Above, another Labour MSP tries to weaken the case for independence by casting Scotland, all of it, as essentially a coloniser and a full partner with England’s elites, in that venture. Anas Sarwar tried the same last August and Sir Prof Tom Devine, another qualified supporter of independence, defended him. The answer to Choudhury MBE is the same as it was for Sarwar and Devine: I hesitate to correct Professor Tom Devine in his defence of Anas Sarwar. Once compared with Prof John Curtice, a writer said he was like a premier league footballer and I was like a third-team … Continue reading Labour Member of the British Empire again tries to cast all of our ancestors as colonisers in the same venture

From CalMac at 9.23am but still not being reported by BBC Scotland: MV Finlaggan is out of her deferred dry dock a day early and on her way to Islay freeing up MV LOTI for South Uist. Dry dock 2023/24 for our 35 vessels starts in just 6 weeks with a budget more than double 2017 to ensure resilience. Thank you for your patience. @CalMacFerries Did they have another story planned for tomorrow? Do they not follow CalMac? Continue reading MV Lord of the Isles to return to South Uist ahead of schedule

Apart from the 4 on the Oban to South Uist crossing, CalMac only had cancellations on the popular Gourock to Dunoon route. 12 out of only 58 sailings were cut, leading to suggestions from one not very reliable source, ‘JackieB‘ that this would cause a mass exodus from both places. Up to 7 people known to our source in Dunoon have said that ferry unreliability has made peninsular life untenable and they’re thinking of moving permanently to Gourock. Coincidentally, up to 7 people known to our source in Gourock have said they cannot live a good life in old age … Continue reading 12 out of 58 sailings cancelled poses existential threat to life in Gourock AND Dunoon

From Public Health Scotland today: 7,716 referrals to community-based services started treatment during the quarter. Overall, 92% involved a wait of three weeks or less. Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals to community-based services across all substances: problematic use of drugs (95%), co-dependency (93%) and alcohol (90%). https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times/national-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-waiting-times-1-january-2023-to-31-march-2023/ The target for drug and alcohol treatment has been met for five years, every quarter: I can find no trace of even one time that BBC Scotland has mentioned this remarkable achievement. In June 2022, they did tell us this: Scotland’s addiction services have failed to achieve key targets that were … Continue reading The missing target – 92% wait less than 3 weeks for drug or alcohol treatment but BBC Scotland have never reported it

Between the spring of 1788 and summer of 1790 fifty seven complaints were made to London Magistrates by women alleging that they had been molested and stabbed [on the buttocks] by an individual stranger in public. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/412011/1/LIBRARY_COPY_PhD_Thesis_Final_Formatted_Version.pdf Reports of ‘lady bottom cutters’ then spread like wildfire across the newly emerging mass media in the form of daily newspapers. While it cannot be shown that there were no actual incidents of bottom cutting, initially, the media-amplified spread has been described as one of the earliest example of a ‘moral panic‘ where mass media take reports of deviance, construct them into a … Continue reading From lady bottom cutters to ferry fiascos – the imagined worlds that damage us all even those who write them into being

Some years ago, Frankie Boyle wondered: ‘How can we teach the Afghans about democracy? I know, let’s send them a prince to shoot at them from a helicopter!’ Today, inspired by his late mum’s part-clearing of one landmine and hugging one drug addict, it’s: ‘How can we solve the problem of homelessness? I know, let’s send them a prince with several plush properties and hundreds of empty bedrooms!’ What can go wrong? What could the Windsors do next? ‘How can we stop fox hunting? I know, let’s send them a princess who….ah, no that won’t work.’ ‘Well, how can we … Continue reading Harry Potter and the Windsor Nuts

Above, what the headline should have said. Below what BBC Scotland chose: UK could be starved of energy, says North Sea boss You have to read beyond the headline to see: The UK is at risk of being “starved” of North Sea energy leaving it reliant on imports, a major oil and gas producer has told the BBC. Ithaca Energy said Labour’s pledge to ban new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea and current taxation policy was “spooking” investors. Last week, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said a Labour government would not grant licences to explore new fields in … Continue reading Protecting Scottish Labour as their policy ‘spooks’ North Sea energy investors

On the early TV broadcast news and in the extended website version, this major report finds the SNP minimum pricing policy to have been a major success, with evidence of 13.4% reduction in related deaths, a 4.1% reduction in hospital admissions and whopping 40% reduction among men in the most deprived areas. These should have been the headline grabbing comments but instead BBC Scotland headline and open the report with: Call to raise ‘life-saving’ minimum alcohol price in Scotland Scotland should increase its minimum unit price for alcohol from 50p to 65p, campaigners have said. It came as a final … Continue reading Major SNP policy saves many lives but is damned with faint praise by BBC Scotland

The utterly brilliant satirist Cold War Steve positions media mogul Rupert Murdoch with his loyal supplicants in a palatial context ripe with the air of corruption. He didn’t seem to spot this: There he is with the other private health corporation-funded Labour lot. When Cold Water Steve doesn’t even notice you, how sad is that? Continue reading Cold War Steve has no idea who Anas Sarwar is but knows that if he does not, Sarwar must not matter