Crime and Policing – How Scotland’s media hide our successes

On the Today programme, a BBC Radio 4 interviewer enthuses about the reduction in knife crime and homicide in Scotland over nearly two decades, as he interviews Will Linden Depute Head of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit You can hear the whole interview, around 53 mins in, at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001v3bj BBC R4’s interests comes against the background of high levels of knife-related deaths in England and, today, the actor Idris Elba’s call for a ban on sales which he says the Conservative Government has neglected: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67903124 BBC Scotland and the newspapers are not interested in this but, rather, focus on two … Continue reading Crime and Policing – How Scotland’s media hide our successes

BBC UK reveal that Matheson has been responsible for ambulances responding 4 TIMES faster on average than in England

Thanks to an inadvertent slip by BBC UK via their How long do patients wait for an ambulance? app today, we can confirm that the average waiting time for a Scottish ambulance is 8 min and 46 secs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59549800 Also, from BBC UK on 14 December 2023: Average response times of more than 38 minutes for category two emergency calls such as heart attacks and strokes – above the target time of 18 minutes https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67714151 Yes, I know the English figures are only for Category 2 emergency calls such as heart attacks and strokes and we can’t see if the … Continue reading BBC UK reveal that Matheson has been responsible for ambulances responding 4 TIMES faster on average than in England

No point in devoting effort to changing perceptions of the BBC in Scotland?

Scotland’s different relationship with the BBC – evidence from the Corporation’s own data By stewartb The National Audit Office (NAO) has recently published an assessment of a BBC corporate initiative called ‘Across the UK’. The NAO’s report explains (with my emphasis): ‘In March 2021, the BBC published The BBC Across the UK (ATUK), setting out its ambitions to strengthen its delivery for the whole of the UK, particularly in areas where perception of the BBC’s relevance are relatively low, and to ensure that every household gets value from the BBC. It plans to do this by cumulatively spending at least … Continue reading No point in devoting effort to changing perceptions of the BBC in Scotland?