By stewartb Recently, an article in TuS entitled ‘Devolution – and the UK’s territorial constitution – is being reshaped’ discussed the impact on the UK’s ‘territorial constitution’ of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020. It argued that serious changes to the devolution settlement had been imposed by Westminster whilst Scotland’s parliament, government and voters spectate, without agency!  Source: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/10/15/devolution-and-the-uks-territorial-constitution-is-being-reshaped/ There is more coming! Lurking behind the dry sounding title of another Bill before the Westminster parliament is yet another threat to the devolution settlement: the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022-23.  On 17 October, the House of … Continue reading Dismantling devolution – the status quo is not an option!

People Polling for 20 October (1 158), based on those selecting a party, puts Labour at 53% and the Cons at 14%. In the Scottish subset (109), it’s SNP at 58%, Labour at 22% and Cons at 3%! https://peoplepolling.org/tables/202210_GBN_W42_full.pdf#subsection*.12 I know, the Scottish sample is too small to be significant but, taken with several others, it means something – Sarwar has little appeal. Continue reading SNP at 58% as Scottish Labour trail behind UK Labour again

BBC Scotland and BBC UK/England are no longer interested in Covid infection rates. BBC Health seems largely relaxed judging by the positioning of its report, bottom, second left. Why? Is it this? Remember, that 0.7% difference between Scotland and the UK/England means hundreds of thousands of additional cases in England and tens of thousands fewer in Scotland. What about the trend? Covid infections are climbing everywhere in the UK other than in Scotland. Surely some political group gets some credit? They’d get the blame if it was the other way up. Continue reading UK Covid infections surge 25% above Scotland but no worries?

Alasdair Galloway of the Sensational Alasdair Galloway Band (SAGB) Even in this time of uncertainty, there are, I think, two things we can all agree on. The first is that Liz Truss is unlikely to become one of the UK’s longest serving Prime Ministers. Go she will, but when and how, and who’s next? The second is that unless or until the polling numbers change markedly there isn’t going to be a General Election before December 2024 (ie for more than 2 years). Anyone who imagines that the Tory Party is going to go to the country when polling suggests … Continue reading NEXT!!

From BBC Wales today: A mother has spoken of her horror after being told she would have to wait hours for an ambulance after her son became “lifeless” on the way to A&E. Georgia Faith Johnson called 999 when Tobias, aged two, had a seizure at their Cardiff home, but was told it was an eight hour wait. As she tried to get to A&E he went “floppy”, but was told to monitor him at the side of the road. The Welsh Ambulance Service said it was under extreme pressure. Any comments from politicians? None, just this: A row in … Continue reading BBC Wales: Mother of a ‘lifeless’ child waiting hours for an ambulance praises First Minister!

Front page in the Herald, ahead of the Battle of Westminster, NHS Lanarkshire has ordered an investigation into the deaths of 2 babies. Good? That’s what they should be doing? It’d be more of a story if they hadn’t and the Herald had found out that they hadn’t, like this: It has been five years in the making. The independent inquiry into the largest maternity scandal in the history of the NHS began with one grieving mother looking for answers and ended up involving 1,486 families and 1,592 clinical incidents. The deeply distressing story of Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, where … Continue reading Scottish Health Board praised?

The Times (Scotland) front page with 3 UK stories and 1 about NHS England left hanging to suggest things are wrong in NHS Scotland too. There is no maternity scandal in Scotland. There are several in NHS England: Tragically, many of these issues remain a persistent problem in maternity services across England. Shrewsbury is not alone. Morecambe Bay, East Kent and Nottingham hospitals have all had poor maternity care exposed in recent years. Naturally, this prompts the question of what needs to change if these scandals are to be avoided elsewhere. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/mar/30/baby-deaths-inquiry-reveals-issues-across-englands-maternity-services#:~:text=Baby%20deaths%20inquiry%20points%20to%20issues%20across%20England%27s%20maternity%20services,-This%20article%20is&text=It%20has%20been%20five%20years,families%20and%201%2C592%20clinical%20incidents. No English health secretaries have faced calls to … Continue reading The Times Scotland?

Though a long-serving health correspondent, the Herald’s Helen McArdle makes some basic errors or maybe she’s trying to fool us? First this: RECORD numbers of patients spent more than eight hours in A&E departments in the latest week, in what has been described as a “deadly portent of the coming winter”. Clinicians warned of “very real” harm coming to patients and staff as a result of the deteriorating situation, as separate data published today reveals spiralling mental health-related absences among emergency workers, including ambulance staff and A&E medics. The latest figures on A&E performance shows that a record 3,553 people … Continue reading For one obvious reason ‘Record A&E waits’ are not ‘deadly’

From the Scottish Government today but reported in a different manner by BBC Scotland and opposition parties (above): The number of people waiting two years for a scheduled hospital appointment has significantly reduced, helping ease pressure on the NHS ahead of the winter. This follows intensive work from Health Boards to clear backlogs caused by the pandemic. The national target to clear two year inpatient waits in most specialities by the end of September was set in summer to address the impact of the pandemic on long waiting times for planned care. New figures show that by the end of … Continue reading Significant progress in clearing a third of two year waits evades BBC Scotland

All things being equal, England should have around 40 cases of Covid 19 in ICU but has 221, more than 5 times what might be expected. All things are clearly not equal. Here’s one possible explanation: By July 2021, 100% of Scotland’s care home residents had been fully vaccinated for some time. 97.6% of staff had the first vaccination and 94.4% had the second dose:  https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotland-coronavirus-tracker/ In England, the situation was less reassuring, despite the PM’s claims of a ‘world-beating’ rollout. 98.5% of residents had both jags in English care homes for the elderly but only 78.4% of staff were … Continue reading Covid ICU cases in Scotland plummet to less than a quarter of UK level – why?