Despite STV being able to report this 14 hours ago, the Mail and Express prefer to run today with the lie by George Foulkes: The Scottish Government is not being investigated by UK officials over concerns it has been spending public money on matters not within its remit. A Scottish Labour peer told Parliament that officials in the Treasury and the Office of the Advocate General of Scotland were to look into cash spent working on Scottish independence – an area reserved to Westminster. However, it is understood this is not the case. A spokesperson for the UK Government said: … Continue reading ‘SNP’ independence spending not being probed by UK yet Mail and Express still repeating Foulkes lie

The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser, closing today at 3pm, primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland – a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS  On BBC Reporting Scotland this morning and across Scottish media, the report of a child being struck by an SUV, as reported by Police Scotland. Appeal after child … Continue reading As 4 year-old struck by BMW X1 is in critical condition why SUVs are 8 times more likely to kill a child

stewartb The level of students’ personal debt reflects UK government decisions – acting as the government of England – to load the cost of higher education onto individuals rather than the public finances. The extent to which this has been done is a policy choice. The extent to which it has been done – and sustained – in England over more than a decade is a function of the choices made by voters in England. They have wanted this policy, they endorsed this policy at the ballot box and/or at least they have acquiesced to its continuation. They have every … Continue reading Students’ personal debt reflects UK government decisions to load costs of HE onto individuals rather than public finances

I know many disagree but the evidence is in. STV News, for all its faults, can be trusted far more than BBC Scotland, the Herald, the Scotsman or the Record. It’d take too long to extract the text but see these: And finally, empirically, as far back as May 2015: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://thoughtcontrolscotland.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/propaganda-or-professionalism.pdf Continue reading Why is the Herald hours behind STV News at the very same time? If you have to watch TV News, watch STV

The Herald today with another of their Labour-affiliated union feeds, to make Scots feel SNP Government must not be working, typically context free to make that possible. The context? The total student loan debt in England is £182 billion. With 10 times the population, all things being equal, student debt in England might be expected to be 10 times higher – £76bn – but it’s £182bn, TWO AND A HALF times higher. Also, Student loan debts are wiped after 30 years after they are first due to be repaid. The Herald opens with: Outstanding loan debt owed by students in … Continue reading Student debt in Scotland less than half that in England

The Herald gave their award last year to Anas Sarwar. Look at his ratings compared to the FM Humza Yousaf, since then. The Herald clearly misread the public mood then. How will they do this time? Continue reading How can the Herald Politician of the Year be so far behind Humza Yousaf?

By stewartb – a long read This is the third (and final for now) blog post on the findings of an ongoing Review of the UK Constitution by the Institute for Government (IfG) and Bennett Institute for Public Policy’s (University of Cambridge) Source: Jack et al (2022) A framework for reviewing the UK constitution. Institute for Government report 50pp. (https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/framework-reviewing-uk-constitution.pdf ) The aim of the Review is to examine the purpose of constitutions; to assess how the UK constitution fulfils that purpose; to highlight problems with the UK’s constitution that are now being revealed; and to offer views on whether … Continue reading The UK constitution – leaves devolution ‘vulnerable to the whim’ of Westminster!

From the Herald today: SNP ministers have been accused of stretching the Scottish education system “beyond breaking point” after statistics revealed that one in six secondary schools have a pupil roll greater than 100% capacity. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23636498.high-schools-beyond-breaking-point-one-six-full-capacity/ Who is the ‘accuser’ ignoring the fact that local authorities are directly responsible for the above ‘problem?’ Oh, it’s Liam Kerr MSP Con. Imagine the same schools had a bit more space? What would Kerr be saying then? ‘SNP wasting taxpayers’ money on empty classrooms!’ The article by David Bols is just another opposition party press release and should be condemned as such. Finally, Bols tells … Continue reading Scottish high schools capacity ‘well-judged’ as only one in six at full capacity

Service chaos again? After a long period with between 95% and 98% of sailings on time, Calmac has dipped in the last 5 days to between 84% and 88%. This puts it, for the moment, with Ryanair on around 88% this year but still better that Brittany Ferries with 1 out of 8 cancelled and another late today. Returning to the Herald headlining ferries again and again, story. The MV Loch Frisa, bottom, is only one of 2 ferries to Mull and the other has been making around 20 sailings every day, on time, for some time now. Similarly there … Continue reading Two paracetamol should do?