165 000 working days over two and a half years? Why two and a half years, Jamie? It’s to make the number bigger for a headline, Professor Robertson. We had a class on that. Notice anything else, Jamie? Aye, nae percentages. Why is that a problem? It’s so they can claim something is a big problem without having to prove it is. I mean, even if it’s thousands but it’s less than 1%, it’s not a big problem. We had a class on that too. Anything else? Aye, the data are from a Freedom of Information by the Lib Dems. … Continue reading 15 year-old Modern Studies pupil has fit of giggles at Herald report on police absences

From stewartb [In response to the evidence that 70 days over 8 years is around 0.003% of all time spent by ambulance staff] Is that big, small, something else?’ It seems that Scotland’s opposition parties and their media allies simply will not give an answer to such a question. Their reason for omitting context and perspective? It harder and harder not to conclude that the motivation is partisan politics – anti- SG/anti-SNP/anti-independence – rather than a genuine attempt to highlight problems within public services in order to find feasible solutions. Providing context – as done in the above TuS blog … Continue reading Scots far, far, less likely to make hoax ambulance calls?

No rest for the wicked eh? I’m guessing ACH fed the Herald this one months ago and Scotland’s best known ambulance chaser, the man who heroically saved his own child with a Heimlich Maneuver just in time for the evening news, pops up, out-creepying even Uncle Anas, to tell the SNP to tell folk not to call an ambulance for a prank. Yes, I suppose if you think there’s mileage in blaming Nicola for every damn thing that happens in Scotland, this story is no worse than many other fed to us by Anas, Dougie or Alex. Today we read: … Continue reading Ambulance Chasing Hamilton never sleeps as shocking 0.003% is wasted on hoax calls!

BBC UK and England have nothing to say about their record infection rate today. Only BBC Scotland headlines the figure. Here are today’s data: Divide today’s cases by the population of each nation and you get: Wales 218 cases per 100K England 188 per 100K N Ireland 175 per 100K Scotland 129 per 100K Continue reading Scotland surges to lowest rate in UK today

From BBC Tees yesterday: A care watchdog has begun a review into hospital deaths involving two children on Teesside. The North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reported the deaths as serious incidents and carried out its own investigation, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has learnt. A review is now being carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). No details of the circumstances surrounding the deaths, or whether they are connected have been released. The most recent CQC report on the trust – which operates hospitals in Stockton and Hartlepool, rated it as being “good” overall. It is now conducting … Continue reading An English Labour MP does not politicise child deaths in hospital

Has David Bols had a sleepover at Sarwar Mansions? He’s on a roll with stories based on limited and laughable feeds from Scottish Labour today. Yes, they’re going to go on schools! Really: SNP ministers have been accused of putting planning schools upgrade projects in jeopardy after it was revealed the next wave of funding may not be available for another 12 months. Labour have claimed the hold-ups show “our do-nothing Education Secretary doing nothing”. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19806324.snp-ministers-putting-school-building-projects-jeopardy-funding-delays/ This is like shooting fish in a barrel: From the Scottish Government statistics section in September 2021: The proportion of schools reported as being in good … Continue reading Anas, patron saint of private schools, attacks SNP Government on building schools

NICOLA Sturgeon will consider opening public buildings this winter to help rough sleepers receive support amid concern over many people being forced onto the streets this Christmas. The First Minister was pressed by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar over the number of rough sleepers in Scotland and thousands of families staying in temporary accommodation for an average of a year. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19805852.nicola-sturgeon-pressure-bring-forward-real-action-end-homelessness/ Sarwar, as you know, is a millionaire and shareholder in a food-production company, run by his mum, which does not pay the living wage, forcing employees to rely on top-up benefits and, ironically, food banks. The Herald report by David Balls … Continue reading Anas, patron saint of shareholders, attacks SNP on homelessness

Energy bills could rise as much as 50% in the spring as the UK faces a “national crisis” over soaring wholesale gas and electricity prices as renewable generation has slumped helped by the lowest Scottish wind speeds of this century. The trade body Energy UK has called on the UK government to intervene to help cut the cost of bills amid predictions that the price cap could easily exceed £2,000 a year. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/19806397.scots-face-50-energy-bills-rise-crisis-wind-power-generation-slumps/ Just as BBC Scotland often obscured the truth with the word ‘after‘, as in ‘children die after contracting fungal infection linked to pigeon droppings‘, so the Herald … Continue reading Bad connection as Herald misleads on Scotland’s power

How do you judge if a national programme of action is progressing well? Easy. Compare it with other programmes elsewhere, in similar countries. Nowhere in the above grudging mean little report does the reader get any meaningful context. 51% of the population of Scotland’s over-12s boosted, compared to only 47.4% in Wales, 47.1% in England and 40.4% in N Ireland. In Europe, second only to Iceland (population less than Edinburgh) on 57%. Globally, third behind only Iceland and Chile (52%) out of 200 countries. Then on progress toward the target, BBC Scotland tell us that with only 368 000 to … Continue reading Scotland to beat booster target with almost a week to spare!

From stewartb Note: Stewart is not to blame for the headline nor the image above. It will be ‘interesting’ to see this evening (Thursday) whether Reporting Scotland’s editors opt to amplify further the rants against Public Health Scotland, the Scottish Government and personally against John Swinney and the FM delivered today by club/pub owner Donald MacLeod MBE. He speaks, I understand, on behalf of the Glasgow Licensing Forum. The BBC has already given him a platform at least twice today – on Radio Scotland this morning and on Radio 4’s World at One. He’s been sharing how much he supports … Continue reading Club/pub owner Donald MacLeod MBE – Mostly Boozed-up Epidemiology?