From the Daily Record yesterday: The SNP has been accused of “shameless hypocrisy” after health boards spent nearly £130m sending patients to private hospitals. Humza Yousaf’s party this week urged Labour to rule out “privatisation” of the NHS. They hit out at the “expanded role” for the private sector and dismissed Labour leader Keir Starmer as a Blairite. But new figures released under FOI show the amount given to the private sector for treating NHS patients is on the rise under the SNP-led Government. In 2018/29, the total stood at £24.1m, before surging to £32.7m and falling to £15.4m in the first full year of … Continue reading Paul Hutcheon won’t do his sums as NHS England spend 74 times as much pro rata on private hospitals

From GB News yesterday: Tory MSP Russell Findlay told the Daily Record: “It is madness to try and solve Scotland’s drug death crisis, the worst in Europe, by essentially legalising heroin, crack and other class-A drugs. “This would put more drugs on our streets. It would put more lives at risk. What kind of message is the SNP sending to Scotland’s drug-ravaged communities?” Likewise, Labour also condemned the proposals with Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor saying: “I do not think this sounds like a good policy. “I find it quite stunning that this would be a priority for the Scottish … Continue reading Tories and Labour to block SNP Government’s evidence-based proposals for decriminalisation of drugs, for cynical political gain

BBC Travel has joined the campaign to suggest the Orkneys have no strong ties with Scotland and claim: The Viking spirit of a remote Scottish archipelago – Orkney made headlines worldwide this week with news that the archipelago wants to leave both Scotland and the UK in order to join, or rather rejoin, Norway…..Vikings started arriving in Orkney from Norway in the late 8th Century and found the fertile islands so much to their liking that they stayed for 500 years, settling as farmers and using the islands as a base to launch further voyages.  https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230706-the-viking-spirit-of-a-remote-scottish-archipelago Leaving aside the language used to … Continue reading Orcadians are Picts rather than Vikings

I thought STV had cleared this up but the Insider is hanging on to this one: The Advocate General for Scotland is “examining” Scottish Government spending on an independence minister, according to an email sent to a Labour peer. A UK Government source had denied there was any investigation after the issue was raised by Lord Foulkes in the House of Lords on Thursday, when he asked Treasury minister Baroness Penn if she would co-operate with the probe. However, an email exchange between the peer and Lord Stewart, the UK Government adviser on Scots Law, suggests an inquiry has been … Continue reading Lord Foulkes still expects an SNP probe!

By stewartb A new report by the public accounts committee of the House of Commons is noteworthy. Before reading the summary below, I suggest a moment’s reflection! As a ‘thought experiment’, take the reaction of the BBC, the corporate mainstream media and opposition politicians to the procurement of two ferries in Scotland as your benchmark. Then, after reading about another procurement – and mindful of the ‘ferries’ benchmark – what scale and intensity of media and political reaction would be commensurate?  Source: House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts (3 July 2023) HS2 Euston. Sixty-Third Report of Session 2022–23 (https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/40783/documents/198632/default/ … Continue reading It’s not ‘ferries’ so no big deal? Eight years’ planning & design and £2.2 billion over budget but UK government ‘does not know what it is trying to achieve’.

First Minister and previous Health Secretary, Humza Yousaf has averted strikes by nurses, ambulance staff and now junior doctors. Deep within the grudging report from BBC Scotland with no comments from Sandesh Gulhane or Jackie Baillie, we read: Committee chair Chris Smith said the improved offer involved “compromise on both sides” and was a “genuinely credible and workable pathway towards pay restoration”. Dr Smith said: “At this stage, our negotiation team feels we have reached the limit of what can be achieved this year and does not think strike action would result in a realistically improved offer. “Equally, it could … Continue reading Yousaf praised after averting strikes by nurses, ambulance staff and now junior doctors

See what they’ve done dropping the essential ‘for personal use?’ They do mention personal use in the sub-heading but the damage has been done. You can see the opposition-fed headlines: SNP soft on drugs! SNP encourage addiction! Make up your own. STV is by no means perfect but since 2015, they have been far less likely to politicise social problems and public service performance. See this for the evidence: Tell you ma, tell your da, watch STV News! Continue reading Tell your ma, tell your da, watch STV News!: BBC Scotland unlike STV ‘careful’ to scare you with a drugs lie

Four of the only five polls suggesting a YES lead, in 2023, were not weighted by the 9 year-old 2014 demographics. I’m indebted to Independent Voices @Celebs4indy for explaining to me why they are probably more reliable than all of the others: I hope readers will agree that my Primary 7 numeracy skills are sufficient for dealing with comparative percentages, line graphs, scatter graphs and my recent fave – funnel web charts of hospital mortality, but judging the reliability of polling methods is beyond me His extended piece on how polls work is a must read: https://indyvoices.info/lifting-the-lid-on-the-black-box Continue reading Are the YES lead polls based on better methods?

Workplace deaths in Scotland have tragically more than doubled in 2022/23, to 26, compared with 11 in 2019/20. Employers have been getting away with murder. However: The rate of workplace deaths has fallen dramatically over time. These are UK-wide data. I can’t find data for the longer-term trend in Scotland. Scotland has a higher workplace-related death ratio than England because of a higher proportion of the population working in high risks industries such as oil & gas extraction, farming and fishing. An equivalent graph for Scotland will probably reveal a downward trend but with with spikes such as that 35 … Continue reading Work-related death spike

There’s someone missing from this latest in an endless milking of the ferry saga. It is terrible. Someone should carry the blame for this but he won’t because, though he signed the contract, advised by his own experts, they have been unable to deliver. They want to blame the Scottish Government and/or its agency Cmal but it won’t wash. The man responsible is one of the two below: Why? From reader Bob Lamont in December 2022: I’m not about to get into a hissing contest over political views because that is precisely what has been abused in this ongoing saga … Continue reading Ferry delay – one rich and powerful man signed the contract and is thus fully responsible