Tag: writing

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Cornwall ferry users ‘losing their minds cut off from civilisation’

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The Torpoint Ferry is a car and pedestrian chain ferry connecting the A374 which crosses the Hamoaze, a stretch of water at the mouth of the River Tamar, between Devonport in Plymouth and Torpoint in Cornwall. The service was established in 1791 and chain ferry operations were introduced by James Meadows Rendel in 1832. The route is currently served by three ferries, built by Ferguson Shipbuilders Ltd at Port Glasgow and named after three rivers in the area: Tamar II, Lynher II and Plym II. Each ferry carries 73 cars and operates using its own set of slipways and parallel chains, with a vehicle weight limit of 18 tonnes (20 tons). The ferries, along with the nearby Tamar Bridge, are operated by the Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry Joint Committee, … Continue reading Cornwall ferry users ‘losing their minds cut off from civilisation’

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New research report – The Politicisation of BBC Reporting in the 100 days before the Scottish Election 2026 – Comparing BBC Wales and BBC Scotland

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On Friday 17th April 2026, only three weeks before the Scottish Parliament election on May 7th, 2026, a research team at Talking-up Scotland completed a 100-day survey of the BBC Wales and BBC Scotland’s inserts in BBC Breakfast, Monday to Friday 6 to 9am. Despite both operating within a dramatic political context with pro-independence parties, Plaid Cymru (PC) and SNP, for the first time likely to win in both countries, the coverage differed markedly in terms of the politicisation of reports and in the overall level of negativity know to influence voter behaviour. A 2023 study published by Talking-up Scotland, … Continue reading New research report – The Politicisation of BBC Reporting in the 100 days before the Scottish Election 2026 – Comparing BBC Wales and BBC Scotland

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Washington State Ferries – ancient vessels, antiquated booking system crashes yet is not replaced and a scramble for tickets

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Washington State Ferries operate out of the affluent city of Seattle in the USA and serve 20 ports with 21 vessels. 9 of these large ferries, above, aged between 45 and 59 years are older than the just retired CalMac boat, MV Isle of Arran, aged 42. WSF have a long history of poor service beyond that which CalMac users can imagine, of unreliability, soaring prices, violence on the ramps and flooding car decks and some of the oldest vessels in the developed world, above. More recently, last summer, from Fox 13 Seattle: Summer ferry reservations are highly sought after, … Continue reading Washington State Ferries – ancient vessels, antiquated booking system crashes yet is not replaced and a scramble for tickets

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Water company customers in England to pay another £40m on top of already the highest prices and the worst quality in the UK but in Scotland…..?

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Thanks to Dottie for alerting me to this: From the Financial Times today: Five of Britain’s water companies spent £32.4mn on an appeal to the competition regulator that resulted in the utilities being able to raise customer bills even higher. Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Wessex Water argued that regulator Ofwat’s decision to allow them to increase consumer bills by an average of 24 per cent before inflation by 2030 was insufficient to cover their costs and attract investors to the industry. The appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority cost Anglian Water £9mn; South East Water £9mn; … Continue reading Water company customers in England to pay another £40m on top of already the highest prices and the worst quality in the UK but in Scotland…..?

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Always choosing the darkness for you – BBC Scotland give you one rape and hide both that it’s TWICE as common in the rest of the UK and that resident doctors are NOT on strike here

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Above BBC Scotland, below BBC UK: In more than 1 000 words, BBC Scotland’s report on a rape case, above, offers no context of the kind student journalists must have or they fail, eg, ‘Is this offence more common in Scotland than elsewhere as drug deaths apparently are?‘ Would a bit of context have been useful for readers? This kind of thing? On 25 June 2025, I wrote: The media in Scotland are headlining the increase in recorded cases of rape and attempted rape in Scotland. Though the increase may in part be a consequence of a greater confidence by victims … Continue reading Always choosing the darkness for you – BBC Scotland give you one rape and hide both that it’s TWICE as common in the rest of the UK and that resident doctors are NOT on strike here

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BBC Scotland still acting as if it is an opposition party to the SNP in Scotland

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By Liz S BBC Scotland website yesterday : Headline – “Labour drops election candidate after fraud charge” At 14.57pm that article , which was only added yesterday onto their site, was the 4th article on the Scotland main page, by 4pm above, gone and the 2nd article on the Scottish politics page. The top article yesterday on both the Scotland main page and politics page was this: “SNP candidate ditched over handling of Linden complaints” (Note that according to the BBC website headlines, the Labour candidate was “dropped” but the SNP candidate was “Ditched”). This morning it is still the top article on the Scottish politics page and now the 7th article … Continue reading BBC Scotland still acting as if it is an opposition party to the SNP in Scotland

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As gangs of youths run riot in Clapham for second night will Scotland’s plummeting anti-social behaviour figures cause a problem for media operating in ‘SNP soft touch on crime’ Scotland?

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In the Telegraph and other media today, the above story and: Another day, another mini-riot, as gangs of marauding youths run amok – this time in Clapham, south London. A few days ago social media was full of footage of what seemed to be teenagers (they were all in hoodies so one can’t be sure how old they were) causing chaos in Wolverhampton, throwing eggs at anyone they could find. Video then emerged of hundreds of young men and women rushing a streetwear pop-up shop in Soho in central London. The footage was notable only for being not remotely notable; … Continue reading As gangs of youths run riot in Clapham for second night will Scotland’s plummeting anti-social behaviour figures cause a problem for media operating in ‘SNP soft touch on crime’ Scotland?

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The script that the MSM operating in Scotland prefer is one of unchecked propaganda

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By Liz S The script that the MSM operating in Scotland prefer is the one where opposition parties accuse the SNP of having “destroyed the Scottish NHS”. Of course that is a script that is minus all of the data and stats that would verify this , so then would substantiate their accusation. They, the opposition and the BBC in Scotland, could also make comparisons between Scotland’s NHS performance with that of other nations within the UK , to then they would have an opportunity to further prove that Scotland was in fact being destroyed by the SNP, and so indeed were … Continue reading The script that the MSM operating in Scotland prefer is one of unchecked propaganda

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How Scotland’s schools have played the major role in keeping thousands of pupils safe and making sure County Lines gangs membership is an England-only phenomenon

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In the Sunday Times today, the above video, and: The UK’s county lines networks have evolved into a sophisticated business model that thrives on the exploitation of the young. David Collins, Northern Editor of The Sunday Times, and David Woode, Crime Editor of The Times, go inside a police disruption unit in North Yorkshire to witness high-stakes raids targeting the “line holders” who pull the strings from a single mobile phone. Beyond the arrests, they uncover a disturbing tactical shift where gangs use the Modern Slavery Act as a legal shield for their recruits. It is a portrait of a … Continue reading How Scotland’s schools have played the major role in keeping thousands of pupils safe and making sure County Lines gangs membership is an England-only phenomenon

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As the QEUH witch-hunt continues, two experts say 100% mould-free large hospitals ‘not realistic’ only months after two die and four almost die in Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital

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In the Herald yesterday: Mould growth has been found in a cancer ward at a flagship hospital which was partially closed due to mould and dirty water ingress, the Health Secretary has confirmed. Neil Gray said he was made aware on Thursday morning that mould growth was found in one of the rooms on the bone marrow transplant ward at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow. Is it possible for any large hospital to be 100% free of any mould growth, at all, in at least one of its hundreds of wards? Experts and industry sources consistently state … Continue reading As the QEUH witch-hunt continues, two experts say 100% mould-free large hospitals ‘not realistic’ only months after two die and four almost die in Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred hospital