Not making the headlines, how well the political leaders are perceived to be doing, in the recent YouGov poll. The Times interpret the headline SNP figure of 38% as a meltdown, despite that being the same level as the three polls immediately before he took up office and no worse than many in the past nine years. With the Sun, they have him: Humza Yousaf approval poll: incompetent and weak, say voters. Their own poll does not bear that out. Here are the figures: Rishi Sunak 52% doing badly/25% doing well, down from 50/31, 63/20 with women. Keir Starmer 47/28 … Continue reading Anas slumps, Humza more popular than most and who is that Lib Dem guy?

Today, BBC Business is reporting: TransPennine Express worst for train cancellations. Train operator TransPennine Express (TPE) cancelled around one in six of its services in the four weeks to the end of March, new figures show. The regulator said the cancellation rate leapt from 5.8% to 17% when trains cancelled up to 10pm the night before due to staff shortages were included. It was the highest in the country, but down on the 23.8% cancellation rate in the previous period to 4 March. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65346831 No politician is pictured and those who are mentioned are quoted attacking the company running the … Continue reading Only in Scotland: Train cancellations caused by a leading politician

Five polls now since the election of Humza Yousaf, two weeks now after the arrest of Peter Murrell and after a massive media feeding frenzy, SNP support is relatively low but steady at 38%. Labour support, relatively high for them, is stuck at 30%. Almost every newspaper, even the Independent has a headline like: Support for SNP falls to lowest level since 2014 referendum, poll suggests. YouGov again, for the Times again, on 12-16 January 2018 had the SNP again on 38%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2021_Scottish_Parliament_election The dust will settle. We’ve been down before. We’ve been up before. Continue reading SNP support steady after First Minister’s inverted honeymoon and NOT lowest since 2014 Referendum

The latest figures from Rajar show a staggering decline in Radio Scotland’s audience in just one year. In 2022, only 780 000 were listening, compared to 976 000 in the previous year, a 20.1% drop, in one year. Figures for Good Mourning Scotland and John Beattie’s Diretime, sorry Drivetime, are not released as this would threaten national security. However, a whistle-blower has told us that the decline has been largely due to the two flagship, high-end, political shows. Police Scotland has refused to investigate a suggested connection between shouted interruptions of SNP spokespersons on these shows and RTAs within seconds. … Continue reading John Beattie ‘driving’ Radio Scotland down

Ministers under fire? By whom? It’s just the one guy again! A Labour-still-friendly GMB rep. Logan has clearly forgotten this: Political attacks on Ferguson Marine are putting the future of the shipyard in doubt, a trade union has warned. The GMB hit out at Labour for using its members at the Port Glasgow business as a “political football”. The union said it was right the Scottish Government was held to account over the massive delays in completing two new ferries for Caledonian MacBrayne – but warned the fall-out could permanently damage Ferguson’s reputation. The shipyard was nationalised in 2019 after huge cost overruns on the … Continue reading GMB Ferguson Marine rep forgets what Labour did to them

STV is passively reporting this survey of a hospital league table, the kind of thing that ignores everyone’s need, regardless of where they live, to have a hospital they can trust: The Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh all ranked among the top 40 hospitals in the UK. Glasgow Royal Infirmary came in 26th place, with an overall score of 73.17%, while the QUEH improved its position from last year to 38th place, with a score of 71.36%. The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh came in at 34, with a score of 71.75%. … Continue reading Factcheck: Unlike elsewhere, ALL of Scotland’s hospitals can be trusted

BBC Scotland is back on the deposit return scheme’s supposed controversial status based on the notion that ‘many’ businesses in Scotland have expressed concerns. There is no mention of these great big facts, contradicting the ‘controversial’ claim: Continue reading Conservatives and media humiliated as 95% of drink sales enter SNP deposit return scheme on day one

BBC Scotland are headlining another Audit Scotland report claiming flaws in SNP Government performance. Regulars here will remember: Why does Audit Scotland tend to accuse when the UK National Audit Office tends to praise? The differences in messaging are sharp. The UK NAO is all progress, support (three times) and recovery. Audit Scotland is all government needs to improve, challenges and risks. Two quite different cultures revealing, in Audit Scotland, an underlying culture of opposition to the SNP in government. https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/02/24/why-does-audit-scotland-tend-to-accuse-when-the-uk-national-audit-office-tends-to-praise/ Today we hear that better protection from flooding is required. In November 2022, we reported: Despite 30 flood warnings … Continue reading BBC/Audit Scotland ignoring the facts again to attack SNP Government

Alasdair Galloway Some may remember I posted my reaction to the Westminster response to the well supported ‘gie’s a section 45 order”. This response can be found below.   However the petitions people were unhappy with that response as it failed to directly address the petition’s proposition. You can have a look at their second attempt here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/628746?reveal_response=yes Not much point in going into much depth here. For one thing the response has as much depth as a puddle after a few drops of rain. However, essentially their case is ‘we believe in the Union’, though this claim is never … Continue reading Section 45: Parallels with 18th Century Scotland

Today, BBC UK and Northamptonshire report: The safety of a ward accused of failing children has been rated as inadequate by inspectors. The care regulator warned Kettering General Hospital (KGH) in Northamptonshire over its children’s and young people’s services. Inspectors‘ worries include sepsis treatment, staff numbers, dirt levels and not having an “open culture” where concerns can be raised without fear. The trust’s chief executive apologised to those who felt let down. Since the BBC’s first report in February highlighting the concerns of parents with children who died or became seriously ill at KGH, dozens more families have come forward, … Continue reading How only Scottish Labour/Tories will exploit child death for political purposes