BBC Scotland News team revealed as ignorantly using a statistically invalid child poverty comparison
From BBC Scotland today: In 2017, MSPs passed a law requiring ministers to hit four targets, external, including pushing the share of children in relative poverty below 10% by 2030. But the JRF’s Poverty in Scotland report, external found the figure remained stubbornly high, averaging 21% from 2022 to 2025. The UK average is 28% Why is it wrong to compare the percentage of children in poverty in Scotland with a UK average that already includes the same Scottish data with those for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in it? Here’s why: Clear? I knew it was a wrong thing … Continue reading BBC Scotland News team revealed as ignorantly using a statistically invalid child poverty comparison
BUY ONE ATTACK ON SCOTLAND, GET ONE FREE
By Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197 Here we go again! Apparently, the evil nasty Scottish Government Ministers are about to “hammer hard-up Scots” because certain multi-buy offers are being banned. However, as usual when these “SNP BAD” stories hit on our screens, a quick Google search explains what is actually happening. Price reductions aren’t being banned by the SNP. What’s being restricted is the incentive to buy more than one through certain multi-buy offers. A supermarket can still reduce a packet of crisps from £1.50 to £1. But what it can’t do is say “2 for £2” if the individual packets … Continue reading BUY ONE ATTACK ON SCOTLAND, GET ONE FREE
After years of Conservative and Labour government, child poverty will entrap 1 million more in England and 70 000 more in Wales than would have been the case with SNP policies
From the Joseph Rowntree Trust in 2025: Projected child poverty rates by January 2029: Nation Then-current rate used Projected by Jan 2029 Scotland 23.7% 21.8% England 30.8% 31.5% Wales 32.3% 34.4% Northern Ireland 25.5% 26.2% These are shocking gaps. The English and Welsh figures are 44% and 58% greater respectively. Also, remember, even the crude gaps of around 10% and 14% with England and with Wales are percentages of the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of children entrapped in poverty. There are, in total, roughly 10 million and 500 000 children in England and Wales, respectively. So child … Continue reading After years of Conservative and Labour government, child poverty will entrap 1 million more in England and 70 000 more in Wales than would have been the case with SNP policies
As the media in Scotland wallow in the mire just how impressive is the Scottish Government’s Child Payment policy in the UK and across Europe?
It has attracted strong praise from respected poverty experts, with some describing it as exceptional even by European standards. These are among the strongest attributable statements: Figure Quote and context Professor Danny Dorling, University of Oxford The David Hume Institute reported in August 2023 that he described the payment as creating “the biggest fall in child poverty anywhere in Europe for at least 40 years.” This is the institute’s account of his remarks at its event. David Hume Institute Chris Birt, Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s associate director for Scotland On its expansion in November 2022: “a watershed moment for tackling poverty … Continue reading As the media in Scotland wallow in the mire just how impressive is the Scottish Government’s Child Payment policy in the UK and across Europe?
English drug dealers help flood Scotland with heroin and cocaine
The above was in the Daily Record yesterday. Where are UK drug dealers ‘Thickboar‘ and ‘Octo-hand’ from? They are cousins from Merseyside, in the Liverpool area in England. Stephen Earle (EncroChat handle “Octo-hand”) is reported as being from Huyton (one later report says Crosby). His cousin Terence Earle (“ThickBoar”) operated with him from Merseyside. They trafficked heroin and cocaine between Merseyside and Motherwell in Scotland, using EncroChat, and were later jailed after the network was cracked in Operation Venetic / Operation Joyfully. Terence Earle was sentenced to 16½ years in April 2023. Stephen Earle fled to Portugal in 2020, was … Continue reading English drug dealers help flood Scotland with heroin and cocaine
Russell Findlay has a ‘dangerously irresponsible’ obsession with the UK State
By Liz S Tory HQ Puppet , the irrelevant Russell Findlay, has been mouthing of again on his favourite subject, Scottish independence. The BBC (of course) have an article where it states: “Scottish Tory leader Findlay says SNP’s indy ‘obsession’ is dangerously irresponsible”. Well one could say that Russell Findlay, as a Tory, has an obsession with the UK State and that is, for Scotland , a position that is “dangerously irresponsible”. Apparently “Findlay told the Conservative Party’s UK conference that while the United Kingdom continues to face “grave threats” from China, Russia and Iran, a divided UK would be … Continue reading Russell Findlay has a ‘dangerously irresponsible’ obsession with the UK State
‘Horrifying’ scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools cannot be confidently transferred to Scotland
In the Guardian today: Lawyers and campaigners have condemned the “horrifying” scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools after a Guardian investigation revealed thousands of sexual offences against under-13s, including multiple rapes, are reported to police every year. Close to five sexual crimes against children aged 12 and younger were recorded on average by police every day in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales, according to Guardian analysis of police data for 2021-25. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/oct/04/child-on-child-sexual-abuse-schools-england-and-wales Directly comparable figures are not available. However, sexual offences based on police records published in government outlets are. In the year ending March 2026, … Continue reading ‘Horrifying’ scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools cannot be confidently transferred to Scotland
With Glasgow Central at 1 458th in the table, the safest railway stations are in Scotland
The Guardian today has: ‘The violence is off the scale’: staff and passengers at risk as assaults on trains in Great Britain soar to record high – Cases of abuse, spitting, head-butting and sexual harassment, have spiked as transport police numbers have dwindled. I can find no directly comparable figures for rail travel in Scotland but in February 2025, I found this: With Glasgow Central at 1 458th in the table, the safest railway stations are in Scotland. The Daily Record, ever-useless as a reliable information source for its readers, has: A recent analysis of UK-wide data identified the train … Continue reading With Glasgow Central at 1 458th in the table, the safest railway stations are in Scotland
Scotland’s predicted child poverty will perhaps be ‘missing a legally binding target’ at 21.8% but England’s 31.5%, 44% higher (!) is hidden from your eyes by James Cook
and the Scottish Government’s on course to miss legally binding targets to cut poverty ‘by a wide margin.’ That’s come from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s annual report. Child Poverty is not headlining on any of the other BBC News websites. Only James Cook is on it. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has not reported separately on child poverty this year in any of the other UK nations despite it having been much higher in all of them other than Scotland and with little prospect of falling in them. In January 2026, the JRF (different authors) said: Child poverty rates in Scotland … Continue reading Scotland’s predicted child poverty will perhaps be ‘missing a legally binding target’ at 21.8% but England’s 31.5%, 44% higher (!) is hidden from your eyes by James Cook
A colonial instrument visually subordinating Scotland
From rtpscott today, in Talking-up Scotland: Speaking about papers there is a picture of the UK in the Sunday (Yoon) Paper today which is more or less brushing Scotland out. The GMB‘s Rhea Wolfson or the Sunday Post‘s Derek Healey are by no means obvious candidates for the accusation of being anti-Scotland, so I have to think they did not see the graphic before it ‘went to press.’ I have to think Belfast-born editor Thomas Hawkins did. When you see this diminishing of Scotland, you may be reminded of the recent UN rejection of world maps projecting, especially, Africa as … Continue reading A colonial instrument visually subordinating Scotland
