Unsurprisingly, the Telegraph’s Oliver Gill is not up-to-date on things Scottish. Scotrail is a franchise. Franchising allows a private operator to provide rail services on the Scottish rail network on behalf of the Scottish Government. In March 2022, the Scottish Government intends to bring the service within the public sector, run by an arm’s length company owned and controlled by the Scottish Government. Even after March 2022, the First Minister and even less the SNP will have no part to play in pay settlements. The Edinburgh Evening News / Scotsman, no friend of either, managed to report the same story … Continue reading Tory press ignorant of arithmetic and Scotrail’s legal status?

From NATION CYMRU yesterday: A second referendum in Scotland is “likely” before 2025 and Wales must prepare for it by holding its own constitutional convention, the First Minister has said. Mark Drakeford told the Morning Star that the Welsh Government would be pressing ahead with the convention “to make sure we do the thinking on what choices” would be available to Wales. “The fragility of the United Kingdom is very real and our convention is designed to make sure we do the thinking on what choices there are on that future. “The membership and terms of reference will be announced in the … Continue reading Drakeford ‘slightly at odds with’ Sarwar?

In NHS Scotland for the week-ending 3rd October 2021, 71.3% of patients were seen in 4 hours. NHS England and Wales do not do weekly reports but in August, the most recent figures available: NHS Scotland’s A&E department’s saw 77.8% within 4 hours. In the same period, NHS England saw, on average, only 66.2% and NHS Wales saw only 60.1%. NHS Scotland is thus 17.5% faster (11.6% of 66.2) than England and 26.5% faster than Wales. The real gap with England is probably even greater as NHS England cheats. NHS England starts the clock again after patients are admitted while NHS Scotland … Continue reading Scotland’s emergency services 27% faster than Wales and 18% faster than England

Maybe I’m old fashioned but if I’d been unhappy with the heating or cleaning in the wards where my four were born, I’d have complained directly. Some take the story to Anas Sarwar or some other opposition politician for all-too-obvious reasons. Others? Then those supposed ‘quality’ newspapers pick the story up for free and use it in a wider strategy: Continue reading Why some don’t complain to hospital managers?

The Herald’s David Bol writes: MPs have criticised the UK Government taking a different path to the devolved nations in the early stages of the pandemic – warning it led to “confusion” over the rules by the public. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19641823.uk-scottish-governments-different-covid-messaging-caused-confusion-mps-find/ You see the difference. The MPs criticised the UK Government for confused messaging. They didn’t criticise the Scottish Government for taking a different path but Bol’s headline suggested both were to blame. Continue reading Bol of confusion?

From the UK Government today, with 10 times the population. England has 17 times the number of cases as Scotland. Wales has more cases with just over half the population. BBC Scotland are concentrating on the A&E figures without mentioning how much better they are than elsewhere in the UK. Continue reading Covid cases in England surge to almost TWICE that in Scotland!

Today Audit Scotland reported: The Scottish public body that procured PPE during the pandemic acted fairly and appropriately when awarding contracts. NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) used emergency procurement provisions to award PPE contracts without competition during the first wave of Covid-19. There was some variation in the contracts, but auditors were satisfied with the procurement arrangements. No evidence of preferential treatment or bias was found in the awarding of contracts. https://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/news/ppe-contracts-awarded-fairly In November 2020, the National Audit Office said: Today the National Audit Office (NAO) reports a lack of transparency and adequate documentation of some key decisions, such as … Continue reading Comparing how the SNP and the Tories managed PPE contracts

From Alasdair Galloway: The previous section I think showed that Angus McNeill is absolutely right to say that if the Supreme Court can strike down these two Bills, they can strike down a Referendum Bill as well. So what does the Scottish Government say? Their “THE ROAD TO A REFERENDUM THAT IS BEYOND LEGAL CHALLENGE” concludes with this paragraph “10. In these circumstances, in which there has been an unambiguously expressed democratic decision by the people of Scotland and their Parliament to have a legal referendum the choice of the U.K. government will be clear; to either (1) agree that … Continue reading What next?

From Alasdair Galloway: The main site of dispute in this week’s judgement, is Section 28(7) of the Scotland Act, which deals with Holyrood’s powers to pass legislation. For completeness I will include it all “28 Acts of the Scottish Parliament. (1) Subject to section 29, the Parliament may make laws, to be known as Acts of the Scottish Parliament. (2) Proposed Acts of the Scottish Parliament shall be known as Bills; and a Bill shall become an Act of the Scottish Parliament when it has been passed by the Parliament and has received Royal Assent. (3) A Bill receives Royal … Continue reading The implications of Supreme Court decision UKSC 42