See what they’ve done dropping the essential ‘for personal use?’ They do mention personal use in the sub-heading but the damage has been done. You can see the opposition-fed headlines: SNP soft on drugs! SNP encourage addiction! Make up your own. STV is by no means perfect but since 2015, they have been far less likely to politicise social problems and public service performance. See this for the evidence: Tell you ma, tell your da, watch STV News! Continue reading Tell your ma, tell your da, watch STV News!: BBC Scotland unlike STV ‘careful’ to scare you with a drugs lie

Four of the only five polls suggesting a YES lead, in 2023, were not weighted by the 9 year-old 2014 demographics. I’m indebted to Independent Voices @Celebs4indy for explaining to me why they are probably more reliable than all of the others: I hope readers will agree that my Primary 7 numeracy skills are sufficient for dealing with comparative percentages, line graphs, scatter graphs and my recent fave – funnel web charts of hospital mortality, but judging the reliability of polling methods is beyond me His extended piece on how polls work is a must read: https://indyvoices.info/lifting-the-lid-on-the-black-box Continue reading Are the YES lead polls based on better methods?

Workplace deaths in Scotland have tragically more than doubled in 2022/23, to 26, compared with 11 in 2019/20. Employers have been getting away with murder. However: The rate of workplace deaths has fallen dramatically over time. These are UK-wide data. I can’t find data for the longer-term trend in Scotland. Scotland has a higher workplace-related death ratio than England because of a higher proportion of the population working in high risks industries such as oil & gas extraction, farming and fishing. An equivalent graph for Scotland will probably reveal a downward trend but with with spikes such as that 35 … Continue reading Work-related death spike

There’s someone missing from this latest in an endless milking of the ferry saga. It is terrible. Someone should carry the blame for this but he won’t because, though he signed the contract, advised by his own experts, they have been unable to deliver. They want to blame the Scottish Government and/or its agency Cmal but it won’t wash. The man responsible is one of the two below: Why? From reader Bob Lamont in December 2022: I’m not about to get into a hissing contest over political views because that is precisely what has been abused in this ongoing saga … Continue reading Ferry delay – one rich and powerful man signed the contract and is thus fully responsible

Despite STV being able to report this 14 hours ago, the Mail and Express prefer to run today with the lie by George Foulkes: The Scottish Government is not being investigated by UK officials over concerns it has been spending public money on matters not within its remit. A Scottish Labour peer told Parliament that officials in the Treasury and the Office of the Advocate General of Scotland were to look into cash spent working on Scottish independence – an area reserved to Westminster. However, it is understood this is not the case. A spokesperson for the UK Government said: … Continue reading ‘SNP’ independence spending not being probed by UK yet Mail and Express still repeating Foulkes lie

The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser, closing today at 3pm, primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland – a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS  On BBC Reporting Scotland this morning and across Scottish media, the report of a child being struck by an SUV, as reported by Police Scotland. Appeal after child … Continue reading As 4 year-old struck by BMW X1 is in critical condition why SUVs are 8 times more likely to kill a child

stewartb The level of students’ personal debt reflects UK government decisions – acting as the government of England – to load the cost of higher education onto individuals rather than the public finances. The extent to which this has been done is a policy choice. The extent to which it has been done – and sustained – in England over more than a decade is a function of the choices made by voters in England. They have wanted this policy, they endorsed this policy at the ballot box and/or at least they have acquiesced to its continuation. They have every … Continue reading Students’ personal debt reflects UK government decisions to load costs of HE onto individuals rather than public finances

I know many disagree but the evidence is in. STV News, for all its faults, can be trusted far more than BBC Scotland, the Herald, the Scotsman or the Record. It’d take too long to extract the text but see these: And finally, empirically, as far back as May 2015: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://thoughtcontrolscotland.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/propaganda-or-professionalism.pdf Continue reading Why is the Herald hours behind STV News at the very same time? If you have to watch TV News, watch STV

The Herald today with another of their Labour-affiliated union feeds, to make Scots feel SNP Government must not be working, typically context free to make that possible. The context? The total student loan debt in England is £182 billion. With 10 times the population, all things being equal, student debt in England might be expected to be 10 times higher – £76bn – but it’s £182bn, TWO AND A HALF times higher. Also, Student loan debts are wiped after 30 years after they are first due to be repaid. The Herald opens with: Outstanding loan debt owed by students in … Continue reading Student debt in Scotland less than half that in England

The Herald gave their award last year to Anas Sarwar. Look at his ratings compared to the FM Humza Yousaf, since then. The Herald clearly misread the public mood then. How will they do this time? Continue reading How can the Herald Politician of the Year be so far behind Humza Yousaf?