is 55% greater than anything in Scotland
England & Wales have ‘softest touch’ as they release FOUR times as many per head ‘dangerous prisoners’ early than Scotland
The Express today repeating their ‘SNP soft touch’ story (left) and their July report helpfully giving us the total (right). ‘Helpfully?’ Read on. For England and Wales, official figures show 79,274 prisoners released early under these emergency measures between September 2024 and June 2026.1, 2 The equivalent figure for Scotland is 1 641.3, 4 All things being equally bad, you might expect the the figure for England and Wales to be between 11 and 12 times higher. I’ll give them the benefit of just 12 so that’d be around 19 700, a quarter of the rate in England & Wales … Continue reading England & Wales have ‘softest touch’ as they release FOUR times as many per head ‘dangerous prisoners’ early than Scotland
After 8 years of Liverpool county lines drug gangs in the Highlands violent crime is up 270% compared to 12% in Scotland
That it’s like an escalation of behaviour. It’s getting to the point now in the Inverness area, where the violence is getting to a different level and it’s something that really we’re taking a really firm stance on. But we’re also very conscious it’s very challenging. Highland Cops commissioned by BBC 2 and BBC Scotland and produced by Firecrest Films is in its fourth series of frankly fascinating documentary style episodes on crime in the Scottish Highlands, with ravishing background, often foreground, scenery shots and increasingly impressive and likeable police officer characters. The production seems to have wriggled out from … Continue reading After 8 years of Liverpool county lines drug gangs in the Highlands violent crime is up 270% compared to 12% in Scotland
How can there be ‘an A&E crisis’ of deaths ‘linked’ to long waits ONLY in Scotland when they are actually falling here and nearly FOUR times as common in NHS England?
We’ve been here before with A&E delays and excess mortality. Only the media operating in Scotland is reporting it. How the numbers were calculated for this RCEM/Lib Dem study: The figures use a standard mortality ratio previously applied by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). It assumes roughly one additional death for every 72 patients who wait 8–12 hours before admission. The Lib Dems applied this to the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours (not official government statistics). The RCEM ratio 1:72 is supported by one 2022 peer-reviewed study based on A&E data from 2016 to 2018: … Continue reading How can there be ‘an A&E crisis’ of deaths ‘linked’ to long waits ONLY in Scotland when they are actually falling here and nearly FOUR times as common in NHS England?
Burnham not doing politics differently as he bins opinion polls supporting independence
By Liz S The National reports “The UK Government has been carrying out secret taxpayer-funded Scottish independence polls and are refusing to release the results”. Apparently “Since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister, the Cabinet Office has conducted a secret Scottish independence polling operation” Now this reminds me of the time when Michael Gove, when he was a part of a former Tory UK government, did something similar. The money Gove used for his polling was originally to be designated for pandemic messaging. In June 2019, “SNP MP Tommy Sheppard requested secret polling data from January 2018 to June 2019 regarding … Continue reading Burnham not doing politics differently as he bins opinion polls supporting independence
Reposted
Women’s right to have a midwife oversee their baby’s birth is protected in Scotland as ‘shocking denial’ of rights surges in England
From the Guardian yesterday: NHS officials are shutting growing numbers of birth centres in a “shocking” denial of a woman’s right to have a midwife rather than a doctor oversee their baby’s birth, say campaigners. Twelve birth centres – midwife-led maternity units – have closed in England since 2019. Birth centres play a key role in ensuring that women can choose whether to have their baby at a unit in a hospital run by doctors, at one where midwives are in charge, or at home. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/nov/07/nhs-birth-centre-maternity-unit-closures-england-womens-rights Despite have 10 times the population, NHS Scotland has 29 midwife-led units while NHS … Continue reading Women’s right to have a midwife oversee their baby’s birth is protected in Scotland as ‘shocking denial’ of rights surges in England
Multinational study of 308 297 nuclear workers finds a SIGNIFICANT association between red bone marrow dose and the risk of leukaemia and between colon dose and the risk of solid cancers to seriously question Labour energy policy
From: first published in 2016 but for some reason beyond me, included in a Google alert for me today: The International Nuclear Workers Study (Inworks): A Collaborative Epidemiological Study to Improve Knowledge About Health Effects of Protracted Low-Dose Exposure INWORKS is a multinational cohort study, gathering 308 297 workers in the nuclear industry in France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, with detailed individual monitoring data for external exposure to ionising radiation. Over a mean duration of follow-up of 27 y, the number of observed deaths was 66 632, including 17 957 deaths due to solid cancers, … Continue reading Multinational study of 308 297 nuclear workers finds a SIGNIFICANT association between red bone marrow dose and the risk of leukaemia and between colon dose and the risk of solid cancers to seriously question Labour energy policy
The Scottish Lib Dems are gathering disaffected right-wingers
By Liz S Well here’s something else worthy of our contempt in that there is a constant demonising of the SNP from a certain party and their party branch office manager, while they (and he) acts as if they (and he), among all parties and all party leaders in Scotland, were the only true political moral crusaders at Holyrood. To whom do I refer ? The Lib Dems and Alex Cole-Hamilton. Firstly we had the ex Tory MSP Maurice Golden who chose not to stand as an MSP in this year’s Scottish elections, however in July 2026 The Courier newspaper … Continue reading The Scottish Lib Dems are gathering disaffected right-wingers
