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Isle of Wight engine failure cancellations after year of massive profits and paying millions to shareholders

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From the Southern Daily Echo yesterday: More cross-Solent ferry sailings have been cancelled today (Sunday), due to ongoing work on Red Funnel’s Red Eagle vehicle ferry. The vessel has engine problems, which have forced cancellations since last night. From the Island Echo in August 2023: Prior to this the accounts from 2017-2019 showed WL made net profits of over £50 million. So why would a company that made £50 million pure profit over the previous 3 years need to take the public’s money? Looking into those years revealed that over 90% of that profit was payout as dividends apportioned between Arca Shipping … Continue reading Isle of Wight engine failure cancellations after year of massive profits and paying millions to shareholders

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Oz taxpayers pay for new wharves but must wait years for ferries in latest fiasco

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From the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday: Taxpayers have spent $78 million for two soon-to-be-opened ferry wharves near the entrance to Sydney’s Botany Bay, but the public faces a years-long wait for services between La Perouse and Kurnell because of state government indecision. and from the Leader: Transport Minister Jo Haylen and Coordinator General, Transport for NSW, Howard Collins were grilled by Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party MP Mark Banasiak, who said it had “always been a dog of a project” and was “the epitome of white elephants”. Meanwhile in Scotland: By Professor John Robertson From the Scottish Government today and, of … Continue reading Oz taxpayers pay for new wharves but must wait years for ferries in latest fiasco

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Edinburgh’s loss making trams project was forced on the SNP minority government by the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems and now they want to shift the blame

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In the Scotsman, last week: The Edinburgh Trams have made a net loss of more than £44 million since opening ten years ago, figures have revealed, mainly due to borrowing costs associated with building the original line. Coming in at over £400m over budget and three years late, the capital’s trams have not run a profit since 2017. Sue Webber, Conservative MSP for the Lothian region, said: “These eye-watering losses only add insult to injury for those living and working in the capital. They already had to endure the construction bill for the trams spiralling out of control and reaching over £1 billion. There … Continue reading Edinburgh’s loss making trams project was forced on the SNP minority government by the Tories, Labour and Lib Dems and now they want to shift the blame

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Labour confirm Scotland’s superior NHS figures are despite Westminster

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By Professor John Robertson Scottish haggis-eater, thus extremist, Robert Lamb https://x.com/54Lamb has perceptively tweeted: Wes Streeting had just cut the feet from beneath Anas Sarwar by spiking his daily attacks on the SNP over NHS funding. When asked by Laura Kuenssberg over the state of the NHS in Labour run Wales, he blamed WM. LK asked why Sarwar blamed then the SNP in Scotland. He floundered. It makes all the relative success in Scotland, compared to the third-world performance of the NHS in parts of England and Wales all the more remarkable, doesn’t it? Success? What success? That guy on … Continue reading Labour confirm Scotland’s superior NHS figures are despite Westminster

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Sorting child poverty the Scottish way – the Archbishop, the Bishop, the thinktank Chief Exec, the editor and Gordon Brown all avoid looking north

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By Professor John Robertson Again, alerted by Dottie’s Phone You won’t be surprised to hear there’s not a word, from this Labour Party elder, of Scotland’s far lower child poverty nor of how the SNP’s child payment is leading to its disappearance in Scotland, nor of Labour’s refusal to end the cruel two-child benefit cap, if elected. Maybe the Archbishop will mention poverty in Scotland and the Child Benefit? Not a word. It turns out the Bishop of Leicester too had a piece in the Guardian yesterday. He doesn’t know about Scotland either, it seems, but does mention Labour, if … Continue reading Sorting child poverty the Scottish way – the Archbishop, the Bishop, the thinktank Chief Exec, the editor and Gordon Brown all avoid looking north

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LATEST SHOCK: Scotland’s waiting list for heart treatment is barely half that per head of NHS England!

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By Professor John Robertson Many thanks to Dottie’s Phone for alerting me to this. The Guardian today has this shocking news: The British Heart Foundation (BHF) warns that heart care waiting lists are now at a record high, reaching 414,596 at the end of March 2024 in England, almost double what it was in 2020. In February 2024, the British Heart Foundation felt this was shocking for Scotland: Between March 2019 and September 2023, the number of people waiting for an outpatient appointment rose from 8,562 to 23,027. In the last year alone, the waiting list has grown by more than … Continue reading LATEST SHOCK: Scotland’s waiting list for heart treatment is barely half that per head of NHS England!

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The 30 year-long neglect of patient safety in NHS England exposed as SNP Government records 17 years of its ‘at the very top pillar’ safety programme first launched by Nicola Sturgeon

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By Professor John Robertson Many thanks to Dotty’s Phone for alerting me to this. Today, the Health Editor at the Sunday Times has reported: Why don’t things get better on #patientsafety? One reason is that the NHS & government do sweet FA to act on inquiry recommendations. The @Thirlwall_Inq [led by a senior judge] has published a comprehensive assessment of the last 30 years of inquiries. It is not a good read: https://thirlwall.public-inquiry.uk/2024/05/17/review-of-previous-recommendations-published/ More from the thread following the above comments, at: https://x.com/ShaunLintern/status/1791508298404950168 The above report is getting very little coverage anywhere and certainly will not be used by Scotland’s … Continue reading The 30 year-long neglect of patient safety in NHS England exposed as SNP Government records 17 years of its ‘at the very top pillar’ safety programme first launched by Nicola Sturgeon

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Exposure to carcinogens in Faslane

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In May 2024: Silence is revealing? In May 2023: QUESTIONS are hanging over the safety of Britain’s nuclear arsenal after it was revealed there were 58 radiation leaks at Trident facilities in Scotland this year so far. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has revealed there were 15 recorded radiation leaks at Coulport and a further 43 at Faslane in 2023 as of April – but said none were considered “serious”. https://www.thenational.scot/news/23545590.trident-mod-confirms-50-radiation-leaks-year/ In March 2016: Twenty workers at the Faslane nuclear submarine base were exposed to radiation due to safety errors, newly-released documents have revealed. The engineers were repairing a leaking … Continue reading Exposure to carcinogens in Faslane

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Sir Keir Starmer, The Man Without Qualities

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By Professor John Robertson “For when we lie nowadays it is not so much out of weakness as out of a conviction that a man cannot prevail in life unless he is able to lie.” When you hear Sir Keir Starmer speak, the title of Robert Musol’s pre-war novel, the Man Without Qualities, forced on many 1960’s students, can pop into your head. He doesn’t excite. He doesn’t even interest but too often, he disappoints and it’s chilling. When he was asked after his big speech: Two weeks ago, some of Labour’s traditional voters abandoned the party because of issues … Continue reading Sir Keir Starmer, The Man Without Qualities