From Reporting Scotland this morning, as all of England’s schools close, we hear:
Most schools in Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen are closed…
There is of course no public information reminder that in 30 out of 32 council areas, schools are not on strike today.
Muuum, my school is closed, Jennifer told me.
We’re not in Aberdeen or Clackthingy! I was listening to that lassie on the news there. Don’t try it Cassandra!
Talking-up Scotland 
Guilt by association. Generalisation from a particular. Both are fallacies.
Many politicians and journalists study Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Oxford or Cambridge (do any other universities offer this in combination?) I have studied philosophy as part of my course in Physics (Natural Philosophy) and Mathematics and a fair amount of time was devoted to the identification of fallacies – and there are loads of them. As I listen to many politicians and journalists they lard all their statements with a fair dose of fallacies. This is intentional because they KNOW they are fallacies and are aware that most fallacies have apparent plausibility until you think about them. But if people are not given time to think about them, they can be accepted, especially if the interviewer is in cahoots with the politician and does not challenge the fallacy but simply presents it as a fact.
So I think that they study philosophy so that they can deploy fallacies mendaciously in their politics and conversation. This is what the lauded Oxbridge tutor system serves to inculcate, making them sound glib.
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Sorry about this John but I thought it interesting if not hypocritical from Westminster,
Environmental Improvement Plan 2023
Its just recently that they passed a law to allow the water companies to ditch raw sewage into rivers for the next 15 years and Dross and Bowie and others voted for it.
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Clackthingy? sacrilege, lol.
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The Tories cut Education £6Billion a year from 2015 to 2020. Betrayed the students put up fees and loans in the south. A £79Billion loan book they call an asset.
The Scottish Gov had to mitigate the cuts. Ability to learn. Not the ability to pay. Loans paid back through general taxation on higher earning. A solution will be found soon in Scotland. Independence will sort it out. More equality and prosperity. Higher remuneration for essential services and people.
Instead of illegal wars, financial fraud, tax evasion and Brexit. The Brexit loses could have paid for essential services.
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This is the headline on the BBC News website
“Thousands of Scots workers join UK-wide day of strikes”
I suppose arithmetically it’s true. And, to be fair they do clarify certain important matters. For instance, where the civil servants strike is concerned it is spoken of (I wouldnt say even “pointed out”) that the employer is Westminster not Holyrood.
But HE staff is a matter for local negotiation. I suppose its arguable that if Holyrood gave the Universities a bigger grant they would meet the aspirations of their staff. Then again the Principals might just spend it on their flights of fancy as they often do.
Rail strikes? In a spirit of glasnost, they do say “David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: “The dispute between the trade unions and other train operators does not involve any ScotRail staff, which means ScotRail services will operate as normal on Wednesday and Friday.”. Though that means reading most of the way down the page to counter the impression given by the headline.
You can see why the recent BBC report concludes “no solution’ to Scotland vs England impartiality issue” https://www.thenational.scot/news/23289881.bbc-no-solution-scotland-vs-england-impartiality-issue/ Maybe telling it like it is, rather than how BBC staff would like it to be might be a wee start. The question is, in some cases at least, whether they are capable of this?
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