The Sunday Times today is gleefully reporting: Labour will defeat SNP at the next election for the first time since 2010 to become Scotland’s largest party at Westminster, according to a landmark new poll. In a seismic reversal of fortunes, the Labour party would end a decade of electoral mediocrity north of the border to win a majority of seats by returning 26 MPs — an astonishing surge from their current bedrock of one. Such a scenario will dramatically boost Sir Keir Starmer’s chances of entering Downing Street next year. The SNP would likely be cast into turmoil with Labour … Continue reading Latest poll finds no change in SNP support after Sturgeon arrest

On a daily basis, feeding the highly selective, ‘ferry fiasco‘ narrative, BBC Scotland has: Islanders are facing yet more disruption after ferry operator CalMac announced a further delay in repairs to one of its vessels. The MV Hebridean Isles was initially expected to return to the Islay route in early June but engineers were unable to complete repairs by that time. The delay will have a knock-on effect on CalMac’s network. In a statement, CalMac said the MV Isle of Arran would remain on the Islay route, while Ardrossan-Brodick would continue to be served by MV Caledonian Isles and MV … Continue reading FACTCHECK: Ferries to Islay and Arran not ‘disrupted’ and operating at 100% on time

Passed to us by reader AR: Government quietly awards travel firm £1.6bn contract for asylum barges and accommodation without competition An Australian travel firm previously slammed for its handling of Covid quarantine hotels has been quietly handed a £1.6bn contract covering the UK’s new asylum accommodation ships, The Independent can reveal. Corporate Travel Management (CTM) was put in charge of the lucrative two-year arrangement in February, weeks before the government revealed it would use a barge as its first offshore accommodation for asylum seekers. The contract was awarded directly to CTM without a competition, and a lawyer with knowledge of the system said … Continue reading BBC Scotland don’t do illegal barge contracts it seems

In the Scotsman today, former Blair Government minister and sacked editor of the West Highland Free Press, Brian Wilson, is trying to sell bad vibrations on the pandemic experience in Scotland and rUK. In particular, he offers this barefaced lie and this deliberate confusion of the meaning of data Throughout the country, there were 220,000 Covid-related deaths with Scotland’s losses roughly proportionate. Almost half the Scottish deaths took place in care homes and answers will continue to be required here, just as in the rest of the UK. So, on the first claim, it’s once again like shooting fish in … Continue reading Scotsman’s Brian Wilson allowed to lie outright about Scotland’s far better pandemic management

The often otherwise excellent, Open Democracy, has this today: UK knew it prioritised NHS ‘to detriment of care homes’ It’s another Anglocentric report apparently ignorant of the very different actions by the SNP Government in Scotland. In May 2021, we had: The above graph revealing starkly the cost in lives of the failure in England to fully implement the JCVI guidance and vaccinate care home residents before all other groups was compiled by Na Sirf Musiqi https://twitter.com/nasirfmusiqi from official sources. It’s a story never told on MSM. It’s a far greater sin than wasting money on wallpaper. This shows the impact of … Continue reading Correction: Westminster knew it prioritised NHS ‘to detriment of care homes’ in England

Readers will be well aware of the endless reporting of individual instances of CalMac ferry problems. Evidence is emerging that their message is getting across and putting tourists off planning travel to the Scottish Islands. See this today: What are the facts? On Sunday 11 June 98.9% of 379 CalMac sailings were on time and the seasonal average is 95.4%: https://www.calmac.co.uk/calmac-performance-data-browser?date=11%2F06%2F2023 Brittany ferries with only 9 or 10 sailings per day on massively profitable routes, rarely reaches 90%: https://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/information/sailing-updates/sailings?ports=GBPME&ports=GBPOO&ports=GBPLY Balanced reporting? Scotland’s MSM is long capsized! Continue reading Ferry bad reporting of opposition comments is damaging tourism in the Scottish islands

Shameless I know, after they give me an award, but this 97 year-old, not for profit, throbbing organ, is only £40 for a year, posted directly to your door and full of interesting comment by SNP, Alba and other independent commentators. I’ll be doing a column in July on media coverage. I like it a lot. You can even send them a cheque, by ‘snailmail‘, in an envelope, with a stamp on, and walk to a letter box before putting it in. Details at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product/annual-12-month-subscription/ Continue reading Non-aligned, pro-Indy comment on paper by post at reasonable cost!

Headlining for BBC Scotland today: Leann Sutherland was 21 and suffering from chronic migraines when one of Scotland’s top surgeons offered to operate. She was told she would be in hospital for a few days and had a 60% chance of improvement. Instead she was in for months while Sam Eljamel operated on her seven times. The BBC can reveal her surgeon – the former head of neurosurgery at NHS Tayside – was harming patients and putting them at risk for years but the health board let him carry on regardless. NHS Tayside has consistently claimed it only knew about … Continue reading Whistle-blowers or chickens or imaginary?

Repeatedly on Reporting Scotland today and on the BBC Scotland website, by Lisa Summers, this claim: A senior doctor has said the number and type of infections at Glasgow’s child cancer wards were unlike anything he had seen before. Dr Dermot Murphy told an inquiry he became convinced environmental factors were to blame. NHS Greater Glasgow denies a link between the buildings and infections except in two distinct cases. Dr Murphy told the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry this week he believed there was a link between the environment at the new children’s hospital and the infections which led to the closure of the … Continue reading ‘Senior’ doctor’s anecdotal evidence is wrong on QEUH infection rates – they were provably not ‘unusual’

When the facts change, I change my mind – what do you do, sir? John Maynard Keynes On 15 February 2003, 100 000 marched from Glasgow Green to the Armadillo. I was at the tail-end with Ayr CND and just behind a feminist group with protest boards saying ‘The only bush I trust is my own.’ A few days before that, with around 20 University of the West of Scotland students, I attended a vigil organised by Ayr CND at the Cenotaph in the town. The CND guys with acoustic guitars taught the students to sing ‘Where have all the … Continue reading 20 years after ‘Shock and Awe’, I’ve had to change, ironically – have you?