An honest assessment finally from the CBI? ‘… ultimately, policy decided in Westminster will shape whether Scotland can make the most of its natural resources’ From stewartb This article was triggered by the recent report from Scottish Government’s Advisory Group on Economic Recovery: ‘Towards a robust, resilient wellbeing economy for Scotland’. One of the report’s themes piqued my curiosity: it concerns the relationship between business and the Scottish Government. In this context, I decided to check out what the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is up to in Scotland nowadays. An honest assessment of dependency? The CBI published on its … Continue reading Will CBI Scotland now get behind Scotland’s interests?

Today, the outgoing Auditor General for Scotland, Caroline Gardner, was pounced on by Gordon Brewer, in a frantic effort to get her to say something bad about the Scottish Government. I feared he might manage given her previous reporting but covid-19 has changed her. At the end, he pulled out his Jackson Carlaw-inspired big fib but she was having none of it. After trying to soften us and her up with praise for the NHS hospitals, he tried this: But others….you sort of get the impression that ministers have been pulling at strings with nothing attached to the ed of … Continue reading Auditor General shoots Gordon Brewer down and describes work of Scottish Government as astounding, fantastic!

City of Edinburgh, Conservative and Unionist councillor pops up again, unannounced but, for the first time with an entertaining headline. Here are his last four entries here: ‘Make Tories look bad‘? McLellan opens with a quote from the Clash. The Clash? Their second album? Cool knowledge there. Those hardcore leftist squatters he loved when he was at Stirling University in the punk era and who have ever since informed his thinking as a Tory adviser and then councillor? It reminds me of the moment when former Eton schoolboy David Cameron expressed his fondness for the Jam’s Eton Rifles then wondered … Continue reading Tory councillor pretends to be journalist to spread conspiracy theory about SNP

By comparison to the previous post-war consensus, and in a subsequent period when the UK Guardian newspaper was yet still marginally deemed worthy of progressive submissions, Noam Chomsky and colleagues made the following letters page observations about UK media’s “conditioning” of the public, with regard to normalising the new US-UK-Western imperialism and particularly, absenting its death toll. They wrote: In May 2013 the reputable polling company ComRes asked a representative sample of the British public the following question: “How many Iraqis, both combatants and civilians, do you think have died as a consequence of the war that began in Iraq … Continue reading How our corporate and state media condition the public

Former Defra chief scientist and aid to four Conservative ministers, Sir Ian Lamont Boyd, appears at the end of a BBC article this morning, ostensibly on the thoughts of Professor Sridhar. It opens with: Prof Devi Sridhar, of Edinburgh University, said the country would effectively be Covid-free if that progress could be maintained. She said the challenge would then be how to stop new cases being imported. and goes on to say: However, an open border with England – where hundreds of cases are still being reported daily – is a concern, as is enforcing the 14-day quarantine of people … Continue reading BBC gets badger cull professor to suggest ‘we don’t fully understand why Scotland is doing better than other parts of the country’

As Scotland’s media and the opposition parties desperately cling to the past, lingering fondly on the comparatively high level of infection and of death, due to the lock-down of decision forced on us by the 4 Nations agreement, dominated by Dominic Cumming’s fatally wrong herd immunity strategy, they cannot bring themselves to recognise the achievements in the months since divergence at the end of March. The Scottish Government’s stricter lock-down, better communication, the people’s solidarity, the coronavirus assessment centres protecting GP surgeries and our better staffed NHS, take the credit. Scotland’s 7 day average for new cases is now 14. … Continue reading As England’s infection rates stall, when will Scotland’s media and opposition parties accept the truth of our achievement?

This sent to us by a follower of the blog who prefers to stay anonymous. The Glasgow asylum landlords, Mears Group, accused of dumping vulnerable refugees in hotels with no screening for mental health conditions and without financial support has connections with Scottish Labour, exposed in February 2019. The link to the full account is below but these extracts are shocking and more so in the light of what has been happening recently: In Scotland, Mears has a major contract with North Lanarskhire Council, worth an estimated £445 million over ten years, to maintain the council’s 36,500 council homes, as well as schools … Continue reading Glasgow stabbings: Scottish Labour’s shady connections with the asylum seeker landlords and an SNP protest

Once more, a feeder who wants to remain anonymous shared this with us. Readers may remember that before Mears had the contract for housing asylum seekers, it was held by the dread Serco. Last year, they were at the centre of a scandal after they proposed evicting vulnerable refugees, many the victims of torture or other threats to life, onto the streets of Glasgow. The £1.15 billlion contract then went to Mears Group despite an investigation by Corporate Watch into their track record. The full Corporate Watch report is a frankly awesome piece of investigative journalism. One section will be … Continue reading Glasgow stabbings: Asylum landlords no better than Serco before them?

By stewartb: Cost to Scotland of global ‘power projection’ – a blank cheque! Paying anything is too much for what you don’t need! The National Audit Office (NAO) has just published (26 June, 2020) a report on the UK Ministry of Defence and its ‘Carrier Strike – Preparing for deployment’ programme. The NAO states: “In this report, we examine how the Department has managed the programme since 2017 and how it is addressing the risks towards achieving the full capabilities of a carrier strike group.” Source: https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/007678-001-Carrier-Strike-preparing-for-deployment.pdf The present article follows on from recent TuSC alerts regarding Westminster government cost … Continue reading Scotland having to pay millions for another weapon that doesn’t defend you because you have to defend it

Many of Scotland’s biggest hacks are drooling over the forthcoming inquiry into the treatment of Alex Salmond just as they did when he was first charged and when Derek Mackay was not charged and when a few old-timers wrote in the very newspapers that had previously and often unfairly attacked them, to challenge the current leadership. Luckily, we have the reasonable evidence of opinion polls after all the previous incidents to guide us in deciding whether Gordon’s ‘unforgiving light’ will be so or soon forgotten. I predict the latter. The evidence: On April 17th we wrote: Scott Macnab of the … Continue reading Expert predicts Salmond inquiry will have little effect on SNP