Media coverage tends to concentrate on negative facts. For example, last Sunday (11 June 2023), on one of the busiest days for tourism this year, CalMac had 379 timetabled sailings with 98.9% on time. Previous days? 96.7%, 96.3%, 99.2%…… This is not unusual but never reported. You can check this daily at: https://www.calmac.co.uk/calmac-performance-data-browser?date=11%2F06%2F2023 Ardrossan-Brodick crossing (above)? 100%, right across the weekend. Brittany channel ferries? 83% today. Continue reading On busiest day of the year so far 99% of Calmac crossings are on time and to Arran 100%

As Reporting Scotland drooled all over the Sturgeon no charges case again this morning, STV ignored it. Similarly, unreported by Reporting Scotland Down this morning, STV have this big story of obvious public interest for any public service broadcaster: Scotland’s murder rate falls to lowest level since modern records began. Once dubbed the ‘most violent country in the developed world’ in a UN report, murders have fallen to the lowest level in almost 50 years. Figures presented by Police Scotland to the Scottish Police Authority show there were 48 homicides in 2022-23. That compares to a high of 137 back … Continue reading Murder rate in STV Scotland plummets below England & Wales but not in Reporting Scotland

Holyrood constituency polls since election of Humza Yousaf, with several below 40%. Holyrood constituency polling before the May 2021 election, with several below 40%. Look at September/October 2017. On 9 October 2017, John Curtice wrote: So just how much difficulty are the SNP in as they gather in Glasgow for their autumn conference?  Are they, as some reporting seems to suggest, fatally wounded in the wake of the setback that the party suffered in the UK general election in June? Or does the party simply need to bide its time in the expectation that the tide will soon turn once more in its … Continue reading SNP was below 40% in 2017 but up at 50% and more by 2020

The Sunday Post is front-paging a report by a think tank with no background in researching health matters. Here are the established facts that matter: The introduction of minimum unit pricing in Scotland is associated with significant reductions in deaths from alcohol consumption, research has found. Over a period of two years and eight months after the policy was rolled out in Scotland a 13% reduction was seen in deaths from alcohol consumption when compared with an estimate of the deaths that would have occurred without the legislation, using data from England. This is equivalent to avoiding 156 deaths a … Continue reading Fact: Scotland’s Minimum pricing saves 156 deaths a year

First – many thanks to all the contributors especially but not only stewartb, who have made Talking-up Scotland the top political blog in Sc….OK, Ayr. Ayr man follows Sir Sean Connery and Alex Salmond in winning OBA! Last Saturday in Perth, Ayr man, Professor John Robertson was presented with the Oliver Brown Award by the board of the Scots Independent newspaper. The award goes to a journalist, author, critic, illustrator, radio or television performer who, in the opinion of the judges, has done most in the preceding year to advance the cause of Scotland’s self-respect. Previous recipients include Mary Marquis … Continue reading Ayr man follows Sean Connery!

By stewartb The UK Department of Transport has recently updated UK statistics on the provision of public electric vehicle charging devices by nation and region. It obtains the data from the electric vehicle and charging point platform Zapmap to provide a snapshot. Source https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/electric-vehicle-charging-device-statistics-april-2023/electric-vehicle-charging-device-statistics-april-2023#annex-b-location-of-charging-devices Two metrics are shown in the diagrams below: (I) overall distribution of public charging points per 100,000 of population; and (ii) the number of ‘rapid’ plus ‘ultra rapid’ charging points per 100,000 of population. (Definitions are given in the source document.) The first chart shows the present uneven geographical distribution of devices. It is notable that … Continue reading ‘Scotland has highest rate of public rapid charging devices for electric vehicles of any UK nation or region’ says UK government report

Perspective on the NHS – the antidote to Tory/Labour tactics in Scotland that must be withheld! By stewartb The Royal College of Radiologists (RC) has just published two census reports on the workforce treating cancer in the NHS across the UK. It’s worth delving in to some of the details not least because the BBC’s coverage, whilst prominent, makes little or nothing (of course) of those findings that paint NHS Scotland in a relatively favourable light. Purpose The state of the NHS in Scotland compared to its peers in the rest of the UK is a much covered topic on … Continue reading Tory and Labour governments in England and Wales presiding over what is often poorer NHS performance

stewartb You may not need or want yet another case study of the BBC’s ‘distinctive’ editorial practices when it comes to news coverage of public policy matters in Scotland. However, candidly, as an exemplar this takes some beating! The BBC’s coverage today (8 June) of a new report on NHS cancer care makes much of the fact that the problems are found in all four nations of the UK. The BBC News website has this headline: ‘NHS struggling to provide safe cancer care, say senior doctors’. And we are told: ‘The Royal College of Radiologists is warning that all four … Continue reading The hypocrisy of these two on cancer waiting times

Headlining in the Herald today: PATIENTS are at risk from a “dangerous” shortage of doctors in some areas with overstretched hospital departments “barely able to provide a service” due to vacancies, a medical leader has warned. It’s Dr Kennedy again, described as a ‘medical leader’ warning of the risks to life posed by shortages of hospital consultants and GPs in rural areas. Does he have any evidence for that? Higher mortality in Scotland is largely due to higher rates of deprivation, smoking, alcohol consumption and poor diet.’ Shortened lives are not more common in rural areas but rather in post-industrial urban … Continue reading The Tories’ favourite trade unionist and not leading doctor pops up again

BBC Health today, based on the above data, is telling us: NHS services across the whole UK have been struggling to meet cancer targets since well before Covid. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65764755 The differences are greater. They have been careful to include NHS England’s improvement in March 2023, to 64% starting treatment within the target 64 days, from only 54.4% in December 2022, but have then compared that with the NHS Scotland figure for December 2022. The correct, fair comparison would be 72% with 54.4%, a 16.6% gap and thus 30.5% better than the 54.4% figure. Remember, that difference meant around 4 000 … Continue reading Scotland’s significantly better cancer waiting times obscured by BBC reporting