Repeat post alert! Somethings need saying over and over. I can’t even see who the veteran is but, like many of you I’m sure I don’t give a, because they’re wrong, all wrong. Regardless of the morale-boosting effect of the AUOB marches, there is hard empirical evidence that peaceful street protest can work. Of course, we can’t expect veteran politicians or journalist the check the facts can we? Anyhow, repeating previous posts on the topic, here it is again: ‘It turns out that social science has a lot to say about which protests are likely to be effective. My research shows that social … Continue reading Oh no they shouldn’t! They should keep on keeping on (R)

The Herald headline story three days ago. The Herald headline story today. Is Jamie, 14, now in charge at this once throbbing organ* of British politics? Hang on! They’ve changed the headline story. There must be some connection. If only I could come up with it but I’m too busy winking at you! Who is this old wonk: Footnote 1: *organ noun (NEWSPAPER) the organ of sth formal a newspaper or broadcasting station produced by a particular organization and giving only the opinions of that organization [like BBC Scotland] :The newspaper Pravda was the official organ of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union. Footnote 2: The Organ was a US counterculture underground newspaper which produced a total of 9 irregularly published issues in San Francisco in … Continue reading Oh ‘come’ on! Is this what it’s ‘come’ to in the Herald?

As the Virtual Scotsman headlines any old rumour to make the anxious elderly [Not us, readers!] even more anxious and so, electorally Jacksonite, we take the opportunity to remind you that we have the best police force in the UK and no doubt, in my mind, well beyond: Other Police Scotland stories missed: Scotland DOES NOT have the highest level of distracted drivers in the UK! Police Scotland JUST MORE ACTIVE says leading expert on statistics propaganda Westminster Conservatives FAIL as Police in Scotland more than NINE times as effective in solving violent crimes than in England 50% more police officers per … Continue reading Scotsman journalism not sustainable warns leading media academic

From reader, bigjon999 [Ed: bigjon999’s comment reacting to this Guardian report on Carrilion seemed too interesting to leave as just a comment which many might have missed] Not sure if this is right place to note this – but I don’t want to go too far back in time…https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jan/17/two-hospitals-held-up-by-carillion-collapseCarillion were also involved in the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road (or the Bypass to give it a shorter name!).The Scottish government had insisted on clauses in the contracts stating that if a contractor went bust the other contractors had to step in to continue the work. So what was the result of … Continue reading How SNP Government saved the Aberdeen Bypass

Empirical evidence is hard to find but this quote from the pressure group Ban the Booths may tell us something: In Scotland there is a wave of ACE [Adverse Childhood Experiences] and trauma informed practice, Government ministers talk of love and the encourage relational practice. In England we are arguing about which stick is best to beat the sin out of the child. Time for a change. We want a debate in public and in Parliament, a regulatory and accountability framework for isolation and resources for schools to move to evidence informed behaviour practice. https://banthebooths.co.uk/blog/whybanthebooths/ In the Guardian yesterday: Schools … Continue reading The ‘distressing and degrading’ use of isolation booths is not for Scotland

Ludo Thierry Reporting Scotland’s Brian Taylor neglected an opportunity to inform the Scottish viewing public that Scottish Universities have come within a whisker of achieving their improved access for degree entrants from most disadvantaged areas interim target fully 2 years ahead of schedule. Reported on news.gov.scot yesterday. link and snippets below: https://news.gov.scot/news/access-to-higher-education-continues-to-widen Scotland’s universities have nearly met the interim targets set for widening access – two years ahead of schedule. Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) figures for the academic year 2018/19 show 15.9% of full-time first degree entrants to Scottish universities came from the nation’s 20% of most deprived areas … Continue reading Scottish Universities within whisker of target for widening access

In a long piece on their website and, I guess, on Reporting Scotland, Political Editor, Brian Taylor failed to inform us in a manner which might have enabled to us to answer the question in his headline. It was yet another piece of conversational light entertainment as Taylor showed off his grasp of who was there and what they said inside the Holyrood bubble. In more than 1 000 words we find nothing at all of the published evidence on the state of school-level education in Scotland. There’s plenty of it out there but, accepting the pressures of journalism, I’m … Continue reading Who didn’t pass the evidence-based serious journalism test? That’d be Brian Taylor

Door-stepping the Scottish Government Public Health Minister to be sure viewers and readers make the required association and returning to their previous story in December 2019 where a non-Scot killed an American in flawed beauty treatment, BBC Scotland headline this non-story. Did some expert really say: ‘wild west?’ Maybe: Ken Stewart, the plastic surgery adviser to the Scottish government, previously compared the existing system to the “wild west”. Where is the actual quote? The report is just another attempt to keep their cauldron boiling with association poison for the reputation of the SNP government, as in yesterday’s tasteless exhumation of … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s cowboy journalists’ door-step SNP minister in desperate ‘filler’ for their NHS campaign

The Herald yesterday moved on quickly from the previous night’s headline story of the SNP MSP’s assistant, masturbating in the toilets, to their own masturbatory style of journalism. Needless to say the word ‘aimless’ does not appear even once across the 46 pages of Scotland’s City Region and Growth Deals published by the Accounts Commission and the Auditor General. Indeed, there is no sentence anywhere even vaguely similar to the above uber-tabloid headline. The word ‘aims’ appears 11 times but only once in any critical or negative way: ‘Deals could also contribute to several of the other economic indicators in … Continue reading Lefty prof argues for capitalist risk-taking as Herald journalism becomes worse than ‘aimless’

From reader Contrary: The crowd-justice thing I promoted here yesterday has unfortunately reached its target – unfortunate because it’ll cost me more than I can really afford, oh well more the fool me – but good that it is now going ahead. It’s not a magic bullet, it’s just one thing, one stage in the process to finally allow us to be given a choice – and such a sad state of affairs it is that we need to push to be allowed to vote – all mandates are in order and all events have come to pass that should … Continue reading Does the Scottish Parliament have the right to hold a referendum on Scottish independence with the law as it currently stands?