In a quick-fire hat-trick of reports carefully avoiding the Scottish Government’s achievements in child poverty reduction, in increased nurse staffing, Reporting Scotland give us an evidence-free piece on the living wage. A quick bit of research by their many paid researchers would have provide the context all professional journalists claim to practice but, at Pacific Quay, they don’t. See this: So, to summarise: Scotland has among the highest median earnings in the UK, dramatically reducing numbers of low-paid workers, a narrower gender pay-gap and has significantly fewer workers earning less than the Living Wage, than the other parts of the … Continue reading Not telling us about Scotland and wages

On a bit of a negative roll this morning, Reporting Scotland goes from supposed failures on child poverty, quickly into this: The number of student nurses recruited this year is almost 1 000 short of Scottish Government goals. University admission figures from UCAS show that from more than 4 800 nurse and midwife places for the academic year, just 3 850 have been accepted. The Royal College of Nursing [trade union] said the shortfall could add to the current ‘workforce crisis.’ Leaving aside the overall situation in Scotland with more than 50% more nurses per patient than England has (https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00620/), … Continue reading Scotland recruits far more student nurses

BBC Scotland is reporting throughout the day on child poverty in Scotland with none of context nor the comparisons to reveal how much the Scottish Government is already doing to compensate for the austerity policies of the Conservative Government in London. This, of course, contrasts with their reporting of drug deaths where comparison is all. Missing from the BBC Scotland reports, this: The comparative facts: Scotland currently has 19% of households living in poverty, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said. This compares to a rate of 24% in Wales and 22% in England. The Scottish rate has declined from 23% … Continue reading Child poverty in larger families 50% more common in non-Scottish parts of UK

The little narcissist is everywhere in ‘our’ media lying about the NHS that pays him for the odd visit to a practice. Has anyone you know benefited from his treatment? Here’s the real news on nurses in Scotland: So, Scotland has more than 50% more nurses per patient than England. That’s a huge life-saving difference. Student nurses and midwives entering Scottish Government funded degree programmes will increase by 8.7% in 2022-23, to a total recommended intake of 4837 students. This will be the 10th successive increase in recommended student numbers, with the intake doubling over the last decade. To address the … Continue reading Sandesh Gulhane ignorant of how many more nurses Scotland has?

Shared by the Common Weal, huffy so-called independence supporters, to hear Tom Gordon say: THE Scottish Government’s key strategy to end homelessness is at risk of failure because of the added pressure to house refugees from the war in Ukraine, over-stretched council officials have warned. A blistering memo to SNP Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison says those working on the ground feel “frustration, depression and anger” at the “massive challenges”. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/22325408.anger-confused-snp-response-ukrainian-refugees-hits-homeless-services/?ref=twtrec Who is the blistering memo from? Not identified. Leaked by some Labour minion and picked up by Gordon to present as news. Some real news about homelessness in Scotland? … Continue reading Common Weal promotes Tom Gordon’s fake news on homelessness

All over BBC Scotland, Sandesh Gulhane (Con) and Dr John-Paul Loughrey, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Scotland trade union, say the latest A&E delays are causing additional deaths in Scotland’s hospitals. Loughrey said they could lead to about 40 deaths in the following 30 days. Loughrey must know this is not true while Gulhane, I feel sure, cares little for the truth. Why is not true? A&E waiting times have been increasing for some time now yet hospital deaths have been falling. Public Health Scotland publishes rolling monthly statements of hospital deaths within 30 days of admission, over … Continue reading The hard evidence that people are NOT dying because they are waiting longer in A&E

BBC Scotland have headlined this one-week variation, not evidence of any trend, with a view to scaring their audience. One-week variations are not a trend. In the last 8 weeks we’ve seen these percentages seen in 4 hours: 65, 66.3, 67.6, 65.1, 65, 66.1, 67.7, 63.5. That’s flat, stable. Let’s see what happens in the next three weeks before we claim anything more. The report includes these ridiculous claims from their Health Correspondent, Lisa Winters: Doctors working in emergency medicine have issued stark warnings recently about the impact of long waits in A&E. It is simply not safe, and patients … Continue reading There is no threat to life from the best emergency services in the UK

Strangely in front of the Herald paywall, former Blairite minister for education, Brian Wilson has the effing gall to write: Back in 1997, when I became Scottish Education Minister, pre-devolution, one of the most urgent challenges we faced was the dire condition of the school estate. The backlog was horrendous and if we had relied on traditional means of funding through council budgets, it would have stretched into infinity. Some would still be waiting. To meet this challenge, we adopted a version of Public Private Partnership which took the school building programme off balance sheet, drew in private capital and transferred maintenance … Continue reading Brian Wilson’s shiny neck

Regular readers will know where I’m going with this Herald report. This is a very unreliable survey based on a tiny self-selecting sample of only 327 schools out of  more than 24 000 in England and more than 5 000 in Scotland, ie a 1% sample. There is also no breakdown for the Scottish results. And, of course, what about all the reading they do online? Does that not count? Continue reading We really have no idea how much pupils are reading…books that is