Today, the Herald’s Helen McCardle indulged in the kind of Scotland/England comparisons derided by most Unionist journalists, except for drug deaths, of course, because she thought she could reveal A&E in NHS Scotland to be no better than in NHS England. She was wrong. See: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/10/22/well-more-the-lies-about-the-scotland-england-ae-comparisons/ I’m reminded of the, unique-to-Scotland, politicised reporting of health and other public services. See these: The Herald, historically, has identified as centre-left, supportive of Labour leaders like Dewar, McGoogle and now Sarwar. The Guardian seems a reasonable comparison. How do they platform stories like those above? Notice anything missing? Yes, politicians blamed. Unionist propaganda … Continue reading The truth about the Herald – Guardian public services comparisons

From Healthcare Improvement Scotland, not one NHS hospital inspection has resulted in an ‘unsatisfactory‘ rating. From the Care Quality Commission for England, 6 NHS hospitals have been rated ‘unsatisfactory.‘ You can read the details at the link above. Continue reading Not one NHS Scotland hospital rated unsatisfactory but in NHS England….SIX

From the Guardian today under the headline, Thousands at risk as A&E queues stop NHS paramedics attending 999 calls: Paramedics in England cannot respond to 117,000 urgent 999 calls every month because they are stuck outside hospitals looking after patients, figures show. The amount of time ambulance crews had to wait outside A&E units meant they were unavailable to attend almost one in six incidents. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/21/thousands-at-risk-as-ae-queues-stop-nhs-paramedics-attending-999-calls From BBC Scotland: Latest figures from the service show that for the week to 25 April, one in 10 ambulances in Scotland waited over one hour and twenty minutes to drop patients at an emergency department. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-61395685 … Continue reading NHS England’s ambulance service 41% more likely to be too late arriving

In the Herald today, there is a desperate and flawed attempt to undermine the SNP Government and NHS Scotland under the heading: The truth about the Scotland-England A&E comparisons McArdle writes: Yet time and again, the Scottish Government has sought to deflect at least some of the heat by noting that – however bad things are – at least they are not as bad as England. But are such comparisons fair? Her first criticism is that the services are not comparable: Scotland has 91 A&E services in total, including minor injury units, but the weekly statistics published by Public Health Scotland cover … Continue reading Well, more “The lies about the Scotland-England A&E comparisons”

By stewartb Recently, an article in TuS entitled ‘Devolution – and the UK’s territorial constitution – is being reshaped’ discussed the impact on the UK’s ‘territorial constitution’ of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020. It argued that serious changes to the devolution settlement had been imposed by Westminster whilst Scotland’s parliament, government and voters spectate, without agency!  Source: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/10/15/devolution-and-the-uks-territorial-constitution-is-being-reshaped/ There is more coming! Lurking behind the dry sounding title of another Bill before the Westminster parliament is yet another threat to the devolution settlement: the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022-23.  On 17 October, the House of … Continue reading Dismantling devolution – the status quo is not an option!

People Polling for 20 October (1 158), based on those selecting a party, puts Labour at 53% and the Cons at 14%. In the Scottish subset (109), it’s SNP at 58%, Labour at 22% and Cons at 3%! https://peoplepolling.org/tables/202210_GBN_W42_full.pdf#subsection*.12 I know, the Scottish sample is too small to be significant but, taken with several others, it means something – Sarwar has little appeal. Continue reading SNP at 58% as Scottish Labour trail behind UK Labour again

BBC Scotland and BBC UK/England are no longer interested in Covid infection rates. BBC Health seems largely relaxed judging by the positioning of its report, bottom, second left. Why? Is it this? Remember, that 0.7% difference between Scotland and the UK/England means hundreds of thousands of additional cases in England and tens of thousands fewer in Scotland. What about the trend? Covid infections are climbing everywhere in the UK other than in Scotland. Surely some political group gets some credit? They’d get the blame if it was the other way up. Continue reading UK Covid infections surge 25% above Scotland but no worries?

Alasdair Galloway of the Sensational Alasdair Galloway Band (SAGB) Even in this time of uncertainty, there are, I think, two things we can all agree on. The first is that Liz Truss is unlikely to become one of the UK’s longest serving Prime Ministers. Go she will, but when and how, and who’s next? The second is that unless or until the polling numbers change markedly there isn’t going to be a General Election before December 2024 (ie for more than 2 years). Anyone who imagines that the Tory Party is going to go to the country when polling suggests … Continue reading NEXT!!

From BBC Wales today: A mother has spoken of her horror after being told she would have to wait hours for an ambulance after her son became “lifeless” on the way to A&E. Georgia Faith Johnson called 999 when Tobias, aged two, had a seizure at their Cardiff home, but was told it was an eight hour wait. As she tried to get to A&E he went “floppy”, but was told to monitor him at the side of the road. The Welsh Ambulance Service said it was under extreme pressure. Any comments from politicians? None, just this: A row in … Continue reading BBC Wales: Mother of a ‘lifeless’ child waiting hours for an ambulance praises First Minister!

Front page in the Herald, ahead of the Battle of Westminster, NHS Lanarkshire has ordered an investigation into the deaths of 2 babies. Good? That’s what they should be doing? It’d be more of a story if they hadn’t and the Herald had found out that they hadn’t, like this: It has been five years in the making. The independent inquiry into the largest maternity scandal in the history of the NHS began with one grieving mother looking for answers and ended up involving 1,486 families and 1,592 clinical incidents. The deeply distressing story of Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, where … Continue reading Scottish Health Board praised?