From SNP Media: The SNP has challenged Boris Johnson to make a cast-iron commitment to maintain the triple lock on pensions – amid reports the Treasury is planning to impose a cap. Responding to reports the Chancellor is considering breaking the link between pensions and earnings, David Linden MP said the Prime Minister must “overrule” Rishi Sunak and make clear the Tory government will not break yet another manifesto commitment by ring-fencing the £4billion needed to fund the annual rise in pensions next year. The SNP Shadow Work and Pensions spokesperson said the Tories must not betray their election pledges to pensioners and … Continue reading Chancellor won’t even protect lowest state pensions in the developed world

The Mayor of Greater Manchester is not happy. Why? See this from the Guardian rather than the above smelly rag: Nicola Sturgeon has imposed a travel ban between Scotland and Manchester and Salford as a result of rising Covid cases. The restrictions, which will come into force from Monday, add to travel limits put in place last month as the Delta variant spread rapidly through the north of England. Speaking at her Covid briefing on Friday, Scotland’s first minister said: “Manchester and Salford currently have high levels of Covid and so from Monday onwards non-essential travel between Scotland and those cities … Continue reading Praise for First Minister ignoring Mayor of Manchester

Doctors? Who? How many? Using what facts? Well just Dr John Thomson, a consultant in emergency medicine at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, so in just one hospital and using no published statistics, so worryingly for a professional using science in his line of work, keen to claim: Hospitals are jammed. They’re absolutely full and bursting. Dr T is a media regular, in the Herald and the Times, shouting alarm. In January, he was ‘voicing fears‘ in the Times. It’s a hobby he has. Facts, Dr T? A&E: During week ending 06 June 2021, there were 28,493 attendances at A&E services in … Continue reading Hospital attendance still below pre-pandemic level so no bursting?

From the BBC all day today: More than half a million people have died from Coronavirus in Brazil. It is the second highest death toll in the World after the United States. There are protestors in the streets unlike in the UK but then ‘we‘ have done so much better haven’t we, with the vaccine rollout? Only if you don’t consider the death rate per 100 000, a better measure of performance, surely? Many have died in Brazil and the people should be protesting against their psychopathic, stupid, leader but, per head of population, England has done worse than Trump’s … Continue reading Covid deaths: Trump did better than Johnson!

This is the publication of the report by the small group of MSPs, with a Unionist majority built-in, contradicting the legal verdict by James Hamilton, former director of public prosecutions for Ireland, which cleared the First Minister. This partisan report was dead-in-the water long before its publication but the MSM have delighted in repeating the jaundiced words of those dread clowns, Murdo Fraser, Margaret Mitchell and Alex Cole-Hamilton. The Scottish Tories’ motion of no confidence, based on leaks by the above three, in the First Minister, not ‘Sturgeon’, was defeated back in March when the Greens refused to back it. … Continue reading Attack on ‘Sturgeon’ is ‘opportunistic political theatre’ once again

I know, they broke Wembley’s goal posts and stole turf and, no doubt, carried out acts of violence on London’s streets back in the 20th Century but have things changed a bit? 20 000 and 27 arrests? You’d get more arrests from 20 000 on Troon beach. Try finding images of them fighting last night, anybody, England fans, each other, the police? You can be sure we’d see those. What about England fans, still this century, in a neighbouring capital city? Paris 2016? Belgium in 2000, employing the favoured weapon, chairs: Throwing coins at Gypsy children? https://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/16/football/euro2016-england-fans-video/index.html And of course, … Continue reading Fans in neighbouring capitals

The blue rosette tells you he is a Tory even if BBC England would rather not draw attention to it. BBC Scotland has a similar loyalty when it comes to sex offenders. See the guilty Aberdeen councillor down at the bottom and the not-guilty SNP former leader fully exposed. Down at the bottom, for BBC England, see the baby death story. There’s no mention of Matt Hancock or the PM. It was the same style for a case with a staggering 1 000 baby deaths: But a baby death in Scotland is a different matter: Continue reading Shielding the Tories

An independent study by Professor Keith Topping, Professor of Educational and Social Research,University of Dundee reveals positive results for Scottish pupils compared to those of the same age in the other parts of the UK: Book difficulty was highest in Scotland, followed by England, the Republic of Ireland, Wales and NorthernIreland. Northern Ireland is characterised by low levels of difficulty at the beginning but the children more than catch up later. Scottish children were reading almost two years ahead of their chronological age, English children a year and a half ahead, and even Northern Ireland were reading more than half … Continue reading Researcher find Scots pupils reading more difficult books than others in rUK

I’m grateful to reader and contributor, stewartb, for drawing my attention to this. From Sally Magnusson last night Scotland’s players will now ‘take the knee’ ahead of their second Euros match against England at Wembley next Friday. They had planned to ‘take a stand’, as they put it, against racism in all three of their appearances in the group stages. Then after her suggestion that this is ‘a mess‘, we hear from Alistair Lamont: The Scotland squads focus is firmly on preparing for Monday’s Euro 2020 opening match against the Czech Republic but the decision to ‘stand against racism’ rather … Continue reading Even Scotland’s football team’s stance on racism will be misused by Reporting Scotland