Tag: wales

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Not-for-profit water should be better but Welsh Labour mess that up too

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stewartb It’s useful to have comparisons of the performance of key public services in different parts of the Union – and for a number of reasons. I’ve become especially interested in getting much better informed about what can be achieved by electing the British Labour Party to govern with devolved powers. Fortunately, we have Wales with its longstanding British Labour Party government in Cardiff to use as a benchmark. After all, we need to know what we might expect from a British Labour Party government in Edinburgh after 2026! In this context, how with the British Labour Party in power in … Continue reading Not-for-profit water should be better but Welsh Labour mess that up too

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Royal College of Emergency Medicine opts NOT to share own analysis with Scotland’s voters – that A&E performance in NHS Scotland is best in UK by FAR!

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By stewartb Let’s begin by taking back control of the ‘framing’ from BBC Scotland: ‘A&E performance by NHS Scotland is indeed by far the best in UK’. The Scotland section of the BBC News website on 4 October ran one of its regular features on the state of A&E services within NHS Scotland. The article was constructed around the remarks of the Vice President for Scotland of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). It followed a common pattern – negative, in parts alarmist, reported uncritically and without context or perspective. And being a BBC Scotland article, it omitted that … Continue reading Royal College of Emergency Medicine opts NOT to share own analysis with Scotland’s voters – that A&E performance in NHS Scotland is best in UK by FAR!

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FACTCHECK: ‘Ultra long’ A&E waits far less common in Scotland

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By Professor John Robertson: Dr John Paul Loughrey of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Hot Yoga enthusiast (@Jploughrey) has no time to grapple with the the facts as he helps BBC Scotland headline with another emergency services scare story about long waits in A&E and the risk they poses, especially for the more vulnerable. Missing from Dr Loughrey’s assessment of ultra long delays, in this BBC Scotland report, this: First, NHS England: THREE times as many wait more than 12 hours in England’s A&E departments NHS England, Type one A&E, for May 2024, 138 770 waiting more … Continue reading FACTCHECK: ‘Ultra long’ A&E waits far less common in Scotland

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A flood of water complaints in England and Wales but barely a dribble in Scotland

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In the Guardian today: The number of customer complaints that were unable to be resolved by water companies in England and Wales has risen by almost a third to the highest level in nearly a decade. There was a 29% increase in 2023-24 in cases escalated to the Consumer Council for Water (CCW) by households that failed to achieve a resolution from their supplier, the watchdog said. The jump has been fuelled by consumer discontent over sewage spills, billing mistakes and problems with water meters, with customers having exhausted their water supplier’s two-stage complaints process by the time they turned to the CCW. Its annual report … Continue reading A flood of water complaints in England and Wales but barely a dribble in Scotland

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No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless…

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stewartb ‘The BBC Scotland report does not mention ………………….Wales’ No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless … you know what! And no British Labour Party politician in Scotland acknowledges the validity of comparing matters in Scotland with equivalents in British Labour Party run Wales. On education and the experiences of young people in Wales, the following report (March 2024) from the BBC’s much favoured, ‘authoritative’ think tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies must never be referred to in the hearing of a potential Labour voter in Scotland! Source https://ifs.org.uk/publications/major-challenges-education-wales The IFS report concludes: … Continue reading No BBC Scotland report allows comparative analysis of matters across the nations of the UK unless…

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Given the British Labour Party’s approach to power seeking in Scotland, whataboutery is legitimate – ‘what about Wales?’

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By stewartb The logic of the British Labour Party’s messaging for the 2026 Holyrood election – that the SNP is holding Scotland back – would be open to ridicule amongst voters if it wasn’t for the support – the complicity – of pro-Union news media. The latter’s lack of critical assessment of this and other Labour negativity about Scotland is palpable. Context- and perspective-free reporting has long been a characteristic of the mainstream media that supposedly serves Scotland. Labour’s view of the UK Before and since the UK General Election we’ve been told by the British Labour Party’s leadership just … Continue reading Given the British Labour Party’s approach to power seeking in Scotland, whataboutery is legitimate – ‘what about Wales?’

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Clear evidence that Labour cannot run a health service as even failed NHS England puts NHS Wales on life support

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By Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today but not a mention from the ever-loyal BBC Wales: NHS patients in Wales will be allowed to travel to England to receive care for the first time ever under plans to be announced by the Welsh secretary on Monday. Jo Stevens will tell the Labour conference in Liverpool that she is drawing up proposals to allow patients to travel between England and Wales to receive outpatient or elective treatment. Stevens will say that the move will help reduce waiting lists on both sides of the border. But with NHS struggling in Wales even more than in England, experts … Continue reading Clear evidence that Labour cannot run a health service as even failed NHS England puts NHS Wales on life support

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Prisoner release in Scotland – far fewer than England and no quick re-offending unlike in England

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By Professor John Robertson OBA The Herald above today, typically insensitive, exploitative and ill informed. In England, last week: Similar in Scotland? Nope, despite our media rats sniffing everywhere. The facts? Anyone for facts? There are currently 8 348 prisoners in Scotland’s prisons.2 From Audit Scotland in December 2023: SPS has advised that as at November 2023 the extended operating capacity that the prison estate can accommodate is 8,475.3 So, 127 places still available for a population only one eleventh of the population of England and Wales. They should have at least 1 400 but have ‘less than 100’, only a fourteenth! Sources: … Continue reading Prisoner release in Scotland – far fewer than England and no quick re-offending unlike in England

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Scottish Labour MP suggests following England’s failed strategies

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In the Scotsman today, above, Dr Zubir Ahmed, Labour, notes the crisis in A&E and and cancer care in England, then suggests Scotland might learn from there. He clearly does not know or does not want to know this: First, on A&E longer waiting times, by stewartb, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine data: On the longest times spent in A&E i.e. 12 hours or more, the equivalent percentages during January 2024 are: England = 13.2%; Wales = 15.5%; Scotland = 8%. On more than 8 hour waits, the equivalent percentages during January 2024 are: Wales = 24%; Scotland = 16%. (NHS … Continue reading Scottish Labour MP suggests following England’s failed strategies

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NHS Scotland’s better performance is preventing around 1 400 ‘unnecessary’ deaths every year

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By Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian yesterday: Long NHS delays leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths, inquiry finds – Darzi’s scathing indictment of the Conservatives’ 14-year stewardship of the NHS says that A&E is in “an awful state”. He cites evidence he received from the body representing A&E doctors that “long waits are likely to be causing an additional 14,000 more deaths a year – more than double all British armed forces combat deaths since the health service was founded in 1948”. Improvements in survival from cancer “slowed substantially during the 2010s”. More than 7.6 million people were awaiting … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s better performance is preventing around 1 400 ‘unnecessary’ deaths every year