According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2021, child poverty in the SNP constituency in North Lanarkshire was 23%. Unacceptable, I know, but lower than in most of the UK thanks to the Scottish Government’s efforts including the child payment, bedroom tax compensation, lower rent, more affordable housing and free school dinners. In Sir Keir Starmer’s constituency in Camden, London, it was 32%, 40% higher despite Labour control of the local authority since 2010. Source: https://www.jrf.org.uk/data/uk-child-poverty-rates-local-authority Continue reading Rutherglen and Hamilton West alert – child poverty was 40% more common in Labour leader’s constituency

From BBC Scotland today: Network Rail is to face court action after an Aberdeenshire train crash which claimed three lives. Driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62, died when the train derailed at Carmont on 12 August 2020. The train hit a landslide after heavy rain. Network Rail is due to face criminal action at the High Court in Aberdeen on 7 September. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-65017289?at_medium=social&at_campaign=Social_Flow&at_format=link&at_ptr_name=twitter&at_link_id=236C4100-40CC-11EE-AEFF-BF41FE754D29&at_link_origin=BBCScotlandNews&at_campaign_type=owned&at_link_type=web_link&at_bbc_team=editorial That Network Rail responsible for track maintenance across the UK is responsible to the UK Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps at the time is not made clear. Hours after the incident … Continue reading Why is UK Transport Secretary not ultimately responsible for Stonehaven train crash deaths?

In some quick damage control on their website but, no doubt, less sickening than the TV News broadcasts will be today, BBC Scotland is quick to remind us: However, Scotland continues to have the worst drug death rate in the UK and the rest of Europe. Despite the fall in drug misuse deaths, they are still more than three times as common as they were two decades ago. The rate of drug poisoning deaths in Scotland was 2.7 times as high as the UK average in 2021, the most recent year that data is available for the UK as a … Continue reading BBC Scotland cannot conceal dismay as Scottish Government policies begin to turn drug deaths around

From the National minutes ago but not yet released to ordinary folk like us at TuS: According to the latest statistics, 1051 people died due to drug misuse last year. That’s a decrease of 279 when compared to 2021. Drug deaths stalled in 2021 with 1 330 cases, 9 fewer than in 2020 and have now begun to fall dramatically with 21% fewer in 2022. The surge in drug deaths from the mid 1990s (figures below) under the Conservatives and then New Labour, could have been reduced earlier had the Scottish Government also been able to introduce safe supervised injection … Continue reading Drug deaths fall by 21% in only one year as SNP policies begin to reverse long-term effects of decades of Tory/New Labour neglect

As often before UK Labour spads don’t worry about how something will read in Scotland. From a Sky News report in July 2023: Average student debt three times higher in England than Scotland, new figures show The SNP, which commissioned the analysis, said young people were being forced into “obscene levels of debt” as it criticised Labour for dropping its pledge to scrap tuition fees. Average student debt in England is almost £45,000 – three times higher than in Scotland, new figures have revealed. By comparison, a Scottish student who graduated from one of the nation’s universities in 2022 owed … Continue reading Starmer could afford university if he was leaving school today but only if he lived in SNP-run Scotland

As British Columbia Ferries sink into complete catastrophe, Scottish Government-funded CalMac ferries disappointed the opposition parties and media chums by hitting 99% reliability with only 4 out of 377 sailings yesterday cancelled. No communities were forced to the mainland as 2 of the cancellations were out of the 20 to Portavadie and the other 2 were on the Campbelltown route where you’d be quicker just driving round the Mull of Kintyre. Other ferry news today? One ran aground in Washington State and in Auckland NZ, they can’t get the staff so are cancelling services. In Canada, the US and NZ, … Continue reading Full frigging ferry fiasco in affluent Canada as CalMac hits 99% reliability

Platformed by STV (I didn’t say they were perfect) but at least with a Scot Gov explanation at the end: Scottish Labour have warned ministers not to hike council taxes on the highest bands, claiming such a move could impact the poorest in the country. A consultation document published last month suggested the Scottish Government and local authority body Cosla were preparing to increase council tax on properties in band E or higher on a sliding scale rising from 7.5% to 22.5%. The move would mirror a similar initiative in 2017. But Scottish Labour local government spokesman Mark Griffin claimed … Continue reading Rutherglen Alert – Baillie ignores Scotland’s lowest council tax, rents and other benefits

In the Herald today: ‘The government’ leaves the reader to decide themselves who is repsonsible. In the Herald report the calls for safe consumption rooms and the decriminalisation of all drugs are repeated the UK Conservative Government’s refusals are not. The Herald article is based on the SDF report in Third Force News which also does not mention the UK Government, does mention the Scottish Government and only in the very last of 14 paragraphs: Drugs policy is currently reserved to Westminster. https://tfn.scot/news/drastic-immediate-action-needed-as-scotland-remains-drug-death-capital-of-europe Neither report mentions this: Scotland’s drug treatment service busts 90% target. During the quarter 1 October to … Continue reading Westminster is ultimately responsible for Scotland’s drug deaths

Fresh from cheekily offering to share NHS England’s ‘best practice’ to help out NHS Wales and Scotland with waiting times (just giving more money to the private sector instead of paying the staff), Steve Barclay faces a 5th junior doctor strike, and the Scottish Health Secretary has reciprocated with an offer to mediate on these damaging strikes. Understandably medics, health research groups and the unions themselves have been keen to point out that those most-at-risk will be sheltered from the disruption and that no lives have been lost directly due to the action. I empathise but with around an additional … Continue reading Why Barclay should listen to Matheson – there may have been 20 000 excess deaths and more than 2 000 may have been saved in Scotland