Back in February 2023, the Herald’s Health Correspondent, under the above headline, noted: At the time, we found that they had done that partly, at least, by sacrificing those on the still-long but less than two-year lists: The UK Government and NHS England have been sneaky again, as they did when they began restarting the clock for A&E patients, after they had been triaged. They knew how the media feasted on stories of patients waiting more than two years and regardless of the seriousness of the cases, threw money at them, rushing them through private hospitals and at the expense of other … Continue reading Scottish taxpayers helped to fund cost of eradicating England’s two-year waiting list

Another wee misleading scare story from the Herald today – why are Scotland and Wales not testing for PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) as much as they are in England? Might this suggest a reason? From the Guardian in February 2023: Is anyone suggesting that Ireland, Wales and Norway are behind Belgium or maybe it’s because they, like Scotland, have better environmental standards, better water quality, reducing the need for such testing? Continue reading Why is England behind Scotland on actual levels of toxic chemicals in our blood and birds?

News, sadly for us, is often the result of utterly cynical choices about what and how to report, for maximum effect and not for the truth. First is the SNP camper van ‘state-of-the-art’ or ‘high-end?’ According to the evidence below, the above camper van was bought for just over £80 000 in 2021. It’s hardly ‘state-of-the-art’ or ‘high-end’, given that you can pay up to $3 million for the Marchi Mobile EleMMent Palazzo. Even within the Niesmann + Bischoff motorhome range, the really high-end ones cost as much as £180 000! Why was it bought? ‘Down the page’, the Daily … Continue reading SNP praised for responsible approach to campaigning during pandemic with modest, basic, ordinary, low-cost camper van

By stewartb After a long-running campaign by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), NHS England has altered the way it reports monthly performance data on long waits by patients attending its major (Type 1) A&E departments. In evidence to a House of Lords committee (on 19 January 2023), the prevailing practice of measuring 12-hour waits from the time of a ‘decision to admit’ (DTA) rather than from ‘time of arrival’ (TOA – as in Scotland) was described by Dr Adrian Boyle, President of the RCEM as “a fundamentally dishonest way of reporting data. It is hiding and doing our … Continue reading Finally, NHS England sorts ‘dishonest’ reporting of long A&E waits – revealing much better performance by NHS Scotland!

Today, the Herald tells us gleefully that ONE of CalMac’s busiest lifeline service has lost its only boat – at a time when they would expect to have two – after yet another ferry breakdown. The actual details – the last sailing from Brodick yesterday was at 3pm with buses then laid on for transfers to the Lochranza ferry crossing in the north of the island. This morning on BBC 1, of all places, at 06:27am: From the Calmac status alert, up from yesterday: Friday 14th April Repairs have been successfully carried out on the vessel’s engine exhaust leak. Service … Continue reading Beyond a joke: The Herald’s ferry-reporting fiasco

From Redfield and Wilton on 10 April 2023, Scots seem far more likely than those in other parts of the UK to turn out and vote. Should we be proud of this? Should our media celebrate this? Do we have politicians more worth voting for? Continue reading Scotland most democratic in UK

Governor General in Scotland, Alister Jack has just announced sending a minister and ‘team’ to the annual Tartan Week celebration in New York after more than a decade of SNP ministers effectively monopolising it.  Scottish Governor’s Office Minister for…..we don’t know….John Lamont and Murdo Fraser’s Uncle Bobbie will lead the ‘King’s Team’ for the mission The Herald’s Tom Gordonstoun has been named as the public relations chappie for the visits and will be recycling the all-grey, back-to-front, Jack McConnell kilt at events in NY. Continue reading LATEST: Scotland Office announces team to end SNP monopoly of New York’s Tartan Week

This yesterday, from the very new (March 2023) Election Predictor is a dramatic outlier prediction of a collapse in SNP Westminster support with: Labour 27 seats (+26) SNP 20 seats (-28) Lib Dems 6 seats (+2) Conservatives 6 seats (no change). On the same day, Polling UK had this: 51 SNP seats and a tiny handful of Labour (1), Con (3?) and LD (4?). The most recent mainstream poll analysis from Electoral Calculus has the SNP at between 36 and 49 seats: https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html So, who or what is Election Predictor and what are they up to? It’s looking for patrons … Continue reading Is Election Predictor’s SNP collapse just ‘Cyber troop activity?’

On December 2019, the SNP vote share was 45% yet in the 40 polls prior to that, not one reached 45% and many in the preceding 2 or 3 months failed to predict more than 39%. In contrast, the Con and Labour predictions in the preceding 6 polls were mostly higher than their eventual share of 25.1% and 18.6%. Might a similar thing be happening now, as the last 20 or so polls have the SNP at best 40% and often less than that? Today Polling UK, using a different methodology from all of the other pollsters, reports the above … Continue reading Westminster SNP boost after ’14 police vans and 1 big tent?’