I’m grateful to my old friend, workmate, dry humourist* and sandwich stealer, from events he hadn’t been invited to attend, Prof Mike Danson of UWS, for alerting me to this. Never to my knowledge reported by BBC Scotland, STV, the Scotsman or the Herald, this BBC England report from December 2024, reveals ScotRail, in 2024, to have had the lowest rate of cancellations of any UK train company, at 2.9%. You can check yourself with the link below but even those in the affluent South-East had 3.3%, everywhere else had around 4% and the North West had a shocking 6.5% … Continue reading BBC England reveals that ScotRail had fewer cancellations, often far fewer, than any other other UK rail company in 2024

By Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald today has: EXCLUSIVE – Over 5,000 Scots waiting for NHS social care assessment Seems a lot doesn’t it? You know where I’m going; where the Herald never goes. All things being equal, per head, that’d be around 50 000 waiting in England but, oh no, shock horror, from the latest data, it’s As of March 2023, 430,000 people were waiting for an adult social care assessment, care, or direct payment in England. This was down from 542,000 in April 2022 https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/social-care-360-access#:~:text=a%20reduction%20in%20the%20number,the%20end%20of%20March%202023. A TEN times longer waiting list, per head, pro rate, proportionally. Wait, does that mean the … Continue reading EXCLUSIVE – What will Rachel Reeves say as nearly 10 times as many per head wait for social care assessment in England than in Scotland

By stewartb Once upon a time not so long ago these ‘Scottish’ newspapers – the Daily Record/Sunday Mail and the Scottish Daily Express – would occupy quite different places on the political spectrum on most issues.  That was then and after all, we’ve been told we are in a time of ‘change’!  Of course they would be united for the Union and this is probably the key factor in this tale! On Sunday 6 October, the Sunday Mail on its front page and website had this ‘exclusive’: On the same day, the Scottish Daily Express had this: Note the journalists … Continue reading The SNP’s phantom decorators – A new sisterhood in Scotland’s mainstream media revealed – Daily Record/Sunday Mail and Scottish Daily Express!

From BBC Science & Environment, this morning: Water companies have been ordered to return £158m to customers via lower bills next year after missing key targets on issues like pollution. The industry regulator Ofwat announced the rebate following its annual review of water and wastewater companies’ performance in England and Wales. Google AI searches find no examples of rebates from Scottish Water but does suggest discounts for those businesses on lower incomes. With regard, to fines, the AI Overview does seem to have some cheer for Unionists, with: Scottish Water has been fined multiple times for environmental and health and … Continue reading Water companies in England & Wales fined ‘infinitely’ more per head for poor performance than Scottish Water

From the Guardian’s The best UK universities 2025 list – rankings, published today, pro rata, per head, Scotland might be expected to have 2 of the top 20 universities in the UK but has 5. In 2019*, we had: Scotland’s university cities the safest in the UK by a very long way From the Complete University Guide 2019, we can see that the overall fall in crime in Scotland in the last ten, or so, years is reflected in the relative safety of university campuses. Of particular interest is the level of crime (incidents per 1 000 residents) reported in Glasgow, … Continue reading 8% of the population but 25% of the top universities and all of the safest campuses*