In the New Statesman yesterday, we read without their expected incredulity: North Sea oil companies receive more money from the government than they pay in taxes The UK has given firms including Exxon and Shell hundreds of millions of pounds in rebates. https://www.newstatesman.com/energy-climate-tech/2021/09/north-sea-oil-companies-receive-more-money-from-the-government-than-they-pay-in-taxes Why should we not be surprised to hear this? Well back in 2019, we could read this: And even further back, we could see this: Only the UK does not apparently make a profit from oil extraction. Over the longer period the UK has stopped making a profit quite recently: So, oil stops becoming profitable after 2015? … Continue reading Scotland’s oil wealth was not stolen it was given away

This just won’t do. An SNP MSP, Audrey Nicoll, has just welcomed the latest report on recorded crime with these comments: It is very encouraging to see the statistics today that recorded crime remains at one of the lowest levels in nearly 50 years and my thanks go out to all in Police Scotland for their hard-work and dedication.   The downward trend we see is a reflection of a police force who are backed by an SNP Scottish Government, providing them with the support and guidance they need to do their jobs effectively.   Under an SNP Scottish Government we have … Continue reading Crime in Scotland lowest in nearly 50 years but BBC Scotland’s cycle of despair continues

Things are looking bad for BBC Scotland staff as they rush to construct a defence against evidence suggesting the SNP Government is coping better with Covid infection rates again. Tempting fate I know, but better to be prepared? If the trends continue, Scotland becomes the least infected part of the UK again in the next few days. What can they say? Nothing? Use the two-week old ONS estimates? Crop the graph at September 10th? Turn the graph upside down and hope no one notices? Accuse the SNP of wasting money on training unneeded new staff? Get Prof Pennington to predict … Continue reading Reporting Scotland convene Covid emergency group

From Public Health Scotland in September 2021: Uptake rates [of the MMR vaccine] remained high in Scotland; over 96% of children had received each routine immunisation by the time they were 12 months old, with the exception of rotavirus vaccine, which had 94.5% uptake. 95.0% of children had the first dose of MMR vaccine by 24 months of age. This rose to 96.8% for children who reached age five. Uptake of the second dose of MMR vaccine by five years was 93.2%, rising to 94.5% by age six years. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/childhood-immunisation-statistics-scotland/childhood-immunisation-statistics-scotland-quarter-and-year-ending-30-june-2021/ From the Nuffield Trust in August 2021: Between 1994 and … Continue reading Scotland at risk of measles epidemic spreading from south?

According to Public Health Scotland today, for the period 1 April to 30 June 2021, despite a 9.2% increase in referrals, 98.1% waited no more than 31 days from decision to treat to first cancer treatment against a target of 95% and up from 96.2% in the same period of 2020. This target was met by all 15 health boards in Scotland and has now been met since records began in 2012. There was also a 10.1% increase in referrals for assessment, taking that up to just above the level observed before the pandemic. 84.1% began treatment within the 62-day … Continue reading NHS Scotland smashes one cancer waiting time target despite increased demand and treats 17% more, on time, than NHS England

In the Herald today: HUMZA Yousaf is facing calls for an inquiry into any “unnecessary deaths” linked to Scotland’s waiting times crisis after the latest figures showed a quarter of A&E patients still waiting too long. Making the demand, the Scottish Liberal Democrats accused the Health Secretary of “mismanagement” and sending staff morale to “rock bottom”. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19609674.health-secretary-humza-yousaf-urged-probe-unnecessary-deaths-e-waiting-times-crisis/ Given his size, Cole-Hamilton is getting exposure beyond that of bigger parties. See those speech marks? Those clever journos just pop them on when they want to say something for which there is no evidence. There is no evidence that people who have been checked and deemed … Continue reading Why are big Lib Dems not urging Javid to probe into ‘unnecessary deaths’ in England?

No fears have been expressed by fire safety experts. Even the opposition parties have nothing to say about a strategic move to reduce the waste of time by firefighters. Whose are the fears? Scottish Care, a group of private care providers. You remember them? The ones with the highest complaint rates, the most failed inspections, the highest infection and death rates because of their cheap exploitative approach to staffing. They whine about staffing pressure. Try paying the living wage, giving secure contracts, having enough staff to cope and training them properly. I see no sign of local authority or voluntary … Continue reading Private care home owners expect fire fighters to make up for their failures?

In the Times, yesterday: Scottish shoppers will have “a lot less domestic food to eat” if the UK cannot end Brexit labour shortages, a farm leader has warned. Scott Walker, chief executive of the National Farmers Union (NFU), has been lobbying for an emergency visa regime to get EU workers back in to fields and food factories. However, he said yesterday that consumers in Scotland were likely to see less on their plates from domestic producers — and less variety in shops — because of complications after the departure from the European Union. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/homegrown-food-shortage-threat-in-scotland-8g9j5k7x8 Surely, there will be plenty? See this … Continue reading Massive food exporter to suffer domestic shortages

Yesterday, we had Dani Garavelli in SoS telling us, on the basis of 5 individual ‘witnesses’, that NHS Scotland is broken. She was only the latest in a string of doomsayers desperate to prove there is a crisis and that the SNP Government is to blame for it. If an image like that above was available from any Scottish hospital, it would be everywhere from BBC Scotland to the P&J but it’s not. Continue reading If NHS Scotland really was broken they’d have one of these by now

There’s no sign of Professor Gibson saying that. She does seem to have said the child was: as safe in hospital as she would be outside. and that allegedly, in the words of the BBC reporter (no actual words offered): the best plan was to send her daughter to complete her treatment in Dumfries, where the family lived. What we have here, as in all of the recent BBC Scotland reporting on the hospitals inquiry, is the regular use of speech marks, based on the words of parents, to manufacture headlines worthy only of the National Enquirer (like the Sun … Continue reading Did the professor really say that or have Reporting Scotland had to be ‘creative’ again?