stewartb The level of students’ personal debt reflects UK government decisions – acting as the government of England – to load the cost of higher education onto individuals rather than the public finances. The extent to which this has been done is a policy choice. The extent to which it has been done – and sustained – in England over more than a decade is a function of the choices made by voters in England. They have wanted this policy, they endorsed this policy at the ballot box and/or at least they have acquiesced to its continuation. They have every … Continue reading Students’ personal debt reflects UK government decisions to load costs of HE onto individuals rather than public finances

I know many disagree but the evidence is in. STV News, for all its faults, can be trusted far more than BBC Scotland, the Herald, the Scotsman or the Record. It’d take too long to extract the text but see these: And finally, empirically, as far back as May 2015: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://thoughtcontrolscotland.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/propaganda-or-professionalism.pdf Continue reading Why is the Herald hours behind STV News at the very same time? If you have to watch TV News, watch STV

The Herald today with another of their Labour-affiliated union feeds, to make Scots feel SNP Government must not be working, typically context free to make that possible. The context? The total student loan debt in England is £182 billion. With 10 times the population, all things being equal, student debt in England might be expected to be 10 times higher – £76bn – but it’s £182bn, TWO AND A HALF times higher. Also, Student loan debts are wiped after 30 years after they are first due to be repaid. The Herald opens with: Outstanding loan debt owed by students in … Continue reading Student debt in Scotland less than half that in England

The Herald gave their award last year to Anas Sarwar. Look at his ratings compared to the FM Humza Yousaf, since then. The Herald clearly misread the public mood then. How will they do this time? Continue reading How can the Herald Politician of the Year be so far behind Humza Yousaf?

By stewartb – a long read This is the third (and final for now) blog post on the findings of an ongoing Review of the UK Constitution by the Institute for Government (IfG) and Bennett Institute for Public Policy’s (University of Cambridge) Source: Jack et al (2022) A framework for reviewing the UK constitution. Institute for Government report 50pp. (https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/framework-reviewing-uk-constitution.pdf ) The aim of the Review is to examine the purpose of constitutions; to assess how the UK constitution fulfils that purpose; to highlight problems with the UK’s constitution that are now being revealed; and to offer views on whether … Continue reading The UK constitution – leaves devolution ‘vulnerable to the whim’ of Westminster!

From the Herald today: SNP ministers have been accused of stretching the Scottish education system “beyond breaking point” after statistics revealed that one in six secondary schools have a pupil roll greater than 100% capacity. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/23636498.high-schools-beyond-breaking-point-one-six-full-capacity/ Who is the ‘accuser’ ignoring the fact that local authorities are directly responsible for the above ‘problem?’ Oh, it’s Liam Kerr MSP Con. Imagine the same schools had a bit more space? What would Kerr be saying then? ‘SNP wasting taxpayers’ money on empty classrooms!’ The article by David Bols is just another opposition party press release and should be condemned as such. Finally, Bols tells … Continue reading Scottish high schools capacity ‘well-judged’ as only one in six at full capacity

Service chaos again? After a long period with between 95% and 98% of sailings on time, Calmac has dipped in the last 5 days to between 84% and 88%. This puts it, for the moment, with Ryanair on around 88% this year but still better that Brittany Ferries with 1 out of 8 cancelled and another late today. Returning to the Herald headlining ferries again and again, story. The MV Loch Frisa, bottom, is only one of 2 ferries to Mull and the other has been making around 20 sailings every day, on time, for some time now. Similarly there … Continue reading Two paracetamol should do?

A quick reminder of the facts before looking at the above, by the Herald’s Helen McArdle: From Public Health Scotland yesterday: During May 2023, there were 24,125 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This represents an increase of 21.6% compared to the 19,840 planned for April 2023 and is 10.2% higher than the number planned a year previously in May 2022 (21,895)….475 (2%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/cancelled-planned-operations-month-ending-31-may-2023 Here’s a key extract from the Herald front page: Let’s be clear about that ‘500’ in the headline. 475 procedures were postponed due … Continue reading Herald’s shameful distortion of surgery facts, in Scotland’s 98% NHS, will scare the elderly and vulnerable

By cuckooshoe We know prior to the Treaty of Union, Orkney and Shetland were Crown Dependencies of Scotland. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1669_Act_for_annexation_of_Orkney_and_Shetland_to_the_Crown “The 1669 Act of Annexation was a Parliamentary Act passed by the Parliament of Scotland to establish Orkney and Shetland’s status as Crown Dependencies following a legal dispute with William Douglas, 9th Earl of Morton, who held the estates of Orkney and Shetland.” And https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/england-scotland-and-treaty-union-1706-08 “The finalized ‘Articles of Union’ were signed at Whitehall on 22 July 1706 and formally presented to Queen Anne the following day. They were considered by the Scottish Parliament during October 1706-January 1707, and an Act … Continue reading Does Orkney and/or Shetland becoming Crown Dependencies (again) pave the way for an end to the Act of Union?