The Herald’s Martin Williams, on a run of ferry exposures, trumps: SNP-led council calls for police probe over Scots ferry fiasco deal It’s true, they did. The Cons and Labour, not big enough in more than one sense of the word to run services, ambushed the minority SNP administration in North Ayrshire, with a Labour motion to report that SNP Government to the polis. It’s the same story stretched across three Herald reports. You can read my previous explanations here: and here: To be fair to the councillors, they’re probably more dim than nasty. They were told to do this … Continue reading Two North Ayrshire Labour councillors push motion to betray Scottish shipyard workers

In the Herald today with a sad wee ‘but’: The above nestled in a set of accusations, headlined Police not investigating Scots ferry fiasco despite complaints, from the Scottish Cons and, apparently, the SNP minority administration in North Ayrshire. The motion was laid before the council by a Labour councillor and the SNP depute leader opposed it. I take it the SNP was outvoted and then obliged to follow the decision. Police Scotland will, no doubt, have been directed to the the lack of a builder’s refund guarantee in the contract awarded to Ferguson Marine, to make sure the work … Continue reading SNP Government cleared of any wrong-doing on ferry contract by Police Scotland

In the Herald today: Leaving aside the deep and dark irony of a so-called socialist attacking a deal to save jobs and shipbuilding facilities and to enable a Port Glasgow yard to develop a head-start on LNG ferries (link below), this builder’s refund guarantees business is a nothing and they probably know it is but will use it to attack the SNP he hates for replacing him and his party. We saw in April, just how sleekit Scottish Labour can be when even the GMB could take no more of it. What is the ‘normal builder’s refund guarantee?’ The purpose … Continue reading Scottish Labour betrays the shipyard workers of Scotland, again

Image: Liverpool Echo By stewartb The latest A&E waiting times data for NHS England, for the month of October, have just been published (10 November). It’s become a regular past-time to use these occasions to examine BBC editorial standards – for accuracy, completeness, impartiality, and proneness to bias by omission – in the different nations of what BBC news journalists typically refer to as ‘the nation’ of the UK. Candidly, as regular readers of TuS will know, it proves to be ‘an education’! This is the official source: ‘A&E Attendances and Emergency Admissions October 2022 Statistical Commentary’ (https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/11/Statistical-commentary-October-2022-cftre1.pdf Worst on … Continue reading Worst waiting times on record…..in NHS England! Be alert – this is the BBC reporting!

Yma o hyd As you are no doubt learning, the World Cup will soon be upon us. England and Wales will both be there. Scotland won’t (again!). As with many World Cup squads, Wales have their own song. Usually this is some poppy crap, fronted by some “pop star” whose career is on the wane. We have had more than our fair share of this. This link will take you to this year’s Wales squad song, “yma o hyd”,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Fag8ZQcz4. What does it all mean you wonder. Well wonder no more. Yma o Hyd lyrics in full Dwyt ti’m yn … Continue reading Yma o hyd – We are still here

Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA Alasdair Galloway The most recent whine by the Unionist side recently has been when they picked up on a statement by the EU that “all EU member states, except Denmark, are required to adopt the euro and join the euro area”, which Douglas Ross used to pose the question “Who’s lying to the Scottish people, the European Union or Nicola Sturgeon?” There are a great many reasons why Ross’s use of this quote is both wrong and highly misleading. First of all, we need to draw a distinction between formal rules (all the codified laws and regulations … Continue reading Scotland and the EU: Sod’s Law on testosterone

Tom Gordon, is at it again. ‘Fresh doubts over Sturgeon’s care service shakeup?‘ A tabloid approach going back centuries, undermining a policy development, carefully and with good intentions, developed by many political and academic figures, with politicised associations such as ‘Sturgeon’ or ‘Salmond’. Calling it a ‘shakeup’ to imply no real philosophical basis. Yesterday, the actual expert on these matters, Derek Feeley, Chair of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, spoke to Holyrood’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. He said that there were “huge opportunities” in the bill. He added that it is “incredibly encouraging that we are … Continue reading A National Care Service: Fresh reminders of Tom Gordon’s unreliable reporting

Image: PA From Deltapoll with a sample of 1 049 for 4-7 November, UK Labour have dropped from 58% to 47% and the Cons have climbed a bit from 25% to 29%. In Scotland, with a sample of 90, the SNP are at 56%, Labour at 29% and the Cons at 7%. Click to access Deltapoll-221107_voteint.pdf Once more, small samples but that’s nine in a row with little sign of a Labour surge here and the SNP averaging around 50%. Continue reading 9th sub-poll has Labour Scotland failing to catch up and SNP at 56%

Spot the UK Health Secretary Thanks to reader Scott for alerting me to this from the Daily Mail today: NHS England is investigating a ‘potential serious incident’ after giving the wrong type of flu vaccine to some over 65s. A ‘small number’ of people who have received an autumn flu jab have mistakenly been given a standard egg culture influenza vaccine (QIVe), which is known to be less effective. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11404535/NHS-flu-jab-blunder-fears-65s-given-WRONG-vaccine.html?ito=email_share_article-masthead No UK newspaper, no BBC News region and no opposition politician has called for Steve Barclay to resign, so we’re calling for it in support of our readers in England. Why … Continue reading Calls for UK Health Secretary to resign after pensioners given wrong flu jab

Scotland’s MSM have, as expected, turned the plans for a national care service, in the wake of mass pandemic deaths due to corporate greed, into another opportunity to question the SNP Government’s competence. The opposition parties with the GMB and Lisa Summers, above, have little positive to say about the plans and, so far, are giving no space to the actual expert on these matters, Derek Feeley, Chair of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, who spoke to Holyrood’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, yesterday. He said that there were “huge opportunities” in the bill. He added that … Continue reading Care expert: “In Scotland, we could be way beyond what other countries aspire to!”