By stewartb The TuS piece (12 June) on Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol and the negative claims appearing on the front-page of the Sunday Post merits expansion. By fortunate coincidence, a regular browse through the latest output from Westminster’s select committees came across this very recently: House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (18 May 2023) Alcohol treatment services. (https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/40045/documents/195525/default/ ) Focused on the present state of alcohol consumption and the track record of the Tory government on service provision in England, the report is not only revealing in these regards but also records the expert evidence it received on … Continue reading Westminster’s Public Accounts Committee blasts Tory record on alcohol treatment services in England and learns benefit of Minimum Unit Pricing in Scotland

UK government’s flagship ‘Making Tax Digital’ programme:  – 400% real terms cost increase since 2016 and 8 years behind schedule. By stewartb One of the oddities about corporate media and BBC news output in Scotland is that the performance of major projects/programmes for which the Westminster government is responsible gets scant if any attention. This is the case even for projects within the scope of reserved powers: of course these are projects where taxes raised in Scotland are allocated to cover a share of Westminster’s total expenditure i.e. they appear in the GERS figures as public funds expended on Scotland’s … Continue reading The UK’s Audit Office is not the news while Scotland’s surely is

By stewartb There is a story circulating about the Labour-led West Lothian Council’s decision to close three public swimming pools. Underlying it is a typical political jibe blaming the Scottish Government, this time for not passing on a (supposed and tiny) Barnett consequential in the precise way the Council requires. However, the news coverage also provides yet another example of a lack of analysis, context or perspective from an important national news organisation. The STV website has this headline: ‘Three swimming pools to close as council blame ‘failure’ of government – Council chiefs said they were ‘extremely saddened and disappointed’ … Continue reading The elephant in the swimming pool – a less than amusing tale of Labour politics!

BBC’s ‘The Context‘ aims to help viewers understand what is happening in the UK by revealing, comparing and contrasting, with what is happening elsewhere on the globe. In Scotland, student journalists are taught that they should have both personalisation and context in their reports. Personalisation might be an in-depth account of individuals directly affected by, for example, a delayed ambulance response. Students are taught that this helps viewers understand what these delays mean for the human beings who experience them. BBC Scotland staff love to do this bit. Context would be how that one example compares with responses times across … Continue reading BBC UK agree ‘whataboutery’ is essential

The Herald’s health correspondent digs up another piece of unreliable evidence to undermine the reputation of NHS Scotland and, by association, the SNP Government. The facts as always, are not with her: In 2021, 404 women under 35 died and 6 154 men over 35 and under 65 years of age, died. In the same groups, 15 women and 1 592 men died of heart-related diseases. The risk of heart failure is more than 100 times greater for middle-aged men than for young women. Simple? Sources: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/vital-events-reference-tables/2021/list-of-data-tables Continue reading 100 times more at risk – Cardiac care is geared to middle-aged men for good reason

Heaven forfend but should enough Scots be taken in by Labour, they then win the UK election in 2024 and, if the media carpet-bombing does enough damage to the SNP, they can form an unholy alliance with the Cons and LDs take Holyrood in 2026, we are in deep trouble. As readers know, despite the media reporting, Scotland has by far the best NHS in the UK but with Labour in power in both places, this from the Canary, reveals that will guarantee it’s decline and increased unfairness: Currently, under Keir Starmer’s leadership, it has plans to use the private … Continue reading Not protecting the NHS – Why Scots should be very very wary of voting Labour

The actual news: The Scottish Government’s Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill aims to ensure that, apart from in the most serious of cases where people pose a risk to public safety or the delivery of justice in a case, remand is a last resort for the court. https://www.gov.scot/news/bail-and-release-from-custody-scotland-bill-passed/ That’s clear – no violent prisoners will be considered but Sharon Dowey MSP above, claims it will put public safety at risk. Has she or, indeed anyone at Con HQ, looked at the research? They probably have but didn’t like it. Here’s some: England and Wales have some of the … Continue reading SNP and alternatives to custody – Conservative MSP ignores detail and evidence to try to scare us

In a Tory-run Holyrood committee, a few island councillors get an extended opportunity to complain about their ferry services. The Mull and Iona councillor who, judging by his accent, chose to live there, presumably after a bit of research into what life is like on an island, tells us to look abroad for advice on how to run a ferry service because Scotland has ‘one of the worst in the world.’ Worse than Indonesia with 11 ferries sunk and thousands dead in only the last 20 years? Philippines with 13 and, similarly, thousands dead? Bangladesh with 18 and uncounted dead? … Continue reading ‘Scotland has one of the worst ferry services in the world?’ He needs to go island-hopping in Indonesia or Bangladesh or…

On June 5: British Labour leader Keir Starmer described nuclear power as a “key part” of the UK’s energy mix, and said his party would “push” nuclear power to “lower household energy bills, create jobs and ensure the energy security of the United Kingdom”. Starmer further accused the conservatives of a “chaotic” failure to try to open nuclear power plants during the 13 years he has been in power. As reported by “The Guardian” newspaper, the Labor leader will today visit Hinkley Point C in Somerset, one of several new nuclear facilities still not operational despite receiving the license in 2012. Starmer’s … Continue reading Scottish Labour to make big mistake on nuclear

For this who don’t see the twittering, the above and: Greece: From November to March, sailings are rare and usually serve the large islands or those that are popular to the locals! Minor and distant or tourist islands are not served at all: https://go-ferry.com/ferries-to-greek-islands#:~:text=Minor%20and%20distant%20or%20tourist,from%20there%20to%20your%20destination… Continue reading Today’s ferry twittering