Tag: news

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Canadian Government has to buy wee Norwegian ferry second-hand for private company operating only 3 and losing 2, at last minute, and sail it round the warmer, calmer edges of the Atlantic for a month and 10 000 miles

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From CBC, today: New ferry for beleaguered P.E.I.-N.S. service making its way across Atlantic Ocean – The much-anticipated ferry slated for service between Wood Islands, P.E.I., and Caribou, N.S., is crossing the Atlantic Ocean on its way to the Maritimes, Transport Canada says. The ferry, which has been renamed MV Northumberland from MV Fanafjord, was acquired by Transport Canada on Dec. 12. It began its voyage from Norway to Canada on Dec. 23. The federal government paid about $40 million for the vessel. To avoid risks posed by winter conditions in the North Atlantic, the ferry moved south toward Cape Verde, off … Continue reading Canadian Government has to buy wee Norwegian ferry second-hand for private company operating only 3 and losing 2, at last minute, and sail it round the warmer, calmer edges of the Atlantic for a month and 10 000 miles

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Scotland – 8% of the population but 48% of the UK’s wind energy and a massive transfer of 6.1 TWh electricity

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From the Guardian today: UK electricity cleanest ever in 2024, with record 58% from low-carbon sources – UK has more than halved amount of electricity generated from fossil fuels but gas still had largest share at 28% https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/02/uk-electricity-cleanest-ever-in-2024-with-record-58-from-low-carbon-sources There’s no mention of Scotland’s contribution to this: Scotland powers nearly half of UK’s wind energy milestone. Scotland’s wind farms are generating 48% of the UK’s 30GW wind power capacity, with new projects pushing this total higher. https://www.energylivenews.com/2024/08/30/scotland-powers-nearly-half-of-uks-wind-energy-milestone/ Net electricity transfers from Scotland to England [in 2023] increased 15 per cent to 6.0 TWh year-on-year, with transfers from Scotland to England increasing … Continue reading Scotland – 8% of the population but 48% of the UK’s wind energy and a massive transfer of 6.1 TWh electricity

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How to spot spin and inappropriate use of statistics….from Jackie Baillie in the Daily Record

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By stewartb So £4.3 million spent over 5 years in Scotland’s hospitals – or an average of £860,000 per annum. Is that a big number of not? I can’t tell from the Daily Record article! I do note the article gives examples of ‘pests’ present in places like a ‘nurse’s bedroom’, a ‘doctor’s house’ and a ‘dental unit’ as well as hospitals, so the cost must be spread over a very numerous and diverse range of NHS Scotland premises! How much of that sum has been spent on preventative inspection and control measures – sensible and a necessity – as … Continue reading How to spot spin and inappropriate use of statistics….from Jackie Baillie in the Daily Record

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Dismissals increase as Police Scotland deal with abuse in the wake of Everard case in England but overall resignations fall in best paid force with falling crime levels

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From a Police Scotland Freedom of Information response on 17 December 2024, we see a steady increase in the force’s readiness to dismiss officers who have abused their position, from only 1 in 2019, to 7, 8 and 11 in the last three years. This follows Police Scotland action in2021: A new verification check for lone police officers in Scotland has been introduced in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard. Police Scotland said it wanted to reassure the public after she was abducted and killed by Metropolitan police officer Wayne Couzens. Couzens, 48, used his warrant card to … Continue reading Dismissals increase as Police Scotland deal with abuse in the wake of Everard case in England but overall resignations fall in best paid force with falling crime levels

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Disappointment for journalists as Scottish hospitals report the same level of rats, mice and cockroaches as English hospitals

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The Scottish media today are full of tales of rats, maggots and mice in hospitals, with £4.3m spent on pest control, by NHS Scotland over the last 5 years, on pest control . I can find no NHS England total but judging by a Guardian report in April 2023, based on a Lib Dem Freedom of Information request, each of England’s 142 trusts spent between £120 000 and £380 000 over the last 3 years. So, a conservative figure of £200 000 per trust, on average, over the last 3 years, £300 000 over the last 5? A total of … Continue reading Disappointment for journalists as Scottish hospitals report the same level of rats, mice and cockroaches as English hospitals

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In Scotland no actual ambulance crisis as in Wales but still even the possibility of delays has the BBC inviting Scottish Cons and Labour round to finish 2024 off with one more SNP-bad session

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By Professor John Robertson OBA You have to laugh as BBC Wales use the image on the left above for Ambulance chief says ‘drink sensibly’ over New Year after critical incident but BBC Scotland can only find the one parked outside a corner shop in Forfar as the paramedics nip in for bridies, for Ambulance crews put on highest level of emergency. BBC Wales have this staggering report: Welsh ambulance service chiefs have urged the public to “drink sensibly” at New Year to help reduce demand on emergency services that suffered a 340-call backlog on Monday. Jason Killens, chief executive of Welsh … Continue reading In Scotland no actual ambulance crisis as in Wales but still even the possibility of delays has the BBC inviting Scottish Cons and Labour round to finish 2024 off with one more SNP-bad session

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Women victims of homicide – selective reporting to exaggerate the phenomenon in Scotland and hide it in England & Wales

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In the Guardian today: Killed women count – 80 women allegedly killed by men in UK in 2024 – Throughout the year, the Guardian aimed to report on every woman whose death has led to a man being charged. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2024/dec/31/killed-women-count-a-project-highlighting-the-toll-and-tragedy-of-violence-against-women-in-the-uk There, then follow 80 tragic accounts. I can’t imagine many would want to read all the way. I started to read and something jumped out at me but before I discuss that, some important facts about women victims of homicide across the ‘UK.’ According to the ONS, there were 174 females victims of homicide in England and Wales, in 2023.1 … Continue reading Women victims of homicide – selective reporting to exaggerate the phenomenon in Scotland and hide it in England & Wales

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As religious hate crime falls to lowest level for 20 years in Scotland, we are picked out for a campaign to fight it ‘across the UK’

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Many thanks once more to Dottie for alerting me to this. In the Guardian today, by Hannah Al-Othman North of England correspondent, an image of a hate crime billboard in Glasgow and: Some of the UK’s largest police forces have reported increases in religious hate crimes in the past 18 months, figures reveal, with the number of incidents rising after the start of the Hamas-Israel conflict in autumn 2023 and again after the Southport attacks in England this summer. Forces including Greater Manchester, West Midlands and the Metropolitan police recorded sharp increases in antisemitic offences in the weeks … Continue reading As religious hate crime falls to lowest level for 20 years in Scotland, we are picked out for a campaign to fight it ‘across the UK’

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As the Sunday Mail sickeningly exploits the story of a child coming from Morocco to the UK but denied treatment, to attack Scotland, how this small country has helped its big neighbour

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By Professor John Robertson OBA The above front page would be hard to dive below. There are only 12 beds in two facilities in the UK which can carry out this specialist procedure. A child living in Morocco cannot be helped quickly enough and NHS Scotland, one tenth the size of NHS England, is somehow blamed for a lack of capacity UK-wide. While the Sunday Mail may love to offer this kind of sickly tale, we never hear these stories: First, in the Guardian 12 September 2023 , but getting no coverage at all across the BBC or ITV or the press: … Continue reading As the Sunday Mail sickeningly exploits the story of a child coming from Morocco to the UK but denied treatment, to attack Scotland, how this small country has helped its big neighbour

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What about the ferries? Somerset nuclear power station takes 24 years, will be at least 14 years late and cost at least £46bn, nearly three times original cost, and the aircraft carriers, destroyers, the tanks and the fast trains….?

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From the Guardian yesterday: Originally priced at £18bn, the cost of Hinkley has ballooned to £46bn and then there’s the delays. Back in 2007, the then EDF chief executive Vincent de Rivaz said that by Christmas 2017 we would be using electricity generated from atomic power at Hinkley. We’re now in Christmas 2024 and Hinkley isn’t due to be completed until 2031. Due to a novel funding method, a lengthy construction timeline for Sizewell will saddle consumers with higher bills long before it delivers a single unit of electricity at a time when there is clear evidence that we can … Continue reading What about the ferries? Somerset nuclear power station takes 24 years, will be at least 14 years late and cost at least £46bn, nearly three times original cost, and the aircraft carriers, destroyers, the tanks and the fast trains….?