In the Herald today, from Tom Gordon: ‘NICOLA Sturgeon’s claim to have a renewed mandate for an independence referendum is based on a “warped” result for the SNP in the general election, according to a new study. The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) said Scotland produced the “most disproportionate” result of any part of the UK because the SNP’s share of MPs so far outweighed its share of the vote.’ Readers won’t be surprised to know that this study from the ERS, which only has a wee bit on Scotland in it, uses the phrase ‘most disproportionate’, reserves ‘warped’ for Westminster and ‘Northern Ireland’, … Continue reading Tom Gordon’s warped account of Scotland’s mandate

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51674263 Evidence of the success of the Scottish scheme does get a mention, to bolster support for the Welsh Labour branch office. No, they don’t mention the SNP. There’s no mention of clawing back any windfall profit from retailers which readers might remember led to the Scottish Labour Branch, other than Malcolm Chisholm, refusing to support the legislation: And, there’s no mention of the much repeated research but with only 50 youngsters proving to the satisfaction of many that the scheme wasn’t working for them: https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/news/politics/scottish-politics/1097855/minimum-pricing-has-no-impact-on-young-drinkers/ Continue reading Welsh Labour credit SNP scheme, sort of

On the Scotland page, a UK report which barely mentions Scotland and, crucially, gives no figures for energy efficiency in Scottish homes. Once more, nothing informative for readers in Scotland, just a wee opportunity to lump us in, better together, with wider bad news. The BBC report does not tell us that the SNP administration spends 4 times as much on energy efficiency : The figures demonstrate that the current rate of renovation in the UK needs to increase by around 7 times. Behind this headline figure lies a variance between the increase in energy efficiency renovation needed in England … Continue reading BBC Scotland padding out with bad news on UK housing and ignoring Scottish facts

Our supposed public service broadcaster, with a requirement to inform and editorial guidelines to remind staff they’re not working for the Daily Mail, manages to miss critical detail. Unlike other parts of the UK, there is in place, statutory protection. From an earlier report here, perhaps in need of updating: ‘Scotland has statutory protection for people with solvable or temporary financial difficulties through the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS). This protection allows people the space and time to regain control of their finances – by making affordable repayments to creditors, and freezing all charges from the date of application – as soon … Continue reading BBC Scotland denying the Scottish Government credit for minimising debt

From Contrary: ‘The criminal legal aid system is doomed to spiral into ever greater crisis unless the Ministry of Justice’s plans are urgently rethought, the Law Society of England and Wales warned today.’ I’ve tried to do a comparison here between what seems to be an urgent breakdown in the criminal justice system in England and Wales, with what we have in Scotland. The difficulty has been to find anything scandalous in Scotland. I have focused on Legal Aid, as this is a social justice and human rights issue. Legal aid and the criminal justice system… Legal Aid exists because … Continue reading Long Read: As English justice begins to fall apart, Scottish media find no crisis here

Off we go with Gordon Brewer, drooping in his seat to tell us ‘Once the envy of the world, what went wrong with Scottish education and why is it proving so hard to fix?’ John Swinney, sensibly, refused to attend so they had the dread Tory adviser, proud regressive, times tables obsessive, Stephen Curran, on to tell us Scotland’s curriculum was too progressive based largely on the Pisa scores used by no serious academics. Curran is a nobody in academic circles. He has done no research, has clearly read little research and his ideological biases, essentially ‘back to basics’, are … Continue reading Gordon Brewer offers us more guff on Scottish education

Readers will remember getting ‘the jag’ after queuing nervously, in some cases, tearfully, with their Primary school chums back in the day when the needles were surely bigger. I don’t remember anybody saying you could choose not to have it. We’d have been out of that door! Anyhow, the Herald warns us today: ‘Vaccination rates are falling in the West, and immunisation for measles is now mandatory in 12 European countries, including France and Italy. Measles is on the rise in Britain too. So should we follow suit? Should compulsory vaccination be the norm? The UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, has already … Continue reading Should we start by ‘jagging’ the South?

Ed: Following in the tradition of War and Peace in 186 words [foot] here’s, spookily, Debt Loading in 816! Numerology alert! Contrary Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp has written a piece specifically on Debt Loading – part of why GERS figures show a deficit when there actually isn’t one for Scotland. It’s a fairly long article, so I have just extracted some of the paragraphs that explain how Scotland paying off interest on the uk debt – which is not our debt – makes Scotland’s economy look far worse than it actually is – it is an accounting trick. A lot more information … Continue reading Short guide to how the UK loads debt onto us

In the Herald today: ‘NEARLY 14 million trees have been chopped down across Scotland to make way for wind turbines. The Scottish Government expects to be generate 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources this year – but concerns have been raised about finding a balance between green energy and sustaining forests. Now statistics, released by Forestry and Land Scotland, show that 13.9 million trees have been axed to make way for 21 wind farm projects since 2000.’ https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18270734.14m-trees-cut-scotland-make-way-wind-farms/ OMG, 13.9 MILLION! What a disaster! Should an SNP minster resign? Someone must be responsible. Wait, could they be replacing any … Continue reading Herald hopes we can’t see the trees for the wind turbines

As of 16:38 on 29th. Up from 98 752 in January. Most read articles but remember, the 17 194 who looked at the home page may have read all the headlines even if they did not click on all stories: Global penetration: For Spain read Catalonia? Continue reading February Stats