From SNP Media: As a result of the SNP Government’s approach to business rates, farmers in Scotland look set to avoid additional costs facing their counterparts in the rest of the UK. Following Westminster’s change to the way it calculates rates assessments, operators of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants – many of whom are farmers – in England and Wales are facing a rise in business rates. Industry chiefs have said this ‘is adding yet more strain onto an industry that is already facing rising supply chain and feedstock costs.’  Under devolution, the Scottish Government has taken a different approach to business rates and … Continue reading Scottish farmers £744 million better off than UK counterparts

In the Herald today: GPs in Crisis: The Ferret investigation in partnership with The Herald. GPs are in crisis – patient lists are spiralling, surgeries closing and doctors in chronically short supply. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/23380292.gps-crisis-ferret-investigation-partnership-herald/ The Ferret, Scotland’s supposedly independent factchecker, returns after some time to be just another corporate media bitch, perversely trumpeting its relationship with the Herald, in pursuit of their shared ambition to promote Scottish Labour and do down the SNP. The full report is behind the paywall but I feel sure they won’t be reporting these facts: There were 3,494 GP Whole Time Equivalents (WTE) in Scotland in 2022. … Continue reading Scotland’s Corporate Ferret way behind UK People’s Canary as it fakes another story

BBC Scotland yesterday, under the grudging headline EIS teaching union backs pay deal to end school strikes give no credit to the management/government side in strike resolution. Imagine this was a working-class union in England? They do, of course, give lots of space to the three Unionist parties in Scotland with this unchallenged hypocrisy in the light of the views held in their London HQs: The Scottish Conservatives accused Ms Somerville of being “asleep at the wheel” over the strike action. Party education spokesman Stephen Kerr MSP said: “It would never have lasted this long – and caused so much … Continue reading Education Secretary shouted down by three noisy weans who preferred strike days

Today the Herald can reveal: Bus operators in Scotland have seen an increase in anti-social behaviour since a flagship scheme allowing young Scots to travel for free was launched, The Herald can reveal. And the evidence? Well for the first 12 paragraphs it’s just the impressions of Labour councillor Tom Conn and Facebook activist Alex O’Kane and then, as promised at the top, a bus operator: A slight increase that cannot be attributed directly to the scheme? Oh. Has the Herald writer maybe imagined all this for a wee headline so he can keep his job working for a corporation? See that SNP … Continue reading Oh ye shouldnae throw yer grandson aff the bus for a ‘slight increase’ in disorder

Some folk are bit too keen to smugly tell you that, based on Betteridge’s Law, a headline ending in a question mark can always be answered with a resounding NO. I don’t subscribed to such a rigid view but in this case it’s true. You do need to read down a bit in this bland anon piece, with no analysis I note, to find: Long waits for potentially life-saving diagnostic tests are common in Ireland, as they are in Scotland. The two countries have similar populations but very different health systems. The Irish Cancer Society estimates that more than 200,000 … Continue reading NHS Scotland does cancer scans TWICE as fast as Ireland’s health system

Back in 2011, Labour Shadowy Health Secretary, Jackie Baillie, said it was concerning that 21 Scots, treated in a back pain centre in Bath, could not be treated closer to home. 11 of the 18 paragraphs in the BBC Scotland report were given over to Jackie Baillie and Murdo Fraser, blaming the Scottish Health Secretary directly for this. Today, BBC Wales has People with eating disorders in Wales could be sent as far away as Scotland in order to get treatment. There must a Con Shadowy Health Secretary there to attack the Labour Health Secretary for this gross failure. No, … Continue reading Jackie Baillie shocked by patient transfers FROM Labour Wales

Every state or corporate media outlet not serving the Scottish electorate is currently drooling at the prospect of an SNP ‘civil war.’ They haven’t had such stained fronts to their shirts since ‘Salmondgate‘. The corporate pollsters have, pretty much together, revealed a dip in support down to just above 40% with a too-small-to-matter Labour climb and the Con support creepily hanging on. Even at that level, the SNP walks through the gap to win all bar a few seats where Labour is a close second or where the Unionist vote just swaps Con for Labour. Remember SNP support actually dipped … Continue reading Snap twitter-poll suggests support is solid with 87% more likely to support SNP after leader debates

Leah Gunn Barrett This sent to the Scotsman on 8 March 2023: Murdo Fraser writes with a straight face that the Windsor Framework doesn’t put Scotland at a disadvantage and anyway, we don’t deserve a deal like Northern Ireland’s because we don’t share a land border with an EU nation. This is the incoherent guff Scots have to endure from Murdo and his fellow Tories, who must after all show fealty to their English masters.  Because Northern Ireland has full access to both the UK and EU markets, its economy is outperforming the rest of the UK. Once the ‘Windsor … Continue reading ‘Scots don’t deserve a deal like Ulst….oops, Northern Ireland!’

On February 20th 2023, I sent this to BBC Complaints: Failure to inform viewers important NHS issues  Since the beginning of December 2022, there have been numerous strikes by nurses, ambulance staff and other key health service workers which the BBC UK broadcasts have carefully reported, early and repeatedly, fulfilling their duty as a public service broadcaster, to alert the public, especially the older and more vulnerable who rely on TV news. The elderly and vulnerable in Scotland may have seen and been confused and worried by these reports because BBC Scotland has never reminded them that, on all of … Continue reading BBC Scotland feel no remorse if the elderly and vulnerable suffer from their failure to inform

From Alasdair Galloway, no relation, I trust UK government reply to “Grant a Section 30 Order to enable a Scottish Independence Referendum”. Some time ago, I signed the petition “Grant a Section 30 Order to enable a Scottish Independence Referendum” more in hope than expectation. Since the number signing was above that which required Westminster to respond I have this morning received that response by email. I think its fair to say that my expectations have been fulfilled. It’s copied in below BEGINS The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Grant a Section 30 Order to enable … Continue reading “Just say naw!”