BBC Scotland’s Politics online page has something missing. BBC Wales and Northern Ireland are not missing it: What is it? Constitutional change – independence for Wales and re-union for Ireland. It headlines in that really divided society, Northern Ireland and gets two reports in Wales. Maybe there was nothing of that kind on in Scotland? You can’t expect BBC Scotland to just make something up. Well, there was something on. This: Oooh, I wonder why only BBC Scotland have ignored this issue, again? Maybe it’s just a one-of, innocent error? I’ve been reporting the consistent and stark contrast between the … Continue reading What is allowed on BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland but not on BBC Scotland?

By stewartb – a long read This draws attention to the state of poverty and inequality in the UK. It’s also intended to help fill what might be called the ‘perspective void’ left by the Unionist media – both commercial and (so-called) public service – in Scotland.   In a recent blog post for TuS, poverty and income inequality in the UK was compared with other western democracies. It identified a number of smaller nation-states with substantially lower poverty rates and less inequality than the UK, places not unlike Scotland once independent. See ‘On poverty and inequality: how England’s voters have … Continue reading On poverty across the UK – helping fill the ‘perspective void’!

Throughout September 2022, NHS England has had twice the number, pro rata, of Covid cases in ICU than NHS Scotland. Wales with a significantly smaller population tends to have as many and, often more, that Scotland does. This trend began around the beginning of August 2022. Before that Scotland had a similar rate to England. Might this be the explanation: From around October 2021, Scotland began to pull away from the other three nations and, notably has given third vaccinations to significantly more than NHS England has managed. Other factors may have been the quicker vaccination of the elderly and … Continue reading Has SNP Government’s superior vaccination programme resulted in far fewer Covid cases in Scottish Hospital ICUs?

The National has been making much of the latest predictions from pollsters Electoral Calculus, with a good sample of 10 435 across the UK and roughly 900 in Scotland. I understand why they like the predicted defeats for Governor General Alister Jack and for Leader Douglas Ross but I take even more pleasure in the thought of Andrew Bowie getting dumped. Why? That face? OK, then these: Continue reading Never mind Ross and Jack, this would be the sweet one for me!

Today based on polling on 29 September with 112 Scots, don’t knows and non-voters excluded, Omnisis, has Labour at only 28% in Scotland but 40% for the UK. The Cons have collapsed to 12% suggesting their support is simply moving across to the right-of-centre Labour Party, while the SNP hold at 46%. A poll of 2216 on 29 September, by PeoplePolling with has Labour 30 points ahead of the Cons with 50%. The Scottish sub-poll of 190 has Labour at 25%, Cons at 3% but SNP at 56% and Greens at 6%. Survation on the same day with 1 329 has Labour … Continue reading Fourth sub-poll confirms Labour surge will not cross border

Maybe Therese Coffey was wrong about getting rid of the Oxford comma, before the ‘and’ in the above example. The way I, and I hope most sensible folk, read that headline it means that Liz Truss is both a ‘killer and PM.’ I’d like to applaud BBC Scotland for their courage in confronting the Conservative leader with the deadly consequences of her recent policies. Is it possible, they’ve been reading my blog and saw this: Imagine this medical chief had accused the ‘Scottish’ Government of causing child deaths? Shockingly, she went on to say ‘If you’re in a cold house … Continue reading Shock as BBC Scotland accuses PM of being ‘a killer’

A poll of 2216 on 29 September, by PeoplePolling with has Labour 30 points ahead of the Cons with 50%. The Scottish sub-poll of 190 has Labour at 25%, Cons at 3% but SNP at 56% and Greens at 6%. Survation on the same day with 1 329 has Labour on 42.6% and Cons on 23.6%. The Scottish sub-poll has Labour only on 24.2%, Cons on only 10% and the SNP on 43%. YouGov on the 28-29th September, with 1 712, has Labour at 54% and Cons at 21% but, in Scotland Labour is on 38%, Cons at 10%, SNP … Continue reading Sub-poll: SNP and Greens surge to 62%

From the Guardian today: Thousands of children face an increased risk of catching deadly diseases in England, and significant outbreaks are likely, child health experts have warned, as “alarming” figures show vaccination levels have plunged across virtually all jabs. The NHS Digital report found 89.2% of children at 24 months had completed their first dose of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, a drop from 90.3% in 2020-21. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/sep/29/thousands-of-children-at-risk-as-vaccination-rates-fall-in-england?CMP=share_btn_link In London, uptake was only 74.8%! https://www.england.nhs.uk/london/2022/06/30/londons-nhs-launches-new-childhood-immunisation-campaign/#:~:text=Data%20published%20on%20Tuesday%2028,by%20the%20age%20of%205. Measles can be deadly. In Scotland, 94.4% of children had the first dose of MMR vaccine by 24 months of age. This rose to 95.9% for … Continue reading Serious risk of deadly measles outbreaks on Scotland’s border

In 2014, former football presenter, Archie McPherson campaigned for No and used a complete lie about pensions to scare voters. Astonishingly, he got away with suggesting that Britain’s 65 million people were helping to pay for Scotland’s pensions and that we’d be unable to pay for them ourselves. The mind-boggling confusion was not exposed by the MSM at the time. Today, we hear that UK pension funds were put in peril of insolvency by the recent Con Government budget and that the Bank of England had to intervene to save them. Will McPherson (85) be out again to explain this? Continue reading Pensions: Will Archie McPherson explain why the Bank of England had to save them?

Much is being made of the latest YouGov poll for the Times, putting Labour a massive 33 points ahead of the Cons but, in Scotland, the picture is different. In this one sub-poll of 147 Scots, Labour have surged a bit to 38% but are still behind the SNP at 44%. So, what can we take from this? It’s only one poll. For Scotland, it’s a sub-poll far too wee to mean much on its own. It’s a poll of Westminster voting intentions and so means little for Holyrood voting. It seems to reveal that Scottish Labour are far weaker … Continue reading Poll: *Labour remain far weaker in Scotland than any other part of UK