This story featuring on TV, radio and on the website, claims: Pupils, parents and teachers have described severe stress and even panic attacks over the assessment system currently under way in secondary schools across the country. No adequate data is presented. All they have are quotes from 2 pupils, one parent, one teacher, one trade unionist and one lawyer. There are THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND secondary school pupils and they have TWO! There are TWENTY-FOUR THOUSAND secondary school teachers and they have ONE! There are around SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND parents of secondary school pupils and they have ONE! A proper study … Continue reading TWO, just two individuals, out of THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND pupils are apparently stressed by tests

By stewartb Ready to be a nation-state: Unionist poll finds ‘Scots Back Cooperation Not Conflict’! A prominent feature of Unionist messaging from ex-PM Gordon Brown is the importance of cooperation between Westminster and Holyrood. Indeed the basis of the pronouncements lapped up by the media (on 10 May) is an article published by his ’Our Scottish Future’ organisation entitled ‘Scots Back Cooperation Not Conflict’: it justifies the headline with survey evidence. When asked direct questions most folk, in terms, expressed a preference for cooperation rather than conflict between the governments in Edinburgh and London. Well, blow me down! If asked … Continue reading Gordon Brown’s poll methods discredited

The above three images, in terms of aesthetics, taste, style, all the same? Left school with no qualifications, worked in the park, Labour MP, John Francis McFall, Baron McFall of Alcluith PC, now the Lord Speaker. Went to St Patrick’s so probably not a fan of the ‘Queen’s Eleven’ back then. Ah, the Empire. Remember the Empire? Why don’t we have the Empire back? Because: Get me out of this place! Continue reading What does this have to do with us: Manacled to a mediaeval empire of ugly bling nostalgic for its bloody empire

After several days of clearly slowing, the rate of infection in India looks like flattening with 28.5 and 28.6 per 100K, in the last two days. This contrast with the rate of 95.8 in England on January 10th. The death rate always lags behind falling infection rates but seems unlikely in India, at 0.28 per 100K, to reach the horrific heights of 2.02 in England at the end of January, 7 times higher. I appreciate there will be under-counting of the figures in India but that has happened in England too. Continue reading Has India’s infection rate peaked at just over a quarter of England’s in January?

Many thanks to Annie McIndoe for feeding us this story. We heard a lot from the Scottish unionist parties about Alba and the Greens playing the system but this is astonishing. In the very high quality Open Democracy, yesterday, by Peter Geoghegan: When I unfurled my two-foot-long, peach-coloured list ballot paper on Thursday, my eye was drawn to a logo of a leaf with ‘Green’ in capital letters. This was the ‘Independent Green Voice’. Thanks to investigative site the Ferret – which, full disclosure, I chair – I knew that Independent Green Voice was a tiny party whose five candidates … Continue reading Fascists playing the system to effectively deny pro-Independence/Green voters

Typically muted in the Herald today: Electricity transmission charges are acting as a barrier for investment in green energy projects in Scotland and will hit the transition to a low carbon economy, experts have warned. A new analysis by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Transmission, which is responsible for the network for the north of Scotland calls for reform of the current charging regime which means that renewable generators in Scotland pay “significantly” higher costs to connect their electricity to the National Grid than those in other parts of Great Britain. The UK Government with the help of the BBC likes to make … Continue reading Powering England’s green revolution and paying extra for the privilege

Some pupils are said to be ‘stressed to the point of being ill’ and teachers at their ‘wits’ end’ as senior students undergo assessment which will help decide their grades for national qualifications. We hear that teachers will make the judgements this time just as everyone seemed to desire last year and the SQA algorithm which made pupils ill last year, is gone but the Scottish Government remains in the wrong according to the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association. Their rep predicts mass complaints from pupils and parents and says they’ll be correct to do so. Look, I remember the stress … Continue reading Tiny trade union rep suggests not having to do stressful formal exams is stressful

Merchant banker, Guy Stenhouse, has written the above in the Herald. I almost gave up my support for independence when I saw the headline and found out he is a merchant banker. Then I thought, wait, maybe he has an agenda. Maybe it’s not true. There’s a problem though. As readers know, economics, trade, money…not my thang. BUT, suspecting this Guy, I’ll just start the ball rolling and let readers vent themselves with their usual erudition on him. Can you vent erudition? Anyhow, what about this starter from Professor David Bell? Trade flows across the Anglo-Scottish border are substantial. Figure … Continue reading England needs a smooth border more than we do

In December 2020, as deaths began to rise again in care homes and opposition parties returned to the smell of blood they detected from their ‘common sense’ unqualified notion that hospital discharges must be responsible, the Care Inspectorate applied to cancel the registration of Thornlea Nursing Home in Loanhead Midlothian. There was no mention of hospital discharges as a suspected cause of infections and deaths, by the Care Inspectorate in December 2020 and there is none in the final report released yesterday but there is, ten times, mention of failures of infection control by the staff, often untrained and under-staffed, … Continue reading Not a word on hospital discharges in first of deadly care home inspections

Lesley@lesmit·2h posted the above sob story letter pleading for votes in the Airdrie & Shotts by-election on the 13th May 2021 and commented: Yo @ScottishLabour, sending a letter from an 80 year old widow asking for my vote ain’t it. This is absolutely weird behaviour and desperate. How did it go in the 2019 General Election? And the former SNP who walked away when ‘you needed your MP most?’ He was based in London in the UK Parliament for you and now he’s representing roughly the same area in the Scottish Parliament where the pandemic response ‘you needed‘ is run … Continue reading Scottish Labour’s sickly sob story for the Airdrie by-election