Tag: news

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Royal College of Emergency Medicine opts NOT to share own analysis with Scotland’s voters – that A&E performance in NHS Scotland is best in UK by FAR!

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By stewartb Let’s begin by taking back control of the ‘framing’ from BBC Scotland: ‘A&E performance by NHS Scotland is indeed by far the best in UK’. The Scotland section of the BBC News website on 4 October ran one of its regular features on the state of A&E services within NHS Scotland. The article was constructed around the remarks of the Vice President for Scotland of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). It followed a common pattern – negative, in parts alarmist, reported uncritically and without context or perspective. And being a BBC Scotland article, it omitted that … Continue reading Royal College of Emergency Medicine opts NOT to share own analysis with Scotland’s voters – that A&E performance in NHS Scotland is best in UK by FAR!

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Ferret Factchecked – Levels of recorded crime ARE at 40 and even 50-year lows and victims themselves report a halving of incidences since 2007/2008 – read the proper research, read your own graph

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By Professor John Robertson: Once again, thanks to Dottie for sharing this with me. The often unreliable Ferret, so much less trustworthy than the English Canary factchecker, has this today: John Swinney defended the Scottish Government’s record on justice during first minister’s questions (FMQs) on October 26, claiming crime was at an all-time low. During questioning from Douglas Ross, appearing at his last FMQs as leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Swinney said he must “put on the record” that “levels of crime in Scotland are currently at 40-year lows”. Ferret Fact Service looked at this claim and found it Mostly False. The Ferret base their … Continue reading Ferret Factchecked – Levels of recorded crime ARE at 40 and even 50-year lows and victims themselves report a halving of incidences since 2007/2008 – read the proper research, read your own graph

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Another nail in Scottish Labour’s nuclear balloon as cost of one station in England now exceeds total devolved budget for Scotland

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I’m grateful to Dottie once more for alerting me to this and for the above headline mixing metaphors to good effect in triggering the above image in my head. From the FT yesterday: UK ministers have made contingency arrangements to fund the Sizewell C nuclear power project in case a final agreement with potential private investors is delayed by as much as two years, officials have admitted. A £5.5bn subsidy scheme set up in August to support the construction of Britain’s next nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk envisages a scenario where there is no agreement with private sector … Continue reading Another nail in Scottish Labour’s nuclear balloon as cost of one station in England now exceeds total devolved budget for Scotland

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A flood of water complaints in England and Wales but barely a dribble in Scotland

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In the Guardian today: The number of customer complaints that were unable to be resolved by water companies in England and Wales has risen by almost a third to the highest level in nearly a decade. There was a 29% increase in 2023-24 in cases escalated to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) by households that failed to achieve a resolution from their supplier, the watchdog said. The jump has been fuelled by consumer discontent over sewage spills, billing mistakes and problems with water meters, with customers having exhausted their water supplier’s two-stage complaints process by the time they turned to the CCW. Its annual report … Continue reading A flood of water complaints in England and Wales but barely a dribble in Scotland

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On impact of Westminster on Wales and Scotland, why do views of British Labour Party leaders in Wales differ so greatly from Party bosses in Scotland?

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By stewartb – a long read In December 2023, the British Labour Party’s government for Wales published its ‘Draft Budget 2024-24’. It provides the Party’s explanation for the present state of public services in Wales and the financial constraints on the government in Cardiff in its (less than successful) efforts to date to deliver much needed improvements. (Source: https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2023-12/2024-2025-draft-budget-narrative.pdf ) Candidly, the explanation it provides would be dismissed in a Scotland context by British Labour Party politicians. It’s an explanation that in Scotland would be ignored by BBC Scotland, STV and most of the mainstream news media supposedly ‘serving’ our … Continue reading On impact of Westminster on Wales and Scotland, why do views of British Labour Party leaders in Wales differ so greatly from Party bosses in Scotland?

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BBC Scotland’s ‘lead infection control doctor’ contradicts the research she led but which did not support her scaremongering and unscientific current position on the inquiry

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By Professor John Robertson: I’m grateful to cuckooshoe for alerting me to NHS Scotland Assure Research Q&A Cupriavidus” Dr Theresa Inkster. Research Q&A: Prevalence and concentration of Cupriavidus and other opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens (OPPPs) in healthcare water systems across Scotland and England published in In an astonishing reversal of the findings from the above which she led, Inkster, today tells us: A senior doctor has told an inquiry she was “appalled” at the state of child cancer wards when a new £870m hospital opened in Glasgow in 2015. In evidence presented to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, infection control doctor … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s ‘lead infection control doctor’ contradicts the research she led but which did not support her scaremongering and unscientific current position on the inquiry

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Year after year, Scotland builds far more, 370 000 per head, affordable (really) housing than England

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By Professor John Robertson Today, the Scottish Government published Affordable Housing Supply Programme: quarterly updates on approvals, site starts and completions for the year 2023/2024. I thought I’d compare this with the most recent data for England. There are doubts about just how affordable English builds are, but I’ll park that for now. The first two rows are self-explanatory. The third row suggests how many Scotland might have built if it had England’s population, 10 times greater. The fourth gives the surplus Scotland built, per head of population, as many 40 751 more in 2022/2023. Note that the smallest surplus … Continue reading Year after year, Scotland builds far more, 370 000 per head, affordable (really) housing than England

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Children’s Cancer Wards Inquiry – Relying on a doctor who resigned before the supposed ‘spike’, repeating the lie that there was a ‘spike’ in infections and ignoring fact that QEUH’s child cancer wards had the same infection rate as other hospitals

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Today, BBC Scotland tells us: A senior doctor has told an inquiry she was “appalled” at the state of child cancer wards when a new £870m hospital opened in Glasgow in 2015. In evidence presented to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry, infection control doctor Teresa Inkster said she felt “something had gone horribly wrong”. Dr Inkster was the lead infection control doctor for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde from April 2016 to September 2019. During that time the children’s cancer wards were forced to close because of a spike in unusual infections. Note the use of the word ‘felt’ … Continue reading Children’s Cancer Wards Inquiry – Relying on a doctor who resigned before the supposed ‘spike’, repeating the lie that there was a ‘spike’ in infections and ignoring fact that QEUH’s child cancer wards had the same infection rate as other hospitals

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No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless…

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stewartb ‘The BBC Scotland report does not mention ………………….Wales’ No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless … you know what! And no British Labour Party politician in Scotland acknowledges the validity of comparing matters in Scotland with equivalents in British Labour Party run Wales. On education and the experiences of young people in Wales, the following report (March 2024) from the BBC’s much favoured, ‘authoritative’ think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies must never be referred to in the hearing of a potential Labour voter in Scotland! Source https://ifs.org.uk/publications/major-challenges-education-wales ‘.. there is a great … Continue reading No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless…

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Valentine’s Day Massacre of the Truth

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Anonymous The new Director of BBC Scotland has been announced. It is Hayley Valentine. Same Hayley Valentine who in 2019 was reported as saying this: “I was involved in our referendum programming. I will defend it to accusations of bias until my dying day. I firmly believe that the BBC is not biased, that there is no agenda.” So it seems, as per, that there will be ‘no change then at the BBC in Scotland with their particular brand of preferred propaganda’. Hayley Valentine is currently the head of BBC Midlands. However to add salt onto the (Scottish) wounds this appointment was hailed by the BBC director general Tim Davie ( a former Tory candidate) as being a positive for … Continue reading Valentine’s Day Massacre of the Truth