https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/politics/news/104672/grassroots-tories-would-sacrifice-union-if-it-meant-brexit-being Continue reading English taxpayers to fund Tory Party propaganda against Scottish Independence despite most being happy for Scotland to leave

The barrier that is not really there: Continue reading Our friends in Europe

UK ‘leaves’ twice in case you didn’t get it first time, GB’s Murray ‘chases’ and coronavirus ‘hits’ the UK. Meanwhile, on the ground where the real folk are, nobody dares celebrate too loudly in Scotland, thousands mourn and protest on the streets and the coronavirus steers clear of our too-clean hospitals to develop in England. Didn’t all of the Scottish and UK media predict we’d be first to get the virus, ‘in the coming days’ two days ago? As for the returners from Wuhan, why were they sent to Merseyside only quite far away from Westminster? Send them to Peterhead … Continue reading BBC Scotland and the Herald reporting on a Scotland that is not there

Talking-up Scotland II gets nearly 100 000 views and the ‘Editor’ is frankly disappointed. He’d being watching, in quite an immature manner really, on the 31st January, desperate for the 100 000 barrier to be broken only for readers to clearly have something better to do with their Friday nights. However, after a wee grump, he had the kind of ‘inspiration’ he’s known for and said: ‘Wait a feckin minute! What about that old Talking-up Scotland 1 (Thought Control Scotland)? We’re still linking stories to earlier reports and the still quite warm evidence there. Ta rah!‘ Another 4 222 views … Continue reading Talking-Up Scotland (I & II) bursts 100 000 visitors target!

I’ve just been reading LEADERSHIP PERCEPTION IN CANDIDATE FACES:SCOTLAND’S UNIONISTS PREFER DOMINANT LEADERS, AND SO DO NATIONALISTS – BUT ONLY IF THEY ARE ECONOMIC PESSIMISTS by Kristen K. Knowles and Anthony C. Little in Scottish Affairs, last issue in 2019. I know, get a life! Anyhow, it seems that in a Stirling University research experiment with 162 Scottish psychology students, men who voted Yes were less likely to favour more masculine faces, associated with strength while No voters, men and women, and women Yes voters strongly preferred more masculine faces. The researchers suggest that the female Yes voters are more … Continue reading In 2014 No voters and Yes-voting women preferred more masculine faces but Yes-voting men didn’t

Ross, Ross, what’s 3 times 13 800? Eh……….. Thanks to a parliamentary question by Jamie Greene (SCAUP) asking the Scottish Government what assessment it has undertaken regarding the reported rise in student debt, we are able to reveal: Student Loans Company statistics show average student loan debt in Scotland is £13,800. This compares with £35,950 in England, £22,920 in Wales and £23,550 in Northern Ireland. Scottish students continue to have the lowest debt in the UK and since 2010, have had the smallest increase in debt when compared to students domiciled in the other UK administrations. Our continued commitment to … Continue reading Student debt THREE TIMES HIGHER in England than in Scotland

From Insider today: ‘Venture Capital investment in Scottish scale-ups almost doubled in 2019, according to new research. The Global Venture Pulse Survey reveals the amount invested in Scottish fast-growth companies in 2019 reached £19.7 million, up from £10 million in 2018. The increase was partly driven by a busy fourth quarter which included a £66 million investment in Well-Safe Solutions to fund its next stage of growth as a well-decommissioning company.’ https://www.insider.co.uk/news/venture-capital-investment-scottish-scale-21394246 Earlier reports on the Scottish economy: More evidence that Scottish industry is strong under SNP administration BBC Scotland expert misses positive economic trend as commercial property sales DOUBLE to … Continue reading Venture Capital Investment in Scotland doubles in one year

It’s a sad indictment of journalism in Scotland that they don’t invest more in background research In the Herald, a ‘Scottish’ newspaper, remember, their Health Correspondent writes today: ‘A SHORTAGE of nurses across the NHS should have triggered an increase in wages to meet demand. The reason this has not happened – at least not to the extent required – is because most nurses are women. That was the depressing conclusion this week of a study carried out jointly by the Royal College of Nursing and researchers at Oxford Brookes University.’ Like the research from Oxford and the RCN, McCardle … Continue reading Herald reporting again on nursing in England. NHS Scotland HAS invested more in nursing

After nearly every Scottish and UK newspaper and of course BBC Scotland, headlined yesterday, the warning that a coronavirus case is ‘highly likely’ in the next few days ‘in Scotland’, the first two cases are, everywhere, headlined as being in the ‘UK.’ The Herald does then tell us: ‘The patients, in England, are members of the same family, and are now the first people in the UK to be diagnosed with the virus since its outbreak.’ I probably shouldn’t tempt fate here but wasn’t it always much more likely, given the obvious scale of travel between China and London and the number … Continue reading Scottish newspaper struggles to say first cases of Coronavirus are in England

Above, today, BBC Scotland and BBC UK. Then only hours later: Based on a quick survey of recent headlines, only BBC Scotland refers to the FM as ‘Sturgeon’ while both BBC UK and BBC Scotland commonly refer to the PM as the PM. This tendency to personalise the Independence campaign, as with ‘Salmond’ in 2014, and to undermine the status of the leader of the SNP and First Minister of Scotland is at least subconscious bias. Continue reading BBC Scotland’s everyday personalisation and demonising of ‘Sturgeon’