Neil Mackay, ever determined to tell us that white supremacism, anti-Catholic bigotry and any kind of hate crime you can imagine has not even begun to go away, even if the statistics say otherwise, is today using the personal recollections of one man, in the 1980s, to offer this headline: ‘Men with bats shouted the N-word’: Gary Younge on racism in Scotland https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23396522.men-bats-shouted-n-word-gary-younge-racism-scotland/ So, the headline misses ..40 years ago. No space? We get lots of anecdotes about being shouted at by youths and even threatened with a baseball bat but no actual account of violence suffered, 40 years ago. … Continue reading Racism in Scotland….forty years ago!

More than 1 million Iraqis died as a consequence of the combined US/UK invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Guardian fully supported the invasion in March of that year. Today the Guardian’s Editor and the writer Jonathan Freedland write self-importantly of the lessons that can be learned. Freedland claims to have argued against it ‘on these pages’ and the Editorial forgets that in 2003, it argued for the attack. In January 2003, the Guardian editorial explicitly made the case for what it called ‘decisive action.’ Friedland is referring to a piece in March 2002, a full year earlier. He wasn’t … Continue reading The Guardian needs to remember its own role in the Iraq war and its 1 million excess deaths

As of 2022, only one in 390.46 UK citizens could bear to carry the Con Party card. You have to think that after having that Truss fitted, then quickly pulled off, the numbers must be even worse now. As of 2023, 1 in 75 Scots is an SNP member, 5 times more appealing than the Cons. The Scottish Cons will not reveal their membership. UK Labour claimed 450 000 in 2022, 1 in 149 UK citizens, half as popular as the SNP. Again after another year of Starmering, that seems likely to have fallen. Scottish Labour, admitting even lower popularity, … Continue reading Only 1 in 390 cared enough to be in the Con Party last year

The above extract from a Herald piece, behind the paywall today, reminds that it is not a monolithic anti-independence media machine. Through it’s leading writers, it is a kind of septic think tank dominated by ill-informed and shoddy journalism aimed at undermining the SNP whenever and whenever it can but, now and again, something honest creeps through. This piece today US professor wants to spread news of Scotland’s renewables to world, opens with: Sometimes it takes an outsider’s eye to see what a country is doing well, someone, for instance, such as George Busenberg, Associate Professor of Environmental Management and … Continue reading Scotland and renewables, a model for the world but not for the UK it seems

‘Deep disappointment’ at how Tories treat one of Scotland’s largest and longest-standing industries! By stewartb I see the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) is having a go at the Tory government following the Chancellor’s Budget announcements! This is quite a change of tune: the SWA has been fulsome in its praise of the Tory government for trade deals post-Brexit – including the one with Australia condemned by many farmers. The SWA is clearly not happy with the Chancellor but what of the Tories in Scotland, what is the SWA’s view of the party’s ‘influential’ leader, Douglas Ross? Might we see an … Continue reading Whisky and the Tories

By stewartb I note the UK Chancellor’s intervention today in local government prioritisation in Scotland! He has announced: ‘£1.5 million funding to repair the Cloddach Bridge’. The bridge is located in Moray: the local MP is Tory leader in Scotland, Douglas Ross. From 10 February this year, on. the Scottish Tory Party’s website we learned: ‘Ross “disappointed” at Cloddach Bridge decision – but vows to explore new funding sources’. Ross asserts that Moray Council ‘do not have funding available for important local projects like this, is the fault of years of savage cuts to local authority budgets by the SNP-Green … Continue reading HM Treasury generously finances local project judged low priority by Moray Council!

Yesterday BBC Birmingham & Black Country told us: An NHS England investigation into claims of a toxic culture at a hospital trust has been described as lacking transparency and undermining trust. The Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman also said there were “very serious” patient safety issues at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB). https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64943657 Dark matters from the Black Country? A ‘toxic culture’ and ‘very serious patient safety issues.’ Heads must surely roll. The Health Secretary musty consider their future? Nope. There are no calls and the Health Secretary is not even mentioned. Why should he be mentioned? Day-to-day running is a matter … Continue reading Postcode lottery: How very serious patient safety concerns and a toxic culture is not the responsibility of England’s politicians

The above, from the Telegraph today: More migrants are held in hotels in Kensington than the whole of Scotland, it has emerged, amid Tory anger over the SNP not pulling its weight. Scotland has provided hotel spaces for just 500 migrants compared with 600 currently being housed in Kensington and Chelsea, even though the London borough has a population more than a 30th the size. It is understood that Wales has even fewer migrants in hotels than Scotland. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/14/snp-accused-not-pulling-weight-migrants-kensington-offers-hotel/ Don’t the Tories want us to prioritise refugees? The facts: Based on the above UK Government data, there have been 40 … Continue reading Telegraph accused of lying as SNP pulls weight by taking 4 times as many REFUGEES from Ukraine

I’m in before the BBC Scotland researchers and ahead of the press deadlines for tomorrow with this story they’re going to love: The ratio (Scotland:England) of monthly trend rates for wholly attributable deaths slightly increased from the start of the study period until the end of the pre-MUP period (Figure 1), indicating a worsening of wholly attributable deaths rates in Scotland compared to England. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/18005/v1_mup-health-harms-briefing-paper_1004.pdf The headlines tomorrow? SNP drinks policy failure!? Whose side is Public Health Scotland on? None, they will say, we’re scientists. We just report the facts. What did they do? We describe changes over time in … Continue reading Another meaningless attainment gap useful only as fodder for the thick opposition