Here’s a game. Tell me if you spot this story in the MSM.
From Inside Housing on 30 November:
“The best housing minister we’ve had for 20 years.” That is the verdict of one Scottish social housing source when asked by Inside Housing to describe Paul McLennan. It is remarkable praise for anyone to receive, but particularly impressive for a minister who has been in the role for only eight months, and an MSP for two years.
Inside Housing caught up with the minister via video call to find out more about how his new brief is going, what his aims are and how he has managed to win over the Scottish housing sector. We also wanted to know what he thinks of Inside Housing’s Build Social campaign for the UK to add 100,000 social rent homes a year.
On that last one, it is probably no surprise that a Scottish National Party (SNP) housing minister is broadly supportive of the campaign to get Britain building more social rent homes. “The first minister said it’s a key strategic objective for the Scottish government to deliver on our target [of] 110,000 [affordable] houses by 2032,” Mr McLennan tells Inside Housing.
And the Scottish government has promised that 70% of those affordable homes will be for social rent. That is, 7,700 a year. Build Social’s target for Scotland is asking the Scottish government to recommit to this figure.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/scottish-housing-minister-social-housing-is-build-to-save-83841
How are we doing so far?
From the impartial Grampian Online in January 2023:
Scotland has continued the trend of outperforming the rest of the UK in delivering affordable housing.
In the last financial year 9757 homes have been built for social rent, mid-market rent, and affordable ownership.
Scotland continues to outperform the rest of the UK by building 13.9 homes per 10,000 population, compared with 8.0 in Wales, 9.7 in England and 13.0 per 10,000 in Northern Ireland.https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/scotland-outperforms-uk-in-building-affordable-housing-298925/
13.9 per 10 000 is 74% better than the 8 in Labour Wales
The historical trend?
Labour’s performance when they were in power?
Looking specifically at social rent completions, from 2000-01 to 2006-07 Scottish Labour delivered 28,988 homes. In the period since the SNP assumed power, 52,558 homes have been delivered.
This works out as an average of 4,141 houses delivered per year under the Labour administration. Under the SNP, there have been 4,778 delivered on average each year.https://theferret.scot/snp-social-rent-labour/
Talking-up Scotland / Facts on NHS, Crime, ferries and everything else you can think of 
I was reading an article on the BBC News website by Chris Mason on Matt Hancock’s appearance at the UK Covid Inquiry, about what he called Matt Hancock’s ‘interesting nuggets’. You can read it here –
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-67598867
“One of the biggest questions in politics is this: where does power lie?
The pandemic highlighted like never before where the arteries of power in the UK flow from.
As it happened, so many of the decisions around public health are devolved to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It was why there was such a smorgasbord of rules across the UK.”
Do you get the impression Hancock wants the devolved government’s to sing from the UK government’s hymm sheet?
The implementation of the World Health Organisation’s new International Classification of Diseases – ICD 11 gives the UK and devolved governments a once in a lifetime opportunity to create a UK-wide NHS database.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/data-strategy-health-social-care-2/pages/5/
“In addition to sharing data across the health and social care sector within Scotland, occasionally there is also a need to share data outwith Scotland. For example, to ensure people’s data moves with them from Scotland to elsewhere in the UK; or sharing data with the WHO for statistical processing of morbidity and mortality information; or enhancing our understanding of how to improve health and social care services and improve outcomes for individuals across the UK. To ensure that we can collaborate with the rest of the UK in a safe and ethical way we will align with the standards used across the other four nations where practical to do so.”
The NHS England version is called the” Federated Data Platform” –
https://www.england.nhs.uk/digitaltechnology/digitising-connecting-and-transforming-health-and-care/
Interesting use of the word ‘federated’.
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Alas the MSM in Scotland obviously have a clear agenda , which for them, is to control the information both released to the public and also suppressed from the public.
The fact that what they decide as a media to release and suppress via ‘news where we (supposedly) are’ is then assumed by them to hopefully result in it having a negative outcome for the SNP as part of their overall #SNPBAD agenda.
Plus the fact that what they release and suppress is also deemed by them as somehow being more beneficial for a pro UK party ,which currently for them is the New New Labour party , is also part of that overall agenda to promote the UK and those political parties supportive of it as a sustained state (NOT a country).
There can surely be no argument that their relentless mission to discredit the SNP is part of a much bigger mission which is to also discredit and destroy any future hope for independence for Scotland.
However what they, the media in Scotland, cannot do is distort the reality of what Scotland has suffered while being a part of the UK and thus subject to UK rules and UK reserved policies pre and since 2014. They as a media and too Pro UK politicians also can no longer promote that we Scotland have been BETTER off being TOGETHER with the rest of the UK pre and since 2014……they may try to convince some that had we voted for independence in 2014 it would have been far worse for us but that is NOT something they can say as being 100% factual given their evidence relies upon only THEIR assumptions and too THEIR biased projections/predictions…..against the evidence and lived through experience , i.e. hardships, that we have ACTUALLY had to endure as being a part of their UK.
Inconvenient truths connected ONLY to being a part of their UK may be something that they , the media and pro UK politicians, would prefer that we in Scotland disregard but it is hard to ignore the harsh reality of increasing costs of mortgages, food, clothes, energy bills and also being out of the EU which was something OUR country voted against…..and these were the supposed harsh realities we were told would ONLY exist if we voted YES in 2014 as too was their proclamation of our remaining within the EU also being at risk with voting FOR independence…..alas NONE of this is revisited by either the media or pro UK politicians as that would then expose the lies they said via their Project Fear as part of their BT campaign……..instead we are subjected to is a constant propaganda war against both maintaining and increasing support FOR independence while simultanously trying to keep their UK together…not for OUR benefit but for theirs……as apparently OUR worth as a country is only one that is considered valued if it contributes our resources to their UK….BUT those SAME resources somehow are worthless to us if we were independent…..which as logic is really hard to decipher as credible or convincing but that is what they expect us all to believe.
Time both the media and pro UK political parties were called out on their combined misinformation and too their VERY selective choices of what is considered by them as worthy to be both promoted and suppressed as news in Scotland….both now and in the future for our country.
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For those who wish and work for an independent Scotland we understand how the media operates and what they are trying to achieve, so how do you suggest we get the message of their misbehaviour/misdirection/ obfuscation and downright lies out there as most channels are controlled by those very same media wherein even speeches by our first minister are ignored.
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Indeed.
What is seemingly lacking for some voters in Scotland is the realisation that the media in Scotland are blatantly deploying tactics of manipulation and distortion in their reporting on politics…….they, the media, support the UK and it’s political system but somehow choose to focus ONLY on Scotland and it’s politics as if Scotland being a part of their UK and their political system is inconsequential and thus has no impact upon us.
How to get the message out ?
Well I would have thought that the media IN Scotland constantly IGNORING the UK political Elephant in the room in their news programmes while ONLY focusing upon the supposed but NOT failing Scottish government might be a clue as to what their ultimate objective was via their overall “misbehaviour/misdirection/ obfuscation” agenda……and if more people in Scotland cannot actually see the vendetta the media here are clearly implementing against the SNP and too against independence also then what is it that will finally convince them ????
Are all of those who voted NO in 2014 satisfied that what they were promised and assured would unfold has indeed happened via them voting NO to independence and thus voting YES for remaining within the UK ?
Are they all really still at the state of ignorance to the reality of what has actually unfolded since 2014 …….is all of the mess, corruption and chaos that we have all had to endure since 2014 via the UK government not been enough to convince them that Scotland is clearly NOT Better Together with the rest of the UK but instead decidedly far WORSE off?
If people really do fail to recognise or are willing to concede that the media are corrupt in their selective output in who and what they choose to target politically and who and what they choose to ignore then is there any way we can counteract their behaviour other than doing so via social media blogs , Twitter and too via alternate forms of communication….there has been successful anti Brexit initiatives used to get that message out to the public ,such as the campaign via Led By Donkeys , which used billboards etc to reach those people who the media FAILED to communicate the negatives of Brexit to…..however THAT takes funding and could we rally enough support and funding to do similar things that both support independence but more importantly expose the negatives of us being a part of their UK and their political system (to include respective Pro UK political parties)…….
‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink’ and that seems to be where we are at with some voters in Scotland….via their continuing to support Pro UK political parties , ignoring and denying the strong case for independence and too the strong case against us staying within the UK and too upon the role the media have in their blatant political interference and also in their trying to influence opinion as opposed to reflecting it in Scotland…….must we continue to be expected to NANNY those others who are still apparently unaware, unconvinced and unwilling to face both facts and truth……..frankly it is getting to the stage of being a tad weary inducing for us who support independence to be expected to still believe that others in Scotland are somehow STILL at the stage of being unconvinced that the UK is the REAL problem for Scotland but instead they choose to believe that the REAL and ONLY solution for a future Scotland’s prosperity and stability is remaining within the UK ….based on what ?…certainly not in the opposing evidence that contradicts that false assertion.
However something has to eventually break the never ending cycle that we find ourselves going round and round within……..as there has to come a point when even those who are currently still in denial have to then accept that this UK and those political parties supportive of it just ain’t doing it for them and theirs….hopefully that realisation will be sooner rather than later !
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Sorry above comment at 1.52pm was by me …forgot to add my details
Not-My-Real-Name
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None of the previous comments seem to able to discuss the contents of the original post. Okay, the comments are valid in a general context. However, it is entirely up to Independence parties to promote the case of Independence. The media has always been against us.
In my younger days, I am too old for it now and have to be careful after a heart attack, but it is up to Independence supporters to get out on the doorsteps, inform the electorate of the “true” situation and enthuse people about the advantages of Independence. Political parties (in my case the SNP, after over 50 years of membership, need to provide the essential information to their members and encourage them to spread the news.
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Scottish Gov building affordable houses. More than 6,000 target. Accommodation half the cost of London S/E and the south.
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