stewartb ‘Much being made by BBC Scotland of residential landlords’ outrage at the temporary freezing of rents in Scotland until next March. Interesting context on the rental market is available from Rightmove’s Rental Trends Tracker, last updated for April-June 2022. See https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/content/uploads/2022/07/Rental-Trends-Tracker-Q2-2022-Final.pdf Headline: ‘Rents grow at fastest annual rate in 16 years’. – ‘National average asking rents outside London hit another new record of £1,126 per calendar month (pcm), rising 3.5% from last quarter and 11.8% higher than last year – ‘Average asking rents outside London have now jumped by 19% (+£177) in the two years since the pandemic started, the … Continue reading BBC Scotland and landlords’ outrage

Alasdair Galloway I have a cunning plan Is a Referendum Bill a good idea? Suggestions have been made from surprising quarters that it is not. Alex Massie has tweeted “It’s likely to be perceived as constitutional gerrymandering and will push people towards independence” https://twitter.com/PhantomPower14/status/1566375080086626309 Likewise Stephen Daisley, “Across eight ComRes polls between May 2021 and June 2022, median combined support for another referendum within five years stood at 49 per cent. Across seven Panelbase polls between March 2021 and April 2022, the figure was 54 per cent. So, 60 per cent is a hurdle but you wouldn’t have to be … Continue reading I have a cunning plan

Alasdair Galloway The focus of the weekend was the election of the new Tory leader, and as such the new Prime Minister. However, another focus was Liz Truss suggesting she might introduce a “Referendum Bill” with certain requirements before a vote could be held, and also about what would constitute a majority. In 2014, Alex Salmond expressed no surprise about “the Vow”, saying that it was straight out of what he called “the Canadian playbook” – the strategies used by the Canadian government to win the independence referendum in Quebec in 1995, albeit only just (less than 1%). However, more … Continue reading A Referendum Act

During July 2022: There were 128,830 attendances at A&E services in Scotland. 69.9% of attendances at A&E services were seen and resulted in a subsequent admission, transfer or discharge within 4 hours. This is the lowest on record and is receiving much media and opposition party interest. In the same period NHS England had1 385 080 attendances but only manged to see 57% within four hours. This is not receiving media or opposition party comment. NHS Scotland’s performance is thus 22.8% (13 as a % of 57) better. Norfolk And Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where the new PM … Continue reading Despite pressures NHS Scotland’s emergency services hold at 70% in 4 hours and 23% ahead of NHS England

Not, of course, featuring anywhere else in the MSM nor even on the BBC Scotland website, this selective little piece will only see the light of day on Reporting Scotland‘s wee radio sister, Good Mourning Scotland. Only 16% of diesel buses have been replaced by electric buses against a target of a majority. There are around 54 000 buses in public service in Scotland so 16% is 8 640 diesel buses taken out of service. The impact of the pandemic gets a wee mention at the end but the image of Scottish Government failure has been communicated again to the … Continue reading SNP replaces 43 times more diesel buses than UK Tories can manage

By stewartb responding to the highly selective and negative media reporting of the whistleblowing officer’s report into contact tracing: As often the case, a journalist with a different objective could have framed the article quite differently. And here just a few extracts from it: Para 38. ‘The head of complaint I have investigated is that NCC staff did not have sufficient training and access to sufficient information to enable them to provide correct information to the public. This concerned the specific period prior to, and at the time of the concern being raised in June 2021.’ And then para 42. … Continue reading Whistleblower report on contact tracing: ‘Little or no sense from the news coverage’

By Bob Lamont You need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the article to read this – Neither NSS’s internal investigation nor the investigation conducted by INWO found examples of members of the public who had received incorrect public health advice. She added that at the time of the 2021 complaint: The national call centre was aware of the need to further develop the training at this time to meet the changing needs of the service and had a plan in place to do so. THAT should be the context, but that’s NOT how Andrew Picken framed … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s selective bias on contact training: ‘No member of the public had received incorrect public health advice’

By stewartb The stench of hypocrisy is in the air around opposition party politicians in Scotland again. A seemingly successful, direct and public intervention in an industrial dispute by a FM is denigrated for being too late by those not privy to the negotiations. Labour’s only MP in Scotland is even tweeting that the timing of the FM’s intervention was overly delayed because of a couple of appearances she made at the Festival Fringe! And this is the person the Labour Party considers appropriate to be Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland! The history of FM’s or PM’s or even … Continue reading The stench of hypocrisy is in the air

BBC Scotland today is featuring: Scotland’s Covid contact tracing staff lacked training – watchdog The report is based on concerns raised by ‘a worker’, ‘sometimes‘, ‘there is reason to believe‘ and ‘some‘. The only numbers are in this: It found 91% had complied with the agreed call centre scripts but that a “relatively high number” (25% of all cases) had the exposure date changed after the initial call by a quality control or supervisor check. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-62765825 There’s no mention, needless to say of this kind of thing, reported here in two years ago: Less than 3 weeks ago, Scotland’s MSM … Continue reading Scotland’s contact tracing system was miles ahead of that in England

I’ve had to correct the BBC Scotland headline again, but as they tell you a bit down the page: It follows an 11-hour meeting between unions and council leaders that was hosted by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in Edinburgh on Thursday. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-62766520 Follows what? This: Strikes that had been due to close hundreds of schools and leave bins unemptied across Scotland next week have been called off. A new offer will mean a 10% pay rise for the lowest paid staff instead of special cost of living payments this year and next. Non-teaching school staff in 11 council areas had … Continue reading Sturgeon persuades unions to call off strikes!