Today, the Herald allows this claim, unchallenged: Even by their standards, the brass-necked cheek of that claim stated as if it was a fact, with no source, not even the a GP union shoddy survey. What research is there, either way? From the Health Foundation in February 2023 and oh so easy to access by even a Herald journalist: Some acute NHS trusts are now acquiring general practices and employing GPs – for example, to staff urgent treatment centres. What is proving more controversial is hospitals employing GPs to deliver a fuller range of GP services, such as the Royal … Continue reading Disastrous reporting: NHS take over of GP surgeries can be a very good thing

There’s been a lot of unresearched talk about this. The Labour/Lib Dem Scottish Scottish Government came to power in May 1999 and in May 2007, the SNP replaced them. Based on a wikipedia analysis, the LabLib pact ‘built’ 9 ferries and the SNP ‘built’ 9 also. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_MacBrayne_fleet Continue reading Ferry Fact Check – 9:9

Today, a friend sent me this from Scotland in Union: We all need to play our parts in making this [Scotland staying in the Union and the SNP out of power] happen.  Scotland in Union will help, through political activity and through making a positive case for the UK, sharing information with people so that they can share it further.  We had a good example of this sharing the other day, when one of our supporters asked for some facts and figures to help with asking questions of a nationalist, and we were able to send them something quickly to … Continue reading No meaningful visitor traffic recently!

1 086 00 in Scotland are under 18 years of age. Around 50%, at least 500 000, live in the West and South-West. There are four gender clinics in Scotland, in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness with Glasgow, I feel sure dealing with half of the cases. The Herald suggests ‘over 1 000’ then leads with: Thousands of Scots children and adults are on the waiting list for treatment at a gender identity clinic as health leaders warned the toxic row over self-ID has led to a recruitment crisis. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23469493.trans-children-facing-lengthy-waits-glasgow-treatment/?ref=ebbn The figure is 1 064, 0.21% of under 18s are on a … Continue reading Panic-mongering media on gender identity as only 0.21% are on waiting list

I know a self-selecting sample but quite a big response, offers a better indication than all the media headlines baying for blood. So, 57.5% of responses were from SNP members and only 3% of those think she should be suspended. 42.6% were not SNP members and only 8.1% of those thought she should be suspended. Pretty clear. Continue reading Hardly anybody really thinks Nicola Sturgeon should be suspended from the SNP

How much electricity does Scotland need? Again using Scotland it has a population a little over 5 million and requires 25 TWh/year of electrical energy each year. https://www.confusedaboutenergy.co.uk/technical-zone/energy-resources/what-is-a-kwh-what-is-a-twh.php How much electricity does England need? With 10 times the population, 250 TWh/year? How much electricity could Scotland produce? 237 TWh/year. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Scotland Continue reading Big enough to be independent? Scotland could produce TEN times the electricity it needs

Not making the headlines, how well the political leaders are perceived to be doing, in the recent YouGov poll. The Times interpret the headline SNP figure of 38% as a meltdown, despite that being the same level as the three polls immediately before he took up office and no worse than many in the past nine years. With the Sun, they have him: Humza Yousaf approval poll: incompetent and weak, say voters. Their own poll does not bear that out. Here are the figures: Rishi Sunak 52% doing badly/25% doing well, down from 50/31, 63/20 with women. Keir Starmer 47/28 … Continue reading Anas slumps, Humza more popular than most and who is that Lib Dem guy?

Today, BBC Business is reporting: TransPennine Express worst for train cancellations. Train operator TransPennine Express (TPE) cancelled around one in six of its services in the four weeks to the end of March, new figures show. The regulator said the cancellation rate leapt from 5.8% to 17% when trains cancelled up to 10pm the night before due to staff shortages were included. It was the highest in the country, but down on the 23.8% cancellation rate in the previous period to 4 March. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65346831 No politician is pictured and those who are mentioned are quoted attacking the company running the … Continue reading Only in Scotland: Train cancellations caused by a leading politician

Five polls now since the election of Humza Yousaf, two weeks now after the arrest of Peter Murrell and after a massive media feeding frenzy, SNP support is relatively low but steady at 38%. Labour support, relatively high for them, is stuck at 30%. Almost every newspaper, even the Independent has a headline like: Support for SNP falls to lowest level since 2014 referendum, poll suggests. YouGov again, for the Times again, on 12-16 January 2018 had the SNP again on 38%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2021_Scottish_Parliament_election The dust will settle. We’ve been down before. We’ve been up before. Continue reading SNP support steady after First Minister’s inverted honeymoon and NOT lowest since 2014 Referendum

The latest figures from Rajar show a staggering decline in Radio Scotland’s audience in just one year. In 2022, only 780 000 were listening, compared to 976 000 in the previous year, a 20.1% drop, in one year. Figures for Good Mourning Scotland and John Beattie’s Diretime, sorry Drivetime, are not released as this would threaten national security. However, a whistle-blower has told us that the decline has been largely due to the two flagship, high-end, political shows. Police Scotland has refused to investigate a suggested connection between shouted interruptions of SNP spokespersons on these shows and RTAs within seconds. … Continue reading John Beattie ‘driving’ Radio Scotland down