As you all know, I’m sure, the Scottish Tories are ‘Caring Conservatives‘ unlike their cousins south of the border. So, it was with genuine concern, I’m sure, that Rachael Hamilton, above asked about progress toward meeting targets for poverty reduction and for spending to reduce it. The answers are: and: The progress has been slow and modest, it has to be said, but that has been within the context of a welfare system still largely in UK hands. While it would not have been appropriate for the minister to make comparisons with Tory-run England, it is for The Tusker: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/03/26/scotland-keeps-persistent-child-poverty-lower-than-in-england-or-wales/ … Continue reading Scottish Tories draw attention to progress on child poverty reduction

Tired of him, I let the above Mark Smith piece go. Iain Gunn of Elgin could not and wrote the above, slightly weary, response. It’s well worth sharing. Gunn is clearly a man of great insight and taste, revealed by his use of the ideas of that great philosopher Bob Dylan, to finish Smith off. I’m reminded of how I used to open my sociology essays, back in the 70s, with Dylan quotes to try to impress the marker, not always successfully – squares! Continue reading Scottish fascists furious as Herald publishes letter inspired by Bob Dylan!

Thanks to Brenda Steele for drawing my attention to this essentially ‘green’ set of ideas from Common Wealth. The contrast with the hissy fits, hatchet-jobs and rants we get far too often now from Common Weal and especially their Great Leader, could not be sharper. It’s full of ideas for things to do, as yet not achieved by the SNP Government, but offers them with intelligence and respect. It recognises and applauds what it has done in its constrained circumstances. Before coming to those, a quick word about one of the authors, Laurie Macfarlane, who also writes for Open Democracy, … Continue reading UK-based Common Wealth puts ‘our’ Common Weal in the shade

In an astonishing show of duplicity on Drivetime tonight, the new Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, cunningly exploited the words of a National Farmer’s Union representative to attempt to conceal the very real fact that he had voted against a parliamentary amendment designed to protect food standards in imports to the UK. The rep was asked if any MP had ever voted to reduce food standards and of course said ‘no’, because, of course they had not voted for that but had voted not to introduce safeguards to stop that happening. Then interrogated by Gary Robertson, Ross ignored the repeated … Continue reading Gary Robertson sorts Douglas Ross out but Glen Campbell is not going there

So, MSPs have staff just as MPs do. Why will he not need staff if he moves? ‘Potentially’ means not very likely but it’ll do for a story, even a headline. A headline? No. Don’t be daft. Is this anti-SNP bias? Don’t be paranoid, they’d do it for Tories too wouldn’t they? Nope. No mention of his staff. He’s probably just going to take his current staff with him. You know the Tories, caring. Ruth’s going to the Lords. I feel sure she’s taking all her Edinburgh staff with her. She wouldn’t just dump them. She’s a Tory, caring. That … Continue reading Daft anti-SNP headline of the day!

Story Feeder: Brain McGowan: Not on Reporting Scotland Down but here on The Tusker, from NHSGGC: Following the success of Glasgow’s only Injection Equipment Provision (IEP) van, funding has been granted for an additional mobile unit to help tackle the city’s drug crisis by providing crucial healthcare and harm reduction services. The van, funded by the Scottish Drug Deaths Taskforce will act as a key touchpoint for people who use drugs to engage with the health service within Glasgow HSCP. Primarily providing injecting equipment to minimise the transfer of blood-borne viruses (BBV) and maximise harm reduction, it will also carry … Continue reading Another Scottish attempt to reduce drug deaths goes unmentioned

In a boast of his independence to protect Scotland, the new Scottish Tory leader has been able to get away with making a claim to do something that would be unnecessary if he had not already voted to enable it, unchallenged, of course, by any media. In May, he and all his Tory colleagues at Westminster voted, under pressure from their whip, against an amendment made by other Tories (!) to protect food standards in the UK. Here’s what The Scottish Farmer had to say: SCOTS TORY MPs were on the rack this week, after voting against a crucial amendment … Continue reading New Scottish Tory leader says he’d vote against something he’s already voted for to ‘throw farming constituents under the bus’

As they almost disappear off the opinion polls, I do wonder if it’s worth commenting on the Scottish Lib Dems but when they offer this kind of thing up, I think, oh well, what’s ten minutes? Yesterday, the Daily Record rumbled Mike Rumbles (above), still in Tuscany after two months, three weeks after Holyrood reconvened, missing important committee meetings and, of course, neglecting his lock-downed Aberdeen constituents: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/lib-dem-msp-facing-furious-22599504 Of particular interest to The Tusker, alerted by a reader, is this on the 29th August. Did he sneak back in under the Record radar? No. Has Public Health Scotland required him … Continue reading Rumbled: Lib Dem ‘locked down’ in Tuscany

Two readers, responding to a piece contrasting BBC Scotland’s intensive focus on the virus with that of the BBC in England and in particular the North-west, seeming to ignore it, have commented on what they feel is a ‘different mindset‘ among English tourists abroad and among locals in the North-west. One, based on experience flying out of and back into Edinburgh to more than one part of Europe, wrote: Edinburgh flights have been inundated with people from England many favouring Edinburgh instead of Manchester . I’ve been on overseas flights and seen it. Even though wearing a mask throughout the … Continue reading Covid-19: Have the Tories created a different less-concerned mindset in England?

While BBC Scotland go once more for ‘scare your granny with Covid infections‘ even though they’re mostly in one area connected with a factory outbreak, BBC Int’North is dreaming through the pandemic unconcerned: With a population less than twice that of Scotland, N W England has surged to between 3 and 4 times the infection rate. BBC England will be all over that story to inform the folk living there: No? Oh well, BBC Manchester then? No, Lancashire then? Liverpool? Surely? What, a box connected to the Beatles? Do they want people to just go on as if nothing has … Continue reading England’s most infected area says ‘Pandemic? What Pandemic?’