But no warning to Tories over Northern Rail or Flybe? In the Herald today: ‘The Competition and Markets Authority has warned about the “potential risks” of state control over the way ferries are operated, run and paid for in Scotland.’ The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is a non-ministerial government department headed up by Lord Tyrie: Tyrie has been criticised by the Institute for Government on the basis of a conflict of interest between his job as a regulator and his appointment to the House of Lords. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/andrew-tyrie-cant-be-independent-regulator-and-take-tory-whip More seriously the CMA has been accused of promoting the privatisation of NHS England: ‘The Competition and … Continue reading Herald supports hypocritical attack on SNP by Westminster department led by Tory Lord

From Contrary: I read this, rather long, piece yesterday. Where the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture is interviewed on his findings after investigating the Julian Assange situation. It is disturbing to think that such grubby underhand dealings seem to be the mainstay of many governments – this grubbiness will not go away just because Scotland is independent of course, so it is something to keep in mind – ensuring safeguarding against untrammelled power of any government and careful selection of security services and their associations. Below is the link, and I’ve extracted some of the quotes – mainly the ones … Continue reading False accusations to undermine influencers

On the left, Yes/No vote in 2014. On the right, obesity prevalence. See a kind of correlation? By no means perfect and with notable exceptions such as Western Isles and Borders but Unionism and obesity to the north and east and to the south and west? I do hope this does not lead to any abusive tweeting. It wasn’t my idea to try to correlate weight and Unionism but, again, I stumbled across a more rigorous study in England which looked at obesity and EU referendum preferences and thought I’d have wee go myself. Before, reflecting further on the above … Continue reading The weighty matter of independence

From reader, Contrary: I’ve been hearing more and more about the ‘UK government in Scotland’ spending huge amounts on media, so took a look at their Twitter account: https://mobile.twitter.com/UKGovScotland And goodness is it not all full of Bitter Together propaganda, the RAF video repeats the phrase ‘uk airspace’ so many times they can barely fit any other words in – the key point the guy seemed to be making was that Moray was a good ‘strategic location’ (glad you find use of our land handy, mate), and they didn’t mention all the hundreds of army and RAF bases they’d shut … Continue reading UK government in Scotland’s propaganda

A Europe of regions – in which larger European countries break into 75 smaller, more ethnically and linguistically homogeneous states, and a British Isles of 15 – I stumbled across this idea again today, 28 years after I first read it in 1992 and thought it seems much more plausible now than it did then. This description from Frank Jacobs has the essential details and lots of maps and tables for those of us who like them: Freddy Heineken (1923-2002), the Dutch tycoon who made his beer into a global brand, also was a dedicated Europhile. Towards the end of … Continue reading Scotland and Heineken’s Theory: The theory that reaches parts other theories can’t reach

The Scottish Grudge with 4 buts, 1 however and zero explanation of just WHY Scotland has more affordable housing – because the Scottish Government funds it! You’d think it was a natural phenomenon resulting from the humidity level in the soil. See: On new affordable housing, Boris, it’s Tories nil SNP thousands Scotland pushes further ahead of UK on affordable housing Is there less family debt in Scotland due to Scottish Government action? Joseph Rowntree Foundation praises SNP initiative on child poverty Continue reading The Scottish Grudge

BBC UK are going heavy on this story and linking it to the PM’s pre-election promises. Surely, BBC Scotland have a responsibility to bring the Scottish Government to account on this issue in Scotland. It doesn’t have to be true. That’s never mattered for them in the past. Oh, UK, I’ll see if I, with Ludo’s assistance, can help them out. Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland. The key findings of the statistics are: there were 17,256 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers … Continue reading Reporting Scotland silent on Police staffing, anything

Reacting to Sarah Smith’s gleeful analysis of the Derek Mackay incident and opportunistically lying about Scottish education on Politics Live yesterday, Alasdair Macdonald remembers seeing her among her ain folk: By chance, I happened to be in the same location as a Labour Party event during the recent General Election. When I arrived at the place where I sometimes undertake voluntary work, I could hardly get in because of the congestion due to the number of media vehicles and media people. All of the faces we see on the Scottish and UK News bulletin reports were there. Although the BBC … Continue reading Sarah Smith: BBC Scotland’s Labour Correspondent

From Insider today: ‘Permanent staff appointments continued to rise in January at the fastest rate in the current three-month sequence of expansion, according to the latest Royal Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs. The trend in Scotland was mirrored throughout the UK, where permanent replacements also rose at a faster rate than December, although the increase in Scotland outpaced the UK as a whole.’ https://www.insider.co.uk/news/scottish-labour-market-starts-2020-21445972 Earlier reports of the Scottish economy: BBC Scotland expert misses positive economic trend as commercial property sales DOUBLE to exceed most of England Number of Scottish businesses at record high. Scotland’s labour productivity has increased 8% of the population … Continue reading NEWS: Scotland outpaces UK on jobs front!

While the Tory government goes for show with a conference about Scottish drug deaths based on zero consultation, the Scottish Government is already ‘underway’ with action. Many of you will know that calling a conference or a summit on some issue of concern, may look good especially when you have the media onside, but often achieves little beyond delaying action. We already have the research evidence for a taskforce to consider and to begin implementing in policy or, at the very least, piloting. Safe consumption rooms are known to reduce deaths, but these cannot be tried by the Scottish Government … Continue reading Getting on with day job to save lives: Scottish Government already acting on drug deaths as Tories delay and obstruct solutions to a problem which they created