BBC Reporting Scotland are headlining the same story today. Good Morning Scotland’s radio broadcast will no doubt be on this too. We’ll hear all day, utterly self-interested pub and restaurant owners moaning with not a reference to Scotland’s lower infection and death rates due to the measures taken here. How do we know this is bias? Simple. BBC UK, England, Wales and Northern Ireland are not headlining, not even reporting, stories such as these, which casts doubt on Government actions as it approaches an election. Notice the UK Government friendly business report? There are many other stories out there. This … Continue reading Only BBC Scotland playing politics with pandemic measures in an election phase

Tory government actions: “The effect is to circumvent not only the Barnett Formula but the devolved governments themselves.” – concludes a new report from Fraser of Allander Institute and Institute for Fiscal Studies By stewartb Brexit and the UK Internal Market Act are key factors in the Westminster government making far reaching changes to the devolution settlement. Despite best efforts by Scottish Government ministers and some bloggers, the wider electorate in Scotland could be forgiven for being blissfully unaware of the extent of change underway especially if they consume their news only from the corporate media and BBC Scotland. But … Continue reading “The effect is to circumvent not only the Barnett Formula but the devolved governments themselves.”

By stewartb It’s not often, I contend, that a serious report on government funding contains – indeed gives prominence to – the word ‘luck’. One finds it used in the conclusions of this report: Bell, Eiser and Phillips (2021) Designing and funding the devolved nations’ policy responses to COVID-19. Fraser of Allander Institute report, 22 April 2021. (https://fraserofallander.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Designing-and-funding-the-devolved-nations-policy-response-to-COVID-19.pdf ) The report notes that the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are responsible for designing and implementing major parts of the public health response to the COVID pandemic in their respective nations plus significant elements of the economic response.  … Continue reading Financing a response to crisis – must Scotland rely on ‘luck’?

First wave: excess deaths were substantially higher in England than in Scotland Second wave: Scotland did not see the same increase in excess deaths seen in the rest of the UK To date:  the cumulative death rate from COVID has been substantially lower in Scotland than in England and Wales By stewartb I’ve been on the lookout for an up-to-date, concise, clear summary from an authoritative source of a comparative analysis of key Covid statistics for the UK nations. It’s been a feature of corporate media and the BBC throughout to avoid or at best downplay any such objective comparison. … Continue reading Covid outcomes – has BBC Scotland revealed this to you yet?

From SNP Media today: The SNP has said “Scotland’s recovery is far too important to leave in Westminster’s hands” – as Boris Johnson tells his Cabinet to prepare for cuts. The Prime Minister has ordered Tory Cabinet Ministers to undertake a “savings and efficiency” review of UK government departments ahead of the Spending Review. It follows the Tory decision to impose a public sector pay freeze, Universal Credit cuts, and tax hikes on millions of workers at the Budget in March. Meanwhile, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack is one of five Tory Cabinet Ministers who have joined a new hard-right lobby … Continue reading DON’T SLEEPWALK INTO ANOTHER DECADE OF TORY AUSTERITY

The latest poll by Panelbase for the thinking man’s James Kelly (Scot Goes Pop) and the aesthete’s John Curtice, suggests 80 seats for the SNP, Greens and Alba (62%) and only 49 for the opposition parties (38%). This doesn’t give the SNP an overall majority but, and I say this as an SNP member sore from pounding the streets locally, informal coalition with a harder-left party is no bad thing, that majority of 31 is whopping and, recognising the flaws inherent in too many of its new members, I’d welcome the presence of the Alba Party’s Salmond and MacAskill to … Continue reading Massive lead for pro-Independence parties in latest poll suggests Green or Alba 2 could work

Nicola Sturgeon will today (Tuesday) urge Scottish voters to back the SNP as the only party with the experience to lead Scotland through the pandemic and into an economic recovery Campaigning in Wigtown today, the SNP Leader will warn that Scotland cannot afford to leave key powers in the hands of the ‘job-destroying’ Tories at Westminster. She will also highlight a number of key policies the SNP will take forward to support jobs during the recovery, including: – £33bn in infrastructure projects over the next 5 years in our National Infrastructure Mission, directly supporting around 45,000 jobs and provide benefits … Continue reading SNP JOB-CREATION PLANS IN STARK CONTRAST TO ‘JOB-DESTROYING’ TORIES

  The SNP has said figures showing a dramatic decrease in food and drink exports to the EU is the “grim reality” of Boris Johnson’s botched Brexit deal. According to figures by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), sales of milk and cream to the EU are down an incredible 96% – with chicken and beef exports down by almost 80%.  Overall, export barriers created by Brexit have cost exporters more than £1.1 billion since the start of the year.  The FDF are now urging the UK government to conduct “essential” talks with the EU as a matter of urgency … Continue reading Brexit: Scottish food and drink exporters lose more than 1 billion in 2021

From SNP Media: Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, Fiona Hyslop, has unveiled a mini-manifesto for Scotland’s workers today (Monday), adding that the SNP won’t join the Tories’ “race to the bottom” on workers’ rights after Brexit. Ahead of an STUC hustings in which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will represent the SNP, Fiona Hyslop set out a package of measures to create job opportunities, make work fair for all and protect workers’ rights, including: – develop the Young Person’s Guarantee to ensure that every young person aged between 16 and 24 has the opportunity to go to university or college, … Continue reading SNP won’t join the Tories’ “race to the bottom” on workers’ rights

Crudely, because of its massive 1.4 billion population, India is setting record infection totals but it’s the ratio that matters. England had many more cases than Iceland but it also has far more hospitals to treat them. India’s infection rate, per 100 000 people, as you can see in the graph below, is not that high, well below France, Turkey and Cyprus at the moment or England back in January and the rate of increase is less steep than France in October or England in December. The death rate, equally, is not as high per 100 000 people, as in … Continue reading It’s not India’s infection rate that matters but its brutally unequal society