performing so poorly?
Professor John Robertson OBA
BBC Question Time last night and Fiona Bruce was in fast with the above uninformed claim to bias proceedings.
The following morning BBC Health has: How is your hospital doing as NHS battles to bring down waiting times? and the opportunity to just enter your postcode and get performance on the 18 week waiting list. This is the key waiting list, unlike the 2 year list, as it concerns treatment for ‘acute‘ life-threatening conditions such as heart disease, stroke and cancers, as opposed to ‘chronic‘ non-life-threatening’ (life-limiting I know), such as arthritis.
A quick search for the supposedly ‘troubled‘ area of Greater Glasgow and Clyde, gives this:
but for a comparable part of London, this:
That 15% difference between Glasgow and London means many thousands in the former were treated within 18 weeks and many thousands in the later, were NOT treated within 18 weeks. Note that the UK Government only wants to hit 65%, below the current average (68%) in Scotland, next year. Now that’s poor performance Fiona.
It’s not just these two examples. BBC Health helpfully offer us this graph:
The Scottish average of 68%, crudely 8.3% better is, as a percentage of the 59.7%, 13.9% better.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde treated 178 000 scheduled inpatients, 13.9% of them, nearly 25 000 were seen within 18 weeks but would not have had they lived in an average area of England.
It’s not just the facts of the above waiting list that make Bruce’s claim so shockingly biased.
A&E
Drug Treatment
Maternity Care
Sepsis
Patient Safety
Asthma
Infertility
I could go on but need caffeine!
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Get a Grip X account tweeted this :
Reform Councillor makes the false claim on #bbcqt that there is “a record number of drug deaths in Scotland”.
“The overall trend for the 12 months to March 2025 – and the full calendar year 2024 – indicates a DECREASE in suspected drug-related deaths compared to the previous year”
I bet Fiona B allowed this to pass unchallenged as her knowledge of Scotland and it’s politics is sourced mostly from unreliable and partisan sources who , like her and her employer, are hostile to both Scotland and specific political parties (SNP) within it.
The Q is though did the SNP MSP let it go unchallenged ?
Thomas Kerr , still maintaining the spouting of lies as a new (non elected) Reform UK Councillor that he previously spouted as a (elected ) former Tory Councillor, facts and truth are alien to him (and also to his new and old parties) as with facts and truth he and his party would have less chance of being elected.
Mind you the more he appears on TV the less appealing Reform UK must appear for some more canny voters within Scotland who can easily identify a chancer when they see (and hear) one and also they will hear and see a Tory too , one whose only reason for defection was an assumed perception by him that his future career could potentially be far more lucrative and lengthy in Scotland with his new party than with his old one.
That is a bubble that will at some point burst , either pre or post any of them being elected here. Of that I am sure.
We know only too well that they , Reform UK, are not a party that in any shape or form supports or cares about Scotland however others within Scotland may need far more proof of this , and the proof will be in the pudding so to speak (Ha Ha).
(The Glasgow Times reported that there has been a complaint made against Thomas Kerr’s speaking record in Glasgow Council since he has become a Reform UK councillor (January 2025) as it was stated that apparently he allegedly has “not actively taking part in Council business for months).
Also currently those newly elected Reform UK Councillors in some English councils have been reported as some resigning , some cancelling meetings and some not turning up for work. (That’s what happens when you allow anyone to stand as a Reform UK candidate and there is a lack of vetting , no political experience etc etc that then results in unprofessional and incompetent behaviour).
Reform UK would argue they do vet their candidates , that being the case , then how come so many of their candidates are being elected are then discovered as having formerly posted racially motivated social media posts online ?????
To verify the above as accurate then check out ‘Reform Party UK exposed’ on Blue Sky where you will see many examples of their incompetence , examples of racist posts by some of them and also for some a distinct lack of savvy as newly elected Councillors , this is also evidenced in other media also sourced online and also in the MSM as well.
Perhaps some who were elected for Reform UK in the recent local English elections assumed that local Councils dealt with Net Zero issues, Immigrants on boats , cancel culture and also so called woke issues as opposed to real council issues like managing and controlling a large Council budget, education matters , bin collections, road works , Housing issues and many other Council related issues.
(Maybe Farage is not too keen on being a source for them as to what direction they should take in those Councils that they are now all a part of, as he has far bigger fish to try and catch and then fry).
I do hope someone somewhere manages to communicate to more voters in Scotland that buyers (or voters) remorse will be guaranteed if they do vote for Reform UK next year in the Scottish elections , as if they do , then all that will happen will be even more disruption and opposition within the Scottish parliament , which is not in any way conducive to making our Scottish parliament look as if it is one that we all should or could be proud of , as in it being distinct from WM (in a good way).
It seems that a progressive and flourishing Scotland is not what any UK party wants to either deliver for Scotland, see happening any time soon (if at all) or indeed ever help to enable that as a lived reality for Scots, as instead they all require Scotland to be needy, to be always beholden to the UK , appear to be struggling, poor, incompetent (stupid) and so then presented as a nation incapable of looking after it’s own affairs successfully should we seek and then achieve our independence from their UK State.
So in order for their UK position to be maintained as a constant and so to then always to be a reality, what we will always hear from members of all UK parties is a need for them to constantly talk Scotland down and also to talk up their UK State.
(This of course does not ever apply to England as a nation within their UK as apparently they need no other nation , or indeed the UK as a State, yet politically they cling onto other nations within the UK as if their future prosperity and existence depended upon it. #ConfusedDotCom).
This position will be perpetuated as long as some Scots continue to always vote for both British Nationalist and English Nationalist parties to (badly) represent them in Councils, in Holyrood and also in the English parliament at WM.
One can only hope that the rot will eventually stop, that the penny finally drops etc etc but we (or rather some Scots) do have a (nasty) habit of doing the opposite of what is best for Scotland at crucial moments , it is as if some voters here seek a form of self punishment for themselves and their families/friends.
Frankly it is now for me something that is getting extremely tiresome to witness and endure and it is also beyond being a tad irritating , more extremely so, and I am, I think , now way way way beyond being tolerant of them as fellow ‘Scottish’ voters and what is even worse is that some of them, I know , are ‘doing it deliberately’ too.
Liz S
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I just watched it on Youtube, saw what you meant about FB putting the boot in at the intro, she has no qualms over being ridiculous…
Tried sitting through it, the audience plants were a bit obvious, but gave up part way with Sarwar droning on and on – Lesley was the only normal head on the panel, but Shirley Ann did well… May finish watching it later if blood pressure allows…
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