From SNP Media: The SNP has said “independence is the only way to unlock Scotland’s full economic potential” – as new analysis reveals the UK has been the least wealthy country per person than all of our European neighbours for every year of the 21st century. New analysis from the House of Commons Library [See Notes] shows the UK has had the lowest wealth per head of every country in north west Europe for every year of the 21st century. It means the UK is behind all thirteen neighbouring countries, including Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria, France and … Continue reading The question is not how could we survive outside of the UK, it’s how it keeps us poor now

Not a single patient treated for virus? £7 million down the drain? More anti-SNP drivel-fodder for the opposition parties and their pet media rodents. Why did the Louisa Jordan not need to treat a single covid patient? Because the Scottish (SNP) Government moved quickly with the medics they have long respected, worked collaboratively with and can trust, to massively increase capacity in existing hospitals. Because the FM, unlike the PM, turned up every day to treat us like adults and, in so doing, got our compliance, resulting in far lower infections levels in Scotland. Because they freed-up space in hospitals … Continue reading SNP: Damned because they did

More than once, on Ayr beach, I’ve spotted disturbing cylindrical, metallic objects washed up after a storm. The local media often warn us of the dangers of what are described as chemical weapons dumped in Beaufort’s Dyke in the Irish Channel between South-West Scotland and Northern Ireland, where Boris would have us sink piles for his Union Bridge. Based on their own Freedom of Information request, they tell us: This dumping went on for decades after World War I, including periods of Labour government. What could more clearly demonstrate London’s contempt for us? Oh, well, Trident, the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing … Continue reading Great work by the Herald on our Toxic Union

They say if you ever visit a sausage-making factory, you’ll never eat one again. Is it the same with visiting a Macwhirter piece in the Herald? Should be, but sometimes the dark self-destructive side in all of us just wants some of that stodgy, greasy, fatty thinking. He will not leave that young woman alone. Now he’s waving his Weiner at her claiming, like his hero Boris, ‘Scottish nationalists find themselves on the same side as Northern Ireland Unionists.’ Notice the lower case ‘n’ and the capital ‘U’. Clever, wot? Supposedly, the Scottish nationalists (sic, he is) need to reassure … Continue reading Macwhirter’s links to Sturgeon

In Labour-run Wales, BBC Wales gets with the project. Encouraging citizens with tales of success. Back in Scotland, BBC Scotland always has a different take. In February as Scotland followed JCVI guidelines to vaccinate all of the most vulnerable and saved many lives in care homes, BBC Scotland found these stories to NOT boost the viewer: That same month, 9th February, BBC Reporting Scotland grudgingly suggested some recovery for Scotland and that we were doing roughly the same as England: Roughly? The data on the same day: They missed these opportunities to encourage that BBC Wales might have loved: In … Continue reading Come on Wales!

Once more, BBC Scotland presses the Scottish Government on minor errors by a health board but only yesterday it emerges that 600 million lateral flow tests have been issued but not used as England’s test and trace system stumbles from one crisis to another. Headline news on BBC England/UK? Nope, nowhere, as the Hancock kiss dominates and distracts from real news. Only the Guardian makes much of it: The shadow health minister Justin Madders said the report was damning. “If lateral flow tests are going to play their part in helping society reopen, ministers need to make sure results are … Continue reading BBC England ignores 600 million lost tests but BBC Scotland…..

In the National on the 23rd: TWO BBC Scotland chiefs admitted to worried staff that a plan to transfer two of its studios to the control of the corporation in England was not the “best deal” for the Scottish-based arm of the broadcaster and that they oppose it, The National can reveal. Mark Taylor and Jennifer Allan, who are both leading executives at the BBC in Glasgow, told employees they didn’t want the proposal to go ahead when asked about it at a meeting with employees. Pardon me if I don’t empathise. This is a group of media folk acting daily on … Continue reading Don’t waste that lifebelt!

For several years now, I’ve been comparing the coverage of health matters in Scotland and in other parts of the UK. From changes in cancer treatment in Tayside, to the death of a single child, ‘after’ a hospital infection in Glasgow to delays in the completion of an Edinburgh hospital, only in Scotland do we see the opposition parties exploit pain and suffering to score points over the Scottish Government. Only in BBC Scotland, unlike BBC Wales or across the BBC in England, do we see these attacks foregrounded and maintained over long periods in headlines. So yesterday, we see … Continue reading Only in Scotland: The politicising of health

To slightly contradict my headline there were actually more road deaths per head of population in Scotland than in England, at 143 compared to 1 258. With a tenth of the population, you might expect Scotland to have have only 126 deaths rather than 143. When killed or seriously injured are combined, England has a higher incidence pro rata at 20 796 compared to 1 666 in Scotland. All things being equal, England should have had around 17 000 but had nearly 21 000. It’s the ‘All casualties’ figures that surprise with 4 992 in Scotland and 106 634 in … Continue reading Scotland’s safer roads in 2020

What would you report the data on first, the first or the second dose vaccines? The whole population including all of those at risk or just the adult population? The first and the whole population? Nope. The Herald decides to answer the second part of the question first: So, third eh? Disappointing, though we do just sneak into second place for the first dose in these tables where, typically, the data for England are only estimates. Why can’t or won’t they report the actual number jagged? Regular readers will know of NHS England’s longstanding preference for fiddling A&E data or … Continue reading The Herald carefully selecting data to keep Scotland lagging behind