Professor John Robertson OBA
The Scotsman has another go at the ferries, ill-informed as always.
I’ll do the second one first.
On average, CalMac ferries are the youngest of six comparable (several islands) fleets in the developed world.
Ok, first, what’s wrong with them? Truth be told (difficult I know), probably best archipelago service in the world. See:
Third, disruption? See:
As Lib Dems and BBC Scotland reveal compensation to delayed passengers of only 0.1% of budget, they forget that their previous FoI revealed that CalMac is more than 97% reliable
Finally, the truth about customer (real ones) satisfaction:
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Sadly for the Scotsman, its circulation is now classed as passing trade.. And one wonders why 🙂
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Still their front pages are in our faces at the checkout in local shops. However I notice one such well known brand shop has plonked all newspapers on the bottom shelf almost hidden, with loads of comics and those fashion mags etc blocking the propaganda sheets, brilliant move imo.
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It was the part in the headline “passengers face disruption until at least the end of July” that puzzled me, finally found the article ‘Published 25th May 2023, 04:55 BST, Updated 16th Jun 2023, 19:11 BST – Have they updated it again ?
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Since we have an election coming up next year….how about for some fairness that we now finally see some of the media here in Scotland casting their attention upon Anas Sarwar’s role in promoting his Labour HQ’s flagship policy last year in the Labour GE campaign……….
MSM Monitor posted a reminder of what Sarwar said in the STV’s Leader’s debate in Scotland last year prior to the UK GE.
“During the general election campaign Anas Sarwar repeatedly pledged that GB Energy would created 69,000 jobs in Scotland. So far it has created 13“.
MSM Monitor also included a video that confirmed the figure Sarwar quoted on jobs in that leaders debate on STV, which let’s be honest , most people in Scotland would have assumed that 15 months after the UK GE there would at least have been substantially more than a mere 13 jobs.
Not forgetting of course that as GB Energy’s supposed HQ is based here in Scotland….then……that supposed HQ was reported recently as having less jobs based here in the HQ than there were in GB Energy jobs in London !
Then MSM Monitor also added other posts and videos which were reminders of other (conflicting, as in contradictory , and now it seems also false) statements made by those connected to GB Energy, that included the Manchester based Chairman of GB Energy and also included Michael Shanks, the Labour Minister of State for Energy……
The MSM Monitor posts included….
“On Oct 8th 2024 the Chairman of GB Energy told a Westminster select committee that the GB Energy HQ in Aberdeen would eventually employ over 1000 people. Michael Shanks is literally lying when he says no such pledge was ever made. He should publicly apologise”.
The video with this post by MSM Monitor is again on STV News, this time with Paris Gourtsayannis , the WM political correspondent, where he , Gourtsayannis, said to camera that…
“This is the first time we were hearing from the new GB Energy Chairman giving evidence to MP’s, Jurgen Maier’s said the HQ’s in Aberdeen won’t just be a front office it will be the base for hundreds of well paid , high skilled , engineering jobs , eventually that number rising to over 1000“
MSM Monitor also posted a picture of that evidence being given by the Chairman of GB Energy to MP’s at WM in that Select Committee and he, MSM Monitor, posted this comment….
“When the Chairman of GB Energy told a Westminster select committee that the GB Energy HQ in Aberdeen would eventually employ over 1000 people, one of the MPs on the committee was Michael Shanks. Shanks needs to apologise for denying such a pledge was made”
Then when Michael Shanks himself appeared before MP’s at the WM Select Committee on the same day then MSM Monitors posted this….
“Michael Shanks, when appearing before MPs in a Westminster select committee on Oct 8th 2024, pledged the Aberdeen HQ of GB Energy would have hundreds of employees in the initial set up phase and eventually expand beyond that“
So what prompted all of these posts by MSM Monitor ?
Well it was reported recently that Michael shanks denied the promise of 1000 jobs to GB Energy HQ.
So even with evidence that contradicts Michael Shanks lies….. then still we have a Labour MP and government Minister dig his heels in and so then he wants us to ignore , and so then completely disregard the evidence that we have witnessed ……instead we are all expected to believe only their , Labour’s, version of the truth which is lies.
Then today in the BBC website on the Scottish Politics page , there is this below headline (it is the fourth article) however when you click on the article it shows this is actually an article on the main UK page, and which was an interview with Ed Milliband by Laura Kuenssberg on her Sunday Politics programme.
(If you go onto the main UK page there is no (current) article showing on this story on that page……so why is it showing as a Scottish Politics article on their BBC website ….is it to try and counter the negative publicity elsewhere on the lack of jobs that was promised for Scotland at GB Energy HQ, where Michael Shanks is now denying that the figure of over 1000 jobs at GB Energy HQ was quoted (by the Manchester based Chairman of GB Energy , who was appointed as Chairman by Sir Keir Starmer the Labour leader and now also the UK PM).
The BBC Scottish Politics page article headline is……
“Government vows to create 400,000 jobs in energy sector”
The article notes that:
“As part of the (UK) government’s strategy, five “technical excellence colleges” will be set up to train workers with clean energy skills, with £2.5m in funding going towards pilot schemes in Cheshire, Lincolnshire, and Pembrokeshire, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero”.
Also noting ” while oil and gas workers could benefit from up to £20m from the UK and Scottish governments for bespoke careers training in clean energy roles”
How many broken policies and pledges will it take for the media here to finally expose the fact that Anas Sarwar and his Labour party are not worthy of our votes as they are taking us all for mugs, in them promising the Earth but delivering a hugely scaled down version of their former pledges…..and then to rub salt in the wounds (that they inflicted) they then deny that they ever promised us all of these things in the first place………can you imagine if that were the SNP doing that and then the media in Scotland ….holding back on John Swinney ?
God knows what Sarwar will promise us all, as voters, for next year’s election in Scotland , but based on past experience and all of the strong evidence , I would say it is best that most of us , of sound mind and so not easily swayed by propaganda (and lies), just give Sarwar’s pledges a very very very wide berth……that is as far as us even acknowledging them and so then believing that these things pledged will then ever actually happen in the way that they were first promoted (promised) .
(Also Labour HQ will not allow any “New direction” for Scotland via their branch office here ….as in one that differs from the ongoing wrong “direction” that Labour HQ have been taking England down….and also the rest of the UK down as well).
As in “down” being the operative word with Labour, as a party , and also as governments ,UK and Welsh ones , currently……..but also would very much be the case if they, Labour branch office, ever governed here in Scotland as a supposed Scottish government – that was controlled by Labour HQ obviously).
Liz S
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Scotsman Journalists ?
Here’s a political story on Education for them……..
“University tuition fees in England will increase every year in line with inflation from 2026 onwards, the UK government has announced“
However there is so much more to this story….like how “University tuition fees” was used as a pledge (by the now current Labour leader and UK PM) when he, Starmer, promoted (promised) that he would scrap them as part of his leadership campaign to become the next Labour leader after Jeremy Corbyn.
In 2020 “Scrapping Tuition fees” (in England) was one of Keir Starmer’s pledges in his leadership campaign…….and when Andrew Neil interviewed him about his leadership pledges , including on Tuition fees, Neil asked Starmer:
“What about University Tuition fees then, will you remain committed to scrapping them” ?
Starmer responded “They’re all pledges. So the answer to these questions is yes”.
Neil then asked him if they would be in a Starmer Manifesto ?
Starmer said yes, and Neil said to confirm “the next election”.
Now as that former ‘pledge’ is yet another one Starmer has now cast aside and so the exact opposite is happening, indeed worse is happening in England with these tuition fees, then we see the BBC in Scotland go into propaganda mode in them constantly promoting various negative articles and reports upon free Tuition fees in Scotland being sustainable and so still feasible ……
So basically they , the BBC, are once again protecting Labour HQ leader and the Labour branch office here in Scotland while also attacking a Scottish government core policy that benefits students within Scotland who are eligible to receive this.
How many voters in Scotland knew how Starmer won the leadership of Labour on false pledges, that then , as pledges, were all dropped after he won ?
Well last year those who elected 37 Labour MP’s in Scotland surely never knew this, as if they did , then they must be voters who condone certain politicians lying to achieve personal success…..and that does not bode well for the future of Scotland…especially as it seems those same voters seem to be holding the SNP, as a party, to having to maintain higher standards than those other parties and their party leaders.
Liz S
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THEY ARE UNDER THE ‘PAY’ OF ENGLISH OWNERS
THATS WHY NOTHING IS TRUE
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