Alasdair Galloway It has been well trailed in the media that today sometime Humza Yousaf will meet the health unions, including the GMB and the RCN who have voted for strike action in the New Year. Since, according to Yousaf himself, there is no more money what can he do except move the payments around in a way more to the liking of the unions. However, bearing in mind that RCN claim for 19% it’s hard to see what their chosen direction would be other than upwardly. And, there’s no more money. Why is there no more money? Well, first … Continue reading Humza’s Day

Alasdair Galloway The other day, unionist letter writer Alan Sutherland had a letter published in the Herald. A cynic might imagine that he has a regular column! But I digress. Ed: Alan Sutherland is a member of the covert Scotland in Union letter-writing team exposed in this leaked email from July 2020 (top-left, second): In his letter Sutherland comments that of the 10 countries cited in an SNP leaflet that they claim are “wealthier, happier and fairer” than Scotland, eight of them “collect an average of 41% of GDP in taxes, not 34% like the UK”. Indeed, Denmark’s rate is … Continue reading Now here’s a funny thing

A Panelbase poll for WoS/Times on 9 December 2022, reported 51% agreeing with the statement: ‘The Scottish Government’s plans to change the Scottish law on gender recognition would pose a safety risk to women only spaces.’ Why do SNP voters hate women? So, a leading question in a poll carried out for a campaigner utterly opposed to anything the SNP does these days, then taken to mean something it does not necessarily mean, that those 51% are particularly opposed to the change. The poll might have more effectively asked the question directly and used a scale (Likert) to measure strength … Continue reading Less than one in a thousand Scots actually worry about the gender recognition reforms

So, in Scotland, ‘this SNP Government’ is responsible, but below, in Wales ‘that Labour Government’ isn’t? England? The nurses themselves are to blame? Continue reading Labour dumbfounded: Wales can’t afford to pay them but Scotland can and in England, the nurses themselves are to blame?

The Scottish Health Secretary is meeting with unions today to try to avert strikes in January after he and the First Minister were able to do so with nursing, ambulance and other health service workers’ unions to stop or at least pause strike action over Christmas and the New Year. The print version of the Herald has a more confrontational headline: ‘Nurses told: There is no more cash for rises, as stike looms.’ What are the other health secretaries doing to try to avert this crisis? England? Health Secretary Steve Barclay is keeping out of things and Business Secretary, Grant … Continue reading Only the Scots Healthy Secretary trying his best?

The Scottish Government has been wrongly accused of putting sex-offender’s rights ahead of those of women. I won’t trouble you with the distasteful, frankly inaccurate and irresponsible tabloid headlines fuelled, of course, by the Scottish Conservatives. Almost entirely missing from the media reporting is the fact that all MSPs, cross-party, voted in favour of amendments, from Gillian Martin MSP, allowing Police Scotland to stop sex offenders gaining a Gender Recognition Certification on the basis of risk: Amendments 40 to 42, in the name of Gillian Martin, would further strengthen that risk-based approach. Police Scotland, after considering the evidence of risk in … Continue reading SNP GRA amendment WILL protect women from predatory men

When I see the words ‘Scotsman’, ‘Savanta’ and ‘poll’ together, I think ‘NO.’ Today, the Scotsman has the first poll in seven or more with a NO lead. It’s the first from them since the end of September, when they had a 1% lead for NO among a series of such results. They haven’t had a YES lead in 2022. In January 2022, we could write: Looking at the polls going back to the beginning of 2021, Savanta Com Res often with the Scotsman stand out. They report 1 Yes win, 9 No wins and 2 ties after the Ipsos … Continue reading Scotsman/Savanta polls: NO if you want it?

stewartb With the news that nurses who are members of the RCN have rejected the Scottish Government’s improved pay offer, it’s worth reflecting on this from the BBC News website’s Wales section a few days ago: ‘Nurses’ pay: More strikes promised as Drakeford defends offer’. At the end of my post, the reaction of Labour to the latest RCN news in Scotland is compared and contrasted. But first to Wales.: in the BBC article we learn a lot about the Welsh Government’s current response to the industrial disputes across the NHS. Of course that is the Labour Party in government … Continue reading Nursing strikes: How Scottish and Welsh Labour operate from different planets

I’m not going to spend any time responding to the accusation. No one in their right mind believes that. Ibrahim doesn’t either. As soon as I saw the name, I remembered this from last year: A new Advisory Council Member for the anti-independence group SBUK has popped up. Scottish Business UK (SBUK) is an independent, non-party voice for business leaders who want to see Scotland thrive economically as part of the United Kingdom. It seeks to make a positive case for that future and believes strongly that the campaign to break up the UK offers unacceptable disruption for business and … Continue reading Honorary US Army officer wheeled out to Clarkson attack SNP again but no Russian sub threat this time

Some of you may have seen the letter by Professor Brian Wardle in last week’s Herald (17/12) https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23196988.letters-snp-replaced-economic-reasoning-wishful-thinking/ It reads THE pertinence of Brian Wilson’s commentary (“We need a root and branch review of how the SNP spends our money”, The Herald, December 13) on the recklessness of the SNP Government’s spending profile is exemplified by the character of the latest Budget (“Changes in key taxes on income and rates alter Scots funding position”, The Herald, December 16). Economists fear they are in a parallel universe, looking hopefully on the SNP’s declarations for some sign of over-riding rationale. Brian Wilson … Continue reading ‘Your goldfish doesn’t bark’: Developing a “comprehensive” economic strategy