Major SNP policy saves many lives but is damned with faint praise by BBC Scotland
On the early TV broadcast news and in the extended website version, this major report finds the SNP minimum pricing policy to have been a major success, with evidence of 13.4% reduction in related deaths, a 4.1% reduction in hospital admissions and whopping 40% reduction among men in the most deprived areas. These should have been the headline grabbing comments but instead BBC Scotland headline and open the report with: Call to raise ‘life-saving’ minimum alcohol price in Scotland Scotland should increase its minimum unit price for alcohol from 50p to 65p, campaigners have said. It came as a final … Continue reading Major SNP policy saves many lives but is damned with faint praise by BBC Scotland
Under-reported ferry tales – SNP Government more than doubles spending on ferry services for islanders in just ten years
By stewartb Planning for and subsequently delivering on major investments in national infrastructure takes time. Investment by Scottish governments and Transport Scotland in the publicly-subsidised ferry network falls into this category. Given all that’s going on now regarding CalMac services, for a better understanding of context and to gain some much needed perspective it’s relevant to look at recent history. This is where a report by Audit Scotland (AS) published in 2017 has value. Source: Audit Scotland (October, 2017) Transport Scotland’s ferry services. (https://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2017/nr_171019_ferry_services.pdf ) Changing investment commitments The AS assessment in 2017 came about four years into Transport Scotland’s … Continue reading Under-reported ferry tales – SNP Government more than doubles spending on ferry services for islanders in just ten years
Cold War Steve has no idea who Anas Sarwar is but knows that if he does not, Sarwar must not matter
The utterly brilliant satirist Cold War Steve positions media mogul Rupert Murdoch with his loyal supplicants in a palatial context ripe with the air of corruption. He didn’t seem to spot this: There he is with the other private health corporation-funded Labour lot. When Cold Water Steve doesn’t even notice you, how sad is that? Continue reading Cold War Steve has no idea who Anas Sarwar is but knows that if he does not, Sarwar must not matter
Humza Yousaf impresses big majority in poll of Yes supporters
Humza Yousaf was in encouragingly combative mood on Sunday, above. On the same day, I asked the 9 500 following TuS on twitter how they rated him now, after two months in the post, and after a torrid media carpet bombing campaign. The result is below: This is a self-selecting and quite small sample and so not reliable. However, it is interesting and, of course, around 100 times larger than a typical Reporting Scotland street sample in Buchanan Street of 5 folk, strangely all members of the Orange Order, telling us he’s rubbish. 72% rating him high and only 15.4% … Continue reading Humza Yousaf impresses big majority in poll of Yes supporters
There is no ‘existential threat’ to Scotland’s islands with a growing population served by 95% reliable ferries
Just like the higher-rate taxpayers fleeing south, islanders fleeing to the mainland from their frankly better, subsidised lives, is a mythical whopper employed by folk like Transport Committee chair, Edward Mountain MSP, Con. I can’t see the actual report yet but it will be interesting to see if, in its pages, there is any actual consideration of the evidence of reliability in actual statistics. For the last 7 years of records, CalMac has consistently served more than 30, sometimes quite remote and small communities, with 95% reliability and 100% safety, sailing, at times more than 500 times a day. No … Continue reading There is no ‘existential threat’ to Scotland’s islands with a growing population served by 95% reliable ferries
Psychologists link new ‘ferry abandonment phobia’ cases to saturation media coverage as service plummets to ‘catastrophic’ 97% reliability in one day
As Elton John voluntarily says goodbye at Glastonbury, the more modest ‘Pacific Quay’ tour of just South Uist and, sometimes, Arran and Campbelltown, steams on, headlining day-after-day. Leading psychologists have reported an increase in the number of their patients absolutely refusing to take a ferry trip in case they get left on the quayside and are never seen again. After hundreds of media reports of ferry cancellations ‘devastating’ island economies, patients have proved resistant to treatments based on actual, real-life, real-world, evidence such as the 99% reliability last Saturday with 518 out of 523 sailings on time and the seasonal … Continue reading Psychologists link new ‘ferry abandonment phobia’ cases to saturation media coverage as service plummets to ‘catastrophic’ 97% reliability in one day
Prince to invest far far far less than SNP Government on ending homelessness
BBC UK have been gushing all over this ‘major project‘ by Prince William to ‘end’ homelessness completely in six different places across the UK in the next five years by giving ‘up to £3 million‘ of his own, well ‘ours‘, money! THREE MILLION!!?? WOW!!! That’ll go a long way won’t it? Nope. Just for Scotland, the Scottish Government invested £100 million (https://www.gov.scot/policies/homelessness/) and in the very last of the 30 paragraph plus BBC online report: A spokeswoman for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities welcomed the prince’s initiative. “We are giving councils £2bn over three years, to help … Continue reading Prince to invest far far far less than SNP Government on ending homelessness
Ferry fulfilment as 99% of 523 sailings are on time for busy Saturday
On a very busy Saturday, yesterday, CalMac, described by one Tory councillor as one of the worst ferry services in the world, made 518 crossings to more than 30 places on time, hitting 99% reliability, after cancelling only 5. The 5 cancelled sailings included the 4 from Oban to South Uist but the North Uist crossing to Skye, operated all 6 on time. The other cancellation was the 1 Campbelltown to Ardrossan sailing. Campbelltown is on the mainland. Two days ago BC Ferries in British Columbia warned the public to brace for ferry cancellations this summer. On 22 May 2023, … Continue reading Ferry fulfilment as 99% of 523 sailings are on time for busy Saturday
Ferry Falseness as Scottish Con/Labour combine to ignore what matters and to undermine Scottish jobs and prospects
Does anyone know just how many ‘ferry fiasco feeding-frenzy’ reports we’ve have had now? The main SNP-bad narrative must now be well ahead of the ‘dead babies in infected hospitals‘ meme. Today BBC Scotland give Labour’s Neil Bibby and the Con’s Graham Simpson a platform to blame the SNP Government and excuse the man who signed the contract. The willingness to talk-down your own industry and workers in an infantile attempt to hurt the SNP is stunning. A full year ago, reader Tom Hodgens had a far healthier approach: This is a long post about vision and ambition. Let’s start … Continue reading Ferry Falseness as Scottish Con/Labour combine to ignore what matters and to undermine Scottish jobs and prospects
Furious English doctors condemn gulf between English and Scottish NHS waiting lists
The Herald front page ‘exclusive’ on paper and online this morning, above. The opening pitch: In Scotland, nearly 7000 people have been waiting over two years for an operation compared to just 559 in England. But what’s really going on behind the figures? Doctors have described Scotland’s NHS recovery as “appallingly slow” and accused ministers of “taking their eye off the ball” when it comes to driving down the backlogs of patients who have been waiting years for surgery. They go on to wander carefully around the evidence without finding the most important data. Here they are: From the BMJ on … Continue reading Furious English doctors condemn gulf between English and Scottish NHS waiting lists
