Sharon Dowey, Con List (not-voted-for) MSP is in the Daily Record nearly every week, these days.
In the Daily Record yesterday
Homelessness figures for South Ayrshire have shot up by 17 per cent, new figures show.
Between April and September 2021, 310 households were assessed as homeless.
But the figures grew last year (April to September 2022) to 363, marking an increase of 53 and representing a 17 per cent spike.
Scottish Conservative South Scotland List MSP, Sharon Dowey, said: “With a significant jump in homelessness applications in South Ayrshire last year, the SNP Government must urgently get to grips with this problem.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/ayrshire/dismay-homelessness-figures-spike-south-29231200?IYA-reg=8cb5bf56-7ace-4e9f-860f-ba0bd78585bc
Really? Ignoring the annual figures and the change between one year and another, you just pick a three-month period and compare that from, only 2021 to 2022? Rationale? SFA?
Want the real data?
There were 28,882 households assessed as homeless or threatened with homelessness – an increase of 840 (3%) compared to 2020-21, but still below pre-pandemic levels (31,612 in 2019-20).
There were 13,945 households in temporary accommodation at 31 March 2022 – a 4% increase compared with 13,359 at 31 March 2021. This compares to 11,665 at 31 March 2020.
https://www.gov.scot/news/homelessness-statistics-2021-22/
Want to know something about the more serious forms of homelessness, on the streets, and how England, run by Dowey’s party, the Cons, does?
The research found that the rate of ‘core homelessness’, which includes people rough sleeping, using unsuitable temporary accommodation such as B&Bs, sofa surfing or sleeping in garages or industrial premises, was almost twice as high in England than in Scotland.
Overall it found that 0.94% of households in England were experiencing a form of core homelessness, compared with 0.66% in Wales and 0.57% in Scotland, with the report identifying Scottish homelessness and housing policy as one cause of lower rates.
https://www.crisis.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/worst-forms-of-homelessness-less-common-in-scotland-than-england-research-finds/
Footnotes
How do you know it’s a ‘spike’ if you don’t know what happened in 2023?
Crisis reports can be trusted but Shelter Scotland is in the pocket of Labour and cannot.
Talking-up Scotland 
Alas fur Auld Scotia.
Under the yoke of the con-men and women of the Tory party, and expecting a Red (faced) Tory party to take their place.
If only we had invested in social housing, eh?
Wait a minute………………………………Did the Toadies not sell them off, with a wee bit help from Labour?
All these ScotLab cooncillors, buying their wee hooses.
Now the ordinary folk hiv naewhere to stay, when they leave the nest.
Maybes yon Sarwar kin help–a hoose fur a pound? Aye right!
Did you see the warning about scams and scammers?
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Anas Starwars has blustered that he will “take on any new SNP leader”.
Yet he cannot win a constituency contest?
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I had a neighbour some years ago who was ‘Father of Chapel’ for the National Union of Journalists at the Daily Record. He said the support for Labour which the Record proclaimed was basically market positioning because Glasgow and the West of Scotland in those days voted heavily for Labour and that was where the sales were. The management and owners of the Record, were profit driven Tories.
So, favourably quoting a Tory MSP, is not foreign to Record editors.
The Record is also known as the Daily Ranger and Rangers fans have a large number of pro Tory supporters. The Chief political reporter of the Record has been adopted as the Labour candidate for the Western Isles Westminster seat. He is from Stornoway and, historically, Lewis and Harris are predominantly Presbyterian, whereas the southern islands of the Outer Hebrides are predominantly Roman Catholic. The current MP is from Barra. When, the candidature of the Record journalist was announced, it was hinted that he had been chosen to ‘win back’ the Protestant vote.
This has a hint of plausibility.
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Sharon unfortunately suffers from Downey’s syndrome – It’s a rare issue in Ayrshire but one which should not be treated lightly simply because she’s thick.
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Downey’s husband is leader of Ayr Council, she would be better keeping her down and her mouth shut rather than reminding us of how inept her husband is.
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Should a Tory be an MSP so ignorant in maths and statistics. Sunak an increase in maths training, They cannot count, read a balance sheet or understand basic statistics. The ConDems cut Education £6Billion a year from 2015 to 202O. £30Billion. Gave tax cuts to the wealthy and cut Welfare £18Billion. They have not supported affordable house building in Scotland. The SNP Gov have built affordable houses. Renovated or built 6,000 affordable homes a year. House building was held up by Covid. Brexit has put up costs for materials. Doubled. 17,000 private houses a year were built. 58,000 people die a year in Scotland. On average. More in the winter than the summer. Rents in Scotland are half the amount of London S/E. Congestion.
Women who cohabit habit do not have equal rights. Letting agency Es illegally charge women 6 months upfront rent + deposit. They have to put in a claim within a year. It can cost £thousands and take years, They do not get legal aid. Women have to stay in abusive, unsafe places because they cannot get away. A Domestic Abuse Law that cannot be dropped or appealed. The Police are acting as judge and jury. Charging abused women and people with additional needs under this Act. An abuse of power. People can end up homeless or with no place to go.
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For interest, on the ability of devolved government across the UK to fund social housing provision, as much else, under continuing Westminster rule, here is an indication of the Labour Welsh government’s challenge and response.
The Bevan Foundation – claiming to be ‘Wales’ most influential think tank and is independent of government or any interest group’ – has recently submitted evidence to the Senedd Finance Committee’s inquiry into the 2023-24 Welsh Government budget.
It states on Page 5 of its submission: the ‘Social Housing Grant has received real-terms cut, despite the urgent need to increase provision.‘
See https://www.bevanfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Finance-Committee-Welsh-Budget-230101.pdf
Notwithstanding the above, this is from Shelter Cymru’s website (with my emphasis):
‘Currently WALES IS FACING A HOUSING EMERGENCY. This means that the cost of renting privately or buying a house has increased to the point that many people are paying large proportions of their income on housing costs.
‘This means that IN EVERY COUNCIL AREA IN WALES, THERE ARE LONG LISTS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE APPLIED FOR SOCIAL HOUSING and are waiting for a home to become available.’
More evidence that Labour is not the answer to Scotland’s needs and wants: independence from Westminster rule is!
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O/T Is the Tory government making the BBC look incompetent or is it doing it all by itself?
This is about the BBC News website’s reporting on the current activity around the NI Protocol. Eleven hours ago on the BBC News website has this headline ‘NI Protocol: DUP leader facing his own ‘big moment’
The ‘Latest Updates’ listing on the BBC website tells us this about the article with the headline above: ‘The INSIDE STORY of how Rishi Sunak tried to sell HIS DEAL to the party and what could happen next.’ (my emphasis)
But then eight hours ago, the same BBC tells us: ‘Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said a deal with the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol is “BY NO MEANS DONE”.’
‘ … speaking at a summit in Germany on Saturday, Mr Sunak said there were still “challenges to work through”. He added: “THERE ISN’T A DEAL THAT HAS BEEN DONE – there is an understanding of what needs to be done.’
So what is it? The BBC telling its audience that Sunak has been selling a ‘deal’ that Sunak tells us does not exist! Taking Tory spin and Tory press releases at face value – again – is not a public service!
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Good morning John,I just wonder if this was in Scotland Dross, Sarwar and BBC Scotland would be having fits but calling for the HS to be sacked.
Britain’s crumbling NHS: SEWAGE is leaking into cancer wards, maternity units and A&Es, shock audit reveals
You will note its BRITAINS NHS in the headline.
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As the old song never had it:—
“They’ll never be an ENGLAND,
when NHS stats are due,
’cause ENGLAND’s never named,
By the BEEB is seldom blamed,
“British” stats are just for you”!
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‘BRITAINS NHS in the headline’ – I haven’t seen this but the coverage of the sewerage story on the BBC News website is notable nonetheless.
This BBC article does report that the issue concerns NHS hospitals in England. However, it only appears in the website’s ‘Health’ section and oddly, given its content, NOT in the ‘England’ section and (of course unsurprisingly for an England-only NHS story) NOT in the ‘Politics’ section even tho’ it originates from a political party’s research.
We learn that:
– nearly half the total of Trusts in England provided information and more than half had experienced problems with sewage leaks over the past year
– some reported more than 100 leaks – ‘Leeds Teaching Hospitals documented 105 incidents, including one in the respiratory day unit, and excrement coming through floor tiles, as well as overflowing toilets’ and ‘Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow listed 40 leaks. In one instance a patient slipped because of a leak and, in another, staff were left struggling to work and feeling nauseous because of the smell of raw sewage. Both the resus area and A&E also reported leaks.’
It takes no effort to predict how a story like this would have been covered on the BBC News website if about NHS Scotland’s hospitals!
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Your forgetting Stewart we have pigeons and that is way more serious than excrement seeping up through the tiles.
Presumably their problem would cause infection problems.
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🤣
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For “BRITAINS NHS” refer to “Colemanballs” as Private Eye once eloquently described it, a win for Great Britain v Scots or Welsh or NI athlete only gains a Silver or Bronze, revealing as it did England’s media’s fear of reporting the UQ as not being the best in the entire universe…
As a “shit” expert I can confirm this report is as realistic an interpretation of their problems as “contaminated water” and incontinent “pigeons” at QEUH courtesy of BBC Scotland’s Health correspondent “Lazy Winters” – Viz it’s total bullshit, or propaganda to give it it’s official title.
The real world doesn’t work that way, whoever concocted this bunkum are abusing public information to feed the media a “shock” headline which is light years from reality, just as HMS James Cook still does today…
My guess would be the Tories via one of their nudge “Contractors” are behind this gambit, the MO presumably being to portray “Trusts” (their own creation) as managed inefficiently, so let’s increase private capital investment to cure the problem we ‘didn’t create’….
FYI – https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/02/18/the-right-think-they-need-to-reclaim-the-language-of-politics-our-job-is-to-make-that-much-harder-to-do/
Worth a read…
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Agreed,, because I presume public health, health and safety and the union’s would have closed the places down and that is what would have headlined.
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That’s how Andrew Marr used to calculate his figures when trying to browbeat Nicola in interviews. Taken from a short set period which meant absolutely nothing, and proved zilch.
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