Tag: scotland

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Sarwar’s non dom tax might increase medical appointments by less than 1%!

johnrobertson834

Once more, Labour have trouble with their sums. From STV today: Scottish Labour would use the money raised from closing the non-dom tax loophole in the UK to slash NHS waiting lists in Scotland, Anas Sarwar will pledge. The Scottish Labour leader will tell the party’s conference in Glasgow that the policy could fund 160,000 new NHS appointments a year. Scottish Labour’s three-day conference begins on Friday at the Scottish Event Campus and will end on Sunday. Keir Starmer said in October that £1.5bn raised by scrapping the loophole would go to funding more NHS appointments. Scottish Labour said that … Continue reading Sarwar’s non dom tax might increase medical appointments by less than 1%!

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Mis-representing anti-Semitism in Scotland

johnrobertson834

See anything odd, inconsistent, in the above map which suggests by colouring and by position in a table, that Scotland is the sixth worst part of the UK for anti-Semitic incidents? Even Wales is accurately broken down into regions like England so that we can see more accurately just where the problem is, but Scotland is presented as one region with the data totalled to make it seem worse. There are 34 council areas in Scotland so, on average each has had 2 anti-Semitic incidents putting most down at the bottom of that table. Remember that putting a leaflet through … Continue reading Mis-representing anti-Semitism in Scotland

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Reporting anti-semitism in Scotland badly

johnrobertson834

that’s according to Jewish charity the Community Security Trust. It says 68 incidents were recorded here in Scotland. Reporting Scotland, once more headlining a worry about life in Scotland that the website does not feature: Once more, numbers with no context. UK-wide, the CST reported 4 103 cases. With one eleventh of the population, all things being equal, you might expect Scotland to have had around 370 cases but had 68, just over one-sixth of the level. Might that be newsworthy here? What were the Scottish examples in the report? One example of a mass-produced evangelical leaflet sent to a … Continue reading Reporting anti-semitism in Scotland badly

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Is there no BBC Scotland reporting immune from omissions to favour the Union?

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By stewartb The initial purpose here was to comment solely on a divergence of view between the National Farmers Union in Scotland (NFU Scotland ) and the Tory Party. The difference became evident in responses to the First Minister’s speech to NFU Scotland’s annual conference in Glasgow on 9 February. But reading the coverage of the same speech on the BBC News website’s Scotland page, additional noteworthy aspects emerged! The FM was setting out the Scottish Government’s future funding plans for the agriculture sector as necessitated by the transition away from the EU Common Agriculture Policy, post-Brexit. Responding at the … Continue reading Is there no BBC Scotland reporting immune from omissions to favour the Union?

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Scotland’s large natural resources yet the poverty and austerity that much of its population endures 

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By Jim Stamper With Scotland’s population just over 8% of the UK’s, Scotland effectively gives over 90% of the income from our oil and gas to the rest of the UK.  With the Scottish Stock Exchange amalgamated into the London Stock Exchange in 1973 conveniently no income is allocated as coming from Scotland.  Also, according to National Grid statistics, up to 3.5 Gigawatts of electricity can be transferred between Scotland and England, 90% going from Scotland to England.   Also a proposal exists to construct a link enabling the transport of up to 2GW of energy from Scotland’s renewable energy reserves … Continue reading Scotland’s large natural resources yet the poverty and austerity that much of its population endures 

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Ferry fiasco as older Australian ferries have to be brought back into service when cheap Chinese replacements fail

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From North Beaches Advocate tomorrow: Emerald-class ferry fiasco Feb 12, 2024 – Unreliable engines will be replaced with ‘renewable ready’ upgrades in the three Emerald-class Manly ferries. Concerns over the reliability of the new Generation 2 Emerald-class ferry fleet have been mounting since they first entered service in October 2021. Although criticised for being Chinese built, the shipbuilder claimed the design of the ferries and propulsion systems were all sourced in Australia.As the new Generation 2 Emerald-class fleet entered service, the older Freshwater-class ferries were due to be retired, but gradually, all but one has re-entered service as concerns over safety and reliability issues mounted. https://www.northernbeachesadvocate.com.au/2024/02/12/emerald-class-ferry-fiasco/ Cheap … Continue reading Ferry fiasco as older Australian ferries have to be brought back into service when cheap Chinese replacements fail

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Scotland’s cancer incidence level is much higher than the average in every part of world – SNP MP exposes likely cause in pollution from the most dangerous nuclear site in Europe

johnrobertson834

Apologies for posting and then quickly deleting this yesterday. I made a mistake with the stats and know from previous errors that one wee slip and all your other work is cast into doubt. I’m 72, on my own, still impulsive after all these years and breengin’ to the end. It’s sorted now. Two recent reports in the National (links below), by Ayr MP Allan Dorans, have exposed levels of radioactivity in seafood, other wildlife and in river estuary sediment, from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria, described recently in the Guardian as ‘Europe’s most toxic nuclear site‘. These … Continue reading Scotland’s cancer incidence level is much higher than the average in every part of world – SNP MP exposes likely cause in pollution from the most dangerous nuclear site in Europe

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NHS Scotland is far better staffed and is returning to pre-pandemic treatment levels but this IFS twit can’t even do basic arithmetic!

johnrobertson834

Straight after we hear that Neil Grey is ‘facing‘ his first day as Health Secretary, Reporting Scotland at 06:27am: It comes as the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says the NHS is handling fewer patients – including 21% fewer elective in-patients – but costing more. A Scottish Government spokesperson said they remain committed to reducing waits for planned and emergency care. Then from Max, above: I think this should be one of the highest priorities for the new health secretary. NHS and health spending is one of the largest fings (sic) the Scottish Government or most governments do and when you … Continue reading NHS Scotland is far better staffed and is returning to pre-pandemic treatment levels but this IFS twit can’t even do basic arithmetic!

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NHS England told to treat the less sick BEFORE those ‘at death’s door’ to meet Tory ‘political’ targets

johnrobertson834

This is all-too-familiar to us here. I’ve reported on NHS England re-starting the clock after A&E arrivals have been admitted to a department, to improve published statistics; on NHS Wales reducing targets from 95% for cancer waiting times, to 70%, to make things look less bad; on Public Health England not counting care home deaths to make their Covid death rate seem comparable to those in Scotland; on BBC UK using the ‘All’ A&E waiting time figures to compare with our ‘ED’ only performance to make theirs seem bearable and on English hospitals ‘coping’ with third world hospital-acquired Covid infection … Continue reading NHS England told to treat the less sick BEFORE those ‘at death’s door’ to meet Tory ‘political’ targets

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NHS Scotland does 97% of ops on time

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From Public Health Scotland, today: In the quarter ending December 2023, there were 20,837 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. Only 515 (2.5%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons. From Public Health Scotland a year ago: In the quarter ending December 2022, the total number of planned operations across NHS Scotland during December 2022 was 17,269. This represents a decrease of 19.1% from 21,336 in November 2022 but is 14.6% higher than the number planned in December 2021. 493 (2.9%) were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons. From these data, … Continue reading NHS Scotland does 97% of ops on time