Research by Royal College finds TWICE as many over 60s, per head of population, waiting more than 12 hours in NHS England’s A&E departments as in NHS Scotland – a political responsibility that can no longer be ignored there
In the Guardian today: More than 1,300 patients a month in England are dying needlessly due to long A&E waits, a tenfold rise in a decade, figures suggest. There were more than 300 deaths linked to long waits every week in 2025, up from 30 a week in 2015, according to analysis by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. The RCEM’s president, Dr Ian Higginson, said he wondered how many more deaths it would take before there was a meaningful plan to tackle the crisis. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/08/more-than-1300-deaths-a-month-in-england-due-to-long-ae-waits-figures-suggest As far as I can see the RCEM in Scotland have not persuaded the media here … Continue reading Research by Royal College finds TWICE as many over 60s, per head of population, waiting more than 12 hours in NHS England’s A&E departments as in NHS Scotland – a political responsibility that can no longer be ignored there
Scottish taxpayers to pay more than £300 million to share cost of Lower Thames Crossing and IFS doubts we’ll get anything for it through Barnett formula
In the Guardian today: Ministers have earmarked more than £170m extra to help build the Lower Thames Crossing road tunnel, fuelling concerns over the “spiralling” costs of one of the UK’s largest planned infrastructure projects. The proposed £11bn route under the Thames between Kent and Essex is already estimated to cost more each mile than the HS2 high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham. It was given the funding boost as part of a plan to spend £3.1bn of public money on the project, before a hoped-for injection of £7.5bn by a private sector firm. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/08/extra-cash-spiralling-lower-thames-crossing Do Scots pay 8% of the cost … Continue reading Scottish taxpayers to pay more than £300 million to share cost of Lower Thames Crossing and IFS doubts we’ll get anything for it through Barnett formula
The Curious Case of the Wee Blue Campbell
By Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197 https://www.youtube.com/@TheScottishMinuteman https://www.tiktok.com/@thescottishminuteman/video/7544331813578231062 Author’s Note: The following article is offered as speculative political commentary. It reflects personal interpretation and historical parallels and should not be read as established fact. No allegation of wrongdoing is made against Stuart Campbell, nor is any claim made that the UK state has influenced his publications. The Curious Case of the Wee Blue Campbell Is it peculiar that a person can one day be portrayed as a menace when attacking the Union and the next as a valuable whistleblower when attacking the SNP? 2014: “Dangerous nationalist cybernat … Continue reading The Curious Case of the Wee Blue Campbell
NHS England’s diagnostic tests waiting list is shocking 800 000 or 71% longer than NHS Scotland’s
In the Guardian today: Record number of people waiting for NHS diagnostic tests in England – One in five of the 1.92m patients on list wait longer than six weeks for tests such as CT and MRI scans, analysis shows. Demand for tests is outstripping the NHS’s ability to meet it and one in five of those on the waiting list – more than 400,000 people – are having to wait longer than the supposed six-week maximum, an analysis of diagnostic services in England has found. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/record-number-of-people-waiting-for-nhs-diagnostic-tests-in-england BBC Scotland and the other media operating in Scotland have no equivalent story. … Continue reading NHS England’s diagnostic tests waiting list is shocking 800 000 or 71% longer than NHS Scotland’s
Alarm over freedom of information only among mass exploiters of the scheme
In the Herald today, the above apparent concerns limiting the number of requests to five at any one time. We’re not talking about just five a year, five a month, five a week or five a day, just five at any one time. This is a perfectly reasonable response to the increasing use of AI by oppositions politicians and their staff and by journalists. If the Herald gave its readers the full facts, they’d get it, I feel sure. Here they are: Before AI: From Largest number of Freedom of Information requests made by a single person in one day: FOI … Continue reading Alarm over freedom of information only among mass exploiters of the scheme
The real news – More important than reported knife possession by far – murder by stabbing halved in six years, hospital stabbing admissions down by one-third and teen victims of murder plummet to only one-fifth of that in 2008
Top story from BBC Scotland relating to two murders involving knives, last year. The SNP minister described the murders of Kayden Moy, 16, and John McNab, 22, in Irvine and Edinburgh last year as “shocking” amid concerns over rising levels of knife possession among youths in Scotland. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1ly5720vzdo There is evidence in police reporting of increased knife possession though we cannot be sure of the extent to which this is affected by increased police activity and/or new offences being added. Either way, there are other very important developments relating to knife crime, being ignored here, but which offer us a … Continue reading The real news – More important than reported knife possession by far – murder by stabbing halved in six years, hospital stabbing admissions down by one-third and teen victims of murder plummet to only one-fifth of that in 2008
SNP-run Glasgow City build 110 times more social rent homes than Labour-run Liverpool as Guardian predicts social housing lists ‘would take 119 years to clear’
In the Guardian today: Social housing lists ‘would take 119 years to clear at current building rate’ Research shows generations of children in England will grow up homeless unless government addresses council housing debt, charity says https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/07/social-housing-119-years-waitlist-current-building-rate Also in the Guardian, in October last year: According to the housing charity Shelter, in the 12 months leading up to March 2025, Liverpool city council received 2,048 applications for homelessness support, a 25% increase on the previous year. The most recent data shows 12,764 households on the city’s social housing waiting list. But one figure is particularly shocking: reflecting the fact that most local authorities … Continue reading SNP-run Glasgow City build 110 times more social rent homes than Labour-run Liverpool as Guardian predicts social housing lists ‘would take 119 years to clear’
Hiding the blame for Scotland’s decades-long £28bn entrapment in London-based parties financial incompetence
Major and Blair – the men responsible for Scotland’s seemingly endless PFI debt. What!? £600m in one year ‘repaying private firms?’ Surely the headline should tell us who is to blame for this massive mistake? Let’s look. Paragraph 1? Nothing. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 – nothing. Ah, there it is in paragraph 10. We’ll hear more of those parties now! Well, no, that’s it. 22 paragraphs but no repeating of of ‘Conservative’ or ‘Labour.’ In total for all the PFI scheme building under the Conservative Government of John Major and the Labour Government of Tony Blair … Continue reading Hiding the blame for Scotland’s decades-long £28bn entrapment in London-based parties financial incompetence
With less than 4% of the defence spending UK has no credibility in Scotland
From BBC UK today: Delays in publishing a report laying out government defence spending have undermined the UK’s credibility with its allies, a parliamentary committee that scrutinises public spending says. The Defence Investment Plan (DIP) was supposed to be published in the autumn but is now due to be released ahead of a Nato summit early next month. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says the hold-up means procuring the latest equipment will be more expensive, “hindering the government’s attempt to modernise the Armed Forces”. A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said the DIP would “fix the outdated, overcommitted and underfunded … Continue reading With less than 4% of the defence spending UK has no credibility in Scotland
BBC Scotland copies Daily Record technique to attract viewers with one cancer misdiagnosis but fails to mention 99.6% diagnostic accuracy across thousands of cases
Top story today, just like the Record, three weeks ago: BBC Scotland have a tragic tale of breast cancer misdiagnosis, terrible, but a single case. How it came to their notice is not mentioned. From a family member or from a local non-SNP councillor to Fiona Stalker? How common is a breast cancer misdiagnosis? I can find no NHS Scotland research but this seems relevant. For certain cancers, researchers have estimated very low “missed cancer” rates after specialist assessment. For example, one UK study of breast clinics found an overall diagnostic accuracy of about 99.6%. https://www.nature.com/articles/6605082?utm_source=chatgpt.com Is there any reason … Continue reading BBC Scotland copies Daily Record technique to attract viewers with one cancer misdiagnosis but fails to mention 99.6% diagnostic accuracy across thousands of cases
Talking-up Scotland 