In Energy Voice today: Plans for a mammoth onshore wind farm have moved a step closer to becoming a reality after receiving £580million backing. SSE Renewables announced its final investment in the 103-turbine Viking Onshore Wind Farm yesterday. As the lockdown measures are eased, the number of workers offshore will steadily increase. Scheduled for completion in 2024, the 443 megawatt (MW) project will be the UK’s largest onshore wind farm in terms of electricity output. It is understood the development, which will cover 17,396 acres across Shetland’s central mainland, could create around 400 jobs at peak construction, with a further … Continue reading Another massive windfarm means Scotland can soon power 4.5 million of its 2.25 million homes

The above two, yesterday and today, a Tory and a Labour politician masquerading as ‘worried parents’ on BBC Scotland, to attack the SNP Government, are not unusual. Just based on recent cases exposed here, we’ve seen: The only GP unable to access PPE turns out to be an in-law of Labour’s Anas Sarwar. UKIP candidate, Billy Mitchell, appears three times as an audience member on Question Time in Scotland and shouts at the SNP panellists. Regularly appearing in the Herald and/or Scotsman, with no mention of their political affiliation, attacking the SNP Government: Brian Monteith, Brexit MEP and former Con … Continue reading Scotland’s media failing to disclose background biases

In Project Scotland today: THE Scottish construction industry is to receive £78 million as part of the Scottish Government’s £230 million Return to Work package, with the aim of stimulating the economy. This includes £40 million for regeneration projects and £20 million for roads maintenance. The Scottish Government revealed the package is funded by the ‘reallocation of underspends’ from schemes interrupted by the Covid-19 crisis. Finance secretary Kate Forbes said, “The impact of Covid-19 has been enormous on both businesses and individuals and the Scottish Government has so far spent more than £4 billion tackling its effects. We are also … Continue reading Finance secretary finds £78 million for construction but BBC Business not attracted to that optimistic tone

In Scotland, in the last two years, hospitals have become hot-beds of infection and these infections have been linked to patient deaths. Though none have been shown to have been killed by the infections, the stories are told in melodramatic, simplistic terms implying that they were. You can tell that this is fake news because they were telling no such stories in such a frenzy, before, when infection rates were objectively higher, and because the English media are not telling the same story despite evidence of even greater problems, revealed in inspections there. What is different here, is that the Great Scottish Hospital Health Crisis … Continue reading Hospital building faults ‘did not CAUSE deaths’

What is the claimant count? The Claimant Count is a measure of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed, based on administrative data from the benefits system. Why then, on 19th May did BBC Scotland claim: Coronavirus impact: Huge rise in Scots claiming unemployment benefit Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52720227 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/claimantcountqmi#:~:text=The%20Claimant%20Count%20is%20a,data%20from%20the%20benefits%20system. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/employmentintheuk/june2020#:~:text=The%20UK%20unemployment%20rate%20was,up%20on%20the%20previous%20quarter. Continue reading Unemployment: Scotland has one of lowest claimant count increases in UK

Iain sets off with an attempt to impress by referring to Ivan Illich’s ‘Deschooling Society’ which does, remarkably for 1971, talk of the use of advanced technology to support “learning webs”. Given how things have turned out in Macwhirter’s career, he should have kept on reading until at least 1988, when Herman and Chomsky’s ‘Manufacturing Consent’ came out to direct him toward a more honourable career than corporate hackism, such as accountancy or house-painting. Today’s story is full of nothing, just half-baked attacks on a decent man, evidence free. This is typical: Did he spot the irony in that last … Continue reading The Herald, putting ‘the interests of their own client groups above the welfare of…’ readers!

Once again a TuSC contributor has already answered the question: ‘What is that Tory eejit talking about?’ Here’s stewartb, just yesterday on ‘agency’, pretty much the same things as the ‘autonomy’ Fraser so fears: It’s good again to want to ‘amplify’ an article published in Source Direct, the daily digital news and opinion bulletin produced by Common Weal! The piece in the 15 June issue is to be welcomed. It’s entitled ‘The changing moods of unionist economics’ and perhaps because I had been musing over broadly related matters, it did resonate. The Source Direct article sums things up nicely:  “Are you keeping up? … Continue reading Murdo Fraser recommends full fiscal dependency because that’s worked well in the past three centuries

Falling crime on this scale will have multiple factors explaining it, including: fewer young males being born in poorer areas less unemployment more inclusive school curricula better policing enhanced in-the-home entertainment less lead in the environment better government If we’d had a Labour administration in this period, they’d be claiming at least come of the credit. If the trend had gone the other way, the SNP would be getting the blame. So, SNP-rule reduces crime. Gordon doesn’t say as much, of course, but he lays it all out with only a few insertions required: THE number of crimes committed in Scotland has … Continue reading Tom Gordon almost credits SNP with massive crime reductions under their influence

I agreed with just above everything Charlotte Ahmed had to say about BLM and about covid impact on deprived areas, on the AUOB panel last Friday, but this: Nevertheless the disease has killed proportionately as many people as in England. The care home crisis was as bad in Scotland as in England. That’s a milder version of the inaccuracies peddled by the Scottish Tories, Labour, Iain Macwhirter, the FT and many others. First, the death rate: The UK death rate in last week nearly three times higher than in Scotland: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/06/12/covid-divergence-effect-uk-death-rate-in-last-week-nearly-three-times-higher-than-in-scotland/ Excess deaths in England almost three times higher than in Scotland: … Continue reading How the anti-SNP MSM propaganda on Covid-19 can deceive the wider independence movement

This long-retired professor is a Unionist activist with no recent experience and is only ever interviewed by Scottish news media, but often. He recommends relaxing the the covid distancing rules because he wants us to follow suit with England and risk a second wave of death. This leading epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola crisis is interviewed everywhere across UK media. She has repeatedly praised the Scottish Government’s cautious approach to distancing and other hygiene and condemned the risk-taking of the UK Government which caused the first wave of unnecessary death. Continue reading Expert calls for distancing rules between journalists and Unionist activists to be hardened