Tag: news

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School suspensions 4 times more, and full expulsions shocking 600 times more, common in England’s not so fair and pleasant land

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Many thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this via the Guardian: Pupil suspensions in England hit record high, rising by nearly a third year on year, DfE figures show From the Scotsman, no friend of the SNP Government, on 25 March 2024: Across Scotland, there were 11,675 cases of temporary exclusion of any length of time, with just one pupil being expelled, as previously revealed by The Scotsman. The figures compare to 39,553 temporary exclusions and 164 permanent in 2007, when the SNP came to power. So, with 10 times the population, all things being equally progressive and hopefully not … Continue reading School suspensions 4 times more, and full expulsions shocking 600 times more, common in England’s not so fair and pleasant land

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What BBC Scotland and the BMA Scotland were hiding from you this morning

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BMA Scotland, headed up by Dr Iain Kennedy, who has now shed the union flag on his twitter account, have a piece on consultant vacancies all over the media from 06:30 this morning on BBC Scotland. They’ll have had this one oven-ready for some time now. Why today? From the real BMA in London today: The BMA England GP committee has warned health service officials that the profession is ‘now in dispute’ with NHS England following the overwhelming vote to reject the 2024/25 contract. Is the profession in dispute with NHS Scotland? The silence talks. Continue reading What BBC Scotland and the BMA Scotland were hiding from you this morning

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Police Scotland trusted by public up to 53% more than forces in England

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By Professor John Robertson In the Guardian today: Only four out of 10 people in England say they trust the police, with the UK’s biggest force, the Metropolitan police, getting the lowest confidence score, research has found. The poll surveyed nine English regions, in eight of which female respondents had greater trust in the police than male respondents. But for the Met in London, hit by a succession of scandals, women trusted Britain’s largest force less than men. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/18/only-40-of-people-in-england-trust-their-police-force-research-reveals From the Common Weal in October 2023: A report by the Scottish Policing Authority has found that in this last quarter trust and … Continue reading Police Scotland trusted by public up to 53% more than forces in England

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Scotland’s ambulances FOUR times faster!

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In the Guardian today, from Poly Toynbee, one always keen to suggest things are bad in Scotland under the SNP: Jammed 999 lines and not enough ambulances to go round: come see the sharp end of this NHS crisis There’s no mention of Scotland in the Guardian report. In January 2024, I wrote: Via the BBC’s 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 … Continue reading Scotland’s ambulances FOUR times faster!

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Drug-related hospital admissions plummet for third year after Scottish Government Naloxone initiative but are not being reported by media

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By Professor John Robertson The above graph is from Public Health Scotland today, at: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/drug-related-hospital-statistics/drug-related-hospital-statistics-scotland-2022-to-2023/ After a pilot phase ending in 2018, the Scottish Government began to embed Naloxone opioid overdose reversal kits across NHS Scotland. Shortly after, the kits which can be administered by anyone, were adopted by Police Scotland, ambulances and prisons, and made available to libraries, community centres, taxi drivers and to the friends and relatives of users. Scotland was the first country in the world to introduce a national naloxone programme, empowering individuals, families, friends and communities to reverse an opiate overdose. Anyone in Scotland can … Continue reading Drug-related hospital admissions plummet for third year after Scottish Government Naloxone initiative but are not being reported by media

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How are drugs coming into Scotland and from whom and where?

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Why Liverpool? This: Liverpool drugs gangs still have their eye on Scotland: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-drugs-gangs-still-eye-25476347 By NMRN County lines Drug gangs is the missing part in all reports promoted by the media and politicians when in reference to drugs in Scotland…..yet one would have thought it was a hugely significant factor……a tactical omission ? Perhaps it is something the Justice secretary could seek to explore and have investigated as to the consequences it has upon Scotland and the problems with the drugs accessibility here……. where data could be published which would at least give the Scottish public a sense of how some drugs were coming into … Continue reading How are drugs coming into Scotland and from whom and where?

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Measles cases surge from 0 in Scotland all ‘linked’ to travel….and County Lines drug gangs?

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From Public Health Scotland today (well tomorrow, it seems): Public Health Scotland is aware of five cases of laboratory confirmed measles in Scotland since October 2023, all of which have been linked to travel. The latest two cases were confirmed today, 16 February 2024. https://publichealthscotland.scot/news/2024/february/update-on-measles-in-scotland/#:~:text=Public%20Health%20Scotland%20is%20aware,and%20Rubella%20(MMR)%20vaccine. Why is five a surge? It’s up from zero, each year, since 2020. See graph above with 2020 mistakenly labelled 2000. Where might these cases have travelled from? From the Times two days ago: Measles outbreak fear as London overtakes Midlands in cases. Pockets of unvaccinated people in the capital create ‘perfect conditions’ for disease … Continue reading Measles cases surge from 0 in Scotland all ‘linked’ to travel….and County Lines drug gangs?

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Never mind Sir Keir, will Anas Sarwar’s mum let him transfer wealth to workers?

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By Professor John Robertson I fear Labour in Scotland are going to campaign as if they’re kind of leftist. The media are going to cover the tracks between them and their London HQ and some voters are going to swallow it. I don’t think I’ve seen words so detached from reality, so ‘down a rabbit hole‘, since I last read Lewis Carroll (1959?). What’s this go to do with his mum? Just this, from last year: ANAS Sarwar has been branded a hypocrite after it was revealed his family’s wholesale business still does not pay staff the living wage. Sarwar … Continue reading Never mind Sir Keir, will Anas Sarwar’s mum let him transfer wealth to workers?

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Lessons From Australia on Scotland’s NHS 

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By Fraser Grant The Scottish media gave a lot of coverage to Dr Michael Mrozinski who told BBC Reporting Scotland on Thursday that blaming Covid for NHS failings was just spin.  This was eagerly picked up by The Scotsman (1) which then ran an editorial on Saturday headlined “Australia punctures SNP spin about NHS crisis” (2). However, the Australian health system is not as rosy as portrayed by Dr Michael Mrozinski, as a Victoria University publication on 15 December 2023 on the dire nursing shortage (3)  stated that “recent COVID-19 pandemic tested the resolve of many – if not most – nurses, with … Continue reading Lessons From Australia on Scotland’s NHS 

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HIV and Hepatitis C – The blood scandal reveals how a submissive Labour Government in Holyrood will never act in the interest of Scots

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Headlining on BBC Wales today, a BBC Wales investigation of the kind BBC Scotland and it’s Disclosure team will never tackle: When 10-month-old Colin Smith contracted HIV after receiving contaminated blood, his parents’ house was daubed with “Aids dead”. His father was also forced to leave his job. Now 34 years on from his death from Aids at the age of seven, his family are facing another injustice. A BBC investigation has found Prof Arthur Bloom, the doctor who gave Colin infected imported blood product Factor VIII, broke his own rules to do so. Just three months earlier, Prof Bloom’s … Continue reading HIV and Hepatitis C – The blood scandal reveals how a submissive Labour Government in Holyrood will never act in the interest of Scots