‘Children are dying in a new Glasgow hospital BECAUSE the water’s contaminated perhaps by pigeon droppings.’ In a tirade of interruptive distortions and inaccuracy, the above claim stood out for me as best representing the malice of the corpulent long-tied Neil. I’m guessing expensive private health-care, funded by licence-payers is keeping that ‘body’ alive. Children ARE dying in Glasgow hospitals, but NONE have had their deaths caused by water-born infections. They have died sadly BECAUSE OF prematurity, cancer and other conditions. No competent medic has claimed otherwise. Only ambulance-chasing ‘journalists’ posing as health correspondents, at BBC Scotland and at the … Continue reading Andrew Neil hard to stomach as he LIES shamelessly on hospital deaths

The crimes of Nazi Germany were appalling beyond our worst nightmares. The suffering of the Jewish people goes on today. The contemporary crimes of the Israeli State are appalling and should be condemned but they are not the product of Nazism. They are the typical product of liberal democracies throughout history as they rationalise the defence of their supposed liberties against the demands of those whose lands they have stolen, dehumanise them and, over time, massively escalate their punishment of them if they fight back. We’ve seen it in the ethnic cleansing of the Gaels and the Irish but, far … Continue reading Naming Israel a Nazi State was stupid, insensitive AND unnecessary. Liberal democracies are the most brutal and oppressive to others

From 2017, I know. If there has been a recent surge in Scotland, you’ll tell me. The Community Security Trust (CST), a charity which monitors anti-Semitism, recorded 1,382 anti-Semitic incidents nationwide in 2017.’ I had a look at the actual report, as opposed to their press release. On page 34, I found that there had been 1 382 incidents in the UK in 2017 up 3% from 1 346 in 2016 and there had been a 34% increase in physical assaults from 108 in 2016 to 145 in 2017. On the same page of the report, I found a breakdown … Continue reading Ant-semitism in Scotland: Evidence

We’ve all known for some time, in a general sense, that a hard Brexit will punish food exporters but, today, I found out in more detail and the costs seem unsustainable. Looking at the WTO Tariff Download Facility, you can get the tariffs for any product being exported into any country from any other country, using either WTO rules or, if you have a trade deal in place, some kind of favoured nation status. Before proceeding it’s worth noting that EU Most Favoured Nation status seems pretty unlikely for the UK: ‘Most Favoured Nation clauses contained in EU’s trade agreements … Continue reading Voting Conservative in Ayrshire is business unfriendly as their promised support for a Boris Brexit means these devastating costs for farmers, fishermen and food exporters

In the Herald today: ‘MIDDLE-CLASS pupils are paying the price for sweeping school reforms, a leading educationalist has warned, as Scotland’s performance in maths and science hit a record low in international rankings.Lindsay Paterson, professor of education policy at Edinburgh University, said the gap in reading level between rich and poor children has narrowed over the last decade partly because the performance of the better-off is falling.’ After 30 years in schools, teacher education and in university research, I can tell you that falling Pisa results in reading for middle-class children cannot be simply attributed to SNP education reforms such as the Curriculum for … Continue reading Bean-counter uses widely rejected Pisa data to attack SNP education policy again

In the desperate struggle for readers and clicks, the Herald tries to make something negative out of nothing at all: ‘The latest workforce statistics show that more GPs than ever before are being paid a salary instead of earning their income as an independent contractor, in a sign of the strain facing the profession.’ From my lefty perspective on the NHs and other things, that looks like good news. We don’t want any more ‘independent contractors’ motivated by profit, do we? Anyhow, McArdle has previous. On the 28th November, she told us that there were ‘unsafe’ staffing pressures on nurses, … Continue reading The Herald vs BBC Scotland battle for ‘Mencken Sickness Correspondent 2019’ continues as GP numbers increase but only in Scotland

Based on 146 Scots adults and field work on 2nd and 3rd December: Con                        25% Lab                         11% LD                           7% Brexit                    0% SNP                        52% Green                    4% Click to access Sky_Times_VI_191203_w.pdf Previous sub-polls by YouGov in November gave SNP support at 41, 42, 43, 43, 43, 42, 41, 47 and 41, an average of 42.5%. So, this latest at 52% looks like an outlier unless it’s repeated before the 12th. The YouGov average for support in October was 46.25%. Could this have been damaged in November by the almost two-week long daily hospital infection media campaign? The two full polls in November … Continue reading YouGov sub-poll puts SNP at 52% and November average at 43.5%

From NHS ISD today: The headcount of GPs in Scotland is 5,049. This is a slight rise of 55 GPs compared to last year. This rise is predominantly in female GPs, who now make up 61% of GPs in Scotland. There has been a decrease in male GPs, who now make up 39% of all GPs. The headcount of GPs remained roughly constant at around 4,900 between 2009 and 2017. 32% of all GPs are aged 50 and over, down from a high of 34% in 2014. Click to access 2019-12-03-GPWorkforce2019-Summary.pdf In England, the headcount of GPs has fallen 1.4% … Continue reading Scottish GP headcount climbs for 3rd quarter in a row, is younger and more numerous than in England.

From NHS ISD today: Nearly eight out of ten patients (79.4%) started their treatment within 18 weeks, which compares with 78.7% for the previous quarter. 1,132 people aged 65+ started treatment for Psychological Therapies in this quarter. 90.1% started their treatment within 18 weeks, which compares to 87.3% in the previous quarter Click to access 2019-12-03-WT-PsychTherapies-Summary.pdf Continue reading Waiting time performance for Psychological Services improves for third quarter in a row and hits target for 65+

From NHS ISD today: Timely discharge from hospital is an important indicator of quality and is a marker for person-centred, effective, integrated and harm free care. In October 2019, there were 46,240 days spent in hospital by people whose discharge was delayed. This is a decrease of 2% compared with the number of delayed days spent in hospital in October 2018 (47,302). Click to access 2019-12-03-DelayedDischarges-Summary.pdf Continue reading Delayed hospital discharges in Scotland fall in October