Unlike Scotland, the UK has a massive trade deficit, importing far more than it exports, so must borrow to pay for costs such as this emergency funding. The Treasury borrows it and we pay it back with interest. Ireland, Iceland, Denmark and all the others have done the same. With a trade surplus such as Scotland has, we’d find it easier to pay back. But here, next year, a share of the massive decades-old UK debt, we wouldn’t need if independent, will have grown, to further suggest we cannot survive. The unwanted costs of Trident, nuclear power and military projection, … Continue reading Remember this ‘gift’ is a loan that will be added to ‘Scotland’s budget deficit’ in GERS 2022

Euan McColm? Didn’t he write Dirty Old Town? McColm thinks a Labour resurgence will challenge the SNP. He misses at least three things. First, the disaster of the Shropshire by-election, for Labour (less than 10%), means that creeping ahead of the creeps in the polls will, at best, put them into a position of needing the Lib Dems and the SNP to govern. https://skwawkbox.org/2021/12/17/guest-article-a-post-mortem-of-labours-n-shropshire-disaster/ Second, the good folk in Labour who moved to SNP are not going to jump back to a party that is only Labour in name but essentially Tory in actions. Third, Starmer and Sarwar, knighted and … Continue reading SNP fears and ‘remote’ learning

I won’t be buying the SM to find out where they got the 5 000 figure from but I can find accurate data: There was an increase in week-ending 14 December of around 200 nursing staff just as there was in September, January and July 2020. I feel sure the SM wants us to imagine 5 000 missing nurses and not GMB porters. At no time have nursing staff absences reached 5 000 and a one week change is not evidence of a major trend. Remember also, NHS Scotland has 50% more nurses than NHS England so with 5 000 … Continue reading NHS sicklist still half of January peak

Above, the Herald today. Below the FM’s correction for them: What the Herald claims for itself: Previous evidence of lack of trust: Read more at: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/?s=trusted Continue reading Herald corrected by First Minister

You have to read right to the end to see who Barry Cunning is and what he is on about, in the Herald today: Cunning came 5th and last in Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, in 2016. His argument is one we get headlined regularly from Macwhirter, McKenna and of course Monteith (Brexit) Wilson (Labour) and McLelland (Con). I suppose we should be grateful for the admission of his baggage at the end. Anyhow, I tire of this trope but let’s just go over it again for Cunning: Far lower infection and death rates 50% more beds and nurses Significantly more … Continue reading Cunning Labour stunt to equate SNP with Tories

It’s a month or so now since the last attempt by BBC Scotland to claim lives were being lost due to delays in Scotland’s A&E departments, based on ‘our share’ of estimated deaths in English hospitals with far worse A&E times. Two days ago, hidden away in the corner of the BBC Health website and never posted on the national pages, the above report paints a disturbing picture of a uniquely NHS England crisis: Nearly a quarter of patients brought to hospital in an ambulance are facing dangerous delays getting into hospital in England, NHS data shows. Ambulances are meant … Continue reading BBC Scotland ambulance-chasers give up and move to night-clubs

There are only 494 patients and 33 in ICU, suffering from Covid in Scottish hospital. The number has been falling steadily since the beginning of November and is now the lowest since August 28th. Scottish hospital admissions began to fall on September 21st (1 107 patients and 94 in ICU) but BBC Scotland has yet to notice the trend. In England, admissions are at best static and perhaps beginning to climb. Per head of population, England’s hospitals have around 20% more Covid patients. The trend in Wales is similar to that in England and, in N Ireland, is similar to … Continue reading Hospital admissions fall below 500 for first time since August

Only Iceland and Israel have a slightly better booster rollout than Scotland. The Scottish Conservatives have urged the Scottish Government to pull out all the stops to beat the English programme. NHS England’s rollout appears to be failing as NHS Scotland power ahead: No vaccine figures for today, in England are being released. Six days ago, Johnson claimed: The mission to administer millions of jabs by December 31 will see 42 military planning teams deployed across every health region, extra vaccine sites and mobile units, extended clinic opening hours to allow people to be jabbed around the clock and at … Continue reading Scotland’s booster rollout third best in World

Two days ago hospitality bosses were top of BBC Scotland’s agenda. You might remember that BBC UK, England, Wales, NI, RTE and most of northern Europe had better things to inform on. https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2021/12/16/hospitality-or-hospitals-how-only-scotlands-hospitality-industry-is-being-used-to-undermine-public-health/ Today, we’re back on the campaign to get some of that support into the pockets of folk not known for paying their taxes or offering their staff decent pay and conditions, some of whom are know for taking the tips from staff and some of whom are Tory donors. BBC Wales have got two wee stories about gym and club owners ‘fearing’ losses but no call for … Continue reading Charity begins at the bar

Warning: Dangerously daft post: A new discovery has triggered fury among members of the English Defence League and elements in the Conservative party, as researchers reveal that a statue of England’s scholar-warrior who sorted out the Vikings, promoted literacy in his subjects, and paved the way for a united England, in London, re-uses the 2nd Century AD Roman legs of the goddess Minerva. https://londonist.com/london/history/southwark-s-statue-of-alfred-the-great There have been calls from Boris Johnson for the legs to replaced with a new set modelled on his own chunkier ones. Anxiety about womanly legs runs deep in English history as this 16th Century video … Continue reading English King has a woman’s legs