Professor Richard Murphy has utterly debunked the LSE report suggesting Scotland would be poorer after independence. You can read it here: I’ve written already to expose the LSE’s willingness to give you what you want, for a price but, today, George Kerevan has drawn our attention to this footnote in the report: We are grateful to Angus Armstrong, Jim Gallagher and Mairi Spowage for useful discussions about the Scottish economy and Scottish data. Who is Gallagher? He’s the main researcher at Gordon Brown’s Our Scottish Future thunk tank and a member of the Scotland in Union Board. And NO, he’s … Continue reading ThE LSE report on poor Scotland and their non-critical friend

I wrote to complain about Andrew Marr’s use of statistics in his interrogation of Nicola Sturgeon on November 29th 2020. The next day, the email below noted that they aimed to reply within 10 working days. Yesterday, February 4th 2021, 66 days later, after several apologies for delay, they still have no answer. It’s difficult, I suppose as there is no answer that could ‘survive a collision with the evidence.‘* I watched again recently, the late Christopher Hitchens use that line in debating the existence of God. I’ve been meaning to use it for years. You’ll see it again. Continue reading Even after 66 days BBC explanation cannot ‘survive a collision with the evidence’

At around 06:30am, we heard: Police Scotland has been carrying out a survey on how the public has perceived its performance during the pandemic. They say they’ve had over 30 000 responses from the public since April last year. While offences in public spaces have dropped along with retail crimes, officers are concerned about a rise in hidden crimes like cyber crime and domestic violence. 85% say they feel safe in their local area. Imagine that last bit had been different, say only 15% had felt safe? Would that have been the opening line? Think back to the drug deaths … Continue reading What should be the headline?

Fresh from success in vaccinating 98% of care home residents, NHS Scotland has quickly pulled ahead with overall vaccinations per day: 1st February England 280 513 Scotland 34 881 or 124% pro rata 2nd February England 300 173 Scotland 38 484 or 128% 3rd February England 378 794 Scotland 45 085 or 120% How will Ruth Davidson deal with this next week? https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations Continue reading Scotland vaccinating 20% more than England for third day in a row

In December 2020, only 72.1% of patients in NHS England were seen in 4 hours: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2020-21/ In the same period, in Scotland, 85.3% were seen in 4 hours. https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/nhs-performs-weekly-update-of-emergency-department-activity-and-waiting-time-statistics/ I feel we should offer to help in some way. Persuade Jeanne Freeman to take over? Continue reading Scotland’s emergency departments much faster: Should they help England out?

The Black Watch arrive in London for a 30 seconds training course on how to stick sharp objects into old folk. After Michael Gove revealed his lack of knowledge of how many care home vaccinations have been done, as opposed to offered, in England, the Scottish Government has offered the help of Scottish soldiers. The move was triggered by the realisation that England has fallen so far behind in care home vaccinations that they will not publish the data. The Scottish Health Secretary, Jeanne Freeman, is also reported to have been upset by the fact that England does not seem … Continue reading Scottish Army sent south to help deliver on care home VACCINE OFFER

There’s a word missing in the headline – the. The headline above the text dropped the the too: Covid Scotland: International travel had ‘major impact on first wave death rates’ In the text, they do write: International travel had the biggest impact on death rates. Here’s what the research by Aberdeen University actually said: A new study comparing countries most severely hit by COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic has found that international travel showed the biggest impact on increases in death rates. They found that once adjustments were made for these factors (age, obesity, smoking, population density), … Continue reading Does missing the ‘the’ make all the difference to corporate media

Throughout the day today, this from BBC Scotland: A Scottish cancer charity says it’s supporting patients who have a lower chance of survival, because Covid led to services being put on hold. During the first lockdown, 4 000 fewer people were diagnosed with the disease, when screening and testing was put on hold. Although services are back up and running, Cancer Support Scotland say it’s seeing patients who’ll die sooner because of a delay in their diagnosis. We’ve been hearing of tsunamis of cancer deaths since the early days of the pandemic restrictions. The first use of the word, I … Continue reading 10 months later Where IS this ‘tsunami of cancer deaths?’

Typically selective from BBC Scotland throughout this morning: Council employees will start lodging equal pay claims for what a trade union says us a discriminatory pay agreement. The GMB union alleges those working in traditionally male dominated roles are paid substantial bonuses which aren’t available to those working in jobs commonly done by women. Glasgow City Council had a similar dispute and was forced to pay half a billion pounds to settle thousands of claims. Would that have been an SNP Council, do tell? Labour maybe? Did the GMB actually negotiate the discriminatory deal in the first place? No? Some … Continue reading Discrimination Yes, but negotiated BY a trade union WITH a Labour Council

The London School of Economics, eh? They sound impressive. Trusted independent intellectuals who say that independence would hurt the Scottish economy more than Brexit. Oh, well, that’s it I suppose. We’ll need to give up. Oh wait, is it possible they do research and get the results that suits whoever funded the research or whoever can influence their bids for future funding? No, surely not. Hmmmm. In 2008, Libya paid LSE £1.5 million for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (the elder son) to have his plagiarised PhD thesis passed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSE%E2%80%93Gaddafi_affair#:~:text=In%202008%2C%20the%20LSE%20granted,%2Dwritten%20and%2For%20plagiarised. In 2005: Kids Company has suffered further media criticism after it was … Continue reading The LSE’s Scottish research cannot be trusted