So, a total of £14.2m was spent on the Scottish government procurement cards over the near three-year period from September 2019, around £4.7 million per year. In the first half of 2011/2012, UK Central Government civil servants spent £149 million in the same manner. In 2010/2011, the first year of the Con/Lib coalition to impose austerity, resulting in disabled suicides and laying the ground for thousands to die in the pandemic, the MoD staff spent £237 million using government credit cards. From the Guardian in 2012: An examination of transactions using government procurement cards in five ministries has uncovered evidence … Continue reading Single UK Government department spends 50 times as much on credit cards as Scottish mandarins

We heard yesterday, from the Wee Ginger Dug in the National: Susan Aitken (above), the leader of Glasgow Council, has warned that the UK Government wants to house an asylum barge in Glasgow. Possibly this is because they think that Glasgow is as remote as Ascension Island. The council leader has revealed that the British Government is seeking consent form Glasgow City Council for an asylum barge to be “sited in the city”. She wrote on the social media platform that we are all still calling Twitter: “The UK Government wants Glasgow City Council to give consent to an asylum barge … Continue reading ‘Scottish’ Conservatives prefer ‘illegal’ immigrants in poor areas to Scottish drug treatment in posh bits

Today’s SNP narrative is about a few senior civil servants spending on yoga classes and platforming the above claim by the Scottish branch of the Labour Party. An extract: What were the more unusual items bought? a driving theory test for member of staff china crockery for a meeting room nail polish a yoga class a £1.59 leaving card a £27 “homedisco” from eBay and £272 on “wellington boots for inspections” Among the books purchased by civil servants were six copies of “Women hold up half the sky” – a book of speeches by Ms Sturgeon, and a printed copy … Continue reading ‘Frittering away public money?’

In the Guardian in 2019: Brazil is the largest exporter of frozen chicken in the world, exporting $750m-worth of the meat to Europe last year. But about one in five of its birds are contaminated with the food poisoning bug salmonella. An investigation by the Guardian, Repórter Brasil and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has found that thousands of tonnes of salmonella-contaminated chicken have been exported from Brazil during the past two years, including more than one million birds sent to the UK. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/03/brazil-one-million-salmonella-infected-chickens-uk In 2022: Only 3 years later, in Food Manufacture but nowhere else that I can see: … Continue reading Salmonella-infected chicken anyone?

Mohammed Ameen Mirza, 58, filed bogus declarations for his store in Glasgow’s Gorbals and another in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, in April 2014. There was a £4 million difference in sales, which meant he did not pay £725,000 of VAT. Mirza, an influential businessman, has been photographed in the past alongside Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, and Mohammad Sarwar, the ex-Labour MP…and his son!. Jack McConnell with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Prestwick Airport in 2005  But worst of all this: Anus, sorry Anas! You are my special boy in Scotland. Continue reading The company Scottish Labour leaders keep

So, that’s around 3 000 incidents, many merely verbal, in each year? There are 173 sites with patients and staff in NHS Scotland. There are nearly 182 000 staff in NHS Scotland. So 1 in 60 may witness an assault in any one year? There are nearly 600 000 patients admitted to Scottish hospitals on any one year. So, 1 in 200 may have been ‘assaulted in any one year?’ Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hospitals_in_Scotland chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/media/j0vdmiul/workforce-report-june-2022-formatted.pdf https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2022/ Continue reading 1 in 200 assaulted in Scottish wards

From Scotland’s Chief Statistician on 1 August 2023, published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland: The key findings of the statistics are: there were 16,600 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 30 June 2023 police officer numbers decreased by 15 FTE officers (-0.1%) in the last quarter from 31 March 2023 police officer numbers decreased by 11 FTE officers (-0.1%) in the last year from 30 June 2022 this is an increase of 366 FTE police officers (+2.3%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded … Continue reading SNP ensures hundreds more police officers than under Labour even as crime plummets

Alasdair Galloway Interesting article on the BBC website by Nick McPheat – “Why a non-Old Firm title win is now a near impossible task” https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66359978). It is very difficult to disagree with the conclusion particularly as the manager of the last non-OF club to be Scottish Champions was Sir Alex Ferguson. There are though, one or two things McPheat has not considered, but more than anything I have problems with his tendency to be accepting passively of the factors that lie behind this annual procession. Then again, it is the BBC! Why? Well football is an unusual service product. There … Continue reading Why a non-Old Firm title win is now a near impossible task

In the Herald today: £70 million over nearly 10 years is a fortune? In the year ending 31 December 2021, the Electoral Commission reported these income data: Conservatives – £31 744 000 Labour £45 564 000 Lib Dems £5 733 339 SNP £4 510 460 https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/media-centre/uk-political-parties-accounts-published-0 Note how small the SNP ‘fortune’ really is and how the ‘clever money’ from those keen to avoid paying their taxes is flowing toward Labour. The SNP revenue comes from its mass support. That’s democratic. The others get their money from private investors who expect something, including private health corporations. Continue reading Tom Gordon’s desperate attempt to hide the democratic dignity of the SNP’s modest finances

By cuckooshoe The UK “Inbound visitor statistics for Q4 2022” published in May 2023 [above] show how well Scotland does compared to the other nations and regions of the UK and [below] increases: Scotland set new Q4 records for both visits and spend in Q4 2022. There were 850,000 visits between October – December 2022 spending a total of £680 million (up 1% and 19% respectively on the same period of 2019). In 2022, 3.2 million inbound visits were made to Scotland – 7% fewer than in 2019. Though visit numbers were down in 2022 (compared to 2019), visitor spending … Continue reading Post-Brexit only Scotland sees increased tourism spending