What is the claimant count? The Claimant Count is a measure of the number of people claiming benefits principally for the reason of being unemployed, based on administrative data from the benefits system. Why then, on 19th May did BBC Scotland claim: Coronavirus impact: Huge rise in Scots claiming unemployment benefit Sources: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52720227 https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/claimantcountqmi#:~:text=The%20Claimant%20Count%20is%20a,data%20from%20the%20benefits%20system. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/employmentintheuk/june2020#:~:text=The%20UK%20unemployment%20rate%20was,up%20on%20the%20previous%20quarter. Continue reading Unemployment: Scotland has one of lowest claimant count increases in UK

Iain sets off with an attempt to impress by referring to Ivan Illich’s ‘Deschooling Society’ which does, remarkably for 1971, talk of the use of advanced technology to support “learning webs”. Given how things have turned out in Macwhirter’s career, he should have kept on reading until at least 1988, when Herman and Chomsky’s ‘Manufacturing Consent’ came out to direct him toward a more honourable career than corporate hackism, such as accountancy or house-painting. Today’s story is full of nothing, just half-baked attacks on a decent man, evidence free. This is typical: Did he spot the irony in that last … Continue reading The Herald, putting ‘the interests of their own client groups above the welfare of…’ readers!

Once again a TuSC contributor has already answered the question: ‘What is that Tory eejit talking about?’ Here’s stewartb, just yesterday on ‘agency’, pretty much the same things as the ‘autonomy’ Fraser so fears: It’s good again to want to ‘amplify’ an article published in Source Direct, the daily digital news and opinion bulletin produced by Common Weal! The piece in the 15 June issue is to be welcomed. It’s entitled ‘The changing moods of unionist economics’ and perhaps because I had been musing over broadly related matters, it did resonate. The Source Direct article sums things up nicely:  “Are you keeping up? … Continue reading Murdo Fraser recommends full fiscal dependency because that’s worked well in the past three centuries

Falling crime on this scale will have multiple factors explaining it, including: fewer young males being born in poorer areas less unemployment more inclusive school curricula better policing enhanced in-the-home entertainment less lead in the environment better government If we’d had a Labour administration in this period, they’d be claiming at least come of the credit. If the trend had gone the other way, the SNP would be getting the blame. So, SNP-rule reduces crime. Gordon doesn’t say as much, of course, but he lays it all out with only a few insertions required: THE number of crimes committed in Scotland has … Continue reading Tom Gordon almost credits SNP with massive crime reductions under their influence

I agreed with just above everything Charlotte Ahmed had to say about BLM and about covid impact on deprived areas, on the AUOB panel last Friday, but this: Nevertheless the disease has killed proportionately as many people as in England. The care home crisis was as bad in Scotland as in England. That’s a milder version of the inaccuracies peddled by the Scottish Tories, Labour, Iain Macwhirter, the FT and many others. First, the death rate: The UK death rate in last week nearly three times higher than in Scotland: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/06/12/covid-divergence-effect-uk-death-rate-in-last-week-nearly-three-times-higher-than-in-scotland/ Excess deaths in England almost three times higher than in Scotland: … Continue reading How the anti-SNP MSM propaganda on Covid-19 can deceive the wider independence movement

This long-retired professor is a Unionist activist with no recent experience and is only ever interviewed by Scottish news media, but often. He recommends relaxing the the covid distancing rules because he wants us to follow suit with England and risk a second wave of death. This leading epidemiologist who worked on the Ebola crisis is interviewed everywhere across UK media. She has repeatedly praised the Scottish Government’s cautious approach to distancing and other hygiene and condemned the risk-taking of the UK Government which caused the first wave of unnecessary death. Continue reading Expert calls for distancing rules between journalists and Unionist activists to be hardened

In the Herald yesterday: There should be consideration of whether decisions taken by the Scottish Government during the last three months have recognised and respected the human rights of care home residents. With Scotland registering the highest level of Covid-19 care home deaths in the UK, and perhaps proportionately in the world, it is vital that we ensure that lessons are learnt to stop this ever happening again. The sight of socialists such as Leonard and Smith, of the GMB, joining forces with the likes of Carlaw, Davidson and Kerr, in a faked opportunistic attack on the SNP Government, must leave a … Continue reading Richard Leonard repeats Tory lies about care home deaths, unchallenged

Our stewartb has already dealt with Carlaw’s notion that an independent Scotland would have struggled to cope with the economic costs of covid-19, at the end of March. Here it is again: A look at what’s going on elsewhere in terms of economic policy responses to the pandemic, especially in smaller independent Western countries.  And alongside this, it’s interesting to see what is being revealed of their intrinsic resilience. How does Norway cope with crisis? It’s common in Scotland to look to Norway as an example of ‘what might have been’ for our country.  On 18 March, Reuters reported that … Continue reading Jackson Carlaw accuses SNP of hypocrisy! He does! Don’t laugh

By stewartb: It’s good again to want to ‘amplify’ an article published in Source Direct, the daily digital news and opinion bulletin produced by Common Weal! The piece in the 15 June issue is to be welcomed. It’s entitled ‘The changing moods of unionist economics’ and perhaps because I had been musing over broadly related matters, it did resonate. The Source Direct article sums things up nicely:  “Are you keeping up? Before the pandemic, the case for the union was that Scotland is part of a UK state that didn’t need to have a big budget deficit, which Scotland would … Continue reading Long read: ‘Agency’ – the antidote to Unionist scaremongering over deficit and debt

Research by the CIES Football Observatory has revealing shocking favouritism by football referees in Scotland. Fans of Motherwell have to wait 50% longer than fans of neighbours and arch-rival, Hamilton Accies. Also notable is a West-coast bias with the top three all located in the West. Psychologists have explained the Scottish trend, saying that referees, like bossy weans, tend to prefer the colours blue and red and dislike yellow or dull shades such as maroon. Some have suggested that there may be bias based on religious affiliation but the positioning of Rangers and Hearts at opposite ends of the table … Continue reading Shock: Scottish refs biased against Motherwell!