According to the ONS, the UK has lost 993 000 days to strikes in the public sector, mainly in health and education, since Labour came to power in July 2024.1
In the same period, Scotland had no public sector strikes other than in HE/FE2, thus almost all of the above were lost in England & Wales.
Why?
In summary, Scotland avoided major disruptions in core public services like health and schools, with no national strikes occurring—all were negotiated away. However, the university sector saw repeated localized strikes (e.g., 9+ days at Edinburgh in 2025, 26+ at Dundee), affecting public-sector staff and students. 100?
Sources:
- https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/timeseries/bbfw/lms
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_industrial_disputes_and_strikes_(2022%E2%80%93present)
Even if you do the pro rata thing, Swinney wins by 100 to 1.
Talking-up Scotland 
You write “Swinney beats Starmer by 100 to 1 on days not lost to public sector strikes”
This , as information , is not something that is highlighted by the media either here or anywhere else within the UK State, as they are all far too distracted and focused upon delivering any #SNPBAD news, via what seems to always turn out to be derived from questionable , as in unreliable , (and partisan) sources.
I mean all of this media and political opposition #BAD being directed at the SNP , as the Scottish government, does not seem to translate into the same amount of strikes happening in various public sectors within Scotland compared to all of those within England.
Begs the Q, is it really more a case of , for public sector workers anyway ,that it is really the UK government who are mostly being seen as, and so then identified as, being the real ‘#baddies’ within this UK state ?
Liz S
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‘not something that is highlighted by the media’ – while we’re on this subject!
The main Scotland page of the BBC News website today (Saturday 14 March) has a story with this headline: ‘Historic Borders bridge secures £250,000 for restoration project’. It’s been ‘elevated’ from the South of Scotland local news page and reports on the awarding of a National Lottery Fund grant.
The Scottish Government issued a press statement on Friday 13 March with the heading: ‘Driving growth on Scotland’s islands – Funding to create jobs and strengthen local economies.’ This is not reported on the main Scotland page of the BBC News website. Indeed it doesn’t even figure in the local Highlands & Islands section of the BBC News site.
How do these two items compare in terms of national and local newsworthiness?
The government statement reports: ‘Island communities will benefit from a £5.75 million boost to support critical infrastructure, tackle rising costs and accelerate the transition to net zero. The new investment aims to address pressures including depopulation and rising fuel costs which disproportionately affect island communities.
It includes: ‘£3 million through the Islands Programme, building on previous investments which have delivered critical infrastructure projects ranging from affordable homes on Shetland to upgraded airfield terminal buildings on Eday and Westray’.
‘£1 million for the continuation of the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund to help communities tackle increasing costs, distributed through the six island local authorities.
‘£750,000 to support net zero projects as part of the Carbon Neutral Islands programme, with past initiatives including decarbonisation of community spaces in Barra and Vatersay, developing a solar farm on Islay and transport decarbonisation on Hoy.’
‘£1 million to support a range of projects connected to commitments made in the Scottish Government’s new National Islands Plan, including an island scholarship pilot scheme, mental health support for young people and training courses in sustainable tourism.’
In terms of newsworthiness, the two items have obviously been judged very differently in terms of both national and local relevance by BBC Scotland’s news team. It will have received the Scottish Government’s press release by e-mail just as it does every working day around 4pm. The Lottery funding of the bridge restoration is clearly the more significant – especially in the run up to an election?
For context, the Scottish Government’s Islands Programme was established in 2021-22: it has already made 88 grant awards, totalling £19.7 million. I wonder how many were deemed newsworthy by BBC Scotland. Anyone?
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“This is not reported on the main Scotland page of the BBC News website. Indeed it doesn’t even figure in the local Highlands & Islands section of the BBC News site”
Well spotted stewartb
Some things , it seems, will just never ever change as far as the BBC is concerned.
Liz S
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Scary thing is far too many rely on England’s BBC for their faux news, they are easily conned. My elderly neighbours watch BBC and believe what they are told, hence anti SNP. 😦
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None I suppose
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It’s also the case that lottery £’s spent in Scotland on projects etc, is nowhere near the amount that Scotland contributes via buying their tickets, same as BBC license money, England gets the benefits, Scotland pays more than gets back. A private school near us has a state of the art large sports centre, built a few years ago. It was built using lottery money, as these schools of privelege have charity status, at least they used to, not sure about now?
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Talking of Labour, or rather Labour in Scotland.
I see that democracy is still up for sale.
When it has been reported that:
“Scottish Labour has reported receiving significant donations in the run-up to the May 2026 Holyrood election, with over £550,000 recorded in the final quarter of 2025 alone”
“Billionaire businessmen Sandy and James Easdale are among the biggest donors, with a £150,000 cash donation recorded in December 2025 via their property firm, Dalglen, linked to them.
“Donations from trade unions continue to support the party, including £5,300 from GMB, £6,000 from UNISON, £6500 from Unite, £4000 from USDAW , £700 from TSA, £700 from Community Union and £700 from Aslef , as reported in Q4 2025 (Oct-Dec 2025)”
“Puneet and Poonam Gupta, British-Asian entrepreneurs, who are described as former Tory donors, are among the top funders to Scottish Labour in the latest Electoral Commission disclosures, as a company based in Kilmacolm, founded by the Guptas, made a £200,000 donation in December 2025, followed by a non-cash donation of £33,950 for administration services”.
Dale Vince , the green energy tycoon continued his support with a £100,000 donation in November 2025.
Gordon Dalyell:, an Edinburgh-based lawyer and son of the late MP Tam Dalyell, donated £8,000.
“Reports show £553,635.62 in donations were accepted by the party to boost their campaign ahead of the May 2026 vote”.
Compare , and so then also contrast , to what the SNP mostly rely upon for their political campaign donations.
That , as political campaign donations, are mostly sourced from their own members, as they the SNP ,as a political party, are reported to have relatively low levels of major private donations, based upon Electoral Commission data reported for the final quarter of 2025 (Q4 2025), with the majority of their income coming from public funds and small-donor contributions.
I am sick of millionaires and Billionaires thinking that they can buy an election for a party of their choice , as in the one that they choose to donate to.
Why ?
I mean Dale Vince lives in England , so why is he contributing to the Labour party in Scotland ?
A conundrum, and surely cannot have sweet Fanny Adams to do with Labour’s lame duck policy , GB Energy ?
Though I believe that he, Vince, does have business interests in Scotland.
However his , Vince’s, money contributions aka political donations could potentially have led to us in Scotland being lumbered with Labour as our next Scottish government , which he, as a wealthy English resident, would not have had to either endure nor suffer from with what would be predicted as being very bad governance for us in Scotland.
Kind of sick of all of this money being thrown at Labour by all of these wealthy people , all to try to steal an election away from us the voters with their donations funding a succession of expensive propaganda social media adverts from Anas Sarwar, that keeps, as political adverts, (annoyingly) popping up on YouTube and elsewhere………
I do hope that all of this ends up being money badly spent ( as in it all of it being wasted donations) , in that Labour in Scotland will , one hopes, end up being unsuccessful, and then so will Sarwar be as well, post the elections in May 2026.
Thus proving that in Scotland neither our votes , nor we as citizens, can be bought, unlike Labour .
Liz S
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Thanks Liz. Yep let’s hope they are wasting their money, there really should be major restrictions on donations to political parties and politicians or candidates.
Sarwar keeps popping up on Ytube ads, grrr..they make it hard to turn it off quickly as well. I have only seen one ad from the SNP so far on YT.
SNP are short of cash, sadly it’s those with less money that support them and vote for them…
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