Police Scotland less likely to stop and search children and minorities

Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this> By Professor John Robertson The Guardian today has the above and: Hundreds of children under 10 faced stop and search by police last year, including some who were strip-searched, the Observer can reveal. At least 432 children under the age of criminal responsibility were searched by the police forces in England and Wales in 2023, according to data.police.uk, an official site for open data on crime and policing. Nearly a quarter of all the searches were conducted on those from black, Asian, or other minority ethnic backgrounds – disproportionately high compared with population representation. First, putting the … Continue reading Police Scotland less likely to stop and search children and minorities

Nearly three times as many employee owned businesses per head in Scotland than in England or in Labour Wales

By Professor John Robertson Across the board, from health, through education and crime, Labour has made an asyn of running Wales, generally blaming the UK for all its ills. Today, Scottish Enterprise was able to announce: Latest figures show there are currently 286 EOBs operating in Scotland – up from 195 in 2022 – comprised of 177 Scottish-registered EOBs, 25 Scottish-registered workers’ cooperatives and 84 EOBs. At the last published count, in June 2023, there were 63 EOBs in Wales. Wales has 58% of Scotland’s population, so all things being equal, might be expected to have around 58% of Scotland’s … Continue reading Nearly three times as many employee owned businesses per head in Scotland than in England or in Labour Wales

The relative effectiveness of Scotland’s health services – so different from what Unionist politicians and their MSM allies portray in their gaslighting of Scotland’s electorate!

By stewartb You may be interested to learn the following about childhood vaccination take-up rates. Source: NHS England (28 Sep 2023) Childhood Vaccination Coverage Statistics, England, 2022-23.  See the section of the report entitled ‘Coverage in UK countries – 2022-23’: it has a table which displays the latest annual (2022-23) coverage values for all childhood vaccinations across the four UK countries. Overwhelmingly, the take-up rates in Scotland are the highest of any UK country across the full range of childhood vaccinations. (See https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-immunisation-statistics/england-2022-23/6in-1-vaccine  ) To prevent whooping cough, the childhood disease in the news today from England, the relevant vaccine is termed … Continue reading The relative effectiveness of Scotland’s health services – so different from what Unionist politicians and their MSM allies portray in their gaslighting of Scotland’s electorate!

Factcheck- 418 900 fewer staff in NHS England, ‘leading to patient deaths’, than if it were run by SNP Government!

By Professor John Robertson In the Observer today, the above, and: Hospitals are being forced to cut medical staff, threatening their ability to care for patients, senior health leaders have warned. NHS trusts are reporting budget deficits after the chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave England’s health service £2.5bn extra funding, which only covers inflation and pay increases. The UK’s ageing population and the impact of having more than 6 million patients waiting for more than 7.5m treatments means that demand on the health service has increased substantially. https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/05/cuts-will-result-in-patient-deaths-hospitals-shed-medical-staff-after-being-told-to-balance-the-books Further staffing cuts in NHS England staffing will exacerbate an already worrying level of staffing. … Continue reading Factcheck- 418 900 fewer staff in NHS England, ‘leading to patient deaths’, than if it were run by SNP Government!

Encouraging research reveals Scotland not ‘worst in world’ for teen drinking and smoking but England might be

By Professor John Robertson In the Guardian today, there’s some pretty bad news in the above graph regarding England’s 15 year-old girls, with a sharp increase from 2018 in the percentage having smoked. There’s some but far less so for Scotland, as our 15 year-old boys and girls, reveal a slight fall to stay significantly below the average in this WHO survey of 280 000 children in 48 countries . For alcohol consumption by 13 year-old boys, the picture in Scotland is very positive with a significant fall from 2018 in the percentage having drunk alcohol. For girls there is … Continue reading Encouraging research reveals Scotland not ‘worst in world’ for teen drinking and smoking but England might be

National Parks England & Wales on Raptor protection – ‘The Westminster and Welsh Governments should follow Scotland’s lead’

By Professor John Robertson Big in the Guardian today, completely ignored in other MSM, the above from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/09/national-parks-in-england-and-wales-failing-on-biodiversity-say-campaigners has nothing to say about Scotland. Why should it? This on page 77: In response to ongoing raptor persecution, the Scottish Government introduced vicarious liability offences in District National Park. The birdwatcher had spotted a short-eared owl and watched it through his scope as it gracefully quartered the moor. Suddenly, the bird’s body was lost in a cloud of feathers as a shot rang out across the moors. The eyewitness managed to record footage of the suspect and reported the incident to … Continue reading National Parks England & Wales on Raptor protection – ‘The Westminster and Welsh Governments should follow Scotland’s lead’

Under Labour, NHS Wales has a waiting list 36% longer than England and 150% longer than Scotland

By Professor John Robertson As the Guardian reports today a surge in waiting times in England, after a year of strikes, I thought I’d have a look at NHS Wales, led by the Labour Party, to see if that might offer us hope for better performance as the they take over in England next year. England has 18 times the population of Wales. Scotland has 1.7 times the population of Wales. According to the BMJ in March 2023, there were 734 000 on the NHS Wales waiting lists (presumably more now). https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/nhs-under-pressure-wales#:~:text=Waiting%20lists%20remain%20high&text=In%20March%202023%2C%20there%20were,it%20was%20in%20March%202020. All things being equal, you’d then expect England … Continue reading Under Labour, NHS Wales has a waiting list 36% longer than England and 150% longer than Scotland

Why does only Scotland need to hear of national grid problems it does not actually have?

Included in Reporting Scotland’s very short insert in BBC Breakfast and the main story on the BBC Scotland website (below), ‘The National Grid’ and its need for massive investment to make sure it can provide the flow of electricity to ‘homes and businesses’, makes no mention of the key fact that Scotland does not ‘need’ this at all; the rest of the UK does. Scotland is currently transferring 1.69TWh of electricity per month to England, more than 20TWh in 2023 and on some days (above graph) pushing 30TWh. https://news.duke-energy.com/releases/duke-energy-customers-surpass-1-terawatt-of-energy-savings-through-my-home-energy-report-program 1TWh would sell globally for about $120 000 per hour, so … Continue reading Why does only Scotland need to hear of national grid problems it does not actually have?

NHS Scotland – the best performing A&E service measured by waiting times of any in the UK

Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ By stewartb The Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s (RCEM) website has a section entitled ‘Devolved Performance Figures’ where it provides comparable A&E waiting times data for the NHS in the four UK nations. Presently these enables direct comparisons for the month of January 2024. Under a Tory government with all the powers of a nation-state: NHS England: ‘In January 2024, 177,805 patients waited 12 hours or more from their time of arrival. The MOST AMOUNT … Continue reading NHS Scotland – the best performing A&E service measured by waiting times of any in the UK

Reported domestic abuse in England & Wales climbing steadily to THREE times the rate in Scotland where it is also falling steadily

Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ BBC Reporting Scotland today is headlining the stories of 7 abused women whose cases, often several years old, have again become ‘the news‘ as they form the basis for another of their Disclosure series. Once more there is no context. Have these crimes become more or less common? Are they more common in Scotland than elsewhere? These are questions we’d get the answers to if they were about drug deaths or any rare phenomenon … Continue reading Reported domestic abuse in England & Wales climbing steadily to THREE times the rate in Scotland where it is also falling steadily