By stewartb There will be many decisions for the democratically elected government of Scotland to make after independence. These will certainly involve big and controversial decisions on international relations and defence policies. And positions do change as we’ve seen over Sweden/ Finland and NATO. I spotted this ‘straw in the wind’ recently: ‘Could Spain be the first NATO State to sign the Nuclear Ban Treaty? ‘ (https://www.icanw.org/could_spain_be_the_first_nato_state_to_sign_the_nuclear_ban_treaty) ‘.. in exchange for their support on the 2019 budget, political party Podemos obtained a commitment from the Spanish government to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The … Continue reading Scotland, NATO and nuclear weapons

The Herald has been a rich seam of disinformation today but I’ll stop with this one, quickly. The Herald’s Health Correspondent writes: THE number of nurses and midwives registered in Scotland has risen by just 280 in the past year. Scotland experienced the slowest year-on-year increase in the workforce of any part of the UK, amid warnings that staff are quitting due to “too much pressure” and pandemic burnout. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/20145682.scotland-nurse-midwifery-workforce-growth-slowest-uk/ But doesn’t seem to know about this very important context: Scotland has far more nurses and midwives per head of population. Something the readers should know? Continue reading Yes, but NHS Scotland already has far more nurses and midwives!

I worry over Iain’s thing about ‘Nicola’. For a reminder, try these: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=Macwhirter He knows about Finland and Sweden applying to join NATO? He knows they’ll be welcomed? Is he alright? Continue reading Somebody remind Macwhirter about Sweden and Finland?

The Herald is not entirely opposed to independence and working hard to deceive its readers on that issue. Most of its ‘big beast’ old male writers are, of course, but the editing is more anarchic. I’ve noted McConnell’s work before. On the ferry ‘scandal’ he writes LEADING global fund manager James Anderson recently highlighted his belief that a very large state investment fund in Scotland, matched with private sector money, could enable the nation to achieve major successes. His suggestion had one critical caveat – there would have to be an “absolute acceptance” that much would fail in such investment. https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/20146163.ferguson-marine-sniping-signals-scottish-goldfish-bowl-politicians-not-grown-up-enough-ian-mcconnell/ … Continue reading SHOCK: Good Herald writer clears up ferry situation

Helen McCardle, offers us the above data and writes: FOURTEEN patients with autism or learning disabilities have died since 2015 while detained in psychiatric facilities in Scotland, figures reveal.  The statistics were released for the first time by Public Health Scotland (PHS) following a parliamentary question by Scottish Conservative MSP Alexander Burnett, who has campaigned to end the “national scandal” of otherwise healthy people being locked up for months or years due to a lack of community-based support.  https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/20145645.death-toll-autism-learning-disability-patients-revealed/ No doubt Burnett was disappointed with the above data and, perhaps, took solace in a one-year increase at the end, but the trend is … Continue reading Death toll of autism and learning disability patients revealed as FALLING

Why is the First Minister pictured here? Why is it not the Transport Minister, the Scotrail Chief Executive or the RMT union leader, who are clearly directly involved? Back in 2011, Alex Salmond was recognised as having been demonised, by Iain Macwhirter in the same newspaper, writing: In the past week the First Minister has been compared to the Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe. He has been cast as a “Jekyll and Hyde”  https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/13039618.demonisation-alex-salmond/ In 2014, my own research noted the same phenomenon in the run-up to the referendum. I wrote: Later that year, the Huffington Post agreed: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/alan/snp-alex-salmond-has-been-demonised_b_6174718.html Since she … Continue reading Demonising SNP leaders

Readers might remember BBC Scotland’s failure to cover the first Minister’s speech at the last SNP Conference. There has been similar neglect with regard to most of her speeches in Europe. This continues, with Glenn Campbell, last night, bundling a quick reference to it within an interview with the Cop26 chair, Alok Sharma. We saw none of her speech and BBC Scotland offers no link to it. I’m grateful to stewartb, who comments in a post: Apologies if you’ve already seen this reported by the mainstream media or BBC Scotland! This is a link to our FM’s speech at the … Continue reading Link to First Minister’s speech in USA

In 2017, there were 363 hospitals and clinics in England and Wales that carried out abortions. Through the review, we found that 36 hospitals and clinics have experienced anti-abortion demonstrations. Having considered the evidence of the review, I [Savid Javid, then Home Secretary] have therefore reached the conclusion that introducing national buffer zones would not be a proportionate response, considering the experiences of the majority of hospitals and clinics, and considering that the majority of activities are more passive in nature. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2018-09-13/HCWS958 I can’t easily find out how many such clinics there are in Scotland but, pro rata, you’d expect … Continue reading SNP action on abortion protests is proportionate

The Ferry ‘scandal’ story runs on typically ill-informed. The Herald today headlines supposed neglect in securing a contract refund guarantee or pledge as they put it. US corporate law firm Haynes Boone reveal the often worthless nature of these: The buyer’s position is made worse by the fact that many shipbuilding contracts provide that, where the buyer terminates the shipbuilding contract for delay, the buyer is entitled to a refund of the pre-delivery instalments of the contract price, plus interest, but the yard has no furtherliability to the buyer. In circumstances where, after cancellation of the shipbuilding contract, the buyer … Continue reading Ferries: SNP Minister knew refund guarantees would be “very limited protection in reality”

By stewartb In recent days TuS and its contributors have sought to make good some of BBC Scotland’s deficiencies in news coverage. Specifically, they have been addressing the problem of the public service broadcaster’s persistence in being a context- and perspective-free zone. This has included highlighting the UK government’s very major mess over procurement of the Ajax armoured vehicle and – this is hard to believe – its inability to avoid having all six of the Royal Navy’s high tech, high value destroyers out of action for renovation/upgrade at the very same time. Candidly, more examples of Westminster government procurement … Continue reading Heard enough gaslighting of Scotland – time for more talking-down Westminster?