The perverse case of what Scotland voted for countered by a government it rejected A long read by stewartb This is prompted by a recent (January 2022) report from the Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI), entitled ‘Modelling packages to meet Scotland’s child poverty targets: scenarios, benefits and trade-offs’. The FAI analyses the potential for the use of devolved policy levers by the Scottish Government as it aims to meet the target in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 of reducing relative child poverty to 10% by 2030/31. The research shows up several things of note including how different interventions in … Continue reading Reducing child poverty

Scotland’s salmon exports for 2021 have recovered to almost the same level as in 2019 and are, once more, the UK’s biggest food export. 61% has gone to EU countries with much of the remainder going to the US and China. I haven’t seen an update on this 2019 statement: The export success of the whisky, bakeries and aquaculture industries means that Scotland accounts for 29 per cent of all UK food and drink sales to overseas markets. In fact, Scotland exports more beverages by value than the rest of the UK combined. https://www.insider.co.uk/news/food-drink-grows-three-times-20164795 But I feel sure little has … Continue reading Massive salmon exports to EU as Scotland continues to produce far more than it needs

Headlining across the UK news as bad for consumers but down the page: With the oil price teetering on the brink of $100 a barrel and retailers keen to pass on the increase in wholesale fuel quickly, new records could now be set on a daily basis in the coming weeks. Fuel prices at the pump are driven largely by the wholesale price of energy which has shot up due to tensions over whether Russia will invade Ukraine. On Monday, oil prices hit their highest level since 2014, reaching $95.56 a barrel. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60375568 2014? Wait, wasn’t this below, the line … Continue reading Sssssh! Scottish oil heading for $100 a barrel again

By stewartb I recently shared on Talking Up Scotland findings from the National Audit Office (NAO) on deficiencies in Tory Westminster governments’ capabilities and practices in regional and local economic development.  The NAO provided insights that should cause concern about the likely efficacy of Westminster’s Levelling Up interventions in Scotland – my main concern – but indeed its interventions everywhere across the UK. See: ‘’Levelling up’ – policy imposed in Scotland without competence?’ The same NAO report, issued on 2 February and entitled ‘Supporting local economic growth’, also provides useful context for the policies that are now being delivered by … Continue reading A track record exposed – the National Audit Office on the unequal state of the UK

I used to teach research methods to reluctant journalism students but, despite their lack of enthusiasm for quantitative vs qualitative methods, they seemed quite bright and knew a bit of history. I’ve often thought that Mark Smith is not so bright and further hampered by what I think was an education in England but that headline is a cracker. Leaving aside his juvenile wee nationalIST reference, anyone with a sense of history is going to think: ‘Mark! Do you know nothing?’ I forced my self to read on. He has found a Sinn Fein MP for North Belfast saying that … Continue reading What, take up arms?

I have no evidence to answer the above question fully but I think I do for a key element within it. The Guardian report notes: The Covid pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on ethnic minorities, prompting fresh questions about inequalities that permeate the practice of medicine. The observatory ordered the review last year to synthesise the evidence, translate it into “actionable policy” and “challenge leaders to act”. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/13/radical-action-needed-to-tackle-racial-health-inequality-in-nhs-says-damning-report The link takes us to another report suggesting a 27% higher death rate among BAME groups in England. 4% of the Scottish population is recorded as one of the non-White ethnic minority … Continue reading Is there racial health inequality in Scotland?

Readers will remember Professor Dev Sridhar on BBC Scotland in the early days of the pandemic until she complimented the FM and the Scottish strategy before Murdo Fraser and others blew up in indignation at her interfering. Professor Linda Bauld then became ubiquitous until she too made the mistake of pointing to official statistics revealing lower infection rates in Scotland and since has become rare at Pacific Quay. For months now, we’ve had Jill Evans, not a prof or an epidemiologist, but head of health intelligence at NHS Grampian, on a regular basis to advise us on Covid developments without … Continue reading Has Reporting Scotland dumped its third woman Covid expert in a row?

There were 885 patients recorded in hospitals with Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, the lowest since 31st December 2021 when there were 859. There were 20 ICU cases, the lowest since June 27 2021, more than 7 months ago, when there were 17. I appreciate that these data do not capture the ‘collateral damage’ such as long-Covid and do not suggest that such progress merits the frankly school-boy announcements of the PM in the last three days calling for an end to all restrictions. While hospitalisation has fallen in England, the fall has been less steep and the level … Continue reading Hospitalisation lowest since 2021, ICU lowest for 7 months

David Bol of the Herald leaps gleefully on this news that a contract for recycling Scots bottle waste has gone south. I remember the time we were more concerned about waste from the south getting dumped in Scotland – Munitions in Beaufort’s Dyke, nuclear sub waste in the Clyde, old nuclear subs rotting in Rosyth, southern excrement in camping sites? Isn’t this just a positive indicator that we will have a nice productive relationship with rUK after independence? They will, despite some mad yoon outbursts, still buy our salmon, beef and whisky. They will prefer to buy our oil, gas … Continue reading Seems fair after all the food, oil, gas, electricity, graduates….

At the Winter Olympics: Great Britain’s women won an important curling match against the United States 10-5 to keep their Winter Olympics play-off hopes on track. Having lost two of their three matches so far, Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff could ill afford another defeat. The Scottish quartet held off an American fightback to move up to fifth in the standings. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/60360881 There isn’t actually a BBC Scotland report on the rugby, just this from Gareth Griffiths of BBC Sport Wales, on the BBC Scotland website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/60360404 Continue reading Scots rugby loses but GB (sic) curlers win ‘down the page’