Today, the Herald has:
Home caring services are heading towards a “catastrophic breakdown”, Scottish ministers have been told as industry leaders warn the funding deficit is becoming uncontrollable. Concerns over the sustainability of social care in Scotland have been growing in recent years, with local government body Cosla warning £750 million is needed just to stabilise the vital industry.
Is there hard evidence for this claim?
From Care home statistics for Scotland Support and services funded by local authorities in Scotland 2024/2025 published yesterday:
During 2024/25 there were an estimated 49,605 people who resided in a care home and were fully or partially funded by a local authority. This was similar to 2023/24 (49,545).
Wouldn’t there be evidence of a collapse in the figures, not 60 more places in 2024/2025 if a ‘catastrophic breakdown’ was emerging?
Talking-up Scotland 
Are journalists not taught that words have meaning? That we have nuances to enable us to present an accurate account?
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I think it’s the sub-editors (often called copy editors in the US) who write a significant number of “clickbait” headlines in modern-day newspapers and on digital platforms?
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BBC Scotland too?
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Based on recent news and staff appointments, the editorial, sub-editing, and digital output for BBC Scotland news is overseen by the following leadership at Pacific Quay, Glasgow:
Head of News and Current Affairs: Howard Simpson.
BBC Scotland Director: Hayley Valentine.
Scotland Editor, BBC News: James Cook.
The digital news team, including those responsible for online headlines, works under the News and Current Affairs department headed by Simpson, to produce content for web and app audiences.
Led by Editor of Mobile and Online, Matt Roper, the team includes digital-focused journalists like Megan Bonar and Claire Thomson.
Specific bylines for daily paper reviews are not always provided.
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James Cook 😦
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O/T I am well aware of the need for a sense of perspective and of proportion given all the really bad, the tragic things happening in the world. So yes, I do wonder if even posing this question right now is worthwhile but then a brief digression through anecdote may do little harm. Should we regard decisions concerning the display of national symbols as having any importance?
We probably all recall the rapid shift in the British Labour Party’s use of symbols under its current UK leader: carefully draped, big Union flags placed in shot during televised speeches. And then there has been the appearance of huge images of Scotland’s Saltire as backdrops to recent conferences in Scotland held by UK political parties, notably Reform UK and Labour. Perhaps the real interest comes when an organisation opts to shifts its common practice with respect to display of symbols?
I visited the centre of Scotland’s capital city last weekend and walked passed the prominent and historic building close to the junction of Princes Street and Lothian Road that is the Caledonian Hotel (the ‘Caley’). It’s a part of the city I’m familiar with and in the bright sunshine I noticed that the hotel – part of the Hilton group – has replaced the flags flying from the six poles on the building’s long elevation on Lothian Road. I had observed a month or so earlier how shabby the hotel’s flags had become: grubby, tattered rags hanging from an upmarket hotel and in such a landmark location in Scotland’s capital was not a good look! So a change has been made: two brand new Union flags now fly from the hotel together with four with corporate symbols. Two of the latter also fly from the main hotel entrance on the north facing side of the building.
But something else has changed: something is missing. The national symbol of Scotland, the Saltire is no longer to be seen!. Until recently – and for many years, as photographic images of the hotel building available online record – the six flag poles on Lothian Road flew two Saltires together with Union and corporate flags. Indeed at times a Saltire was displayed alongside a Union flag over the main hotel entrance.
What has led to this company with its highly visible presence in Scotland’s capital changing the symbols it chooses to display? After all, from its very name – the ‘Caledonian’ – to for example its listing in ‘Historic Hotels Worldwide,’ the hotel makes much of its historic place within ‘Scotland’ specifically: ‘The Caledonian has been the epitome of Scottish hospitality for over a century. Today, the Caledonian Edinburgh continues to maintain its reputation as an internationally respected luxury hotel and has recently been listed as a Category A historic building by Historic Environment Scotland.’
And what is it about Edinburgh hotels and flags? – https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2025/11/07/a-curious-tale-of-flag-flying-by-an-edinburgh-hotel/
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