No exploitative images of hooded weans sitting in the rain begging, like the media love, here. From BBC UK today: Every rough sleeper in England will be offered accommodation this winter, the prime minister has said. Andy Burnham made ending rough sleeping his first pledge when entering Downing Street in July and now says he wants “to get everyone in for Christmas”. Emergency accommodation will be provided to end the need for rough sleeping alongside practical support for any health needs, as part of a £442m package. Conservative shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said Burnham promised to end rough sleeping in … Continue reading Burnham’s second plan to get rough sleeping off streets will struggle to match what Scotland has already done

made about domestic abuse has increased by more than a quarter in a year. The NSPCC Helpline Made 276 referrals to agencies in Scotland las year where the main concern was domestic abuse. That’s up 27% on the previous 12 months. This is another of those Reporting Scotland stories not fully written up on their website. Often this means that the dramatic figures will not stand up to scrutiny. However, I can see no NSPCC post to check so, here’s what Reporting Scotland don’t tell you about this deeply distressing phenomenon. Proportionally 4 times as many children in England & … Continue reading Proportionally 4 times as many children in England & Wales face domestic abuse compared to Scotland 

Update – Thanks to those commenting especially stewartb for clarifying that these are city-wide figures and not just those for campus areas. From How safe is your city? in the Complete University Guide for 2025, the Cities with the lowest violent crime: Bath the lowest at 6.5 attacks per 1 000 population, per year. The sites with the highest violent crime levels would have you banning them going there: Up to 17.6 violent attacks per 1 000 students per year in Leicester! And in Scotland, after near 20 years of plummeting crime: Even Glasgow, the highest in Scotland, it’s only 1.2 per 1 000 … Continue reading Update – If Glasgow IS so violent why IS it a far, far, safer city for your bairns to attend university in than any in England even Bath or Cambridge?

When that face popped up in my Facebook feed, I immediately thought – ‘Kate Watson – 77th Brigade!’ I’d thought she had been instrumental in blocking the selection of the leftist Monica Lennon in the current leadership election but it’s about her failing to deal with the Irshad Ahmed row: Why did I think it was about blocking a leftist? This: From the Morning Star in April 2019: PROMINENT Scottish Labour parliamentary candidate and opponent of Jeremy Corbyn has been called on to explain her links to a “military propaganda unit” in the British Army. Kate Watson, who was selected to fight … Continue reading Alleged former member of 77th Brigade army force that specialises in “special influence methods” in Scotland still running Scottish Labour

Many thanks to one of our Anons for alerting us to this from 2002 when a Labour/Lib Dem coalition ran Scotland, 5 years before the first SNP minority government, and Labour was in its 80th year of rule in Glasgow: From Acute Services Review (Glasgow) – in the Scottish Parliament at 11:06 am on 12 September 2002. https://www.theyworkforyou.com/sp/?id=2002-09-12.13633.0&s=%22Acute+Services+Review+%28Glasgow%29%22 I see that Labour first came to power in Glasgow in 1922: https://www.theglasgowstory.com/story/?id=TGSEC05 Were they too embarrassed to have a celebratory ‘do’ in 2022? After 100 years of just ‘minding the shop’ for various UK governments, leaving the locals to become the sickest … Continue reading In 2002, nearly a quarter of a century ago, Nicola Sturgeon opposed building new Southern General on the site favoured by the Labour Council and Government pointing to poor access AND sewage risks to the sick

From Labour Market Trends: August 2026 published today: In July 2026, the claimant count in Scotland was estimated at 106,800, a decrease of 1,000 (-0.9%) over the month and an increase of 4,600 (4.5%) over the year. The claimant count unemployment rate estimate in July 2026 was 3.6%, compared with 4.3% for the UK as a whole. https://www.gov.scot/publications/labour-market-trends-august-2026/ The 0.7% difference in the claimant count between Scotland and England, amounts to around 25 000 of the 3.58m working age population not on the claimant count, due to better government in Scotland. How can I say it’s because of ‘better government’ … Continue reading 25 000 fewer in Scotland not on the claimant count due to better government

Scots Independent Newspaper celebrates 100 years and awards OBA to actor Alan Cumming. He joins Sean Connery, Alasdair Gray, the Tartan Army, Dr Phillipa Whiteford and….oh, yes, me. Tickets at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/eventtickets/ Continue reading Scots Independent Newspaper celebrates 100 years and awards OBA to actor Alan Cumming

Sometimes it takes a stranger to see things clearly and in this case, BBC Scotland’s masterpiece of Scottish cringe, last night. Her impressions are unbiased and spot-on. Why? This: From Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2025-26 published 23 June 2026, this table: Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2025-26/pages/total-recorded-crime/ One year variations are often unreliable indicators of trends but comparing the averages of three to five year groups is less so. You can see above that comparing the average rate of crimes per 10 000 population in 2015-2018 with those in the most recent three years reveals that in almost all of the categories of crime claimed by the … Continue reading The facts behind European TV anchor’s defence of increasingly lawful Glasgow against BBC’s nasty ‘selective’ documentary