By stewartb Deary me! Gordon Brown’s Scottish Future doesn’t seem too bright if the Guardian’s Scotland Editor (no less) has distilled the best bits for his article from the thinktank’s latest output . The journalist seems particularly taken with output statistics provided by Mr Brown and his team: ‘the Scottish government has been suffering from “consultitis” by publishing more than 1,000 consultations, plans and strategy papers in nine years’ and ‘Since September 2014, there have been 529 strategy papers or plans, or more than one published every week, and 669 consultations’. Notwithstanding the matter of what constitutes a ‘plan’ in … Continue reading A Labour government with even more severe ‘consultitis’

From Open Democracy yesterday: We might just have a chance to stop a secretive Silicon Valley firm, which was first funded by the CIA, from being handed a £480 million NHS data contract. The deal would allow Palantir to build a single database that will put a huge trove of NHS patient data in private hands, despite warnings from privacy campaigners and a wide range of organisations. The firm is heavily tipped to secure the contract but there are now suggestions that UK health secretary Steve Barclay is concerned about how unpopular the plans are.  It is of course about NHS England and … Continue reading Secretive Silicon Valley firm, funded by the CIA, WON’T get an NHS data contract in Scotland

I still checkout the Guardian for cultural reviews and news on the USA but have long lost trust in their coverage of the Arab world or, of course, Scotland. Today Severin* Carrell writes: Scotland’s devolved government has been beset by poor decision-making for the past decade because of an obsession with constitutional disputes, a thinktank says. The report, by Gordon Brown’s Our Scottish Future thinktank, which has close ties to Labour, says much-needed reforms to public services and economic investment have been hampered by short-term decision-making and an unrelenting focus on referendums and elections. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/nov/01/scotland-government-wasting-time-constitutional-disputes-thinktank Today’s header is what you … Continue reading Guardian’s Scotland editor uncritically repeats Gordon Brown’s ‘thinktank’ rubbish

The evidence piles up everyday and today we have another piece. Throughout September and October, BB Scotland, the Express, the Herald, the Record, the FT and even the National had stories of landlords bypassing the SNP Government’s 3% cap on rent rises for existing tenants by ending tenancy agreements if one flatmate moves out and then demanding an additional 35%. This loophole, this supposed ‘abject failure’ was fuel for numerous reports. But today, when the SNP Government close the loophole. The Telegraph and BNN Bloomberg are alone with this kind of coverage: In a bold move, the Scottish National Party … Continue reading Classic media bias as an SNP rent control loophole is big news but ‘boldly’ closing it is not

By stewartb Statements today from Unison’s leadership on the strike by its members employed by local authorities in Scotland are telling. UNISON Scotland’s head of local government Johanna Baxter is quoted saying: ‘Cosla and the Scottish government need to give local government workers a decent wage rise, fund any increase properly and commit to implementing a minimum underpinning rate of pay of £15 per hour for all local government workers.” The implication here seems clear. Unison’s leadership in this strike is motivated by three different things: (i) to obtain a wage rise for members – the normal, legitimate thing, along … Continue reading Unison Scotland and Labour – Andy McDonald MP was sacked for refusing to argue against a national minimum wage of £15

Lib Dem leader, Alec Cole-Hamilton reveals yesterday that like Boris, he too has the wrong skill set to lead even the smallest of projects. Was being different from Boris during the pandemic a justifiable aim? If it meant saving lives? Yes, see this from May 2020 only months after Nicola Sturgeon’s government took over responsibility for pandemic management: 19 days ago, the FT based on extrapolated ONS figures, estimated the true total of coronavirus deaths in the UK to be ‘as many as 41 000. At that time the UK Government figure was 17 337 but did not include deaths … Continue reading To be different from Boris was a justifiable desire for Nicola

Ever since I saw the Mull & Iona councillor with an accent from the deep south, telling a Tory-run Holyrood committee to look abroad for advice on how to run a ferry service because Scotland has ‘one of the worst in the world‘, I’ve been doing just that for him. Washington State Ferries (WSF) around Seattle and British Columbia Ferries around Vancouver are the most similar to CalMac in terms of scale, government ownership and climate, though in the latter case, more southerly and more moderate. Both are demonstrably in far worse condition than CalMac, with older boats breaking down … Continue reading Mull & Iona councillor urged to visit Seattle to see a real ‘ferry f****p!’

Readers will already know of the links between the Unison Scotland trade union branch and Scottish Labour. Today BBC Scotland has Scottish school strikes go ahead in pay dispute broadcast and ‘in full’ here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-67273011 The above makes no mention of the Labour links but, more indicative of their failure to properly inform and of their underlying agenda, does not explain the offer, does not tell us that Unison in England have accepted the same offer nor do they remind us that Unite and the GMB have also accepted it, making this a political strike, exploiting Unison members in the … Continue reading Hiding the truth on the Unison (only Scotland) political strike

From the National Statistics for Scotland today but ignored widely in the media: There has been a reduction in homicides over the last 20 years across all age groups under 65. The biggest reduction has been amongst victims aged 16-24. In the five years period from 2003-04 to 2007-08 there were 126 victims in this age range. This dropped to 24 across the latest five years period from 2018-19 to 202223. In Scotland, all four age groups older than 24, other than the over 65s, are more likely to murder. This has all changed since 2007. In sharp contrast, in … Continue reading Huge, 81%, reduction in homicide rates among the young since 2007 only in Scotland