By stewartb A few days ago (27 May) TuS drew attention to an article in The Herald with this message: ’SNP ministers accused of threatening university excellence with research cuts – University bosses have accused ministers of threatening Scottish research excellence after it emerged top institutions face swingeing grant reductions of up to 10 per cent. Growing pressure on Nicola Sturgeon’s government follows publication of research allocations for the 2022/23 academic year …’ See: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2022/05/27/university-leaders-accused-of-not-liking-the-facts/ The Herald’s piece related to a Universities Scotland statement written by Professor Sally Mapstone, Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of St Andrews and Vice Convener … Continue reading Universities Scotland – risking a reputation for candour?

stewartb ‘you attack something like this by misrepresenting and then challenging what it is not.’ Indeed! I note there has been both discussion and practice elsewhere in the UK on this matter for some time now. A few examples: 1) BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour Wed ( 23 Sep 2015): ‘.. a look at Restorative Justices a system which allows victims of crime to meet or communicate with their offenders. It’s being increasingly used in cases of women who have been raped or sexually assaulted. We hear from a woman who was raped about how it’s helped her, the Chief … Continue reading Reporting Scotland: Misrepresenting and then challenging what it is not

As the Scottish Tories, blinding us with their polished brass necks, introduce a Right to Recovery Bill for drug addicts, BBC Scotland, once more misrepresent the facts by careful selection of data. Yes drug deaths were at a record high as recently as 2019 but, crucially, the news is that they began to fall in the second half of 2020 and were down 8% in 2021. They did the same, 5 days ago. You can read the full detail here: Continue reading BBC Scotland still hooked on drug deaths ignores ‘the news’ of an 8% fall in 2021

BBC Scotland announce the new Restorative Justice process which will allow victims to meet perpetrators. There is no suggestion of coercion. Who could imagine there would be but, immediately, a critic from Rape Crisis Scotland is wheeled in to suggest another SNP initiative is flawed. This is a classic ‘Aunt Sally’ or ‘Straw Man’ argument where you attack something like this by misrepresenting and then challenging what it is not. Continue reading SNP Restorative Justice process will not be forced on rape victims…duh!

The above map of unattributed origin is currently high on the reddit r/scotland thread. It’s a stunning illustration of how different Scotland is becoming, post-devolution. Regular readers will know that this is a theme returned to here, now and again. On May 11th, I wrote: In the Herald today from William Loneskie of Lauder: The Labour Party was founded on the principle that working people of all countries have more in common than divides them. The problems of workers in Glasgow are exactly those of workers in Leeds. Mr Stenton claims that Scots think differently from English. Rubbish. We speak the same international language, … Continue reading Different Scotland

Liz Smith, Conservative: Scotland’s named person policy ‘was both universally unpopular and unworkable.’ “Through children and families knowing who to contact, their access to help is made easier. This is an essential feature of a child centred approach.” South Ayrshire council policy in 2016 https://sourcenews.scot/scottish-tory-council-has-run-named-person-scheme-for-5-years-without-problems/ By stewartb There is a new (May 2022) report on the findings and recommendations of an important independent review commissioned by the Westminster government. It considers child safeguarding practices in England following yet more tragic incidents. Source: The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (2022) Child protection in England – National review into the murders of … Continue reading Information sharing for child protection in Tory England – does this bring back memories of Scotland’s approach?

Two days ago we had a wee snigger at Anas Sarwar calling for Scottish ministers to hand back the keys their chauffeur-driven cars. No surprise, he was being a big hypocrite again. Yesterday, in the National, we saw: Millionaire, Sarwar’s double standards on the living wage are well known. See this: Continue reading Hypocrite Sarwar only travels by car!

From Alasdair Galloway Blair en Marche? The press seems full of the possibilities of a “new centrist party” which would be in the mould of Emmanuel Macron’s party “En Marche”. This would be led, according to press reports, by Tony Blair, but some of the other names are interesting as well, including as it does (according to a list of names, who should be involved in UK politics, helpfully provided by Blair as far back as 2017) Ruth Davidson, David Miliband, John Major, Ruth Davidson, David Cameron, Yvette Cooper, Nick Clegg, Anna Soubry, George Osborne, Nicky Morgan, Ken Clarke, Peter … Continue reading New Blairite party would ignore demands of Scottish people

stewartb The data on Scottish Funding Council (SFC) grants to universities are published in a very transparent, accessible way. The basis of their allocation is also explained. It’s easy also to compare the current levels of award with historic ones. Here are some facts that place The Herald’s headline in proper context. 1) Total value of SFC Grants for Teaching, Research and Innovation:2021-22 = £1,029,057,0032022-23 = £1,040,952,798Change: a 1.2% increase. Specifically on total grants for Research and Innovation:2020-21 = £289,973,0002021-22 = £294,376,0002022-23 = £299,086,000.Change: up 1.6% on last year Also, 11 out of 19 institutions received an increase in their … Continue reading Aberdeen University punished for lack of excellence in research?

From SNP Media: A number of key figures have spoken out against stitch-ups that have seen Labour gift Tories positions of power in administrations or sat on their hands and opened the door to the Tory party taking control of councils. MSP Mercedes Villalba tweeted that ‘no Labour representative worth the name would ever put Tories in power’. Whilst former MSP Neil Findlay said he was ‘appalled’ by West Lothian Labour councillors and their ‘shameful’ decision to vote Tories into power there. Meanwhile in Edinburgh, former Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz described the Tory-Labour deal in the city as ‘unacceptable’. Plus, two Labour councillors … Continue reading Cracks starting to appear in Labour over their grubby backroom deals with the Tories