Tag: scotland

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Why Scotland’s headline drug death figures are currently not based on a reliable measure

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Professor John Robertson OBA Media and opposition parties are morbidly determined to hang onto Scotland’s drug death status as a rare apparently objective stick to beat the SNP Government into submission with. Earlier this year, they were all irrepressibly delighted to hear that there was a 12% increase from 2022 to 2023, following disturbing, for them, reductions in each of the two previous years after nearly three decades of satisfyingly climbing figures.1 These National Records of Scotland data are based on post mortem blood tests and commonly presented as more reliable than the Suspected drug deaths in Scotland. The latter are collected … Continue reading Why Scotland’s headline drug death figures are currently not based on a reliable measure

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Safe drug consumption – handing the fruits of the SNP’s long efforts to Labour and hiding Glasgow and Scotland’s achievements

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Professor John Robertson OBA The Guardian above, painting a very Scottish initiative as belonging to the UK. UK Conservative governments have long refused, since at least 2019, requests from the SNP Government in Scotland, for permission to even pilot a safe drug consumption room. In 2021, long after the first calls were made, the Scottish Government published an evidence paper1 which made the strongest of cases for such facilities but still permission was refused. Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer in 2023, made it clear he agreed and that he did not wish to see any changes in drug laws, if elected in … Continue reading Safe drug consumption – handing the fruits of the SNP’s long efforts to Labour and hiding Glasgow and Scotland’s achievements

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Rail performance – BBC Scotland seeking to frame and amplify a newspaper’s front page story

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By stewartb The iWeekend’s front page is reproduced prominently in the Scotland section of the BBC News website today. One has to magnify the picture on the web page to read the text immediately below the headline which notes: ‘… with Scotrail performing better than most’. This appearance of the I’s front page on the BBC site provides yet another ‘noteworthy’ example of editorial choices by the BBC in Scotland! On TuS on December 20 there was a post with this headline: ‘Too positive to be newsworthy? Scotland’s train cancellations found to be lowest of any country or region in Great … Continue reading Rail performance – BBC Scotland seeking to frame and amplify a newspaper’s front page story

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Imagine Calmac risked your life for corporate profit?

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People injured after P&O cruise ship involved in ‘weather-related incident’ in Mallorca As CalMac cancels sailings today, It’s worth remembering incidents like the above in 2023. Leaving aside weather cancellations for winds above 45knots, how does CalMac do, while keeping everyone safe? Take the much talked-about Arran service? 97% on time: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://assets.calmac.co.uk/media/lbwmmqfn/arran-oct-24.pdf With the weather cancellations included, still 85%. I’ll leave you to check the others at: https://www.calmac.co.uk/en-gb/service-status/#/service-status How does the comparable BC Ferries in wealthy Canada do? There have been several deaths associated with BC Ferries, including the drowning of a worker in 2020 and the sinking of the MV … Continue reading Imagine Calmac risked your life for corporate profit?

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How a ‘Scotland Edition’ is completely off-track and failing to tell you that Scotrail is 96% on time

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Today’s iWeekend title page, clearly completely ignorant and unconcerned, to provide Scots with the truth. What is the truth? ScotRail has been named as one of the most reliable train companies in the UK in a new study. Analysis of official figures for the UK’s 24 major train operators, focusing on the percentage of train journeys either cancelled or delayed by 15 minutes or more, showed ScotRail with the fourth best performance. The study said on average 3.61 per cent of ScotRail journeys between January 2021 and September 2023 were seriously late or cancelled. The study was carried out by travel … Continue reading How a ‘Scotland Edition’ is completely off-track and failing to tell you that Scotrail is 96% on time

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3 years after SNP end all hospital parking charges, hospital staff in England pay more that £50 per week

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Frankly, I’m shocked to hear today, the BBC report that one English hospital has just announced free Christmas parking, only days after a Brighton hospital essential worker reported paying more than £50 per week. Yesterday, I parked free at the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank, never thinking for a minute than anyone paid to park for a hospital visit, these days. The SNP scrapped the charges in 2008. Surely Gordon Brown while PM then would have scrapped them in England too, as he ‘led’ the UK into the 2010 General Election, if he had any gumption, never mind compassion. He … Continue reading 3 years after SNP end all hospital parking charges, hospital staff in England pay more that £50 per week

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Too positive to be newsworthy? Scotland’s train cancellations found to be lowest of any country or region in Great Britain.

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By stewartb ‘Worst major train stations for cancellations named’ is the headline of a BBC News website article today (December 20). Despite being Great Britain wide in scope, the story features in the site’s news for England. The same story featured prominently in Radio 4’s Today programme (also on December 20), both in news bulletins and in interviews, including with a Westminster government minister. Although a Today presenter challenged the Labour minister about the benefit of rail run by the public sector in a part of England given its relatively high level of cancellations, the programme made no mention of … Continue reading Too positive to be newsworthy? Scotland’s train cancellations found to be lowest of any country or region in Great Britain.

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Hospital admissions – why are flu intensive care cases not ‘notably increased’ in Scotland but ‘risk overwhelming hospitals’ in England?

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Professor John Robertson OBA To set the scene for this report, do listen to John Grady MP for Glasgow East, corporate lawyer and holder of a typical Edinburgh University accent, above. If you can, then read on. From the Guardian yesterday: Surge in flu cases risks overwhelming hospitals in England, says NHS chief – Health service concerned that early ‘flood’ of infections will be made worse by family gatherings at Christmas…Last week 125 people were so seriously ill with flu they were being treated in critical care, almost double the 66 who were receiving life-or-death care because of the virus the week … Continue reading Hospital admissions – why are flu intensive care cases not ‘notably increased’ in Scotland but ‘risk overwhelming hospitals’ in England?

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Why building CalMac ferries, quicker and cheaper in Turkey might not have been such a good idea after all

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From STV on 28th March 2024, as a media frenzy risked the future of commercial shipbuilding in the Clyde, just to attack the SNP Government, in support of the 2024 General Election Labour campaign: All four Calmac ferries being built in Turkey ‘are on time and on budget’ By August 2024, the Herald told us: Four ferries being built in Turkey for CalMac will be delayed, with the first having been due to be delivered this month. MV Isle of Islay was due to be delivered by mid-October, but it was announced in August that it would not be delivered … Continue reading Why building CalMac ferries, quicker and cheaper in Turkey might not have been such a good idea after all

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Scotland’s media ignore massive increase in criminal convictions including a 103% increase in rape convictions only two years after pandemic constraints end

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Criminal Proceedings in Scotland 2022-23, published yesterday, we can see that there were 68 067 people convicted of a criminal offence in Scotland in 2022/2023 (latest figures), 59.8% up from the 2020/2021 figure of 42 614. Reassuringly, for serious crimes dealt with in the High Court, the figure was 733, almost double the 2020/2021 figure of 375 and up from the previous high, in 2014 of 702. Also reassuring, there was a 29% increase on the 2014 figure for Sexual crimes including a 63% increase from 2014, in people proceeded against for rape and attempted rape … Continue reading Scotland’s media ignore massive increase in criminal convictions including a 103% increase in rape convictions only two years after pandemic constraints end