Tag: wales

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Perhaps we’ll see NHS England under a Labour health secretary introduce the ‘breach exemption’?

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By stewartb There is another clever wheeze available to Mr Streeting [to cut A&E waits] it seems, one tried and tested by Labour in Wales. Perhaps he intends NHS England’s A&E waiting times performance reporting to adopt the practice the Labour government in Cardiff has been using to massage the A&E waits performance in Wales. Perhaps we’ll see NHS England under a Labour health secretary introduce the ‘breach exemption’? From the BBC News website’s Wales section (16 October, 2023): ‘NHS Wales: Thousands of hours missing from A&E figures – doctors’. In this we learn of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s (RCEM) … Continue reading Perhaps we’ll see NHS England under a Labour health secretary introduce the ‘breach exemption’?

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NHS Scotland’s ‘hugely better’ performance that the Royal College prefers to obscure

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By stewartb The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) is a persistent and highly critical commentator on the responses of UK and devolved governments to the waiting times and capacity challenges facing NHS Emergency Departments in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. For background, it is my contention – and I’d argue, provable by analysis of the RCEM’s past monthly press statements that following the release of performance data for the NHS in each of the four nations – that the RCEM (i) fails to acknowledge the relatively better performance of NHS Scotland; and (ii) adopts a tone in its … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s ‘hugely better’ performance that the Royal College prefers to obscure

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Labour pushing their pet prof ‘under a bus?’

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Prof Arthur Bloom, who died in 1992, had been based in Cardiff and was one of the UK’s leading haematologists In the Times Higher Education, today: Infected blood: how academics both caused and exposed tragedy Report into scandal highlights danger of relying on singular sources of knowledge, in contrast to inquiry itself, which utilised vast range of expertise to get to the bottom of what happened. Particularly criticised was Arthur Bloom, a professor in haematology at what was then the University of Wales College of Medicine, now part of Cardiff University, whose views were said to have been “overly influential”. Last … Continue reading Labour pushing their pet prof ‘under a bus?’

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Police Scotland less likely to stop and search children and minorities

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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

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Raynor praises Welsh Labour Government for being far less successful than SNP Government in Scotland

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By stewartb The BBC News website’s Wales section has this headline today: ‘Wales held back by UK Tory rule – Labour’s Rayner’. The article reports on Labour’s deputy leader launching the party’e GE campaign in Llandudno. We learn that she stated the following (with my emphasis and comment): ‘Addressing the launch, Ms Rayner praised the Welsh party’s achievements in government in Cardiff, despite what she labelled “14 years chaos” under the Conservatives at Westminster”. Has Scotland (miraculously) been immune to these 14 years of Westminster-induced chaos? She then listed Labour’s key achievements as she saw them: “You see what Welsh Labour has done, whether … Continue reading Raynor praises Welsh Labour Government for being far less successful than SNP Government in Scotland

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Why is type 2 diabetes among under 40s far less common and increasing less steeply in Scotland?

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Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this; In the Guardian today, the above graph and: The number of people under 40 being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK has risen 39% in six years, fuelled by soaring obesity levels and cheap junk food. Look at the dark bar for Scotland and imagine it 10 times thicker, for comparison with a country ten times more populous, and it’s barely half as thick. Does that suggest type 2 diabetes is only half as common in Scotland than it is in England? There are no separate data on the under … Continue reading Why is type 2 diabetes among under 40s far less common and increasing less steeply in Scotland?

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

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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

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‘UK’ Birth trauma report has evidence of a crisis only in England

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BY stewartb The report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in the UK Parliament on birth trauma published today does of course address a really important topic. It merits and has received a lot of attention from the mainstream media: BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning gave it a lot of attention. My interest – as in the main blog post – is in the nature of the APPG’s process – its research scope, its evidence base and the nature of its recommendations. After listening to media reports and skimming through the final report, the following observation seem worth … Continue reading ‘UK’ Birth trauma report has evidence of a crisis only in England

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How BBC Wales hides Labour Government from scrutiny

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In the Nation Cymru today but nowhere in the MSM of Wales: Wales deserves better than to have a dishonest politician as First Minister. That’s why it’s important that the Labour Party does what is necessary to remove Vaughan Gething from office. Since Nation.Cymru revealed four days ago that he had misled the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, statements he has made – and that another member of his Cabinet has made – have confirmed that he has been dishonest. Our original case against him was set out in an article we published last Tuesday morning, May 7. It’s worth repeating the crucial … Continue reading How BBC Wales hides Labour Government from scrutiny

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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!

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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!