“a beacon of progressive policy for the rest of the UK” “the most progressive policy brought in since devolution 20 years ago” By stewartb I understand from an earlier post here today that the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland is claiming – in stark contrast to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation – that the Scottish Government has a ‘record of shame’ on child poverty. Who view to believe? The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is widely regarded as the authoritative, independent source of evidence on poverty in the UK. It provides a readily accessible set of graphs on poverty levels … Continue reading Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the SNP’s Scottish Child Payment

By Alasdair Galloway SNP 1, Alba 2 John, I have to take issue with your recent blog “Less popular than Boris Johnson? Aye right!” (https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2021/03/28/less-popular-than-boris-johnson-aye-right/). I agree with you, as I agreed with John Curtice, that the Greens are threatened by Alba running candidates on the Regional Lists (you can find Curtice at https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19192169.alex-salmond-alba-stands-party-boost-pro-independence-msp—may-cost-snp-majority/). The error, I would suggest, you both make is to presume it is the Greens who are at most risk from Alba. The reasons for this view are obvious, It is known that some who vote SNP in their constituency vote Green on the Regional List. … Continue reading Galloway dares to question the infallibility of the Prof!

Incensed by the First Minister getting her offer in first, the opposition parties were left scrabbling for sound-bites. Accusing the FM of copying his policy of copying her policy then doubling it, Anas Sarwar was interrupted by a 5 year-old shouting: ‘Tell yer mother tae pay ma dad the living wage fur working in her food factory and we wouldnae need Nicola tae help us oot!’ Lib Dem leader, Willie Rennie, invited the nation’s punners to engage with his policies: ‘If you’re rooked and can’t afford to feed your bairns, just pawn some of your jewellery? Reader entries below. Same … Continue reading Campaign Day 1: Best Quotes

Today, Anas Sarwar has suggested that the Scottish Government has a ‘record of shame’ on child poverty. Already today, I’ve outlined what has been achieved, praised by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, within the heavy limitations of devolution. Read it at: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2021/03/29/the-impoverished-soul-of-tom-gordon/ As for Labour: In 2010, Professor Danny Dorling then at Sheffield University, wrote: [W]hen writing a book, The Widening Gap, with colleagues in 1999, which considered how, under both the Tories and the start of New Labour, the gapbetween rich and poor continued to grow. We highlighted that New Labour explicitly continued Conservative spending policies for those two years … Continue reading Sarwar Labouring under amnesia

Responding to another lie from Tom Gordon, two readers have posted evidence worthy of as big an audience as possible. Share, share, share. Legerwood In its February 2018 report on University Applications UCAS analysed the applications from all 4 nations over a 12 year period, 2006-18, using the POLAR3 measure of deprivation. For Scotland the results showed that the gap between the most advantaged and least advantaged applicants had halved and that had been due to the increase in applications from the most disadvantaged applicants. In 2006 the ratio of applications from the most advantaged compared to the most disadvantaged … Continue reading How Scotland has not failed to close the attainment gap

From Tom Gordon, in the Herald today: Nicola Sturgeon will today promise to make ending child poverty “a national mission” if the SNP is re-elected in May, partly by doubling the Scottish to-up benefit for low income families. The First Minister, who made closing the educational attainment gap her mission in the last parliament and failed, will make the election promise at a virtual campaign conference. How’s that for reptilian venom? ‘AND FAILED! Reflect for a moment on his reasoning here and the underlying playground mentality. Before we get on to child poverty, let’s deal with the attainment gap facts. … Continue reading The impoverished soul of Tom Gordon

The nasty party, committed to the maintenance of a brutally unequal society, offers a union with a party with no shared values bar one and a wee party it formerly abused in a previous cohabitation. That’ll work. Why now? I’m guessing they know that they’ll lose some of the unelectable zombie MSPs they have on the list life-support system such as, say, eg: Zombie parties, Life support? Yes: Tories: 7 MSPs actually voted for and 22 zombies unknown to constituents. Labour: 2 known and 21 zombies. Lib Dems: 4 live ones and 1 zombie. I know it’s complex and different … Continue reading Three just men, three zombie parties

All of these men and women have the blood of many innocent women and children on their hands, from the atrocities in Kenya to the bombing of Libya. They have all sanctioned military action, often the bombing of residential urban areas, in pursuit of ‘Britain’s national interests’ – land, resources, influence. Some treated women badly. One may well have abused children. None had their political careers ended because of those offenses far less their crimes against humanity. This man, Alex Salmond, has admitted to alcohol-fuelled but clearly unacceptable behaviour toward some women. He committed no criminal acts, and wishes to … Continue reading Putting Alex Salmond into ‘the great scheme of things’ and voting SNP 1 Alba 2

‘Scotland has the highest infection rate in UK!’ Our media are triumphant. At last they have something ‘good’ to shout about. Just as they did with drug deaths and recently when they thought support for independence was falling, this story is everywhere. As with the 4 weeks, only in October 2020, when we had more Covid deaths than England, enabling Andrew Marr to shout about it to the FM, the infection rate in Scotland is currently higher than in England but only after many months when it was far lower: Far more important, but less reported, over the pandemic the … Continue reading Recent blip but shocking 70% more infections in England during pandemic

Interrupting Adam Price MS, Plaid Cymru, when he noted the absence of Wales from the Union Flag, Fiona Bruce told him quickly: ‘But you’re not represented because Wales and England were part of the same country at that point.’ ‘Part of the same country?’ How’s that for an ahistorical euphemism or simple inaccuracy to describe a brutal conquest and a process of cultural genocide, aimed at wiping out Welsh identity and to allow the collective forgetting that it had ever been a different country, Bruce is clearly more comfortable with? Price didn’t get a chance to clarify in the way … Continue reading You’re not on the flag because we’d conquered you. You didn’t even exist!