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Vietnamese slaves trafficked into Ayrshire to grow cannabis by an English drug gang is too hard for the Herald to investigate

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The Herald today has the above and only this to explain it: Two men have been arrested and charged in connection with a drugs recovery in Girvan. Around 11am on Thursday, July 2, officers executed a warrant at a property in the town’s Dalrymple Street. Police said a cannabis cultivation was discovered within with an estimated street value of £300,000. and: That’s it. Might they have investigated who these men were and how they got to Girvan? Could they be trafficked by a county lines gang from London or Birmingham? Yes, it is highly plausible that Cam Vu Phung (30) and … Continue reading Vietnamese slaves trafficked into Ayrshire to grow cannabis by an English drug gang is too hard for the Herald to investigate

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Truth be told even Scotland’s ‘most dangerous’ place is less so than 27 of them in England and far less so than 18 of them

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The Daily Record yesterday had the above and: Scotland’s “most dangerous” areas have been named as part of a new list put together by security experts, with one of the country’s major cities placing first. The city was described by the experts as having “startling figures across the board”, with overall crimes figures rising by more than 5 per cent. On Tuesday, July 7, ProFM Group shared a roundup of Scotland’s 15 most dangerous destinations using official data from the Scottish Government Data Repository. The experts expressed this as a rate of the number of crimes per 10,000 residents, which is the … Continue reading Truth be told even Scotland’s ‘most dangerous’ place is less so than 27 of them in England and far less so than 18 of them

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Top UK researchers applaud SNP’s ‘impressive’ yet ‘affordable’ achievements in reducing poverty

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I’m grateful to Dottie once more, for spotting this and alerting us to it. This report is part of the research programme of ‘Safety Nets: Social security for families in a devolved UK’. We are the first comprehensive, four-country study of the devolution and localisation of social security in the United Kingdom. The project team spans eight universities, Child Poverty Action Group and the Resolution Foundation. Our work is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance social well-being. It funds research that informs social policy, primarily in Education, Welfare and Justice. This very … Continue reading Top UK researchers applaud SNP’s ‘impressive’ yet ‘affordable’ achievements in reducing poverty

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Bereavement support – Hiding the overall responsibility of the UK Government AND the Scottish Government’s attempt to reduce funeral poverty

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Widely broadcast and prominently reported on its website today by BBC Scotland, the above and: A widow says she was left facing an impossible choice after her husband’s death – sell the family home or return to work and put her two sons into full-time childcare. Lorraine Wallace, from Kirkcaldy, Fife, is now campaigning for changes to better support grieving families after her bereavement support payments (BSP) ended. Her husband David was diagnosed with bowel cancer in January 2023 and died 21 months later, aged 44. He is survived by Lorraine, 42, and their sons Adam, 10, and 8-year-old Joey. … Continue reading Bereavement support – Hiding the overall responsibility of the UK Government AND the Scottish Government’s attempt to reduce funeral poverty

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How Scotland’s disability benefits system has been kinder and crucially remains affordable but is not apparently worthy of proper media coverage

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In the midst of this damning finding, hot on the heels of England’s maternity unit horrors report, BBC Scotland have not managed to find something to suggest things are the same up here. They have done so, in the recent past with individual tales of over-complex and delayed processing of claims. Here’s why it’s difficult for them: What is the most important recent historical fact in disability payments in the UK? This: A leading disability rights charity has described new suicide statistics as the “tragic face of systemic inequality”. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested disabled people had the highest rate … Continue reading How Scotland’s disability benefits system has been kinder and crucially remains affordable but is not apparently worthy of proper media coverage

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James Cook on Jackdaw telling Scots hee-haw about their 89% of UK tax revenue from oil and gas and nearly £9bn share only 3 years ago

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James Cook this morning on the Jackdaw platform talking about energy security and the environment, at length, but missing a few things. We do get to see this: I doubt they checked with James on the above image, making all-too-clear, the Scottish context for this debate. He managed to mention the UK Government twice but did not tell us what the Scottish Government position is on these two fields. Of course, neither he nor the BBC team in Burnhamland, will be telling anyone, far less Scots, this: 60% of gas and 95% of oil production comes from Scottish waters. https://www.gov.scot/publications/oil-and-gas-production-statistics/ … Continue reading James Cook on Jackdaw telling Scots hee-haw about their 89% of UK tax revenue from oil and gas and nearly £9bn share only 3 years ago

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What on earth is this rubbish doing in the National implying Scotland’s maternity services need an Ockenden Inquiry?

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The above is outrageous. There is no evidence presented by the writer to suggest she is in any position to predict what the outcome of the Scottish Government’s independent review of maternity services in Scotland will be. How dare she and they claim to know without waiting to hear the results? She opens with: Over the past few years, Britain has commissioned report after report into failures in maternity care. Shrewsbury and Telford. East Kent. Morecambe Bay. Nottingham. Most recently, the national investigation led by Baroness Valerie Amos. https://www.thenational.scot/comment/26261264.maternity-services-need-culture-change/ There is no British NHS to commission a report into maternity … Continue reading What on earth is this rubbish doing in the National implying Scotland’s maternity services need an Ockenden Inquiry?

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Six years after the devolution of disability payments to Scotland, 240 associated harms and 40 suicides are being investigated, all in England & Wales

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The Guardian today has two pieces very critical of the disability benefits system in England: Disability benefits in England and Wales not fit for purpose, Timms review to find1 and What is the Timms review into Pip and what is it likely to conclude?2 Extract: The review by the disability minister, Stephen Timms, which was commissioned in the aftermath of Keir Starmer’s U-turn on welfare cuts, will also conclude that the assessment process is dehumanising for disabled people and the system actively hinders people from seeking work. More important but not mentioned by the Guardian this time, writing under a Labour … Continue reading Six years after the devolution of disability payments to Scotland, 240 associated harms and 40 suicides are being investigated, all in England & Wales

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Murder by minors in Scotland plummets to a quarter of the level under Labour 20 years ago as it surges four times in England & Wales – the real Scotland hidden by the Daily Record

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The Daily Record in its never-ending pursuit of ‘children’ stabbed to death, for who knows how many times now front pages an image of a world that on the facts is disappearing. From ITN on 1 May 2025: ITN Productions’ new 1 x 90’ documentary for 5, looks at the rise in murder convictions for 12-17-year-olds in the UK, from those affected by these harrowing crimes and experts offering insight and analysis. Stuart Stephens [pictured], father of Olly Stephens who was killed in 2021 aged 13, shares heart-wrenching memories of his son, whose attack was planned on social media. Stuart subsequently started … Continue reading Murder by minors in Scotland plummets to a quarter of the level under Labour 20 years ago as it surges four times in England & Wales – the real Scotland hidden by the Daily Record