Tag: travel

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Housing supply? Glasgow leaves Liverpool and Manchester in their dust

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From STV yesterday: Council moves ahead with £674m plan for thousands of affordable homes in Glasgow. The council’s ‘ambitious’ plans could see 12,000 additional homes and city centre commercial conversions if funding is made available Glasgow City Council is moving ahead with plans to build thousands of affordable homes across the city at a cost of £674m. According to council bosses, the “ambitious programme” will deliver 6,500 new homes, with another 12,000 to be delivered should funds be made available. It is part of the council’s strategic housing investment programme (SHIP) for 2027 to 2032, which addresses the city’s housing … Continue reading Housing supply? Glasgow leaves Liverpool and Manchester in their dust

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The Western Link 2 from Ayrshire to Wales and the West Midlands – a colonial project with no sign of a full, completed independent expert impact assessment

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In the Ayrshire Advertiser today, the above and: The next step has been taken in plans for the Western Link 2 electricity project linking Ayrshire with the west coast of Wales. Applicants are seeking a scoping opinion relating to the proposed high-voltage direct-current subsea cable. The project is being jointly developed by National Grid and Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN). The project involves a 13km underground cable linking a new converter station next to Kilmarnock South substation with a landfall point on the coast near Monkton. There will be a 30km marine HVDC cable between Monkton and Grangestone, north of … Continue reading The Western Link 2 from Ayrshire to Wales and the West Midlands – a colonial project with no sign of a full, completed independent expert impact assessment

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AHOY SCOTLAND: FULL STEAM ASTERN!

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By Mark E. Saunders of “The Scottish Minuteman” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=61575625542197 — More money to keep us afloat. Less investment to help us move forward — Since the Labour government’s budget last month, there has been quite a bit of talk about Westminster giving Scotland an additional £600 million to ‘spend’. But there’s a little more to that story than meets the eye — or the ears for that matter. Firstly, the £600 million isn’t an annual payment. It’s the total additional funding spread across four years. And secondly, when you look at where the money is going, things become a wee bit less impressive. It … Continue reading AHOY SCOTLAND: FULL STEAM ASTERN!

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Experimenting on monkeys in Scotland is a reserved matter, Labour’s Home Secretary David Blunkett was responsible for agreeing to it and Donald Trump had shares in it

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The Ferret today has a piece on Nearly 500 monkeys have been transported more than 6000 miles to Scotland from Mauritius to be used in animal experiments since the start of 2025, The Ferret can reveal. The monkeys are used in tests at a research site in Tranent run by a company called Charles River Laboratories that buys, sells and experiments on animals. The US multinational – which specialises in gene and cell therapy, medical devices, and biotechnology – conducts research on dogs, monkeys, rats and mice to make medicines, fertilisers and weedkillers. https://www.theferret.scot/hundreds-monkeys-imported-scotland/?ref=story-alerts-newsletter Their report does refer to UK … Continue reading Experimenting on monkeys in Scotland is a reserved matter, Labour’s Home Secretary David Blunkett was responsible for agreeing to it and Donald Trump had shares in it

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Herald readers, amid their latest ferry feeding frenzy with F-all facts, need a further good reminder how much the SNP has done for islanders also with grant subsidies

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Thanks to TuS reader Legerwood for reminding me that Herald readers, amid their latest ferry feeding frenzy with F-all facts, need a further good reminder how much the SNP has done for them especially with grant subsidies out of our budget The Scotsman 11 August 2026, quotes a Labour MSP saying ‘Our islands have been let down, time and again, by the SNP.’ Readers will know that CalMac is almost certainly the best – cheapest, most frequent, most reliable, safest – in the world. How reliable, currently, has CalMac been for, say Mull? In February 2026, latest figures, in a … Continue reading Herald readers, amid their latest ferry feeding frenzy with F-all facts, need a further good reminder how much the SNP has done for islanders also with grant subsidies

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Herald readers, amid their latest ferry feeding frenzy with F-all facts, need a good reminder how much the SNP has done for islanders especially with the Road Equivalent Tariff [RET]

johnrobertson834

Thanks to TuS reader Legerwood for reminding me that Herald readers, amid their latest ferry feeding frenzy with F-all facts, need a good reminder how much the SNP has done for them especially with the Road Equivalent Tariff [RET] on the Clyde and Hebridean Network Another ferry ‘fiasco report’ on 12 January 2026. The facts hidden every time they write this rancid garbage: There’s a very significant background story never told of just how much this SNP Government has done to transform life on the islands, funded by the rest of us living often in less pleasant places and with … Continue reading Herald readers, amid their latest ferry feeding frenzy with F-all facts, need a good reminder how much the SNP has done for islanders especially with the Road Equivalent Tariff [RET]

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CalMac has one of the youngest ferry fleets in the developed world

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From the Herald (SoS) today, the above and: This is a new low for Maritime Williams, the Herald’s Captain Hogwash. ’15 of 33 vessels now at least 30 or over?’ There 37 CalMac ferries in service and there are 15 in that age range. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_MacBrayne_fleet Who to compare with? Washington State Ferries, operating out of Seattle to a comparable island archipelago in the USA and British Columbia Ferries, operating out of Vancouver to a comparable island archipelago in Canada, but both areas with a GDP far higher than in Scotland. Isle of Wight and Channel Island ferries are far too … Continue reading CalMac has one of the youngest ferry fleets in the developed world

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STV accuse Stephen Flynn of paving over storm drains in Largs five years earlier when he should have been in Westminster. Experts say such storms cannot be fully defended against

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Did the young STV reporter with the Ulster accent think she was speaking to a local councillor tonight in Largs when prompted by a chocolate shop owner, she accused Stephen Flynn, Transport Minister, personally and directly of having paved over storm drains. The shop owner, left, with her party leader: The resurfacing of the road outside the shop was resurfaced by Amey in 2021 with further work after more flooding in 2025. Might the flooding this time be due to the intensity of this storm? Yes — the intensity of Storm Boelo was almost certainly a major factor in the … Continue reading STV accuse Stephen Flynn of paving over storm drains in Largs five years earlier when he should have been in Westminster. Experts say such storms cannot be fully defended against

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Storm Boelo today is further evidence that Scotland does not need cheap, unseaworthy, catamaran ferries – Why on earth do Liberation Scotland support them?

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The combination, above, of adequate crew, decently paid, and the stability of employment needed to learn such skill, along with the superiority of well-built, at times ‘expensive’ mono-hulls over the cheap catamarans some would foist on us in a politicised media campaign against the SNP in government. Storm Boelo reminds us of this tragic event in August 2026: Widely broadcast this morning and from BBC Europe yesterday, the above and: At least eight people have died and 18 others are still missing after a passenger boat [a twin-hulled catamaran] capsized off northern Cyprus, the head of the Turkish administration there … Continue reading Storm Boelo today is further evidence that Scotland does not need cheap, unseaworthy, catamaran ferries – Why on earth do Liberation Scotland support them?

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10.1% wait for more than half a day in NHS England’s Type 1 Emergency departments but only 5.4% do in Scotland – thousands saved after years with no strikes

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For some time now, if I offer any criticism of the media activity of Royal College of Emergency Medicine (Scotland) officers, I get long ‘hurt’ comments from Anonymouses. The media keep calling trade union reps, oh, OK ‘royal college’ reps, ‘leading’ doctors. They’re not especially though all of them are more impressive figures than me. It’s misleading and offensive to all the other doctors, some actually leading large teams, some at the ‘leading edge’ of new methods. Second, they insist on a ‘crisis’ when performance is demonstrably better than in NHS England where their colleagues seem less concerned to condemn … Continue reading 10.1% wait for more than half a day in NHS England’s Type 1 Emergency departments but only 5.4% do in Scotland – thousands saved after years with no strikes