In the Guardian today: King Charles has been allowed to vet and potentially lobby for changes to emergency legislation to freeze rents in Scotland because the measures could affect tenants on his private Highland estate at Balmoral. A bill to stop landlords unjustifiably raising rents for the next six months because of the cost of living crisis is being rushed through the Scottish parliament this week. The King’s involvement, under rules known in Scotland as crown consent, can be revealed after the rules at Holyrood were changed following a Guardian investigation into the monarch’s power to influence and amend the UK’s laws. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/04/king-charles-allowed-to-vet-proposed-scottish-rent-freeze-law Like … Continue reading Why King Charles can ignore SNP rent freeze for his peasant tenants

After they had reported that rugby can be very bad for your health, Reporting Scotland catch some of us off-guard with this: are ‘likely’ to have caused more deaths than the coronavirus pandemic. Researchers at the Glasgow Centre for Population Health say statistics show 335 000 more deaths than expected were recorded across Scotland, England and Wales, between 2012 and 2019. They identified almost 20 000 excess deaths in Scotland. Over a decade [of Tory rule] researchers said was characterised by austerity. What is BBC Scotland doing attacking the record of the UK Government? Well, it happens. If you have … Continue reading BBC Reporting Scotland confirms Conservative governments are bad, very bad, for your health!

I got an email on holiday. Reading it too quickly, I thought it said new dentures were being delivered. Whit!!?? Then I read on to see that it was the new Proclaimers album which I’d pre-ordered. Anyhoo it’s fab and all true TuS followers are ordered to buy it. Here’s the title track: Here are words: “Dentures Out” Britain’s old and rather thinI saw her with her dentures out, she put them inThen mumbled something indistinct which might have been“Nostalgia I love you” Britain’s wise after the factYou have to give the old ladyTime to reactAnd now that she has … Continue reading Shameless Advertising: Talking-up the Proclaimers

From the Scottish Government website today but being ignored by BBC Scotland as they concentrate on imagining a winter crisis for their viewers: The number of planned operations carried out in August was the largest monthly total since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Public Health Scotland statistics published today. In total 21,218 operations were performed, at an average of 684 every day – an increase of 19% on the previous month. Following the introduction in July of targets to eliminate the longest waiting times for treatment there has been a focussed effort to tackle planned care backlogs. … Continue reading Scotland’s Covid 19 Recovery: Massive increase in operations carried out

‘Our’ MSM take advantage every time there is a weekly dip in A&E waiting time performance. A 14-year-old Modern Studies pupil knows that a weekly variation is not evidence of a trend on its own, is statistically unreliable, and any attempt to rely on it would lead to a fail. That, of course, does not stop BBC Scotland or the Herald triumphally headlining a scare story for their more vulnerable audience members. Notably, only NHS Scotland publishes weekly data. Monthly figures over more than one month do tell you something meaningful, worth knowing and telling about. Here is the real … Continue reading Statistically reliable monthly NHS figures reveal 70% success again in Scotland as NHS England sinks to 58%

Of Police Scotland’s 18 member Executive Team, 10 are Scottish-born and the others drained into Scotland from these previous areas: Lincolnshire, Belfast, Surrey, Thames Valley , Gazprom Energy(!), Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland, West Midlands. What does the Herald have? One of a group in which eight drained to Scotland from elsewhere, is going the other way. One retiring from a group typically older than average to have got those senior posts is to be expected. There are 23 000 officers working for Police Scotland. Might some of them have talent? Contrary to the usual Herald numeracy, there are 16 not … Continue reading More ‘brain drain’ nonsense from the Herald

We all want to live in a more equal Scotland? We? The Conservatives? Ayrshire list MSP Sharon Dowey has surely gone too far with this one. Previously she has, strangely, endorsed kindness to animals when her boss wants fox hunting with hounds back, but a more equal society for people? I’ve checked their 2019 manifesto. Equality gets no mention there. Equal opportunities does get a mention but, of course, closing private schools to make this possible, is not on. And, on poverty, will she protest this? According to reports, the prime minister and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are planning to increase … Continue reading Shock as Ayrshire Tory MSP goes socialist!

By stewartb An article on the STV News website from yesterday that candidly, looks more like an opposition party press-release. Headline: ‘Humza Yousaf’s record-breaking failure putting lives at risk’ – Labour – The SNP MSP was appointed as Scotland’s health secretary in May 2021.’ I’m left wondering if the journalist who wrote this STV piece has: – ever examined NHS performance statistics in England, NI and Wales – has any professional curiosity about/interest in why the NHS model across the UK is under such pressures – has any conception as a professional of the need to, the value of placing … Continue reading STV News report looks more like an opposition party press-release

A 5th poll suggesting confidently a Labour surge in England now also confirms that the Starmer/Sarwar appeal is weak in Scotland. Yesterday Opinium published their poll of 2 000, based on data collected from 28-30 September, suggesting Labour on 36% and the Cons on 18%. But, for the 177 Scots asked, the figures were Cons on 15%, Labour on 20% and SNP on 43%. Of the previous four polls, only YouGov suggested a mini-surge for Scottish Labour at 38% but this now looks like an outlier. Across the five sub-polls with a sample total of around 900, the averages now … Continue reading Confirmed: NO Labour surge in Scotland

A winter crisis in NHS Scotland eh? Given what we know, that Scotland, compared especially to England, has the best-performing A&E departments, significantly more beds, nurses and doctors, all of its hospitals with mortality rates in the expected range and currently with far fewer Covid patients in ICU, BBC England, Wales and Northern Ireland will surely be all over this story too? England? Nope. Wales? Nope. Northern Ireland? What’s going on BBC Scotland? It’s as if you have a different agenda. To find something that might by association undermine the Scottish Government because if they were successful in gaining independence, … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s proxy war on the SNP, using the NHS, continues