From Brenda Robb I have been reading Fintan O’Toole’s book Three Years in Hell: The Brexit Chronicles. As I am originally from N Ireland I have an interest in the political situation there as well as in Scotland and of course with the focus on Brexit here there are issues discussed that  affect us all. However there was one part in particular that caught my attention which I feel might be a useful topic for all of us hoping for an independent Scotland to consider. It is also quite timely now that different factions are either criticising the Scottish Government’s intention to … Continue reading 50% plus 1 is not what democracy is about?

Yesterday, the Scottish Commissioner for Fair Access said: Scotland is continuing to “set the pace” when it comes to students from deprived areas getting into university, the Commissioner for Fair Access has said. The Commissioner’s latest annual report said the Scottish Government’s approach has been an “unambiguous success” and that “all the fair access indicators are flashing green”, despite the impact of COVID-19. It marks Sir Peter Scott’s last report as Commissioner for Fair Access before stepping down. A record 16.7% of students from Scotland’s most deprived 20% of communities were entrants on full-time first-year degree courses in 2020/21, an … Continue reading Scotland leads UK on access to universities for those from deprived areas. Meanwhile in England…..

opened up its doors, offering homes and hope to Ukranian refugees. Just before Reporting Scotland make no reference to it, BBC UK has an extensive piece on Scotland’s welcome for refugees. The website finds no place for the story either: BBC Scotland prefer this kind of story: Ukrainian families in Livingston felt threatened over relocation https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-61626107 Continue reading BBC UK sneaks by Reporting Scotland to tell a good news story

From stewartb This is a remarkable performance but only the latest in a long line of positive annual assessments of Scotland’s track record in attracting foreign direct investment (fyi). The source document is well worth a look: EY Attractiveness Survey Scotland 2022 (https://www.ey.com/en_uk/attractiveness/22/scotland-leads-the-way-for-fdi-investment ) Congratulations are due to Scottish Development International (SDI), Scotland’s own trade and inward investment agency:(https://www.sdi.co.uk ) Some indicative extracts from the EY report: ‘With a double-digit increase in terms of market share for UK projects, Scotland recorded its highest ever level of the past decade — FAR OUTPACING THE GROWTH AND RECOVERY OF THE REST OF THE UK … Continue reading Shock as BBC Scotland reports good news!

Included at least but not quite foregrounded, the SNP Government’s role, in Scotland attracting 12.3% of all inward investment to the UK with only 8% of the population can be found, down the page: Trade Minister Ivan McKee commented: “These results indicate that our values-led approach to investment, set out in our Inward Investment Plan, is delivering and underline the important ongoing contribution of inward investment to the recently-published National Strategy for Economic Transformation. “It is critically important that we continue to work closely with inward investors by offering our unique Team Scotland approach to support an inclusive and wellbeing economy, … Continue reading SNP Government’s ‘joined-up approach’ to inward investment pays dividends

From Public Health Scotland today: During the quarter ending 31 March 2022: 430 patients attended an IVF screening appointment, a substantial increase compared to the previous quarter (364 patients) and the average of all quarters of 2019 (367 patients). the 90% standard was met and in fact, there have been no patients screened who waited over 52 weeks since the quarter ending 30 September 2020. 99.8% of patients waited 39 weeks or less with half of the patients screened within 26 weeks, similar to the previous quarter. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland/ivf-waiting-times-in-scotland-quarter-ending-31-march-2022/ Scotland’s IVF programme is major and long-running success, never seen on Reporting … Continue reading 99.8% of IVF patients seen on time by NHS Scotland despite large increase in demand

From Bob Lamont Ah….but….patients are still “in danger” according to Martin Williams, presumably of embarrassment on lying down on a non-existent bed, or embarrassment for Martin in misquoting so Jackie “Tsunami” Baillie can do her usual “Wir doomed…” and have a pop at Humza Yousaf… I note the cause of this latest spleen venting is the RCEM again, but on this occasion Dr Boyle defines how many beds are required IN SCOTLAND over the next 5 years… Really ? This is the Times article https://archive.ph/ZHUGl on the report from which Martin built his own, note NO reference to Scotland whatsoever, no mention … Continue reading Herald scare story on bed numbers

By Legerwood In the past decade the SG has doubled the intake of nursing students from 2,400 in 2012-13 to 4,837 in this coming academic year. They now get a £10,000 bursary and a Dependent’s Allowance if required. From the link: 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 mental health and wellbeing impacts from the pandemic, mental health nursing will increase to … Continue reading SNP government DOUBLES training of nurses!

Scottish Labour is the source of the above hysterical claim but as is typical there is no evidence for it. Research by Edinburgh Napier University in 2015, found: It has been shown that despite the dominant view that the census is valuable, policy-makers are not necessarily closely engaged with the census for directing the development and implementation of policy. Those who contributed to the study provided a number of explanations for this. An external (who admitted that he was a “light” user of census data himself) drew attention to the core problem here: the census is a fundamental societal asset, … Continue reading Policy-makers rarely use census data but SNP will act on poverty

Needless to say, the Herald report finds no space for these data: So, Scotland has approaching twice as many beds available for patients than England or Northern Ireland and around 15% more than Wales does. And on staffing: Astonishingly, NHS Scotland has 50% more nurses than NHS England. Could the Scottish Government have played any part in this? Continue reading Scotland has most beds per patient in UK