From cuckooshoe: Under new electoral law, a term now lasts five years. The Nursing Times quotes a Scottish government spokesperson http://www.nursingtimes.net/news/workforce/nurse-staffing-shortfall-in-scotland-now-at-record-high-08-11-2021/ “Thanks to nine consecutive years of staffing increases we have an extra 25,000 staff working in our health service, an 11% increase in qualified nurses and midwives and a steady rise in places on pre-registration nursing and midwifery undergraduate training programmes,” There’s more.. In August the Scottish government abolished NHS dental charges for everyone under the age of 26. http://www.gov.scot/news/removal-of-nhs-dental-charges-for-all-young-people/ “Free treatment for people aged under 26 will take effect immediately and there is no “opt-in” required. Those who … Continue reading This type of story can be linked to the local council elections in May 2022

From stewartb ‘Once more BBC Scotland feasts on a single case and attempts to make a wider crisis out of it.’ Indeed. This is now a common practice in BBC Scotland’s journalism. (It’s also much loved by Labour politicians!). When set alongside BBC Scotland’s characteristic ‘perspective bypass’ in its reporting and when reinforced by ‘bias by omission’, it delivers a potent ‘public service’! In an article in the US magazine Wired in 2017 (by Emily Dreyfuss) we learn that: ‘The human brain has a built-in tendency to conflate the aberrant with the norm. The news industry—and certain politicians—know this all … Continue reading Explaining BBC Scotland’s ‘fish-eye lens’ view

infection….forced to go private. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone Starting at 6:26am, repeated 5 or 6 times on BBC 1 TV, no doubt as many times on Good Morning Scotland radio, 3 times on Reporting Scotland from 1.30 to 10.30pm but, intriguingly not on the website, BBC Scotland’s third of only three stories is a complaint from ‘a number of women’ about having to go private to get treatment. In the third of three negative reports completely dominating the coverage, much is left unanswered. This is based on ‘a number of women who spoke to BBC Scotland.’ The number is of course not revealed. … Continue reading From Sarwar’s in-laws or Alex Cole-Hamilton’s activists?

added costs and extra hassle for businesses. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone Starting at 6:26am, repeated 5 or 6 times on BBC 1 TV, no doubt as many times on Good Morning Scotland radio, 3 times on Reporting Scotland from 1.30 to 10.30pm but, intriguingly not on the website, BBC Scotland’s second of only three stories is a complaint from opposition parties about the vaccine ‘passport.’ In the second of three negative reports completely dominating the coverage, much is left unanswered. The source is this: As recently as 22 September, Scottish Labour were ‘ridiculed for opposing vaccine passports’ in the Times, after it emerged … Continue reading BBC Scotland masking Labour stupidity

and causing the country embarrassment. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone Starting at 6:26am, repeated 5 or 6 times on BBC 1 TV, no doubt as many times on Good Morning Scotland radio, 3 times on Reporting Scotland from 1.30 to 10.30pm but, intriguingly not on the website, BBC Scotland’s headline story is a complaint from campaigners about one city low emission zone. In the first of three negative reports completely dominating the coverage, much is left unanswered. For context, the World Health Organisation was reported by BBC Health in 2018, listing the UK’s 40 most polluted towns and cities. None were in Scotland. Scunthorpe … Continue reading Scotland avoids ’embarrassment’ of being in UK top 40 polluted towns and cities list

Once more BBC Scotland feasts on a single case and attempts to make a wider crisis out of it. The tragic tale of a young nurse fleeing the Covid ICU wards to return to Ireland tells us little about the circumstances of the other 55 000. That they only have one, tells us something potentially quite positive about the resilience of NHS Scotland. In an effort to beef up their argument, BBC Scotland contacts a union rep and tells us: Hilary Nelson, a ICU nurse and safety representative with the RCN, said the pay deal was critical for attracting more … Continue reading One nurse burned out is tragic but not a national crisis

Home of monstrous daily Unionist lies, the appalling Brian Wilson, Brian Monteith and John McLelland, the Scotsman is sinking below the waves. Only 5 007 people buy a copy over the counter these days and only 10 021 in total, pay for it in any format. Look at this: 50% down in only 5 years and only a seventh after less than 20. It couldn’t happen to better bunch of hacks. Continue reading Good news for Scots as the Scotsman collapses by 50% in only 5 years

I’m all for self-deprecating humour. I’ve used it often, to deflect bullying at school and later to charm my way into jobs. If it’s about you and your entertaining flaws, that’s your business but when in a lazy tactic to get cheap laughs, you scatter your performance with predictable and often, at best, dated stereotypes of your home town, it inevitably bores, hurts or angers those you’ve left behind. This happened noticeably with Billy Connolly as he lost touch with Glasgow and began to use images of the drunkenness, drug addiction and violence even then largely unknown to the vast … Continue reading Frankie! Self-deprecating humour is meant to be about yourself, not, lazily, about your former neighbours, your home town, your country

Other than Allan Sutherland, that BBC favourite but shy about his connections when on-air, Scotland Matters maintains a low profile on its membership, though we can see from its site comments and this 2017 email, it’s overlapping membership with a covert letter-writing group openly seeking to distort media coverage against the independence cause: Scotland Matters seems strongly associated with those regular commentators, Prof Pennington, Prof Stevenson and Jill Lax. There are no doubt many others skulking there. In the Guardian yesterday, we read: A Scottish anti-independence campaign group was given £46,000 from an obscure organisation that might have breached political … Continue reading UK Nationalist propaganda group funded by dark money

Returning every day for updates on the GMB refuse workers strike, BBC Scotland gives a platform only to the union and fails to inform readers of the scale of the offer previously made, fails to ask about their quick turnaround from acceptance of a higher offer than had been accepted by the GMB in Sheffield and fails to consider whether this was really a political stunt at the expense of members, to suit Scottish Labour’s do-Scotland-down-before-the-world agenda. How things have changed in the BBC’s attitude to industrial action in the years since 1975: A national dust cart drivers began in … Continue reading BBC Scotland in 1975: ‘Rubbish piled up in the streets causing a health hazard’