Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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NHS Scotland does 97% of ops on time

johnrobertson834

From Public Health Scotland, today: In the quarter ending December 2023, there were 20,837 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. Only 515 (2.5%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons. From Public Health Scotland a year ago: In the quarter ending December 2022, the total number of planned operations across NHS Scotland during December 2022 was 17,269. This represents a decrease of 19.1% from 21,336 in November 2022 but is 14.6% higher than the number planned in December 2021. 493 (2.9%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons. From these data, … Continue reading NHS Scotland does 97% of ops on time

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How Labour’s plan for small business has been at the heart of the SNP legislation for years

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Not for the first Labour advisers reveal their ignorance of what is already happening in Scotland as they come up to tell us about their supah new ideas to find we already have the same or better. Here’s what they claim and what they plan, responded to one-by-one. “The Labour Party knows the value of small businesses; you are not just the lifeblood of our communities but essential to our economic success. That is why we have launched an ambitious plan to support small businesses.” “The Scottish Government regrets any delays in payments to suppliers and our performance in paying 98.8% … Continue reading How Labour’s plan for small business has been at the heart of the SNP legislation for years

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English health expert on BBC 4 today – ‘Scotland has much better uptake of immunisation, better identification of children with complex needs and disabilities, better breast feeding rates’

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On BBC 4 this morning but nowhere on BBC Scotland, this: 1 in 4 children in England was NOT seeing a health visitor by the time they turned one…..Alison Morton is the Chief Executive of the Institute of Health Visiting…..40% cut in workforce [in England]….Is it particularly an England problem in that Scotland provides 11 health visits and Wales 9?…. knock on consequences into other services…soaring rates of A&E attendances. The younger ones are the highest users of A&E. The rate has increased by 42% in the last 10 years in England, whereas in Scotland, they don’t have this problem because … Continue reading English health expert on BBC 4 today – ‘Scotland has much better uptake of immunisation, better identification of children with complex needs and disabilities, better breast feeding rates’

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Deaths from heart disease FALL – another complete lie from the Herald’s health correspondent

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From the National Records of Scotland, on 12 December 2023, the most recent data, the above reveals: Yet in the Herald today: The number of people on cardiology waiting lists is at the highest level on record in Scotland amid “chronic underinvestment” and a “worrying” increase in deaths from heart disease.   The British Heart Foundation (BHF) Scotland has warned that decades of progress in reducing mortality from cardiovascular causes is being lost, with hundreds of patients now waiting more than a year to see a cardiologist and over 23,000 people on outpatient lists. So, a charity tells us there’s an increase and a … Continue reading Deaths from heart disease FALL – another complete lie from the Herald’s health correspondent

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Scottish media unable to find any dental queues and feel sick to…….

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From the Guardian today: Police were called to manage hundreds of people lined up outside a dentist in Bristol, who had flocked to the newly opened practice desperate to secure an NHS appointment. The dentist, which was formerly a Bupa dental centre, reopened under the name St Pauls dental practice on Monday morning. The St Pauls area in Bristol has been without a dentist for seven months after the site closed last June. The Herald and BBC Scotland health correspondents have just returned home after failing to find any dental queues thought they did manage to persuade two friends of Reporting … Continue reading Scottish media unable to find any dental queues and feel sick to…….

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Protecting the Governor General and keeping the public attention on Nicola’s WhatsApp messages

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11.21 am on Sunday 4 Feb where’s the 4 Feb Sunday National front page? They still have this old one. 24 hours later, on Monday 5th February, they still have this from the 17 January (!) on x/twitter. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw8jge7zxn4o?at_ptr_name=twitter&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_id=4331F1D0-C342-11EE-AA5D-436E8161DE7E&at_bbc_team=editorial&at_link_origin=BBCScotlandNews&at_link_type=web_link&at_medium=social&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_format=link Why? Because they don’t like the look of the actual Sunday National front page on Sunday 4 February 2024? This one? What’s not to like? What are they hiding? Another Tory wiped his WhatsApp messages. Clearly not in public interest when BBC Scotland has decided that what’s in their interests is only SNP WhatsApp message deletion so that they can maintain … Continue reading Protecting the Governor General and keeping the public attention on Nicola’s WhatsApp messages

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‘To see ourselves’ – A funny love song to the Yes Movement that might soften opposition and so has been denied oxygen by Scotland’s Art elites

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I went to watch ‘To see ourselves‘, a near 2 hour film of the 2014 independence campaign, beautifully filmed and directed by Jane McAllister and with a central role for her father and East Lothian SNP councillor, Fraser, in Stirling last night. I was overwhelmed by it’s startling combination of warmth, humour and power to persuade, often with the facts suppressed in the media but, most important, saturated with compassion for those angry and afraid No supporters. This, far more than the numbers, tables and graphs I churn out daily here, could turn folk around. That’s why the film is … Continue reading ‘To see ourselves’ – A funny love song to the Yes Movement that might soften opposition and so has been denied oxygen by Scotland’s Art elites

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Can anyone recall any interrogation of witnesses or any media assessment around the ACTUAL content of key Cabinet papers?

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stewartb ‘Could the Covid inquiry reshape the UK?’ – this is the headline above a piece by James Cook on the BBC News website today. Mr Cook is of course BBC Scotland’s political editor whose team of journalists has been working hard to amplify the alleged ‘significance’ of WhatsApp messaging more than anything else in news reports on the Covid Inquiry’s Edinburgh sessions. Having feasted on the Inquiry’s references to WhatsApps, Mr Cook seems to have belatedly become aware of the journalistic relevance of ‘perspective’. He writes today: ‘ Not so many years ago many of the conversations now under … Continue reading Can anyone recall any interrogation of witnesses or any media assessment around the ACTUAL content of key Cabinet papers?

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Tories’ lack of Covid protection for vulnerable cost 10 000 lives

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The Telegraph had the huffy prof Mark Woolhouse, claiming yesterday ‘SNP’s Covid protection for vulnerable ‘afterthought’ could have cost 1,000 lives’ Based on the facts from a prof not in the huff because the SNP preferred Prof Sridhar to him, that should be ‘saved‘ and then by the law of scaling up, ‘Tories lose ten thousand?‘ See from the Covid Inquiry report yesterday:: Based on the above statistical facts from a currently employed prof, my sums: 124.9 per 100k in Scotland is 20 fewer than the 145 in England. So, 20 per 100 000 fewer deaths during the pandemic in … Continue reading Tories’ lack of Covid protection for vulnerable cost 10 000 lives

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BBC Scotland’s favourite prof and our favourite prof compared

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Hugh Pennington, Professor of Bacteriology (Dirty Ham Sandwiches), with…..you know…..Maggie’s Wee Westie. His expertise: Our favourite prof because he knows what he’s talking about Thomas Hale: What he said at the Covid Inquiry to then be completely ignored by the media Try searching for ‘BBC Scotland Hugh Pennington’, long-retired bacteriologist, not virologist or epidemiologist, and get 1 360 000 hits. Try searching for ‘BBC Scotland Thomas Hale’, Associate Professor in Global Public Policy, Blavatnik School of Government; Fellow of St Antony’s College, and get not one link and just his own university website mentioning that he’d been on Good Mourning … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s favourite prof and our favourite prof compared