The Kaye Adams show on BBC Radio Scotland regularly and disproportionally attracts negative comment on Scotland’s public services. Unionist activists get on too frequently to have a rant, uninterrupted. Often they’re undeclared members of the covert writing group made up of Scotland in Union members. In July 2020, I wrote this to Adams: Not even an acknowledgement. Here’s the list: How large and representative will the sample of callers be? Less than 10 and not at all. I can offer a better response to Kaye’s question using a twitterpoll of significantly more : NHS Patients: More than half experiencing no … Continue reading Kay Adams invites Scotland in Union to undermine NHS Scotland

Scotland does have less hospital beds than it had before. This is the planned result of changes to way patients are treated to reduce the risks of hospitalisation for those who can be treated in the community. From the Kings Fund in 2020 but of course missed by the SUN: Most other advanced health care systems have also reduced bed numbers in recent years. However, the UK has fewer acute beds relative to its population than many comparable health systems.https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/nhs-hospital-bed-numbers The Kings Fund report lumps Scotland in with the UK but that’s deceptive. See this, also from 2020: Scotland has a … Continue reading A ‘crisis’ with nearly twice as many beds and 50% more nurses than NHS England?

…I’m sure Aneurin Bevan would be turning in his grave. On NHS crises – “responsibility lies where it lies, and people out there understand that too” – Labour’s Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford has a message for leaders of his Party in Scotland. By stewartb Being a bit of a political nerd, I quite often watch/read opposition parties’ assaults on Scotland’s First Minister at FMQs. I am also known to show particular interest in opposition parties’ assaults on the FM and the Cabinet Secretary for Health over the state of NHS Scotland. A pattern emerges from these observations of the … Continue reading ‘In [Labour] Wales we’re like a third-world country when it comes to our healthcare….’

Headlining on Reporting Scotland and on the BBC Scotland website, those damned ferries again. Meanwhile, all six Type 45 Royal Navy destroyers are still docked, at a time of heightened tensions with Russia. They’ve been there since 2018. They cost, initially, £1 billion each. Media coverage? Well only in the Portsmouth News in 2022: DELAYS in the costly £160m programme to fix unreliable engines propelling Britain’s £6bn fleet of destroyers have been branded a ‘bloody disgrace’ by a former head of the Royal Navy. https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/delays-in-fixing-navy-destroyers-branded-bloody-disgrace-3586918 When does the Admiral expect to get his ships? Not for another six years! BBC … Continue reading Das Verdammt Boot! BBC Scotland’s Ferry Saga to be adapted by Netflix Germany

On the back of an interview this morning with the Health Secretary, where he acknowledged pressure on NHS Scotland, Reporting Scotland headlined and extended the story to paint a worrying picture for those in need of hospital care or those around them. A&E waiting times are once more paraded, in the complete absence of reference to the triage system which guarantees that those at serious risk are seen very quickly and only those who are not at risk need wait a bit longer. BBC Scotland news is a public service broadcaster, paid for by its audience through taxation and expected … Continue reading BBC Scotland risking lives to politicise the NHS

Image: Alamy By stewartb It’s fair to say – I think – that having a positive future relationship between Scotland and the European Union will matter to many voters in Scotland, even whilst within the UK.  It is in this context that the following insights are relevant: they shine a light on failings by the Westminster parliament, notably by HM Official Opposition, to hold Tory government/s to account over Europe. Source: Institute for Government (September 2022) Accountability after Brexit – Parliament and the UK–EU relationship. (https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/accountability-after-brexit-parliament-uk-eu-relationship.pdf ) In this report the Institute for Government (IfG) examines the extent of Westminster’s … Continue reading If “Brexit is not ‘done’ enough for parliament to ignore it”, why are Labour MPs absent from a key Commons committee?

Regular letter writer of ill-informed SNPbad accusations to the Herald, Express and others, Bob McDougall of Kippen, gets another wee rant in the Herald today, on policing. He claims to be a researcher but offers no facts. I’m left with the easy task of providing them: Crime: In the year ending June 2022, the police in Scotland recorded 285,974 crimes. This was 5% lower than the 300,747 crimes recorded in the year ending June 2021, and 5% lower than the 301,376 crimes recorded in the year ending June 2018.https://www.gov.scot/news/recorded-crime-in-scotland-year-ending-june-2022/#:~:text=In%20the%20year%20ending%20June,the%20year%20ending%20June%202018. In England & Wales in the year ending March 2022 overall … Continue reading First Minister accused of being soft on police by hiring too many?

According to BBC England today: Hundreds of protesters gathered in central London on Saturday to urge the government to reform the childcare sector and parental leave. March of the Mummies demonstrators want “affordable childcare, flexible working and properly paid parental leave”. The event was one of several marches held in cities across the UK including in Bristol, Glasgow and Norwich. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63439262 The Mummies were in Glasgow, in some number too. Come to SNP Glasgow, Scotland to protest Tory policies? (Image: Colin Mearns, Newsquest) Do they know about this? Two significant measures by the Scottish government help reduce the cost of … Continue reading Why were a hundred or so in George Square to demand affordable childcare?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election Comparing the predicted Labour and Con support in the 7 polls after his anointment and the 7 before, the averages are: Cons 24.3% and 21.4%, a less than 3% improvement. Labour 51.4% and 53%, a less than 2% fall. The Cons will now cling on for two years. Labour remain impotent. In two years time a lot can happen. Ukraine win and the weapons ‘provided’ by Boris are reported as having been critical, Boris returns, there’s another Labour civil war…..you know….the Cons win again. Devolution is reversed. We have to get 60% to win a referendum. 300 Scots soldiers … Continue reading The Sunak minor swell but the long-term survival of the Cons

Image: Morning Star All of Scotland’s MSM including BBC Scotland are making the vote on the proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, bad news for the SNP with headlines like: How bad is the gender reform rebellion for the SNP? As always with these reports, there’s another way of looking and reporting. Only one of the big three parties was not split on this, Labour. Two Cons voted with the SNP. All of Labour’s MSPs backed the changes. This will no doubt be good news for Labour in terms of support from the Trans community but there are very … Continue reading How bad is the gender reform full compliance for Labour?