Continue reading Today’s posts: Scotland’s top civil servant 58 flights to see her boss in London and a bacterium kills 15 but no politician’s head need roll

As support for independence climbs and as SNP support holds firm, McKenna’s dark ideas surface in the Herald. The signs of rumbling have been there for a few months now: In July 2019, I wrote: McKenna has been very active in the last few days with today’s George Robertson/Gandalf-like suggestion, in the Observer, that a ‘dark presence has come to possess this [SNP] party.’ In the same piece we read: ‘Some of their [SNP] candyfloss policies can drive you round the twist.’ Leaving aside McKenna’s own dark presence, there’s some connection between his anger at ‘candyfloss policies’ and his despair in the Herald on the 13th, … Continue reading Labour mole surfaces to nibble at SNP

Continue reading Recent tweets: ENGLISH drug gangs, mental health ‘crisis’ and cracked nuclear reactors

Yesterday at Holyrood, Michelle Ballantyne (SCAUP) asked the Scottish Government what plans Social Security Scotland has to prevent future benefits overpayments. Click to access WA20191018.pdf As I read this, I was reminded that overpayment is not really the problem as huge numbers of benefits go unclaimed. See this from September 9th, 2019: Statistics from HMRC and DWP estimated that in 2016/17 only 31% of families without children eligible for Working Tax Credit claimed, while only 60% of those eligible for Pension Credit claimed. However, the full extent of benefit non-take-up in the UK is unknown because of difficulties in estimating … Continue reading As thousands of Scottish pensioners fail to claim benefits they are entitled to, Tory MSP frets about overpayment!

Ludo Thierry We now have ‘official’ confirmation from BOTH No. 10 and the EU Commission that the appropriate time interval between visits (and revisits) to a major constitutional issue (such as whether N. Ireland remains within the EU customs and regulatory embrace) is 4 years. Good to know this. By my arithmetic 5 years has passed since Indyref 1 – Good to know that BOTH No. 10 AND Brussels can have absolutely NO concerns about sufficient time having elapsed for the consideration of the question of Scottish Independence being put to the Scottish voting public again, any time from now … Continue reading No 10 and EU confirm appropriate time interval between visits to a major constitutional issue is 4 years so Indyref2 is late

In the Scottish Cringe Express today, we read: Nationalist candidate Tom Wills came second to Lib Dem Beatrice Wishart in the poll, despite Nicola Sturgeon visiting the islands three times. Spending figures from the Electoral Commission show the SNP spent 99 per cent of the total allowed in the by-election, compared to less than 13 per cent of the total allowed in the Brexit poll. Once more this Lib Dem feed story to the Scottish Nomedia is everywhere and reeks of hypocrisy. Remember the SNP spend was WITHIN the limit and legal. The Scottish Lib Dems, clearly scared by their … Continue reading SHOCK SNP election spending WITHIN legal limit but Lib Dems push the limits of legality

I hope my use of the term ‘depressed’ is not inappropriate. As well as using it to grab your attention, I’m using the word here to point to the physical way in which editorial preferences for bad news about NHS Scotland lead to stories like this being depressed and disappeared. BBC Scotland, STV, the Herald and the Scotsman had not covered the story as I wrote this (06:50am) yet, as you well know, stories of hospital acquired infections, alleged cancer treatment irregularities and, of course, mistreatment of patients in mental health wards, are headline news to be returned to and … Continue reading Scotland’s depressed media look away as TWO Glasgow mental health wards are praised

Tolmount Main, named after a Scottish mountain, has delighted its owners, Premium, who describe it as: Located 64km off the coast of Shetland in Yorkshire, Tolmount Main is the biggest gas field in the Greater Tolmount Area in the Southern Gas Basin. A 47km-long and 20in diameter subsea pipeline will be laid to export the produced gas and condensate to Centrica’s Easington terminal located in East Yorkshire, for further processing. Tolmount Main Gas Field, North Sea Most readers will remember that on the day the Scottish Parliament came into being, in 1999, the New labour Government arranged for the transfer … Continue reading Why is a major gas discovery ‘off the coast of Shetland’ but in Yorkshire?

Ludo Thierry Meanwhile (grabbing coffee) and noticed good stuff on news.gov.scot. Today’s figuresregarding ‘outcomes’ for graduates of Scotland’s College sector continuing to show excellent results. SNP Scottish Govt and YES majority Parlt delivering for Scotland’s colleges which are delivering for Scotland’s economy. The new and better Scotland’s virtuous interaction of educational, social, employment and economic assets gradually replacing the centuries of neglect and desperate ad hoc arrangements observable when under the control of the London party branch offices. Link and snippets below: https://news.gov.scot/news/more-college-leavers-heading-straight-into-work Efforts to offer different paths into employment bearing fruit. More college graduates opted to start work last … Continue reading ‘More college graduates opted to start work last year’

BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team seems happier following the wrong truckload of calves to Spain, interviewing old folk in their homes about a supposed NHS failure or (tonight) women who have been let down by their employers and unions, but have, for more than a year now, been unwilling to tackle a major crime problem affecting children in Scotland. Their equivalents in Wales, England and Northern Ireland have had the courage to investigate white supremacists, jihadis and kneecapping, but they seem unwilling to get off the sofa. I’ve written recently on the two Police Scotland warnings, in January and October 2019, … Continue reading Is BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team afraid to expose English ‘County Lines’ drug gangs targeting children despite a government report, two warnings from police and one from a youth charity?