SNP worries of little consequence for the No/Yes movement as the gap narrows steadily and uninterrupted
The graph of the last 40 weeks, a time of uninterrupted media carpet bombing of the SNP and protection of Labour from scrutiny and the wider movement narrows the gap with no apparent effects from either. It’s been a bad time but we’re still on the same road. Continue reading SNP worries of little consequence for the No/Yes movement as the gap narrows steadily and uninterrupted
BBC News everywhere else but in Scotland where the ‘SNP disaster’ must be hammered home
BBC England, 4 days after the election, back to business – news. BBC UK, same. BBC Scotland, still drooling and reminding Scots who is in charge and imagining an SNP civil war. BBC Northern Ireland? No need to encourage those republicans? BBC Wales is as in Scotland – Polls suggest support for Yes dangerously up at 33% from only 10%, ten years before. Continue reading BBC News everywhere else but in Scotland where the ‘SNP disaster’ must be hammered home
England’s gangland bosses breaking Scotland’s prison system
Neil Mackay in the Herald today has: Scotland’s gangland bosses break the nation’s ‘failed’ prison system. Jails are bursting at the seams, staff are exhausted, and as police arrest more and more organised crime members, Scotland’s prisons are in turmoil. Our Writer at Large reports IT sounds like life for prison officers at the height of Ulster’s Troubles: intimidation, threats to kill, assassination plots, fire-bombings, and looking over your shoulder when you clock off and walk through the jail gates. Given that overall crime is down by 40% since the SNP came to power in 2007, organised crime based on drugs, prostitution, … Continue reading England’s gangland bosses breaking Scotland’s prison system
Scottish First Minister’s local hospital A&E performance shocking 58% better than that of new PM
By Professor John Robertson John Swinney FM lives within the Tayside Health Board area and Keir Starmer PM lives within the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. In May 2024, 90.3% of full A&E [ED] patients in NHS Tayside were seen within 4 hours. In the same period, only 57.1% of full A&E [Type 1] patients in Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust were seen within 4 hours. NHS Tayside is a whopping 58% better (90.3-57.1 as a % of 57.1). Sources: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/our-areas-of-work/acute-and-emergency-services/urgent-and-unscheduled-care/accident-and-emergency/#section-3-2 https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2024-25/ Continue reading Scottish First Minister’s local hospital A&E performance shocking 58% better than that of new PM
NHS Scotland staffed and equipped to do more than 98% of planned operations on time despite steadily increasing demand
By Professor John Robertson From Public Health Scotland on 2nd July 2024: During May 2024, there were 25,657 operations planned to take place across NHSScotland. This is 6.4% higher than the number planned a year previously in May 2023 (24,125). • The number of planned operations has been steadily increasing since pandemic restrictions first affected provision of services in March 2020. In the 12 months from April 2023 to May 2024, there was an 8% increase in the number of planned operations compared to the previous 12 months. This compares to a 15.3% year-on-year increase when comparing year ending May … Continue reading NHS Scotland staffed and equipped to do more than 98% of planned operations on time despite steadily increasing demand
Channel Islands foreign ferry crew cannot speak and steer well enough to avoid killing fishermen or hit a harbour wall but CalMac crew can do this
Two days ago: A Ukrainian national working for Condor Ferries was charged with three counts of manslaughter following a collision between a Condor Ferry and a fishing trawler off Jersey’s north west coast [in December 2022]. Artur Sevash-Zade, a Ukrainian national, was arrested in the UK and brought to Jersey to appear at the island’s Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday 3 July. An intrepreter was present and translated for Mr Sevash-Zade who did not speak throughout the hearing. The court heard that he works at sea and has no fixed address in either the UK or Jersey. So, unable to speak English well … Continue reading Channel Islands foreign ferry crew cannot speak and steer well enough to avoid killing fishermen or hit a harbour wall but CalMac crew can do this
The outcome and impact of this dependency [on UK decision-making] will be little different no matter how well the SNP does
By stewartb There is more at stake than ‘just’ the number of pro-Independence MPs elected in Scotland, important as that is! The IFS report referenced below also makes for depressing reading, not least because in brings home (yet again) just how dependent on England’s political choices we are. And in the immediate future, the outcome and impact of this dependency – including on devolved matters – will be little different no matter how well the SNP does in the upcoming general election. That is a seriously limiting, constraining democracy! Source: Institute for Fiscal Studies (28 June, 2024) How would the parties’ tax … Continue reading The outcome and impact of this dependency [on UK decision-making] will be little different no matter how well the SNP does
Ipsos SUB-POLL today cautiously suggests major swing back to SNP as John settles in
Many thanks to https://x.com/SNPwindaes for alerting me to this. It’s only a telephone sub-poll of 203 Scots weighted down to 176 but, today on the day, Ipsos, the most trusted pollster because they’re based in Paris and have no dog in this fight, has: All: 90% to 100% certain to vote: I know. Recent polls are up and down but one or two full polls especially the usually unfriendly Savanta, have signs of an SNP recovery, as the the most popular party leader and his Tartan Army loyalist, Toblerone-loving, Westminster leader do well in TV interviews. Source: https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/labour-holds-18-point-lead-over-conservatives-final-ipsos-election-poll https://www.thenational.scot/news/24426651.new-general-election-poll-puts-snp-ahead-labour/ Continue reading Ipsos SUB-POLL today cautiously suggests major swing back to SNP as John settles in
As outsourced cleaning results in deadly infection outbreak via basins and showers in an English hospital how this Scottish Health Secretary kept cleaning in-house 16 years ago to save uncounted lives
By Professor John Robertson Today in the Health Service Journal: Frimley Health had 94 cases of CPE last year, due to a major outbreak at Wexham Park The trust has ordered a mortality and morbidity review but does not say if it has been completed CPE thought to travel through drains, affecting wash basins and showers. A hospital trust has ordered a review of potential death and harm caused by an outbreak of a serious healthcare-acquired infection, which is resistant to many antibiotics. Frimley Health Foundation Trust has seen outbreaks of carbapenemase-producing enterobacterales at both its Frimley Park and Wexham … Continue reading As outsourced cleaning results in deadly infection outbreak via basins and showers in an English hospital how this Scottish Health Secretary kept cleaning in-house 16 years ago to save uncounted lives
UK Labour funded by the rich and US corporations have always let our children die on foreign fields from Korea and Malaysia to Iraq and Afghanistan only to test their new weapons. Vote for them again and begin down a new path to your grandchildren dying for nothing in foreign fields
I hope the headline is message enough but may a song or two will push things further in: And, if you need some numbers: By Professor John Robertson In May 2020, after reading new research on Scotland’s share of UK war dead, I was able to write this: ‘Yet while the war dead of some countries were too numerous to count, we should be mindful that ‘Scotland is small enough to know all her sons by heart’ My headline comes from the conclusions to a thorough examination of the facts published in May 2019. I missed it at the time and, … Continue reading UK Labour funded by the rich and US corporations have always let our children die on foreign fields from Korea and Malaysia to Iraq and Afghanistan only to test their new weapons. Vote for them again and begin down a new path to your grandchildren dying for nothing in foreign fields
