For several years now, I’ve been comparing the coverage of health matters in Scotland and in other parts of the UK. From changes in cancer treatment in Tayside, to the death of a single child, ‘after’ a hospital infection in Glasgow to delays in the completion of an Edinburgh hospital, only in Scotland do we see the opposition parties exploit pain and suffering to score points over the Scottish Government. Only in BBC Scotland, unlike BBC Wales or across the BBC in England, do we see these attacks foregrounded and maintained over long periods in headlines. So yesterday, we see … Continue reading Only in Scotland: The politicising of health

To slightly contradict my headline there were actually more road deaths per head of population in Scotland than in England, at 143 compared to 1 258. With a tenth of the population, you might expect Scotland to have have only 126 deaths rather than 143. When killed or seriously injured are combined, England has a higher incidence pro rata at 20 796 compared to 1 666 in Scotland. All things being equal, England should have had around 17 000 but had nearly 21 000. It’s the ‘All casualties’ figures that surprise with 4 992 in Scotland and 106 634 in … Continue reading Scotland’s safer roads in 2020

What would you report the data on first, the first or the second dose vaccines? The whole population including all of those at risk or just the adult population? The first and the whole population? Nope. The Herald decides to answer the second part of the question first: So, third eh? Disappointing, though we do just sneak into second place for the first dose in these tables where, typically, the data for England are only estimates. Why can’t or won’t they report the actual number jagged? Regular readers will know of NHS England’s longstanding preference for fiddling A&E data or … Continue reading The Herald carefully selecting data to keep Scotland lagging behind

So, a Royal Navy destroyer with a BBC film crew on board sails nearly 4 000 nautical miles to test the international waters next to the Russian coastline in the Black Sea. The BBC report just has a wee local map but, as always, no context like this one below: A week-long journey, using who knows how much fuel to poke the Russian bear? Don’t we have better priorities for that expenditure? Don’t viewers need to see just how feckin far they went? Continue reading Do BBC viewers know just what and where ‘our’ destroyer was defending?

Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester Combined Authority‘s website today is clear: Avoid travelling outside the part of Greater Manchester where you live. Yet, he has developed a spat with the Scottish Government which has merely repeated his advice. Is he cynically using this as a way of promoting a leadership campaign when Starmer gives up after losing the Batley and Spen by-election? If George Galloway delivers the final cut by seducing the Asian vote with his pro-Palestine credentials, he must surely go and the combative Burnham will walk in. Countless thousands will have been enraged by this fabricated controversy but hey, … Continue reading Today, Burnham says ‘Avoid travelling outside the part of Greater Manchester where you live’

I stumbled on the above in Waterstone’s, Perth, on holiday last week. Yes that’s the level of excitement you get on my holiday jaunts. I knew then next to nothing about Homer beyond enjoying those 60s ‘sandals and swords‘ film epics like ‘Jason and the Argonauts‘, with my school pals, aged 12/13. The title sent me back to schooldays. Turns out it’s from Keats. Anyhow, it has gripped me and you might like to know that the author relates the Homeric tales to those of the Celtic bards of Scotland and Ireland. What particularly caught me were fascinating details. For … Continue reading Read this book by a toff

In the Herald today from the often excellent Ian McConnell: Most Scottish businesses “don’t want to have the conversation” about independence, the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry has said.Tony Danker, asked by The Herald in an interview about the renewed focus on the independence question north of the Border, said most Scottish businesses he spoke to were “not convinced of the notion this is the right time to be having this debate”. Danker is clearly ill-informed and relying BBC-like on anecdotes but surely his staff spotted this research from October 2020, a proper survey of 102 ‘captains of … Continue reading Danker doesn’t know his facts as only 6% are really worried about independence

In a BBC Scotland report, not headlining the website and not yet featuring in TV broadcasts, the Accounts Commission finds major failings in Aberdeen Council where a coalition of Conservatives and Labour has conspired to keep the SNP out of power, placing unionist tribalism shamelessly before leftist, progressive policies. The BBC Scotland report, of course, keeps the political identity of the council off the headline and reveals it only in the 9th paragraph. Even in the reporter’s own words the commission’s conclusion are damning: The commission said the council ranked among the lowest in Scotland for satisfaction with schools, and … Continue reading Damning report accuses Tory/Labour coalition council of failing patients and pupils

So, the Conservative UK Government is about to impoverish hundreds of thousands including children and someone is telling the ‘SNP’ to make up for it. Is anyone telling the Scottish Tories to tell their fellow meanies in Westminster to keep the Universal Credit uplift going? Nope. Who is ‘telling’ the SNP? No one. ‘Poverty campaigners and opposition MSPs have called on the SNP to speed up the commitment of doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £80 per month’ Calling? Not really telling is it. Calling on the SNP? Pointless? The Party members might like to help out but probably don’t … Continue reading Watch their language

I never, ever, read Brian Wilson. I don’t need to any more. When I saw this with the wind farm shot, I was reminded of reading and posting on a breakthrough in turbine manufacture by a Glasgow company some time ago which could not get government funding perhaps from the Labour administration that Wilson served in. I can’t find it in the archives of the blog or after a bit of googling. Perhaps a reader can? Anyhow, I did find this: So, once more, we invented something useful first and the Union let us down. To be fair, 1887 is … Continue reading If anyone finds a UK industrial strategy please notify Brian Wilson