In the Herald today: Efforts to drive up classroom standards and close the poverty-related attainment gap are being seriously hampered by the “iron cage” of institutional bureaucracy, according to one of Scotland’s leading education thinkers. Walter Humes has warned that a “lack of openness” to new ideas and resistance to deep change from bodies such as schools watchdog Education Scotland (ES) and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) are likely to stymie attempts to boost pupil performance. Professor Walter Humes is wrong. I’ll come back to how but, first, I must make clear that Prof Humes is the real thing, unlike those many not-really profs … Continue reading Scotland is closing parts of the attainment gap

No propaganda behind a paywall I suppose. You can read this one free. So many questions to ask before we even get to the flawed argument. Why is is this the headline story? Why now? Is this just more Unionist panic as the polls run away from them? How did this story make its way only to the Herald, to Neil Mackay who never writes this kind of heavy stuff? Did he even write it? Tell us, it’s the Leask we deserve. If you want to explore the Leask Thesis, try this: http://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-controversial-journalist-david.html Then: Why a GCHQ boss and not … Continue reading Why is Herald tying it’s colours to the mast of a Trident sub in a free read as support for Independence surges?

Carried out on the same dates, 5th -6th November, as the Survation Poll putting the Lib Dems at 1.64%, Opinium with 112 18+ Scots, has a further shock for them: Con 29% Lab 19% Lib Dem 0% SNP 50% Green 2% UKIP 1% Don’t look at that Con figure. Just enjoy the zero. Continue reading Scottish Lib Dems disappear altogether!

Reading between reports in the Times and the National (I can’t find the Public Health Scotland source), it seems that the Scottish Government’s restrictions imposed on Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Dunbartonshire, more than 6 weeks ago, then imposed on a wider area in the Central Belt on the 2nd November, have led Public Health Scotland to predict far fewer deaths in the next few weeks than they had previously feared. A figure of up to 90 deaths per day, in the worst case scenario, has now been revised down to 20 or 30 in mid-November before then falling again. Nearly 500 … Continue reading SNP Leader’s ‘Draconian’ actions may save hundreds of lives

‘Yay we beat the Brexit Party!’ In an online poll of 1,034 adults aged 18+ living in the UK and fieldwork between 5th and 6th November 2020 support was: Con 22.14% Lab 14.23% Lib Dem 1.64% SNP 58.53% Green 2.81% Brexit 0.64% To be fair it was a small sub-poll of only 79, but we can still have fun with it. Continue reading Survation poll puts SNP at over 58% and Lib Dems in 5th place at less than 2%!

In a poll conducted by the Institute of Directors in Scotland yesterday, 66.7% agreed that the Scottish Government had handled the pandemic better. Given the clear statistical evidence for that viewpoint, it would be disappointing had they not: Also, 76,8% said they ‘expected’ another independence referendum. It’s not clear whether this means they think there should be one or not but no oppositional comments were reported. They want to monitor and be able to comment but seem to be accepting that there is a move toward a referendum and, by implication, their job is to make the most of it. Continue reading Two thirds of Scottish Business leaders think Scotland has done better in Pandemic

The above headline might worry some folk so the Tusker’s panic control squad have stepped in with their trusty perspective wands. There are 5 046 schools in Scotland. One of the 357 secondary schools in Scotland closed for two days (Friday and Monday) only, to let the contact tracing teams do their work. The BBC report seems to have missed telling us that it was only one Moray secondary school, in the headline and only for two days, in the text. Two of the 2 012 primary schools in Scotland have closed for 12 days. The BBC report seems to … Continue reading Covid UPDATE: Remarkably few schools closed encourages Scottish parents

By stewartb: Douglas Ross MP: ‘The furlough scheme has not just been a lifeline to people who would have otherwise lost their jobs, it is also a real and tangible reminder of the economic security of the Union.’ We’ll leave aside how the Scottish Government had to press the Westminster government just to secure basic fairness of treatment over furlough extension.  It’s now becoming commonplace for us to be told that it is being part of the UK that has ensured financial support for businesses and employees in Scotland during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the implication being dripped into the … Continue reading Stop patronising Scotland, Mr Ross!

On the BBC Health site, yesterday: The government has been criticised by the official statistics watchdog for the way it presented data to justify England’s second lockdown. The UK Statistics Authority highlighted the use of modelling at Saturday’s TV briefing showing the possible death toll from Covid this winter. It said there needed to be more transparency about data and how predictions were being made. The projections were out of date and over-estimated deaths, it has emerged. A forecast made by Public Health England and Cambridge University said the country could soon be seeing more than 4,000 deaths a day. … Continue reading One rule for Nicola, one rule for Boris. One for the SNP Government and one for the UK Government

BBC today and all day no doubt, until at least Armistice Day on the 11th, if not longer, Harry (Are they all called Harry? Tom?) records a song with Aled Jones and takes a train from Penzance to Paddington dropping wreaths off at each stop. What no Paisley Gilmour Street? Does any nation go on about World War II as much as England does, implying they won it themselves and flying spitfires everywhere, forgetting the angry young Czechs, Slovaks and Poles who downed more Germans than any Brit ever did, forgetting the millions of Russians and east Europeans who died. … Continue reading Despite suffering more deaths we don’t bang on about it so much