The above is headlining in the Herald. If Colonsay, population135, owned by Alex Howard of Oxford, was a Greek island, they’d get no ferry service at all in the winter months and might even have seen the horrors of a late passenger being pushed to his death in the screws. In New Zealand they might have drifted toward the rocks, after paying twice the CalMac fares, in an elderly ferry only to hear that the incoming conservative government has refused to pay $3bn for new ferries and harbour facilities that the outgoing Labour government costed at half that. The much-needed … Continue reading Why some ‘islanders’ need a ferry factcheck in New Zealand, Canada, Greece, England or the USA to see some real ferry f****ps!

Many thanks to Hetty in Scotland https://twitter.com/Hetty4ScotIndy for this link. Link to a map of NHS privatisation, it shows which MP’s are receiving donations from private healthcare companies, Starmer, Lammy, Rayner, Reeves, Streeting, Creasey, Cooper plus all the usual Tories. Extremely disturbing. https://t.co/qiKy040Dgy Only one blue £ symbol in Scotland. Let’s click on that! Surely it’ll be a Tory or Alex Cole-Hamilton? Nope, you guessed, it’s Ian Murray. DXC UK International Holdings. IT company selling services to the healthcare sector. Hospitality £500 Will Michael Shanks (Rutherglen) further betray his Modern Studies teacher values by following his leader’s path to money? … Continue reading Only one Scottish MP, Labour of course, takes private healthcare money. Even the Scottish Tories don’t!

BBC Scotland is clearly delighted to tell you: Adding a new higher-rate income tax band in Scotland might only raise £60m, a leading fiscal think tank has warned. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-67706492 Only £60 million? According to the Guardian in May 2023: Hospital doctors in Scotland have been offered a cumulative 14.5% pay rise in a fresh attempt by Scottish ministers to avert highly disruptive strikes. The Scottish government said the offer would cost £61.3m and was the best made by any government in the UK: doctors’ pay deals are negotiated separately in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/22/junior-doctors-in-scotland-offered-cumulative-145-pay-rise Junior doctors in Scotland have … Continue reading New Scottish income tax will pay for the junior doctors 14.5% pay rise to stop the ‘loss of half in next two years’ or pay for 60 000 to get care at home….

From Scoop today: Thanks to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, New Zealand is now going to have to rely for the next decade or more on a couple of car ferries leased or purchased on the second hand ferry market and adapted as best we can to serve the crucial freight and tourism link between the islands. In the wake of the Willis decision, the political to and fro has consisted almost entirely of virtue signalling about the cost blowout, rather than on how we now aim to future proof a vital service. Reportedly, Willis baulked at a blowout in extra … Continue reading New Zealand Labour Party ferry fiasco compared to Liz Truss fu***p!

Recently retired school secretary and chair of the Scottish School Secretaries Society, kelticgirl (name withheld to protect the innocent) has told us: I worked as a school secretary for over 20 years and I have no idea what Pisa is. Our Education Correspondent, Fion Brews, tells us: Researchers have found that Scottish head teachers hid Pisa results from their secretaries because they feared that this often stroppy group might blackmail them with the evidence that Scottish weans were not frightened enough to do better in them. Continue reading Pisa so useless school secretaries have not heard of it!

From BBC Scotland today: Toddler escaped Aberdeen nursery and was almost hit by a bus. A mum whose three-year-old son escaped from a nursery and was nearly hit by a bus has said the early years sector needs to get a grip of the growing problem. Kayleigh Kilpatrick’s son River left the nursery school in Aberdeen without staff noticing and walked most of the 15-minute journey home before he was found next to a busy road by a passer-by. His mother said her son suffers anxiety and separation issues as a result of the incident. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-67677891 First, do we have … Continue reading My ribs hurt! BBC Scotland blames SNP’s best childcare provision in the UK for toddler escape!

The folk of Kelso look puzzled and well they might. Question Time last night, particularly on Education, when we saw the SNP representative, Angela Constance subjected to quickfire attack and constant interruption from both sides, the English host, Fiona Bruce, and the American right-wing activist, Kate Andrews, was a disgracefully uninformed experience. …compared to England. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001tcjh/question-time-2023-14122023 Disgracefully uninformed? Only politicians and media presenters make use of Pisa data. No credible researcher in education will use them other than to point to their lack of value in developing educational policy. See: OECD and Pisa tests are damaging education worldwide – academics … Continue reading What do an American and an English woman actually know about Scottish education? Pisa all!

By stewartb Before leaving the BBC’s day of NHS coverage behind, its News website article entitled ‘The hospitals struggling the most as winter bites‘ reports this: ‘Alongside the data on handover times, figures released on Thursday showed: 30% of patients waited longer than the target time of four hours in A&E in November.’ So, 70% of attendances met the 4-hour standard – wow, is that the best in the UK? Well no, the BBC is ‘AT IT’ again! This is what the just published NHS England report actually reveals about A&E waiting times in November, 2023: * 55.4% of patients … Continue reading BBC concealing England’s true A&E waiting times again

stewartb It’s been a busy day (14 December) for the BBC covering the latest insights into the performance of the NHS. The Corporation’s approach has been interesting to observe: – the Radio 4 Today programme had a piece from the BBC’s own Nick Triggle on how much longer handovers from ambulances to A&E departments were taking in NHS England. He also told listeners – to provide helpful perspective as part of the BBC’s public service no doubt – that the same problems were present across the UK. – ‘national’ news bulletins during the Today programme reported on the same topic … Continue reading The contrast in how the BBC chose to cover NHS matters in England and in Wales was stark

I’m grateful to readers Bob Lamont and Alan Gordon this material. Today, BBC Scotland’s Lisa Summers wrote: Halfway through a Monday afternoon in mid-December, there were 14 ambulances queuing outside A&E at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary – over half of the available fleet at the city’s main ambulance station. https://archive.ph/REk7p#selection-405.0-405.198 Over half? There are 101 ambulances listed as based in Edinburgh: https://www.scottishambulance.com/media/rw1bpiuf/fleetlist0923.pdf Alan puts it clearly: “Half the fleet waiting at the hospital.” 14 ambulances! Left you with the impression that the other half, 14, were left to pick up every other patient.Half the fleet, really? Only 28 ambulances for the … Continue reading More lies on ambulance availability from Lisa Summers