By stewartb As certain care home owners continue to seek media profile for complaints against government, notably in Scotland but indeed elsewhere in the UK, it seems appropriate for the TuSC to continue to provide information on the nature of this commercial industry. Despite ‘complaint’, the care home market in the UK still seems to be attractive to private sector investors. When looking at the longer term fundamentals of market demand and supply, it is probably not surprising! According to specialist advisor One Touch Investment (OTI) : “the UK has an ageing population; care for the elderly already generates an … Continue reading Are Scotland’s private care homes cash cows?

Jeremy Vine in the Guardian today suggests he has no views. He’s making the classic mistake of thinking that if he thinks he has no views then he has no views. It’s possible for all of us to think we are impartial on some topic but then when our actual behaviour on the topic is analysed, patterns of bias appear. The Jeremy Vine TV show is a fine example. See these from last year: The choice of panellists, the questions asked, the favouring of panellists, the way they are asked, the extent to which shocking untruths are tackled or left, … Continue reading Jeremy Vine: Delusional or hypocritical?

Reader Clydebuilt reminded me this morning that Herald writer Mark Smith once wrote: ‘The Saltire makes me cringe.’ I searched but got Leask instead. I clicked on his link and got this: I searched again but it’s not there. Continue reading Does Mark Smith make the Herald cringe now?

I can’t watch BBC Scotland’s new cub-reporter, David Wallace Lockhart. The caricatured accent and over-elocuted mouth-stretching is just too much for me. I know, I’m being superficial. Luckily he’s writing for their website too so I can give his utterances the respect they deserve. He has clearly learned quickly from Lisa Summers on how to take a single traumatic incident, present it with melodrama, foreground angry relatives, leave key explanatory context out, or till later, and imply it must be part of a wider crisis for which the government of the day must be blamed. He’s written this: Straight-off, I … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s new boy learns how to exploit personal trauma

Smith has a theory about Scotland. As you might expect from a Herald writer, he’s not using Scottish data for evidence: Ooooh, interesting. Would it be worth having a look at Scottish data? I’ll do it for you: So more SNP supporters support the SG’s canny, stay-at-home, message than Tories do. It’s a bit narrower than the UK figures Smith prefers, above. Maybe SNP supporters tend to approve of an SNP government without it telling you that much about their deeper preferences? Wait, what’s this? The figures are exactly the same for Scottish Labour and Conservative voters. Is that a … Continue reading Scottish Tories in love with lockdown too