Despite being in the former Glasgow Herald, this story is about prisoners from England & Wales only being sent to foreign prisons – Rwanda? Scotland currently has 137 prisoners per 100 000 population. England & Wales has 144 per 100 000. Despite a growing population, the prison population of Scotland has been stable for some time at and is not expected to grow beyond 7 600. https://www.scotpho.org.uk/population-groups/prisoners/data/prison-population/ The prison population in England and Wales is projected to grow to between 93,100 and 106,300 by 2027. All things being equal, the prison population of England & Wales should be around 11 … Continue reading English and Welsh prisoners to be sent to foreign prisons as number of incarcerated is projected to soar 28% above Scotland

The Scotsman has covered this good-news story but it’s nowhere in BBC Scotland coverage. They have had a morning of negativity about life in Scotland, the, they hope, SNP vote-divisive, gender recognition ruling and……the Rangers job. Might some young or old, progressive Labour supporters be drawn by this news to vote Green instead tomorrow? We know it’s a popular move. As far back as 2019, a poll found 77% support for stronger laws. https://tfn.scot/news/most-scots-want-full-ban-on-fox-hunting-poll-finds Continue reading A real hunting ban in Scotland but not to be mentioned just before the by-election?

Here are some important facts: Ferguson Marine Engineering Limited (FMEL) was awarded contracts by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) for two ferries in 2015. FMEL entered administration in August 2019. https://www.gov.scot/publications/ferguson-marine-background-to-the-company-being-taken-into-public-ownership/ The sole owner in 2019, 4 years after the contract was awarded, was Jim McColl. He bought it cheap in 2014 and agreed a contract for delivery of the vessels by 2018. He is fully responsible for everything. Poor management comes back to his choices of staff. The Herald today has: Jim McColl accepts his firm was not blameless in ferry fiasco https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23831802.jim-mccoll-accepts-firm-not-blameless-ferry-fiasco/ The distancing of himself as the … Continue reading If the buck always stops with the President then it always stops with a shipyard owner

In Open Democracy today: The UK government’s response to the pandemic must be judged on the number of Covid-related deaths, the lead counsel for the UK’s independent inquiry into the pandemic has said. Hugo Keith said module two of the inquiry, which started today, will consider whether the UK government’s “momentous decisions”, particularly during the period between January 2020 and March 2020, served the public well or failed them. “How is this to be measured?” asked Keith. “If the protection of life is the preeminent duty which any government owes to the people, then the number of those who died is … Continue reading Labour must explain why Covid deaths were much higher in Wales than in Scotland

The Herald, as always sticks a grubby thumb into NHS figures and comes out with a bad news story. Sad? Desperate? Both. From Public Health Scotland today: During August 2023, there were 26,006 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland, the highest number of planned operations since February 2020. This is 10.1% higher than the number planned a year previously in August 2022 (23,626). The number of planned operations has been steadily increasing since pandemic restrictions first affected provision of services in March 2020. In the 12 months to August 2023, there was a 17.4% increase in the number of … Continue reading NHS Scotland operations surge back toward pre-pandemic levels and capacity to to do 98% on time is maintained for years

The Herald’s ferry feeding frenzy continues today with: ‘Beyond belief’: Scots fiasco ferries to have 300-passenger cut for safety reasons The Ardrossan-Brodick crossing carried a total of nearly 700 000 passengers last year. There are 16 crossings almost every day, all year long, giving a total of around 5 800 per year. So, the average sailing takes around 120 passengers. So, a safety cut from 1 000 to 700 is a problem? I think not. The Herald is the problem. Who can’t believe the safety reduction? This guy: Sources: https://www.calmac.co.uk/article/9241/Carrying-Statistics-2022—text-version https://www.calmac.co.uk/calmac-performance-data-browser?date=04%2F01%2F2023 Continue reading New ferry will still have capacity nearly SIX times average customer demand

In the Guardian today: Tens of thousands of patients will be unable to have scans on Tuesday when radiographers join consultants and junior doctors in strike action, hospital bosses have said. Radiographers across England will take industrial action from 8am, which will limit the chances of patients using cancer, A&E and maternity services getting a scan or X-ray. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/03/radiographers-strike-on-tuesday-will-stop-thousands-in-england-getting-scans There’s no mention of Scottish radiographers in the above report. On September 3, the Daily Record had a report of a threatened radiographer strike in just one hospital (Hairmyres) with this gleeful comment: Radiographers threaten strike action at Scots hospital days after Humza … Continue reading Thousands of patients will be able to have scans thanks to another Humza Yousaf intervention to avert a health sector strike!

The press is full of warnings of loss of life if police officer staffing is cut, from a ‘top officer’ who is, in fact, a trade union leader not a senior officer nor a Sherlock-like detective. With two days to go until a by-election in Rutherglen and Hamilton West this is misconceived political campaigning on behalf of a Rightist Labour Party which would not hesitate to slash their staffing further and ignore their pay demands. None of the reports have this important evidence: As the Rutherglen and Hamilton West by-election looms, little media coverage, perhaps not surprising as you will … Continue reading ‘Cop Cuts’ – As by-election looms reminder of the facts on plummeting crime in Rutherglen and across Scotland yet superior staffing levels in Scotland

For a few months now the Herald’s Maritime Williams has had a Scotland’s Ferries newsletter to deal with the surge in media reports of ferry failures. There is, of course, no actual surge in ferry failures, any more than there was a surge in care home deaths caused by hospital discharges (it was poor agency workers) or a surge in sexual offences by trans folk or a surge in SNP fraud. It’s just another moral panic and if he is aware of that, it must be doing his head in to have to write that stuff. For his sake, I … Continue reading Herald’s Ferry Newsletter author missing obvious stories