In the Herald today we read: Scottish Labour’s MPs will not back calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, despite Anas Sarwar’s claim that this is the “only way we can see a safe, secure and free Palestine and a safe, secure and free Israel.” In a letter to Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, Ian Murray and Michael Shanks said they would start “with what is possible” and back their party’s call for a “full, comprehensive and immediate humanitarian pause in the fighting across the whole of Gaza now.” https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23925391.scottish-labour-mps-will-not-vote-ceasefire-gaza/ And in the Telegraph: Starmer ready to sack Labour … Continue reading Labour MP and former Modern Studies teacher betrays the aims he once tried to achieve with children

Regulars reading recently here of real ferry crises in Washington State USA, British Columbia Canada, New Zealand and, this morning, Ontario Canada, might be wondering if the Mull councillor groomed by the Scottish Tories to say that CalMac is the ‘worst in the world‘ might be way off beam in his assessment. We haven’t even looked at the ferry services in Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines with their tragic losses of boats and lives. Today, we return to New Zealand, GDP 25% greater than Scotland, to read of: 2 ferries hit wharves and are holed 1 drifts after losing power … Continue reading Two ferries crash and one loses power and drifts toward rocks with hundreds on board…in New Zealand

Amherst and Wolfe Islands (population 2 000) are dependent on two ferries to the nearby city of Kingston, Ontario in Canada. Two replacement ferries (above), built quickly in Romania, are still not operational, two years after delivery. It’s a service a bit like the Largs-Millport one operated by CalMac. Locals have contacted the provincial government about this ferry crisis, but were shocked to hear: “the ministry does not have any documents that outline an implementation plan or implementation date.” Locals are now saying the old ferries are a better option than the new ones and have called for the Auditor … Continue reading Government has ‘no plans’ to deal with unreliable new Romanian ferries two years after delivery…in Canada

From Kiro News Radio today: The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) confirmed to KIRO Newsradio Monday that 38% of the vessels in the Washington State Ferries (WSF) fleet are out of service for various reasons. WSF Communications Consultant Brian Vail explained to KIRO Newsradio Monday that the Yakima ferry, which services Anacortes and the San Juan Islands, has been out of service since Saturday with electrical issues. The vessel maintenance staff and contractors are continuing to work on it, Vail added. Vail told KIRO Newsradio that with the Yakima out of service until its work is completed, eight ships — or nearly 40% … Continue reading 2 in every 5 ferries out of service in affluent Washington State – now that’s a ‘ferry fiasco’

As the Labour Party and their media chums pile onto Glasgow’s super-hospital exploiting cynically a small number of deaths perhaps, maybe, linked to or just after a water-born infection which might have maybe possible contributed to those deaths it’s important to put this enormous institution and its performance into a meaningful context. The funnel plot below, and previous examples reported here, comparing predicted deaths with actual deaths, shows two things in particular: No Scottish hospital had a significantly higher standardised mortality ratio than the national average ie all of Scotland’s hospitals are safe places. Glasgow’s QEUH is safer than average … Continue reading More than 50 English hospitals have worse mortality outcomes than QEUH in Glasgow

From stewartb I see that BBC Scotland has made another of its major contributions to the BBC News website, this time courtesy of the Unionist patriots at These Islands. Appearing on the main Scotland page of the website and with top billing on the Scotland Politics page (viewed at 1500hrs, 13 November), there is the headline: ‘Ministers downgrade Scottish offshore energy projection’. It seems that BBC Scotland rated this story highly for potential damage to the Scottish Government: this must be the justification for running with it so prominently as the substantive content is not new. Other indications of status … Continue reading Wind power – How BBC Scotland helped Unionist thinktank blow their own trumpets

We’ve seen Anas Sarwar with the mother of a child who died in a hospital and who believes that death was due to failures by the hospital for pushing five years now. On one occasion, he shouted out the name of the child in a TV debate with then FM, Nicola Sturgeon. He presents himself in heroic terms but to many, I feel sure, it comes across as creepy. In yesterday’s BBC report, he is named 5 times and the SNP is associated with the death: Mr Sarwar said former SNP health minister Jeane Freeman had supported an investigation, put … Continue reading The sickening politicising of child death is unique to Scotland

We’ve seen in the past desperate efforts by BBC Scotland to remind Scots that things are no different here when the rest of the UK suffers surges in crime generally, knife crime, drug gang activity, domestic abuse and, of course, hate crime. Today BBC Scotland headlines: The brother of a British-Israeli man murdered by Hamas has told the BBC he has never been more fearful of antisemitism in the UK. Bernard Cowan, from Scotland, was killed by Hamas gunmen in his home on a kibbutz in Southern Israel during the 7 October attack. The 57-year-old left his family in Glasgow … Continue reading On Antisemitism BBC Scotland hide the facts to imply ‘You’re no better than the rest of the UK!’

Thanks to AR for signalling this important message to me. From the Uist & Benbecula News today: Meanwhile more light has been shed by Alfred’s owners, Pentland Ferries, on the cost and background for Alfred’s loan to CalMac. The Orkney ferry company said the £6 million of extra funding to leave their ferry with CalMac for another six months was helping to keep their own service affordable for Orkney islanders, and maintaining staffing levels. In a statement last week Pentland Ferries’ managing director Helen Inkster said: “I can confirm that, following the successful deployment of MV Alfred on the West … Continue reading Scottish Government and CalMac help Orkney’s private ferry operator stay afloat

The troubled Washington State and British Columbia ferry services have featured many times now in our international reporting on ferry service problems. Increasingly, New Zealand has come to join the list of areas comparable, if in gentler climes, than that tackled daily by CalMac. Today, in the RNZ, we read of 10 different breakdowns and disruption for passengers on the two ferries serving Cook Strait, in the space of only 10 months: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/502312/timeline-the-troubled-cook-strait-ferries As with every other ferry operator globally, other than CalMac, reliable data on reliability are not published so we cannot quantify and compare that with CalMac’s 92.1% … Continue reading Two troubled ferry operators and 10 breakdowns in less than a year…in New Zealand