By stewartb Positive findings on Scotland’s response to Ukrainians seeking refuge as National Audit Office reveals big differences in numbers hosted across the UKThe National Audit Office (NAO) has recently (17 October 2023) published an ’Investigation into the Homes for Ukraine scheme’. See https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/investigation-into-the-homes-for-ukraine-scheme.pdf Established in March 2022 by the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC), this was by far the largest UK initiative to enable the hosting of Ukrainian nationals seeking refuge from war in their country. You may recall that in addition to individuals being able to ‘sponsor’ Ukrainians to come to … Continue reading Scotland takes in nearly 5 times as many Ukrainian refugees

From Alasdair Galloway Another thought Tonight on Question Time from Bradford, the point was made by an, I would guess Muslim, member of the audience that the Labour Party was in “meltdown” (I think was the word used). Evidence for this is all around us. Open Democracy (link below) reports this morning that over 250 Muslim Labour councillors have demanded Keir Starmer call for a ceasefire in Gaza, joining dozens of MPs in doing so. A letter from the Labour Muslim Network reads: “As Labour councillors elected to serve our constituents, the message we have been hearing repeatedly over the … Continue reading Labour in meltdown

Reading today Sunak ‘highly unlikely’ to meet promise to cut NHS waiting lists, warn health leaders and predictions that England’s waiting list will soar to 8 million next year, from the 7.6 million in the above graphs, I had a wee look around and found that in an August 2023 Guardian article I’d missed and ‘our’ media had ignored. In that report we see also: “There are many differences across the devolved nations which might be relevant here, notably an older population in Scotland and Wales with more deprivation; higher nurse staffing and higher spending in both Scotland and Wales; and more … Continue reading Factcheck: Scotland’s waiting lists significantly lower than in England, less than half that in Labour Wales and just over a quarter of that in Northern Ireland

From ITVx today: Condor Ferries‘ new cross-channel ship, the Islander, is out of service due to technical problems just three days after its first passenger sailing. The ferry arrived in Guernsey from the UK on Sunday 22 October on its maiden passenger sailing. It wasn’t able to continue on to Jersey and returned to Portsmouth instead. It’s understood an issue with the ship’s bow thrusters led to sailings between Thursday 26 October and Thursday 2 November being cancelled. The 125m long conventional ferry was bought with the help of a £26 million loan from the States of Guernsey. When approached by ITV News, a spokesperson for Condor Ferries declined to … Continue reading Channel Islanders ‘furious’ as brand new Dutch-built ‘troubled’ ferry, repaired in Spain but pulled after only three days

There was a time trade union surveys would be ignored by the media but today, only in Scotland, they are food and drink for ‘our’ unscrupulous reporters making their daily contribution to the cause of fooling the old and vulnerable and keeping them in the NO camp. Today, Martin Williams of the Herald, Scotland’s 2nd Best Ferry Correspondent, has: One in three firefighters consider quitting in ‘decade of neglect’ The evidence? ‘A survey of 1 500 staff’. Does that mean 1 500 responded or they asked 1 500 of the total 3 500? Martin doesn’t tell us that. If a … Continue reading Fewer than 1 in 5 firefighters think they might leave, maybe, sometime

….have been deleted. The Times newspaper reports that National Clinical Director Jason Leitch’s messages cannot be handed over to official inquiries because he deleted them every day. It means there were none when a ‘do not destroy’ notice was issued [in 2022]. ‘Scotland’s’ media are already underway with a no-doubt uncoordinated but culturally-disposed trend whereby the content of messaging and emails is used to associate even ‘accuse’ the SNP Government with/for any supposed failures in pandemic management. They will do this regardless of the factual evidence of better performance – fewer deaths – here than elsewhere in the UK. Today, … Continue reading UK Government told ministers to set all WhatsApp messaging to instant delete

Today, BBC Scotland, the Herald’s Tom Gordon and the Sun’s Chris Musson have joined in the faux empathy for relatives of the pandemic dead with accusations that the Scottish Government plans to withhold WhatsApp messages on the basis that they have not yet produced them. Douglas Ross has led the charge with: Grieving families deserve answers and full transparency from this government. So why has Humza Yousaf not handed over key messages to the inquiry? Ross has, of course not been challenged with the above from 2 October. During the pandemic, his leader, Rishi Sunak, was Chancellor. The excuse seems … Continue reading BBC Scotland, Tom Gordon and the Sun back Scottish Tories hypocritical WhatsApp accusations

What impact ‘perspective’? – the case of NHS performance. By stewartb A longstanding theme in TuS is that when debating the performance of public services and of the associated responsible government, context and perspective are valuable inputs to decision making by voters. It is also a recurring theme that despite having public service broadcasting with an obligation to inform operating alongside commercial news media, Scotland is ill-served. Candidly, it is commonplace to experience BBC Scotland as a void when it comes to the provision of context or perspective. The case of NHS Scotland The NHS performance metric of greatest concern … Continue reading Royal College reveals Scotland’s far better wait times

That’s according to research for a think tank. The Commission on School Reform says ministers must work with councils to reverse the trend. The Scottish government says it’s looking at challenges that influence attendance…..the figures are based on Freedom of Information requests from the Scottish local authorities who were able to respond to them. The figures suggest nearly one in three children are missing an average of one day a fortnight, while nearly 20% of high school pupils miss a day every week…. A Commission spokesperson says children who miss a large proportion of school time are less likely to … Continue reading Lord MacConnell, Chris Deerin and Alison Payne’s shoddy research on school absences headlines but is worthless

In the first of many media reports on the Covid-19 Inquiry, that will distort the truth, deceive audiences and upset relatives, BBC Scotland has: Some care home residents may have been “neglected and left to starve” during the pandemic, Scotland’s Covid Inquiry is expected to hear. Some care home residents may have been “neglected and left to starve” during the pandemic, Scotland’s Covid Inquiry is expected to hear. The data presented in the graph above and in the full report Excess deaths from all causes, involving and with dementia as the underlying cause: Scotland 2020-2022 from the Scottish Government in … Continue reading Scottish Covid Inquiry: NO EVIDENCE that care home residents were ‘left to starve’