Professor John Robertson OBA
The Herald today has:
Over 6,500 Scots ‘in limbo’ due to waits for social care assessment – The SNP have been criticised for failing Scots as 6,500 people are currently on a waiting list for social care assessment- a rise of more than 500 since October. It is estimated that 6,508 people were waiting on a social care assessment to enable them to live independently at home or in the community on 3 March this year, according to the latest figures from Public Health Scotland. 1
I won’t bother finding who has criticised ‘SNP.’ You can guess.
I can’t find up-to-date comparative data for England but in March 2023, the Kings Fund made it 430 000, around 7 times as many, per head, as in Scotland.2
Not in the Headline figure for the Herald but equally important is the estimated number of people who have been assessed and are still waiting for a care at home package which was 2,873.
I can find the equivalent figure for this, in NHS England – 44 000.3
So, with 10 times the population, you might expect NHS England to have around 29 000 assessed but still waiting for a care package, but it was 44 000, 51.7% more. Wonder why the Herald’s ‘trusted journalism’ did not headline that?
Sources:
- https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25046068.crisis-reached-6-500-scots-wait-social-care-assessment/
- https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/social-care-360-access#:~:text=a%20reduction%20in%20the%20number,the%20end%20of%20March%202023.
- https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/adult-social-care-in-england-monthly-statistics-january-2025/adult-social-care-in-england-monthly-statistics-january-2025#main-points
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Personnel care means the elderly can stay in their own homes. Residential care + hospital care more expensive. Scotland has a higher % of elderly, as a proportion of the population.
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I’m fortunate that I obtained a personal care at home package for my wife, she has later stage dementia, and that has been in place for over two years. The care assistants are all either from Africa, or the Indian sub-continent, and they do a marvellous job, enabling me to keep my wife at home.
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Re..
“The estimated number of people assessed and waiting for a care at home package was 2,873 on 3 March 2025.”
👇
https://www.gov.scot/publications/free-personal-nursing-care-qa/
Q. How long will it take to receive services?
A. For those who are assessed as being at critical or substantial risk there is a maximum waiting time of six weeks, from confirmation of need to the delivery of Free Personal and Nursing Care services. Confirmation of need means the point at which a person’s need for personal care is identified, following a care needs assessment or review.
Whilst Free Personal and Nursing Care services should be provided within six weeks for people assessed as being at critical or substantial risk, this may take longer if the local authority is required to put in place provisions that are not normally available.
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Well The Herald like the BBC, the Daily Record, the Sun, The Torygraph and other UK supporting media will always find someone somewhere, either political or an individual, to “criticise the SNP” and so turn that negative critique into a news story.
However if they do not wish to be regarded as a politically partisan media then they must also find someone willing to occasionally( or as often as they do with the SNP) also “criticise” Labour, the Tories, Lib Dems and other ‘parties too, as it cannot always be the SNP that “some critics” want to critique negatively and so allow papers like The Herald to substantiate that criticism in them writing and publishing a news story about it.
Does a newspaper who regularly publishes anti SNP propaganda then expect public credibility in them mainly writing a succession of #SNPBAD articles and #ScotlandIsSh*te articles ?
The Herald , who also as a newspaper, then allows the likes of ex Labour MP and Labour Minister ,the infamous SNP hater Brian Wilson, to continually write (the same kind of ) articles against the SNP every week in his column?
So take this post on TUS that states:
“52% more waiting for care home packages in NHS England, than in Scotland”
Who, as a media in Scotland, is going to publish and report on that ?
Which then will be a negative critique of a political party who are in opposition to the SNP surely ?
Where are all the “critics” in the newspapers “Where we are” in Scotland on that TUS headline ?
Of course omission is another convenient tool the media use in neglecting to inform the public of facts that then disprove their (far too) frequent #SNPBAD stories.
Well traditional media , like newspapers, are declining in sales.
However it seems that is still not reason enough for them to “change”.
To much at stake and is seems there is no such thing as a real pro “Scottish mainstream media” that exists as a majority within Scotland ,as we in Scotland, only have the online alternative media that provides the real “news where we are” and also the real news from elsewhere too.
As in the kind of news that the existing traditional mainstream media in Scotland all , as a media, refuse to provide, as news, to Scotland.
The MSM in Scotland leave the people of Scotland “in limbo” in them, as a media, failing to report all of the news in a non partisan , accurate and professional way that then makes people distrust them as reliable sources of information.
The MSM may question and challenge what they call online “Fake News”.
But that is ironic is it not, especially when one is fully aware of what the MSM produces as supposed news and also refuses to produce as ‘actual news’ where we are and also where others are too.
Like for example news in this TUS post that states “”52% more waiting for care home packages in NHS England, than in Scotland” , so who is that really #BAD news for, politically ???
Not the SNP that’s for sure.
Vote SNP in 2026, we have the many many reasons why we need to do that, it’s just convincing others that is proving to be difficult, which as a task , is hampered by us having an extremely hostile MSM who are , as a media, clearly in opposition to the SNP and also to Scottish independence as well.
Read all about it, not in the MSM, but only in blogs like this.
Liz S
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The article in question https://archive.ph/rpyIW, the criticisers Brian Whittle, Tsunami Baillie and ACH-him, the defender merely referred to as Ms Todd….
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“Scotland’s” Imperial media.
No context.
No perspective.
Only Britnat propaganda from the Anglo parties. Like Nelson–putting their blind eye to the telescope–“I see no sh!ts” when Scotland’s 4 stooge parties are full of ’em.
gavinochiltree
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Long comment , so just ignore it, for me it’s a case of ‘better out than in’ aka a long Rant.
Scotland on Sunday, sister paper to The Scotsman, headline front page Sunday 30 March 2025.
“Poll shows Scots trust neither SNP or Labour on Energy bills”
Energy bills ?
So why should Scots not trust the SNP on something that is a Reserved matter ?
What was the Q on this that seems to be misleading Scots that somehow the SNP have the power to what on energy ?
Cut energy bills in Scotland ?
However in relation to that Q, Labour as the new UK government, do hold the power to do something about energy bills, as they, Labour, promised they would do in their 2024 UK GE campaign.
As Labour pledged to cut energy bills if they were elected as the next UK government , I believe a quoted figure of approx. £300 was mentioned as a potential “cut” to all of our energy bills (including Scotland as part of their UK) as something highlighted by Labour in their GE campaign.
Are these Scots who were polled on this so misinformed and ignorant of this fact.
Or is this yet another mitigate non solution for the SNP to make.
The Sunday Post front page headline on Sunday March 30th 2025.
“Shocking level of misogyny in Scotland’s classrooms revealed”
Just in Scotland and just Scottish male pupils ?
Apparently not.
As on 18th October 2024 the BBC online reported in an article that in Labour run Wales:
“Teachers have called for better support to deal with the “alarming” misogynistic influence of social media on children in schools, specifically teenage boys“
“One school resorted to setting up a staff committee after noticing that pupils as young as 11 and 13 were using sexist language used by online influencers such as Andrew Tate”.
The Sunday Herald front page headline on Sunday 30 March 2025:
“Whistleblower reveals ‘dire’ truth of violence in Scottish primary Schools”
So just ‘dire’ in “Scottish Primary schools” then ?
Apparently not (also (Why ‘dire’ why not just currently bad…..or better still for our sensationalist loving MSM they , Scottish Primary schools , are ‘the worst in Europe’).
As once again in Labour run Wales it was reported on 24 February 2025 on the BBC website via the Welsh papers that:
“Wales’ papers: Shocking school violence and healthcare workers’ plea”
Some front page headlines in Welsh papers on this included a headline that stated:
“Revealed: Shocking violence in our schools” as “Teacher left with black eye by three year old child” so that is pre Primary school then, as in Nursery !!!
What is really truly “shocking” is the way that the media in Scotland attempt to hoodwink the public in Scotland that all of these incidents are somehow unique to Scotland , so this is then supposedly meant to be a true reflection of only Scotland as governed by the SNP, and so not problems identified , by the Scottish media, as occurring in other nations within the UK that are governed by other political parties.
What is even more “shocking” is the level of obvious misogyny that was, and still is, thrown at Nicola Sturgeon when she was the FM and it is still happening now that she is not the FM.
The abuse and derogatory comments Ms Sturgeon has been subjected to (including from the MSM).
Where at one time the infantile and unprofessional 2017 ‘battle of the legs’ as in the Daily mail headline “Never mind Brexit who won Legs-it” with a picture of Ms Sturgeon and Theresa May, both sitting cross legged, that was a supposed front page headlined ‘news’ story from Michael Gove’s ex wife Sarah Vine , Girl power it was not, but gutter journalism it most certainly was an example of (one of many from her and her alleged newspaper)!!
Also the “Death threats” to Ms Sturgeon’s life , where the preparator was jailed for his death threats towards Ms Sturgeon, which was not given the media attention it deserved, as a very significant story, as the media did not want to portray her, Ms Sturgeon the SNP FM, as being a victim , as they prefer to portray her as the villain.
However we do hear the media sympathise and promote the real risks to MP’s, where they, as MP’s, are confronted with threats being made to them as MP’s, but the media forget to add this particular incident involving Ms Sturgeon as a threat to her life , which thankfully did not materialise as an actuality.
I also love the irony of how the media declare others as being misogynistic as if their male dominated industry do not themselves, as a media industry, promote and contribute to the many stereo type versions of females as sex objects, Wives and Mothers , having passive roles, relative invisibility and also being either Too fat/thin/old/young…..this list of five things are not my observations as a female but were recorded as ” five of the most common complaints about the portrayal of women in newspapers”.
I may not have personally compiled that list but I do however identify with many of the things on that list , as being very accurate as ‘stereo typical’ versions promoted by the press/media when portraying women in a lot of their press/media articles.
One could also add ‘Racist’ on top of misogyny as well, as the media have conducted a concerted and prolonged campaign that has demonised and targeted Megan Markle , which is truly shocking, the English media are like a Dog with a Bone, once they start to hate you then you will always be considered ‘enemy number one’ until a new enemy comes along, but you will still be one that they will revisit from time to time to take more pot shots at you.
(Nicola Sturgeon falls into that category too as the English media hate her and keep revisiting and rehashing the same old stories about her , over and over again, and also inventing new ones about her too, as she is deemed to be an Enemy of the (UK) State).
Megan Markle was also an ‘Enemy of the State’ and to the British (English) Royal family too. (the fact that the press often compared Ms Markle to the preferred white member of the Royal family, Kate Middleton, was also testimony to their racism.
This world has some absolutely terrible and most corrupt political parties as governments, some awful and corrupt media as supposed news providers and also it seems a growing amount of supposed ordinary people who are either welcoming all of this chaos , failures and pain (in them excusing it so then allowing it to continue).
Also some ordinary people are so uninformed that they are way too susceptible to all of the propaganda and lies.
In that some ordinary people keep (wrongly) voting to elect the worst political parties to govern them and also they keep buying the (wrong) newspapers and also watching the (wrong) TV news channels (and worse they keep on believing these political parties, newspapers and TV News channels).
Trump is not the answer to Biden and Starmer (or Farage) is not the answer to any Tory leader as Tory PM.
Plus Anas Sarwar is most definitely not the solution (answer) for Scotland in 2026 and beyond, indeed he currently is, and will always be, one of the political problems for Scotland.
Plus the current MSM in Scotland and the UK is not the answer to anyone in Scotland who genuinely seeks truth, facts , non biased, non politically compromised and non partisan political news. (neither is the Farage friendly rogue TV News channels the answer either for truth etc).
Though Sarwar and his Labour party will of course be the only choice for the corrupt and compromised media in Scotland, so then many ‘ordinary’ uninformed people may be swayed by that corrupt and compromised media in Scotland and may think that he, Sarwar, and his party are the best option for them and their votes in 2026.
How they will form that conclusion is beyond even me in trying to identify why and how they could possibly conclude that as ever being true????
As so surely their lived experience is the same as mine since Labour won the GE last year and so they too must recall all that Labour HQ as the UK government promised them in 2024 and now have not delivered. So why would they believe Sarwar would deliver what he will pledge to us in Scotland ?
#Been-Sh*te-Since-Labour-Won-The-GE-Last-Year…..surely they too can see that ?
Vote SNP in 2026, then perhaps , with our eventual independence, some real newspapers can start to materialise in Scotland that actually supports and defends Scotland , instead of what is happening now in most of the media in Scotland with them supporting and defending another country within the UK against Scotland and it’s (best) interests, as in the politically dominant country where a UK parliament sits. (I of course mean England).
Liz S
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Problems with social care? Just in Scotland? Is the British Labour Party in government in Westminster solving the resourcing issues underlying social care problems in England? It seems that the British Labour Party in government is no more the ‘solution’ to the problems facing the sector in England than the Tories! Indeed they seem to be contributing to their continuation. Given this, why would the British Labour Party in government in Holyrood be the ‘solution’ for Scotland?
Nuffield Trust (March 26, 2025) Nuffield Trust response to the Spring Statement – press release. (https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/nuffield-trust-response-to-the-spring-statement)
‘Adult social care has once again been hung out to dry. Today’s statement confirms the absence of funding to cover extra costs, which we estimate will amount to £2.8bn from Employer National Insurance Contributions and minimum wage increases for care providers. This will likely lead to many providers going bust or reducing services, meaning people will suffer from less choice or poorer quality care. (my emphasis)
“The government has promised long-term reform of adult social care with the upcoming Casey Commission. The newly announced Transformation Fund offers billions of extra funding for reforming public services, but it’s unclear whether any of this will be used for desperately needed changes to adult social care. Today’s worrying financial outlook risks jeopardising the sector before Baroness Casey’s feet are even under the table.”
More generally on the Spring Statement from the Nuffield Trust:‘Today’s announcements have added to the already substantial pressures being felt in the health service. They mean that the day-to-day health budget for next year will grow by less than 2% in real terms, after adjusting for the impact of national insurance increases in the NHS. This compares to a long-term average of nearer 3%.’
‘Over the last decade and a half, successive governments have repeated the same mistake of underestimating the level of funding growth required to keep up with growing patient needs and expectations, resulting in chaotic last minute top ups to the budget. This has already happened for the budget for the current financial year, which had to be supplemented with an extra £800m for the NHS just four months after the Chancellor’s autumn statement.’
Note that all three devolved governments reliant on ‘block grants’ for the bulk of their budgets will have been living with ‘chaotic last minute top ups to the budget‘ over the past decade in the context of Barnett consequential payments.. How is that a reasonable basis upon which to instigate substantial and perhaps cost-sensitive reforms?
The Health Foundation (March 26, 2025) ‘Chancellor’s cuts risk compromising people’s health’ – press release.
‘Social care was notable by its absence from the Chancellor’s speech.
‘It is deeply disappointing that calls to support the sector with the additional costs of increases in National Insurance contributions and the National Minimum Wage have largely been ignored. This will heap further pressure on a struggling sector and risks reducing people’s access to publicly funded care.’
From another perspective, from the Local Government Association (LGA) that represents councils in England (March 24): ‘No more sticking plasters’ – LGA survey lays bare local government funding crisis’.
‘All social care authorities responding to the survey said it was very or fairly likely that external service providers would pass the impact of changes to employer NICs back to their council through increased service costs in both adults’ and children’s social care and other contracted services. The LGA has estimated these indirect costs could cost councils up to an extra £1.13 billion this year.’
And more generally, to put the complaints of opposition parties in Scotland over local government budgets and its role in social care delivery in Scotland into context:
‘The LGA said councils continue to embrace efficiency and innovation in a way that has not been replicated anywhere else in the public sector. Between 2010/11 and 2022/23, councils made an estimated £24.5 billion in cuts and efficiencies in service spending in order to manage funding reductions, inflation, wage growth, demographic pressures and growing service demand.’
Meanwhile, unbeknown(!) to the oppositional mainstream media in Scotland, COSLA representing local government in Scotland issued a press statement on a recent meeting (March 21) of the COSLA Health and Social Care Board with the Scottish Government and Health and Social Care Scotland.
‘Reflecting on the meeting, COSLA Spokesperson for Health and Social Care, Councillor Paul Kelly, said:
“Today’s meeting saw lots of challenging but productive conversations, and some important decisions made that will directly contribute to improved experiences for users of social care services.’
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Ah, but ” ‘Today’s meeting saw lots of challenging but productive conversations, and some important decisions made that will directly contribute to improved experiences for users of social care services’ “, but only because Hannah Brown of the Herald, Brian Whittle of the Tories, Tsunami Baillie of Labour and ACH-him of the Umbrella party were not invited…
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Children on the spectrum are having meltdown because they cannot cope. Strategies have to be put in. A quiet place, an empathy approach. Introducing diversity measures which also help other pupils.
The Scottish Gov is putting counsellors in every school. Nurture/nature practioners. Enhanced provision staff. The teachers need better training. For better strategies. Some pupils need a limited timetable. A base so not to get overwhelmed. These provisions are increasing along with diagnosis. Major improvements from before.
Unionist councils cut additional needs provision. The Scottish Gov ring fences educational spending. The Councils would try to cut it to spend on other matters, Scottish Gov has extended nursery hours and introduced the Child payment. Supported students.
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