Tag: travel

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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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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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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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Contrary to the Scottish media frenzy, NHS Grampian’s A&E is better than all but one of England’s health boards and 66% better (!!!) than in Thatcher’s, the last Health Secretary and these MP’s Lincolnshire

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By Professor John Robertson OBA Above, the eight MPs for Lincolnshire constituencies, Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace and now home to Reform’s Richard Tice and the Con Gammon’s Sir Edward Leith. Best of all, Victoria Atkins was Health Secretary under Sunak. Why am I interested in Lincolnshire? In October 2024, after 14 years of Tory government, NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board saw only 39.2% of full emergency department patients (Type 1) within the 4 hour target. NHS England as a whole managed only 58.1%.1 In NHS Grampian, the figure was 65%, 11.87% better than the English average and a shocking 65.8% better than the … Continue reading Contrary to the Scottish media frenzy, NHS Grampian’s A&E is better than all but one of England’s health boards and 66% better (!!!) than in Thatcher’s, the last Health Secretary and these MP’s Lincolnshire

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Herald lies about new house building as Scotland builds more than twice as many, per head, as Labour Wales over decades

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By Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald, today, reads the above graph to say: Building of homes at lowest in decade amid crisis – Fears over affordable housing From Housing Statistics for Scotland Quarterly Update: New Housebuilding and Affordable Housing Supply to end September 2024, published yesterday, new starts are at the lowest in a decade but completions, actual building, is still 25% up on the lowest level in 2013. Not, of course in the Herald report, though easily found in the same document, Scotland’s leading position in the UK and regularly building twice as many as in Labour-run Wales: As for … Continue reading Herald lies about new house building as Scotland builds more than twice as many, per head, as Labour Wales over decades

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Alcohol related hospital admissions in Scotland fall by one third after Labour Government ousted and plummet after minimum unit pricing introduced

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By Professor John Robertson OBA From Alcohol related hospital statistics, Scotland financial year 2023 to 2024, published today: In 2023/24, the European Age-sex standardised rate of alcohol-related hospital admissions to general acute hospitals was 548 per 100,000 population and was 3% higher than the rate in 2022/23 (532 per 100,000). https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/alcohol-related-hospital-statistics/alcohol-related-hospital-statistics-scotland-financial-year-2023-to-2024/ The above rate peaked at 885.4 per 100 000 in 2007/2008, the last year of the New Labour Scottish Government and the trend since, with one-year fluctuations as is typical, such as last year, has been steadily downward from 885.4 to 548, then dramatically plummeting from 669.6 in 2017/2018, as minimum … Continue reading Alcohol related hospital admissions in Scotland fall by one third after Labour Government ousted and plummet after minimum unit pricing introduced

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Murder rate in Glasgow only a quarter of that under Labour, is the news but BBC Scotland prefer you live in the past

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By Professor John Robertson OBA One of the top stories on the BBC Scotland website today is: Murder and mayhem: The story of Glasgow’s deadly gang feud Has there been a surge in gangland killings? No, they’re just advertising a podcast about murders in 2006, nearly 20 years ago. What is the news that their royal charter obliges them to inform the folk of Glasgow about? That graph above but, specifically for Glasgow: Glasgow City has witnessed a relatively larger fall in homicides than Scotland as a whole in the last 20 years. Over the latest five year period from 2019-20 to … Continue reading Murder rate in Glasgow only a quarter of that under Labour, is the news but BBC Scotland prefer you live in the past

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More than FORTY times as many children are forced into home education in England compared to Scotland – ‘amid rising classroom violence and falling standards’

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From the Children’s Commissioner for England, in the wake of the Sara Sharif murder case, today: A register of children not in school to be implemented urgently. This must include children who are home educated and be introduced via legislation as a matter of urgency, backed by the resource to effectively implement and monitor it. https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/deaths-of-children-in-need/ Because of the above lack of record-keeping, there is only an estimate of how many children are in home education, in England – 92 000. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c704x7e5515o#:~:text=Home%20education%20register,by%20about%2011%2C000%20on%202022. In Scotland, the known, not estimated, figure is currently 2 222. Thus, roughly 41 times as many children, 4 … Continue reading More than FORTY times as many children are forced into home education in England compared to Scotland – ‘amid rising classroom violence and falling standards’

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SHOCK as former head of research for Scottish Conservatives uses Latin wrongly

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Professor John Robertson OBA, former Associate Dean (Quality Assurance) Faculty of Education, UWS In researching the previous post on school absences and the probable lack of reliable data there are for any comment on them, I noticed ‘Why Educational Data Matters’ from Reform Scotland – Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Chair), Chris Deerin (Director) and Alison Payne (Research Director!). Now, I know there’s debate and, in some specialised scientific areas, it might be acceptable, but: The grammatically correct approach is ‘data are’, because the word ‘data’ is the plural of the latin word ‘datum’. https://digitalblog.ons.gov.uk/2016/12/08/data-is-versus-data-are/ Reform Scotland like to style themselves as a thinktank with expertise in education, … Continue reading SHOCK as former head of research for Scottish Conservatives uses Latin wrongly

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As ‘Quademic’ looms NHS Scotland has 37% more beds, 33% more nurses, 27% more GPs and cleaner hospitals

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Professor John Robertson OBA On BBC Breakfast, this morning, we hear that a ‘Quademic‘ is looming in England’s hospitals as cases of Flu, Covid, Norovirus and RSV and that out of 100 000 beds, 95 000 are already occupied. BBC Scotland does not have this story. Perhaps that’s because: First, there are 13 695 hospital beds in Scotland, 3 695 more than you’d expect, per head, more than a third more.1 Second, there are 12 nurses per 1 000 people in Scotland but only 9 in the UK.2 Third, Scotland has 27.3% more GPs than England.3,4 Fourth, cleaner hospitals as … Continue reading As ‘Quademic’ looms NHS Scotland has 37% more beds, 33% more nurses, 27% more GPs and cleaner hospitals