Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ Central Ayrshire Labour Candidate, Alan Gemmell OBE, if elected, will do what Sir Keir Starmer tells him to do. Any suggestion of disloyalty and he’d be dumped quicker that guy in Rochdale for daring to criticise Israel. Yesterday, in the Ardrossan Herald, Gemmell is urging action on poverty. Last year End Child Poverty made clear the role of the Two Child Benefit Cap in pushing 1.5 million UK children into poverty. There are 1 … Continue reading Central Ayrshire Labour Candidate would not commit to helping 1 560 children out of poverty

From the ONS in July 2023, the average cost of a house in Scotland was 5.29 times the average household income. In Labour Wales, it was 6.38 times and in England, a shocking 8.44 times. Note how the Scottish trend [bottom] was climbing to follow that of the rUK then turned around in 2008? What could have caused that? More council-house building and affordable building under the SNP. Continue reading How Scottish Labour would have dragged Scotland into the UK’s unaffordable housing nightmare

Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ Thanks to Brian McGowan for alerting me to this. In the National yesterday: Inverness Airport won the Best Airport Under Two Million Passengers award in Europe for the fourth year running at the 2023 Airports Council International (ACI) Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards. In addition to securing the Best Airport title, it also earned Airport With The Most Dedicated Staff in Europe. https://www.thenational.scot/news/24176690.scottish-airport-scoops-best-europe-award/ BBC Scotland Business today? Nope. BBC Highlands and Islands? Nope. Talking-up … Continue reading Inverness – best small airport in Europe is not reported

Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ From https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/our-areas-of-work/acute-and-emergency-services/urgent-and-unscheduled-care/accident-and-emergency/#section-3-2 I’ve produced the above graph from the downloaded data to reveal what has been happening in the weekly A&E figures for full emergency departments (ED) since the beginning of 2024. There is a clear trend of improvement here unreported by the Scottish media. Note that at the same time, demand went up significantly from 24 000 to 26 000 attendances per week. Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s improving A&E trend in 2024 revealed

Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ From Public Health Scotland, today: During the quarter ending 31 December 2023, 2,221 patients were seen at a consultant-led chronic pain clinic. This compares to 2,005 patients in the previous quarter, an increase of 10.8% and to 1,890 patients seen a year earlier in the quarter ending 31 December 2022, an increase of 17.5%. Of those seen at a consultant-led clinic, 1,124 (50.6%) had waited 12 weeks or less to be seen, which is … Continue reading 17.5% more chronic pain patients seen as number returns to pre-pandemic level

Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ For the umpteenth time, I’m neither a psephologist like Sir Prof Curtice nor even hard-core statistician but, I know a wee bit. So, while the variation from one poll to the next is of limited value, looking at trends based on, for example, the average in blocks of five or so, may be taken to reasonably suggest a trend. The average Labour over Con lead in the last 5 polls is 17 points. In … Continue reading Starmer is in trouble