In Ireland, the media work with government to save lives
From the excellent MSM Monitor today: A responsible broadcaster would be inviting folk to tune in to find out *why* wearing a face mask is a good idea. That would be the narrative from the get-go. BBC Scotland frames the advice as questionable and an inconvenience, thus undermining it. Reckless tabloid immaturity. https://twitter.com/msm_monitor/status/1610928288058286080 Seeing this, I was reminded of previous evidence of how Scotland’s MSM have worked to undermine the efforts of the Scottish Government, to saves lives. Despite that, with a much lower Covid mortality rate, 226.8 per 100k in Scotland and 310.9 in England, they have succeeded. The … Continue reading In Ireland, the media work with government to save lives
Scotland’s ‘worst’ A&E is nearly 40% better than England’s ‘worst’ but no one is telling them
Radio Clyde, joining in happily with the media feeding frenzy on A&E waiting times, encourages locals to stay away and risk their lives with: In the run up to Christmas, NHS Lanarkshire recorded the worst A&E waiting times in Scotland. Just 41.4% of patients at the health board were seen within the 4 hour target in the week ending 25th of December. https://planetradio.co.uk/clyde/local/news/nhs-lanarkshire-records-worst-waiting-times/ Barking, Havering And Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust has yet to reveal its Christmas figures but in November 2022, only managed 29.8% in 4 hours, making NHS Lanarkshire in December likely to be at least 38.9% better. … Continue reading Scotland’s ‘worst’ A&E is nearly 40% better than England’s ‘worst’ but no one is telling them
The wages of sin? Less religion, more cash!
Today in Business Insider, we read: Fewer workers in Scotland earn below the real living wage compared with their counterparts in the rest of the UK. Figures from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) revealed that just 9% of employees in Scotland earn less than £9.90 per hour. The real living wage has since been increased to £10.90. Meanwhile, an average of 12.2% of workers across Britain do not earn the real living wage, with 11.8% in Wales, 12.5% in England and 14.6% in Northern Ireland. https://www.insider.co.uk/news/fewer-scots-earn-below-real-28861442 At the same time, the above map of faith in different parts of … Continue reading The wages of sin? Less religion, more cash!
DUP apparently not to blame for deaths due to worst ambulance response times in UK
From BBC N Ireland today: The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service is investigating whether a delayed response contributed to the deaths of eight people in recent weeks. All eight deaths occurred between 12 December and the start of January. At this stage four of the deaths are being treated as serious adverse incidents. The remaining cases are being investigated to determine whether they meet the criteria to be treated as an serious adverse incidents. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64158308 The report, in sharp contrast to far lesser concerns in Scotland, BBC NI’s report mentions no politician at all, not even the Health Secretary, Peter May, … Continue reading DUP apparently not to blame for deaths due to worst ambulance response times in UK
SNP accused of deliberately making Scottish ambulances twice as fast!
The above chart from: https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1610574797888708610 90th percentile? If a score is said to be in the 90th percentile, this means that 90% of the scores in the distribution are equal to or lower than that score. So, 90% of ambulance calls in England and Scotland are within the above times: As Paul points out: “Using 90th percentile times for Category 2s/Amber because it’s about the only statistic that’s comparable between the Scottish and English datasets.” “Not saying Scotland has solved it by the way – just that their ambulance services are managing response times that NHS England are not.” Continue reading SNP accused of deliberately making Scottish ambulances twice as fast!
Labour Councillor of ill-repute gets it all wrong again, on EU funding this time
From Alasdair [THE] Galloway: The Letters they don’t publish This letter is a response to one published by Labour in Scotland’s redoubtable (now ex?) Councillor Alex Gallagher (or Millport Eck as a friend calls him), taking issue with whether “the Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF) would deliver £212 million to projects north of the Border over the next three years compared to £549m that would be due from EU structural funds”. In the course of this he makes claim that I cite in the letter. Begins Alex Gallagher claims that had there been a Yes vote in September 2014, “Scotland would … Continue reading Labour Councillor of ill-repute gets it all wrong again, on EU funding this time
Reliable monthly A&E data show NHS Scotland 58% and 24% better on 12 and 4 hour waits
Scotland’s media love to pounce on a weekly dip in A&E performance, delighted that it can be used to imply a trend that even they know cannot be shown to be there. Monthly data are better. NHS England are fast at one thing; getting the monthly data out. Their November 2022 A&E data was out on December 8 2022. They saw 54.5% in their Type 1 (consultant-led) departments within 4 hours. 12 hours? Sneakily they tell us 37 837 but don’t do the percentage for us. It’s 6.8%. NHS Scotland data are just out. 67.5% were seen and admitted within … Continue reading Reliable monthly A&E data show NHS Scotland 58% and 24% better on 12 and 4 hour waits
Scotland still has by far the best A&E performance in the UK
The crisis with no context splattered across ‘our’ MSM. NHS Scotland is under pressure. The staff are pushed. None can deny these facts but, a national newspaper, thinking itself ‘quality’ and serving the needs of its readers to know what is happening in their world, must offer context to the dramatic personalisation used to draw readers in. First-year BA Journalism students are marked down for a lack of context in their writing yet experienced, well-paid writers abandon the notion because it dampens down the crises they lust for. The Scotsman report above is based on one or two cases and … Continue reading Scotland still has by far the best A&E performance in the UK
The fatuous claim that Scotland benefits from UK largesse rebutted once more
Leah Gunn Barrett Jill Stephenson fatuously claims [below] that Scotland benefits from UK largesse. This is simply not credible. Westminster, not known for its generosity, clings onto Scotland because it needs to continue its exploitation of our oil, gas and renewable energy, which it is taking without providing compensation to the Scottish people to whom it belongs. In fact, it is Scotland’s oil and gas that dug the UK out of its financial hole in the 1970s which is why the UK government buried the McCrone Report that revealed the extent of the theft. The second great rip-off has started. Scotwind … Continue reading The fatuous claim that Scotland benefits from UK largesse rebutted once more
Producing 64% more electricity than we need!
As the Guardian, above, celebrates the ‘UK’ setting a new record for wind power generation with no indication of just how much of that is due to Scotland and as BBC Scotland’s Douglas Fraser tells us ‘Energy prospects blow hot and cold‘, neither mention the Statistical Release on Energy Trends for Q3 2022 (July – September), which on 22 December 2022 offers us this revealing diagram: Note Scotland produces 15.6% of UK electricity supply but only needs 9.5%. The other 6.1% is transferred across the border. What about oil and gas production and consumption? For some reason that does not … Continue reading Producing 64% more electricity than we need!
