It’s not about the truth, it’s all about choices.
It’s not about ‘the’ facts it’s about ‘which’ facts.
Bottom left, someone at the Herald has ‘stuck their thumb‘ into yesterday’s Public Health Scotland data and come out, delighted, with that for their front-page headline.
The actual report:
The average weekly number of drug-related attendances at emergency departments increased between March and May 2023. A total of 1,081 attendances were recorded in this period – similar to 2021 (1,058), and 13% higher than in the same time period in 2022 (954).
The headline is factually incorrect. The 13% rise is not in three months but in the same time period in 2022 a year ago.
They could just as easily have pulled out this:
The average weekly number of drug-related hospital admissions decreased between January and March 2023. The total number of admissions in this time period (1,654) was considerably lower than expected, compared to the same time periods in 2022 (2,136) and 2021 (3,040) (decreases of 23% and 46% respectively).
and got a headline like TuS yesterday did:
Drug-related hospital admissions plummet!
They might then have wondered and analysed why the above two differences can be found in the data? Naw, probably not. Nobody wants to know that.
They could also have reported on drug deaths! We love to hear about those. How much are they soaring? They’re not. Static, evening down a tad. Further down the column then?
Source:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Sorry to go OT, but my attention was diverted by David Bol’s preposterous “Exclusive” on the main page – Clearly with water shortages plaguing southern England, the man from the Ministry suggested a distraction for “those blasted Jocks”.
He plies the same fatuous nonsense as thousands of hacks before of “enough to fill almost X Olympic sized swimming pools”, without the slightest effort to apply context as to where or why.
Does he know or care about winter bursts or increased leakage as the ice thaws ?
Does leakage in Braemar etc have anything to do with householders leaving a kitchen tap dripping overnight to prevent freezing up ?
Does it matter what happened last winter when our reservoirs are full to the brim now ?
And the public interest angle for this repeat nonsense story is what ? A 5% increase in water charges.
Could that 5% increase have anything whatever to do with the increased cost of electricity David, or coagulants, or the hundreds of other treatment chemicals which shot up in price since the Tories wreaked havoc with Brexit ?
There are folks in England who can’t get water let alone a 5% increase in costs by the time shareholders have their dividends, the number of “Olympic sized swimming pools” able to be filled from leakage isn’t 10 times that of Scotland, it’s into 7 digits….
That’s the reason for David’s latest Bol’s of an “Exclusive”, distraction….
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Covid would have lower admissions by comparison. Lockdown.
Scottish Gov has funded proper rehab facilities £250million over five years. One has opened in the Borders, one in Dundee. More to come.
Councils put people on methadone for years. Just as bad as heroin. All drug deaths in Scotland were people prescribed drugs and then taking other substances.
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Tories £5Billion more for the military. Nothing for the NHS. The Scottish Gov has to mitigate the cuts.
£Billions for HS2, Hickley Point and Trident. Nothing to improve the railways in the North and Scotland. Journey times in Scotland take twice as long as in the South. Cut rail time would cut flights.
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Water charges in the South are more than Scotland. Privatised water companies making £Billions. Taking loans to give to shareholders. Trying to get the UK Gov to bail them out. Another chronic mismanagement. Wasting public monies faster than a sieve loses water.
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The Herald is s another prime example of one who masquerades as the ‘media’ here in Scotland….but who, as one part of our media, falls VERY short in executing the actual REAL job that they are supposed to do……instead ….
One of their NEW ‘jobs’ is to try to convince (fool) people in Scotland that the Scottish government are no better , as a government, than those clowns who (over) rule the UK….as in the Tories.
Their other NEW ‘job’ is to convince (fool) people in Scotland that public services here are just as bad as the ones in England that currently are really really bad and where the Tories are doing NOWT to try and improve them.
Scotland as a country, and our government too, cannot be seen to be performing better , be in any way distinctive from England and thus having the potential to survive as an independent country governed well by a much better, caring and more competent political party ……compared to those who are currently masquerading as a government in England but who supposedly govern on behalf of the fake country known as the UK ….hence why we get stories presented as ‘news’ that are tainted by spin, bias and a huge amount of partisan input/output
….all in favour of those parties who support the status quo of the UK….and thus also simultanously stories presented as ‘news’ that are very much against those parties/individuals supportive of independence. (plus Scotland cannot be seen to be, in any way , able to have sufficient means, via resources etc, to thrive as an independent country)…..
All of the printed media who present ‘Scottish’ editions are controlled by and are owned by others who are based elsewhere …as in the companies and media barons who own some of them ……and those companies and media barons who own these newspapers are not supportive of the SNP or independence thus they, the SNP and independence too , will never ever get an equal opportunity (platform) to present the legitimacy, justification and positive case for them, the SNP, as a political party and too for independence as a viable and worthy option for Scots.
Thankfully the media here are NOW being challenged by the public on their hugely suspect, blatantly biased and negative output that they produce as supposed ‘news’ stories IN Scotland but not FOR Scotland….especially for all things SNP related and anything connected to independence…and so, as a result, their sales are diminishing….seems to be most people here prefer actual REAL facts and truth compared to what the media WANTS us to believe…… as in their versions of what they expect us to believe are factual and truthful aka their LIES.
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