Tag: wales

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

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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

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Worse than England – Pisa scores fiasco leads to NINTH Welsh Education minister since devolution

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By stewartb I’m not one to consider that an education system should be judged on just the OECD’s PISA scoring but there is something to be said for comparing reactions by politicians to such scores for different parts of the UK. When the last set of PISA results for Scotland were reported on the BBC News website on 5 December 2023, we learned that ‘Performance in Scotland’s high schools has slipped according to new international research on education.’ With countries across the world receiving scores that were better or indeed more often worse than before, there are likely to be … Continue reading Worse than England – Pisa scores fiasco leads to NINTH Welsh Education minister since devolution

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The comedy time lag on Scotland’s violent past

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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/ Here’s an English comedian recently working the hard Scots stereotype. Comedians, Scottish ones too, have lived of this trope for decades. As recently as 2005, not quite 20 years ago, it was based on a degree of reality: In 2005, a United Nations report named Scotland as the most violent country in the developed world. You were 3x more likely to be a victim of assault in Glasgow than you were in America. Glasgow … Continue reading The comedy time lag on Scotland’s violent past

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

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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

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

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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

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The Guardian casually distorts the lower level of homicide against women in Scotland

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In the above Guardian piece today, 3 (33%) of the 9 murders described took place in Scotland. The authors chose these 9 examples from 174 murders of women in England & Wales last year. Read the above, on its own, and Scotland looks a more dangerous place for women, by some way. That’s not just untrue, it’s the reverse. The facts: From National Statistics for Scotland, today: In 2022-2023, there were 13 female homicide victims in Scotland. In England & Wales, in 2021-2022 (latest figures) there were 198 female homicide victims. England & Wales have 11 times the population and so, … Continue reading The Guardian casually distorts the lower level of homicide against women in Scotland

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A&E patient spends 5 days in a chair in a ‘warzone’ hospital but the Welsh Labour Health Secretary is not responsible in any way

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Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to my favourite, nearly 100 year-old, paper-based, to your door, Scots Independent newspaper, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ From BBC Wales today: Man spends five days in chairs at ‘warzone’ hospital. A patient who said he was left waiting in a hospital chair for five days has described his “nightmare” experience. Nicky Morgan, 42, went to Morriston Hospital, Swansea, on Saturday night with severe headaches and was told he had a potentially serious condition.But he said he was told there were no beds and has slept on a chair in a … Continue reading A&E patient spends 5 days in a chair in a ‘warzone’ hospital but the Welsh Labour Health Secretary is not responsible in any way

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6% Missing council tax payments? Is that a lot? Yeh, but don’t mention it costs less here, OK?

johnrobertson834

Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to my favourite, nearly 100 year-old, paper-based, to your door, Scots Independent newspaper, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/ tax payment last year – that’s according to Citizen’s Advice. A survey by the charity suggests around 6% of people missed a payment at least once in 2023. Reporting Scotland’s opening story, first thing to today, to get you off to a bad start in Scotland. Reporting Scotland editor: 270 000? Nice big number but don’t mention the percentage. Wait, they did. Who put that in? It’s too wee! FFS! Haven’t I told … Continue reading 6% Missing council tax payments? Is that a lot? Yeh, but don’t mention it costs less here, OK?

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Shock – Welsh teachers union doesn’t sacrifice its members’ interests to help Labour

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This site costs nothing to run so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ By stewartb In TuS yesterday: ‘the EIS union, whose leaders have regularly misrepresented their members interests to help Scottish Labour’ Given the reference to the EIS and given its general negativity towards the Scottish Government, it’s instructive to look at an example of how the equivalent of the EIS in Wales frames its ‘wants’ from the Welsh Government (with my emphasis). From the website of the National Education Union (NEU): ‘The crisis in funding for schools and colleges in Wales. Motion 22 – NEU Cymru members highlight … Continue reading Shock – Welsh teachers union doesn’t sacrifice its members’ interests to help Labour

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In Wales mysterious ‘decision-makers’ to blame for care home ‘genocide’

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This site costs nothing to run so donate to our friends at  https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ From BBC Wales today: Discharging untested patients to care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic was “a form of genocide”, a front-line doctor has said. Intensive care doctor Laura McClelland said three things still made her angry four years on from the start of the pandemic. She added doctors had little option but to discharge patients as they struggled to “rustle up” carers who were willing to risk their lives for minimum wage jobs. She was speaking ahead of the UK Covid inquiry’s three-week visit to Wales, which … Continue reading In Wales mysterious ‘decision-makers’ to blame for care home ‘genocide’