Tag: news

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The Scottish Health Service won’t be safe under an English Labour government

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First of three pieces from Leah Gunn Barrett This was published in the December 19th edition of the Edinburgh Evening News. An English Labour government is the last thing Scotland needs. English Labour’s shadow health spokesperson, Wes Streeting, said spending more on health comes at the expense of “other worthy causes” and that “under Labour you can have a well-funded NHS or you can lift kids out of poverty, but you can’t have both.”[1] That’s a false choice. It implies that governments are limited in what they can spend to help their people. Taxpayers don’t fund the NHS, the government … Continue reading The Scottish Health Service won’t be safe under an English Labour government

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Tenants left living in squalor in ‘England’ not across ‘Britain’

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In the Observer today: Leading private providers of social housing in Britain have been made to pay out only a few hundred pounds on average in financial penalties for severely mistreating tenants, the Observer can reveal. An analysis of every decision made by the housing ombudsman, the primary regulator of social housing in Britain, shows that across the 2,907 rulings it made in the past three years, the average financial penalty for housing associations was just £445. Housing associations are privately owned nonprofit companies that run 63% of social housing in the UK. They have recently come under increasing scrutiny and the … Continue reading Tenants left living in squalor in ‘England’ not across ‘Britain’

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Why is BBC England or UK press not reporting ‘Longest-ever NHS strike will sink Sunak’s waiting list pledge, say health chiefs’

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In the Observer today: One of Rishi Sunak’s key targets for the NHS – to eliminate waits of longer than 65 weeks for operations and other procedures by March – is likely to be missed because of strike action, health bosses warned this weekend. The health service faces the longest national strike in its history when junior doctors walk out for six days from 7am on Wednesday. One NHS trust leader said he expected about a third of operations to be cancelled at his trust. Strike action by consultants, junior doctors and nurses over the last year has hampered the work to … Continue reading Why is BBC England or UK press not reporting ‘Longest-ever NHS strike will sink Sunak’s waiting list pledge, say health chiefs’

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NHS Scotland – A wee heresy

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By Alasdair Galloway As regular readers of Talking Up Scotland will be well aware John and Stewartb have long and honourable records of showing how much better the NHS in Scotland perform (ambulance waiting times, A&E waiting) compared to the NHS in other parts of this sceptred isle. As well as this valuable service they regularly call out claims to the contrary – misreports – often from the BBC and the Herald. Let me be quite clear that I have absolutely no problem with this, and in fact agree fully with both. And yet …..and yet …. Can we honestly … Continue reading NHS Scotland – A wee heresy

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Pisa seems unlikely to be valid basis upon which to compare and rank countries, regions and economies.

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stewartb Yet another, recently encountered critique of Pisa rankings with those readers of TuS who have developed an interest in this famed OECD initiative in international comparative education (with my emphasis): From Sjøberg, S. & Jenkins, E. (2022) PISA: a political project and a research agenda, Studies in Science Education, 58:1 (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057267.2020.1824473 ) ‘Conclusion: As a major international comparative study, PISA differs from much earlier work in the field of comparative education. It is quantitative rather than qualitative and is UNDERPINNED BY A PRIORI ASSUMPTIONS about the relationship between science and mathematics test scores and economic development. As noted above, those … Continue reading Pisa seems unlikely to be valid basis upon which to compare and rank countries, regions and economies.

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As Reporting Scotland headline unreliable doctor’s union figures, remember the facts

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Dr Iain Kennedy, chair of BMA Scotland Enthusiastic Unionist and admirer of Sandesh Gulhane MP (Con) returns with another dodgy survey as part of a wider attempt to undermine the SNP. The facts, not mentioned: First, staffing: NHS Scotland has 181 000 staff, 1 for every 30 members of the population of 5.44 million. NHS England has 1.4 million staff, 1 for every 40 members of the population of 56 million. NHS Wales has 90 000 million staff, 1 for every 35 members of the population of 3.14 million. Sources: https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/media/rgyfigzk/workforce-report-june-2022.html#:~:text=On%2031%20March%202022%2C%20NHS,156%2C875.6%20WTE%20(Figure%203.1). https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/nhs-workforce#:~:text=and%20staff%20wellbeing.-,Workforce%20by%20staff%20group,time%20equivalent%20(FTE)%20basis. https://heiw.nhs.wales/careers/working-in-nhs-wales/#:~:text=The%20NHS%20is%20the%20largest%20employer%20in%20Wales%20with%20over%2090%2C000%20staff. Almost without exception, across Scotland, there are … Continue reading As Reporting Scotland headline unreliable doctor’s union figures, remember the facts

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Daily Record gets Sturgeon tax wrong in sad effort to malign her

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In the Record today: Nicola Sturgeon can avoid paying the new higher rate of tax announced in the budget despite earning up to £300,000 from a book deal. The former First Minister set up a company to manage the income from her lucrative deal with publishers Pan Macmillan earlier this year. Sturgeon is the sole director of the firm which will be subject to just 19 per cent corporation tax on any profits it makes rather than the new 45 per cent rate set by the SNP/Green government in last week’s budget. Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy MSP said: “Everyone already assumed that Nicola Sturgeon had … Continue reading Daily Record gets Sturgeon tax wrong in sad effort to malign her

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Special constables make up only 2.4% of the force and are barely usable yet the Herald and the Lib Dumbs imagine ‘alarm’

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In the Herald today: Alarms have been raised that Police Scotland’s special constabulary is heading for “extinction” as new figures revealed there are almost 1,000 fewer officers on the beat than a decade ago. Data provided to the Scottish LibDems shows 409 special constables were in the force in 2022-23, compared to 1,394 in 2013-14 – a fall of 985. As always with the Lib Dumbs, you never get the revealing percentage – there are 16 613, up from 16 570 last year, police officers so their 409 special constables, unpaid volunteers, represent only 2.4% of the force. As for … Continue reading Special constables make up only 2.4% of the force and are barely usable yet the Herald and the Lib Dumbs imagine ‘alarm’

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SNP’s Scotland seems very attractive to the world if you look at actual evidence, Chris Deerin

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From Ernst & Young on 19 June 2023: https://www.ey.com/en_uk/news/2023/06/scotlands-foreign-investment-grows-with-record-results Who is Chris Deerin really? Not just a journo. See this from October 2023: That’s according to research for a think tank. The Commission on School Reform says ministers must work with councils to reverse the trend. The Scottish government says it’s looking at challenges that influence attendance…..the figures are based on Freedom of Information requests from the Scottish local authorities who were able to respond to them. The figures suggest nearly one in three children are missing an average of one day a fortnight, while nearly 20% of high school pupils miss … Continue reading SNP’s Scotland seems very attractive to the world if you look at actual evidence, Chris Deerin

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Scotland and nuclear power – Research suggests small modular reactors increase waste quantity by up to 30 times

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stewartb Small modular reactors (SMRs i.e. nuclear reactors that produce <300 MW electricity) have been getting a lot of attention because of claims of inherent safety features and reduced cost [from GMB, Cons and Labour]. It is possible that it will be SMRs that the UK government pushes towards Scotland. Adversely critical or sceptical voices on SMRs don’t get much coverage by the media. The peer reviewed academic paper on SMRs referenced below notes that ‘remarkably few studies have analyzed the management and disposal of their nuclear waste streams.’ Comparing three distinct SMR designs to a conventional 1,100-MW elec pressurized … Continue reading Scotland and nuclear power – Research suggests small modular reactors increase waste quantity by up to 30 times