Between the spring of 1788 and summer of 1790 fifty seven complaints were made to London Magistrates by women alleging that they had been molested and stabbed [on the buttocks] by an individual stranger in public. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/412011/1/LIBRARY_COPY_PhD_Thesis_Final_Formatted_Version.pdf Reports of ‘lady bottom cutters’ then spread like wildfire across the newly emerging mass media in the form of daily newspapers. While it cannot be shown that there were no actual incidents of bottom cutting, initially, the media-amplified spread has been described as one of the earliest example of a ‘moral panic‘ where mass media take reports of deviance, construct them into a … Continue reading From lady bottom cutters to ferry fiascos – the imagined worlds that damage us all even those who write them into being

Some years ago, Frankie Boyle wondered: ‘How can we teach the Afghans about democracy? I know, let’s send them a prince to shoot at them from a helicopter!’ Today, inspired by his late mum’s part-clearing of one landmine and hugging one drug addict, it’s: ‘How can we solve the problem of homelessness? I know, let’s send them a prince with several plush properties and hundreds of empty bedrooms!’ What can go wrong? What could the Windsors do next? ‘How can we stop fox hunting? I know, let’s send them a princess who….ah, no that won’t work.’ ‘Well, how can we … Continue reading Harry Potter and the Windsor Nuts

Above, what the headline should have said. Below what BBC Scotland chose: UK could be starved of energy, says North Sea boss You have to read beyond the headline to see: The UK is at risk of being “starved” of North Sea energy leaving it reliant on imports, a major oil and gas producer has told the BBC. Ithaca Energy said Labour’s pledge to ban new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea and current taxation policy was “spooking” investors. Last week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said a Labour government would not grant licences to explore new fields in … Continue reading Protecting Scottish Labour as their policy ‘spooks’ North Sea energy investors

On the early TV broadcast news and in the extended website version, this major report finds the SNP minimum pricing policy to have been a major success, with evidence of 13.4% reduction in related deaths, a 4.1% reduction in hospital admissions and whopping 40% reduction among men in the most deprived areas. These should have been the headline grabbing comments but instead BBC Scotland headline and open the report with: Call to raise ‘life-saving’ minimum alcohol price in Scotland Scotland should increase its minimum unit price for alcohol from 50p to 65p, campaigners have said. It came as a final … Continue reading Major SNP policy saves many lives but is damned with faint praise by BBC Scotland

The utterly brilliant satirist Cold War Steve positions media mogul Rupert Murdoch with his loyal supplicants in a palatial context ripe with the air of corruption. He didn’t seem to spot this: There he is with the other private health corporation-funded Labour lot. When Cold Water Steve doesn’t even notice you, how sad is that? Continue reading Cold War Steve has no idea who Anas Sarwar is but knows that if he does not, Sarwar must not matter

Humza Yousaf was in encouragingly combative mood on Sunday, above. On the same day, I asked the 9 500 following TuS on twitter how they rated him now, after two months in the post, and after a torrid media carpet bombing campaign. The result is below: This is a self-selecting and quite small sample and so not reliable. However, it is interesting and, of course, around 100 times larger than a typical Reporting Scotland street sample in Buchanan Street of 5 folk, strangely all members of the Orange Order, telling us he’s rubbish. 72% rating him high and only 15.4% … Continue reading Humza Yousaf impresses big majority in poll of Yes supporters

Just like the higher-rate taxpayers fleeing south, islanders fleeing to the mainland from their frankly better, subsidised lives, is a mythical whopper employed by folk like Transport Committee chair, Edward Mountain MSP, Con. I can’t see the actual report yet but it will be interesting to see if, in its pages, there is any actual consideration of the evidence of reliability in actual statistics. For the last 7 years of records, CalMac has consistently served more than 30, sometimes quite remote and small communities, with 95% reliability and 100% safety, sailing, at times more than 500 times a day. No … Continue reading There is no ‘existential threat’ to Scotland’s islands with a growing population served by 95% reliable ferries

As Elton John voluntarily says goodbye at Glastonbury, the more modest ‘Pacific Quay’ tour of just South Uist and, sometimes, Arran and Campbelltown, steams on, headlining day-after-day. Leading psychologists have reported an increase in the number of their patients absolutely refusing to take a ferry trip in case they get left on the quayside and are never seen again. After hundreds of media reports of ferry cancellations ‘devastating’ island economies, patients have proved resistant to treatments based on actual, real-life, real-world, evidence such as the 99% reliability last Saturday with 518 out of 523 sailings on time and the seasonal … Continue reading Psychologists link new ‘ferry abandonment phobia’ cases to saturation media coverage as service plummets to ‘catastrophic’ 97% reliability in one day

BBC UK have been gushing all over this ‘major project‘ by Prince William to ‘end’ homelessness completely in six different places across the UK in the next five years by giving ‘up to £3 million‘ of his own, well ‘ours‘, money! THREE MILLION!!?? WOW!!! That’ll go a long way won’t it? Nope. Just for Scotland, the Scottish Government invested £100 million (https://www.gov.scot/policies/homelessness/) and in the very last of the 30 paragraph plus BBC online report: A spokeswoman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities welcomed the prince’s initiative. “We are giving councils £2bn over three years, to help … Continue reading Prince to invest far far far less than SNP Government on ending homelessness