As BBC Reporting Scotland campaign on cancer care, the facts about the best and best staffed service in the UK

Read the facts, fully sourced, at: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=cancer+waiting+times Read the facts, fully sourced, at: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/page/2/?s=radiog Read the facts, fully sourced, at: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/page/2/?s=radiol Continue reading As BBC Reporting Scotland campaign on cancer care, the facts about the best and best staffed service in the UK

Once more, global pollsters with no ties to London find Yes ahead again

In a sea of angry red NOs going back for the last year and beyond, one pollster repeatedly fails to find the evidence that folk are abandoning the Yes movement despite a series of politically orchestrated ‘scandals’. Ipsos – Institut Public de Sondage d’Opinion Secteur) is a multinational market research and consulting firm with headquarters in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, Chairman of the company, and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1 July 1999. You won’t find the words, UK, England, London or Conservative anywhere in the origins of Ipsos, unlike many other pollsters currently insisting Yes … Continue reading Once more, global pollsters with no ties to London find Yes ahead again

Those with a disability more confident about reporting hate crime as other forms stabilise or fall

By Professor John Robertson As the Herald pounce on a total 1.5%, statistically insignificant, increase in hate crime, the facts that a decent report would offer: The above increase is due entirely to an increase in the reporting of hate crime based on disability. This may be a good thing, revealing only that those with a disability are now more confident about reporting such abuse and that police will do something about it. So, other than the above, hate crime in Scotland is falling. Second, while the most common form of hate crime, based on race did go up, the … Continue reading Those with a disability more confident about reporting hate crime as other forms stabilise or fall

Before they begin to rejoice that ‘suspected’ drug deaths are up, real drug deaths are plummeting

‘Suspected’ drug deaths based on police reports from crime scenes, with no blood tests, are up 7% on the previous quarter. Expect a joyous media flutter on this and the SNP to be accused of betrayal. The actual, real, drug deaths figures for 2023 will not be published until August 2024 but the trend is abundantly clear, above. Why are they falling? Westminster is ultimately responsible for Scotland’s drug deaths Drug deaths fall by 21% in only one year as SNP policies begin to reverse long-term effects of decades of Tory/New Labour neglect Evidence emerges that significant drug deaths fall … Continue reading Before they begin to rejoice that ‘suspected’ drug deaths are up, real drug deaths are plummeting

An exposé of the UK’s failings is all the more compelling when the source is close to Westminster!

When an independent, London-based, Anglo-centric, establishment-endorsed, centrist think tank concludes the UK state is failing, those in Scotland not yet convinced about ending the Union should take heed! By stewartb – a long read Views I came across recently, expressed in two quite different places, triggered the writing of what follows. The first was an article by Martin Wolf in the FT (10 June) headlined ‘UK election draws a veil of silence over bitter economic truths – Neither major political party wants the debate that the country needs about taxes, spending and structural reform’. Wolf writes (with my emphasis): ‘Things … Continue reading An exposé of the UK’s failings is all the more compelling when the source is close to Westminster!

Do Scotland’s Labour candidates support their leader’s laughing at child poverty and leaving thousands of them in it?

Here’s Sir Keir, tin-eared and clearly complacent about poverty, laughing at a wee girl talking about her family’s fuel poverty: What kind of people are the Labour candidates in Scotland, if they can keep going behind this horrible man? And, do the Labour candidates in Scotland accept his views on the two child benefit cap? See this from the Canary, today: The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) estimates that the two child benefit cap impacts 1.5 million children, including 1.1 million children in poverty. Abolishing the cap, CPAG states, would lift 250,000 children out of poverty. And it would improve even worse poverty for … Continue reading Do Scotland’s Labour candidates support their leader’s laughing at child poverty and leaving thousands of them in it?

Will Central Ayrshire Labour candidate condemn his leader’s hypocritical use of a private jets funded by country where abuse of workers and women is rife?

From the Irvine Times, today: Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds joined his party’s candidate for Central Ayrshire on a visit to Prestwick’s GE Caledonian site at the weekend. Mr Reynolds and candidate Alan Gemmell [OBE] were exploring the potential for future investment and jobs in Prestwick’s aerospace sector. From the Guardian on 31st May:: Keir Starmer has admitted travelling via ‘efficient’ private jet to Scotland ‘in the middle of a very busy general election campaign’, despite Labour having previously criticised Rishi Sunak for using aircraft to get around the country. Starmer was in Glasgow to talk about the party’s Great … Continue reading Will Central Ayrshire Labour candidate condemn his leader’s hypocritical use of a private jets funded by country where abuse of workers and women is rife?

Latest sub-poll – Swinney turning things round?

Deltapoll’s most recent for 8 June, has the SNP ahead by 38 to 34 in a sub-poll of 173. Sub-polls are, of course, of limited value but when you look at a sequence by the same pollster, using the same sampling methods, a trend is of some interest. In their previous poll to 3rd June, it was 40/25 in favour of Labour. For 25 May it was 38/29 for Labour. For 7 May, 36/36 and for 29 April, 45/29 in favour of Labour. Continue reading Latest sub-poll – Swinney turning things round?

‘Ruling out tax rises undermines Sunak’s and Starmer’s credibility on public services’.

By stewartb “I think Rishi Sunak’s credibility is completely destroyed ….” – there is a lot of this ‘credibility destroying’ about! From the Institute for Government (6 June 2024): ‘Ruling out tax rises undermines Sunak’s and Starmer’s credibility on public services’. This London-based, establishment-endorsed, centrist think tank states (with my emphasis): ‘… the promises on tax (coupled with promises to limit borrowing and debt) imply tight limits on public spending. It is not plausible to think that the next government can address existing major problems in public services without spending more than is currently pencilled in – or announcing cuts to some … Continue reading ‘Ruling out tax rises undermines Sunak’s and Starmer’s credibility on public services’.

NHS England’s shocking cancer care as SIX trusts ‘drop into most challenged group’ and thousands of cancer patients wait more than 65 weeks

By Professor John Robertson From HSJ, the Health Service Journal, today: Six more trusts have dropped into the “tier 1” group for the most challenged providers for their elective or cancer performance. James Paget University Hospitals is now in tier 1 for both cancer and electives having previously been in tier 2 for both categories. Milton Keynes University Hospital, Lewisham and Greenwich and Portsmouth Hospitals University have been escalated to tier 1 for elective performance (See table 1: Trusts in tiers for 2024-25 quarter one). Liverpool Women’s Hospital and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole have been placed in tier 1 for cancer. … Continue reading NHS England’s shocking cancer care as SIX trusts ‘drop into most challenged group’ and thousands of cancer patients wait more than 65 weeks