By Professor John Robertson OBA
Today, the Scotsman has the above.
It’s a classic ‘big number that is actually a fairly wee number story‘ by a reporter who is either no very bright or has trouble with the truth.
Police Scotland has 21 707 staff. According to the Scotsman, they were off due to ill health for 1 020 930 days over 4 years from 2020.
So, 260 work days in a year, minus 34 days of leave (28-37 depending on service), is 226 times 21 207 staff times 4 years is 19 171 128 days that could be worked.
That 1 020 930 sick-days means that only 5.3% of the time or 12 days per year are Police Scotland staff off work due to ill-health.
The NHS staff figure is 5.6%.1
The UK average, for all occupations, is currently 7.8 days.2
Sources:
- https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/all-is-not-well-sickness-absence-in-the-nhs-in-england
- https://www.cipd.org/uk/views-and-insights/thought-leadership/cipd-voice/sickness-absence-rate-jumps/
Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/
The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116
About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Positing that the ‘journalist’ does not understand statistics and/or is not very bright is being charitable. I think it is wilfully misleading to present the data as has been done.
Alasdair Macdonald.
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It’s pretty simple really, isn’t it? It shows a serious contempt of the intelligence of the reader but of course most of their readers share the same mindset.
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“by a reporter who is either no very bright or has trouble with the truth”
That’s easy to determine.
It’s The Scotsman so we know it has to be “trouble with the truth”.
However you have to remember the basis of all of their ‘stories’ is to establish to their readers that anything and everything in Scotland is currently #Sh*te and that the reason for this is obviously because #SNPBAD.
That is the ongoing agenda they have chosen to adopt with the whole purpose being to stop Scottish independence and any political parties supportive of it.
However thanks yet again to MSM Monitor’s Twitter (X) account I saw a video online of the Welsh FM being interviewed and then I transcribed , below , what was said .
This interview of the Welsh FM clearly demonstrates just how ridiculous all of the supposed ‘newspapers where we are in Scotland’, like The Scotsman .
Where as newspapers here they contribute , as part of an orchestrated vendetta, attacks against the Scottish government while ignoring other parts of the UK and their obvious weak and poor performance in similar public services.
So in Labour run Wales the former Welsh Labour Health Secretary , now the Welsh Labour FM, was interviewed and she ‘blamed’ Covid for growing NHS waiting lists in Wales and argued that NHS recruitment problems are caused by a world wide shortage.
She also admitted that Welsh councils are struggling financially but that England is worse.
MSM Monitor tweeted “Here’s Welsh Labour FM Eluned Morgan blaming Covid for growing NHS waiting lists in Wales and arguing NHS recruitment problems are caused by a world wide shortage. She also admits Welsh councils are struggling financially but England is worse. Any comment Anas”?
She, the Welsh FM, was reminded that she did not get waiting list figures down as Health minister , but the interviewer gave her a life line in saying “It’s incredibly challenging isn’t it” to which she, the Welsh FM, agreed.
Then she , the new FM , stated “It’s incredibly challenging and we’re still in that post pandemic period where demand just keeps on going up and let’s not forget that 2 million contacts that we have with the Welsh public every month in a population of 3 million people, it is quite quite remarkable the amount of contact and the amount of service that is given to the public in Wales for the amount of money we put in.
She was then asked about the “fundamental problems of recruiting and retaining Doctors as in parts of West Wales for example 20% of the jobs are vacant for Doctors and Dentists so why does Wales struggle do you think to attract Doctors”.
The Welsh FM then responded ” Well I don’t think it is unique to Wales if you go to remote parts of England as well you will find the same situation but we have to remember that the World Health Organisation has suggested there is going to be a 10 million shortage across the World, in terms of Healthcare workers in future so this is not unique to Wales.
The interviewer then said “On top of the Health service you are firefighting so many other areas can I ask you if you are worried some Welsh councils could go bust because the audit , as in audit Wales said are saying” (she then listed some councils in Wales that were in real danger).
The Welsh FM replied “Well they are definitely struggling financially but not nearly as much as they are in England where we have seen several councils go bust “
The Interviewer asked her if she was then confident they, the Welsh councils, would not go bust ?
She responded “I don’t think councils will in Wales will go bust but obviously we have to make sure we’re monitoring them very careful and the demands on them keep on coming in terms of education , in terms of social care where we have an aging population the responsibilities are huge on local government”.
The interviewer then said “This a question you have to ask these days in Wales could Universities go bust , could councils go bust”.
The FM replied “Let’s not forget that actually in Wales local government have had increases where as they haven’t had them in England, that partly explains why they haven’t gone bust in Wales. But Universities they are challenged all over the United Kingdom I think there probably is a fundamental problem with the model across the UK that I think ” – she was interrupted by the Interviewer who asked “Should Welsh Universities be allowed to raise higher fees then” to which the FM stated “We have already raised fees for the first time in a long time”
So dissect everything the Welsh FM said above and then compare and contrast with how Labour UK and Labour at Holyrood blame only the SNP for what they both state is solely the fault of the SNP for what they state is the #Bad NHS in Scotland.
However where they, Labour UK and also I assume Labour at Holyrood , allow and accept Labour Wales and the Labour FM to attribute extenuating circumstances as reasons for the negative impact on the Welsh NHS, via their growing NHS waiting lists , problems with recruiting and retaining Doctors and Dentists in their NHS and also the growing demand from the Welsh public upon their NHS in Wales together with an aging population impacting services in Social Care.
So as the Welsh FM she is able to suggest all of this is not unique to Wales , unlike Scotland apparently where to listen to opposition parties here and their counterparts in the UK all supposed problems in Scotland are unique within the UK and solely down to bad government via the SNP !
Not forgetting pre the GE Wes Streeting, the then shadow Health Secretary, when asked about the poor state of the Health service in Labour run Wales tried to defend it in blaming the Tory UK government’s bad decisions being responsible for failings in the Welsh NHS, however he and his Labour colleagues never considered this applicable for Scotland’s NHS being subjected to these same Tory UK government’s b ad decisions.
Seems rules for some and rules for others but also that applies to excuses being allowed and accepted for some but never for one other (Scotland’s government that is).
Which is exactly the same position via all of the media in Scotland too, including The Scotsman newspaper !
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Just one more example of British State brainwashing, which has been taking place for over three hundred years. Whether it’s in vision, sound, or print, it’s all the same propaganda. The real question is why do so many Scots fall for what, to some of us, is Westminster lies, all designed to keep us in our place, that is, subservient to their authority. This was borne out very clearly at this year’s G.E, when so many of our electorate voted for a Labour Party, even although the policies in their manifesto were dumped by their leadership, even before the election took place. O.K, most people wanted rid of the Tories, but why didn’t most people see that they were only replacing them with something similar, or, in some cases, even worse. This is what baffles me. While I realise that a lot of Scots will never vote for us to be an Independent Nation again, or indeed a political party with Independence as its main aim, I cannot fathom why so many vote for political parties who aren’t even registered in Scotland. And to me, despite being an S.N.P member for many years, is why, in my opinion, have we gone backwards since 2014? I see no progress, or even any ideas as to how we can achieve our goal. Can anyone? While I suppose it’s encouraging to see opinion polls that show increasing support, it, in reality, doesn’t mean anything, because we are stuck with an English political party who will merely carry on the Westminster plan, and that is to destroy, or steal, anything of value in Scotland, until we are a wasteland, and there is nothing more to thieve. Apologies for the length of the comment, and for being pessimistic, but until some concrete action is taken, I see no hope for us who so want an Independent nation once again.
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” I cannot fathom why so many vote for political parties who aren’t even registered in Scotland”
Alex I think that is down to them not seeing it in that context , so their mindset is that where they seen themselves British, in the sense that Scotland is still a part of the UK and also that we still have a (very small) representation (in MP’s ) from Scotland at the UK parliament as in within WM.
No need to apologise as your points are valid and well made but this is where my frustration is also, in that since 2014 the voting habit of some , via UK GE’s within Scotland , have veered from a majority supporting the SNP in electing a majority of them as MP’s and then some doing the opposite in electing a minority of SNP MP’s at WM. (thus voting for UK political parties instead).
In 2015 the SNP won 56 seats
Then in 2017 (post Brexit and where Scotland did not vote for Brexit) we elected a reduced amount of SNP MP’s in that they only got 35 seats in that GE.
In 2019 that then increased to 48 seats won by the SNP.
Now in 2024 we have seen their seats reduced to a pathetic 9 seats in the 2024 GE and with other parties (UK ones) not suffering a similar backlash for their party’s failings and also Political scandals and U turns on pledges (including what they all pledged to Scotland in 2014 but have failed to deliver).
So wha is like us indeed, or perhaps it is also others who have chosen to live in Scotland but decided to not vote for a party , like the SNP , that seeks Scotland’s independence from the UK.
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Many good points made, I would add that these and others demonstrate how effective the establishment has been in their efforts to destabilize Scottish politics and Scotland as a whole. Their most effective spin has been to continuously accuse the SNP and Scottish Government of being divisive! Oh, the irony!!
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