BBC Scotland will be reporting this all day today. ..by the union sat they’d be willing to take industrial action and more than half say they’d be likely to leaved the NHS. The BMA has around 154 000 members across the UK. BMA Scotland membership is not listed but can be assumed to be around 15 to 16 000. According to the Daily Record, the sample was 3 100 in Scotland. Leaving aside...

By stewartb It’s possible to conduct a near like for like assessment of how the publication of school exam results is covered by news outlets. This can most readily be done by comparing and contrasting the BBC News website articles on this topic which appear on the date of results publication. BBC NEWS UK PAGE:First para: ‘The proportion of top A-level grades in England, Wales and Northern...

See the complete absence of mention across the eleven big newspapers here: Newspaper headlines: Soaring inflation and UK has the worst rate in G7: bbc.co.uk/...s-62585143 Not a word. Not a photo of the Education Minister James Cleverly (sic), or the PM. But in Scotland last week:

I don’t know if writers get to say what the headline should be these days but the above ‘attention-grabber‘ conceals the key facts which most readers, headline-surfers, won’t see. In the article: An SNP spokesperson said: “The SNP is the only major UK political party to see a rise in membership income last year. “Although our overall membership fell by 1.5%,...

As Anas Sarwar hides off-screen, refusing to pose beside rubbish, as he was happy to do at Glasgow Cop26, Edinburgh City Council tries to get more out of the Scottish Government: “As the lowest funded council in Scotland, it’s time for the Scottish government to properly fund our capital city and its services.” The First Minister commented that it was: “really...

The final two candidates for leadership of the Conservatives were announced on 21 July. Throughout July, support for the SNP in UK-wide polls had averaged 4.03% but in August climbed around 10% to an average of 4.5% While these are small sub-polls, of limited significance on their own, together they suggest that, as others have argued, either candidate is good news for the SNP. Source:...

In the Guardian yesterday but nowhere to be seen on their extensive list today: The landmark study, based on research carried out for the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, found that disadvantaged pupils start school behind their better-off peers, and those inequalities persist through their school years and beyond – eventually having an impact on...

Both candidates for PM have been banging on about the SNP’s track record. Education is a favourite for them but today the Guardian reports: The attainment gap between poorer pupils and their better-off class mates is just as large now as it was 20 years ago, according to a damning new report which says the coronavirus pandemic is likely to have increased the inequalities in education The...

By stewartb I continue to be irritated by the coverage of the SQA exam results for Scotland’s schools. Recall the Scottish Tory Party’s education spokesperson, Oliver Mundell: ‘Education spokesman Oliver Mundell said the widening attainment gap was a “badge of shame” for the first minister.’ (BBC News website) Of course the Tories are comparing statistics for 2022 with 2021. What is...

Alasdair Galloway The problem I have with this story in the Independent is that what they intend to achieve is right, but they are doing it for all the wrong reasons “Students should turn to apprenticeships to ease soaring demand for degrees, Ucas boss warns” The presentation of encouraging school leavers to go for “apprenticeships” is  that its directed “to bring down...

Today, I received data (a re-run of table 2 for the link below) from the UK Statistics Authority, to enable me to confirm that drug deaths among younger users are much higher in England & Wales than in Scotland. The researcher sent me a rerun of the data for the 25-34 group so that I could compare with Scotland’s equivalent group. The published data in the link below uses different...

I hesitate to correct Professor Tom Devine in his defence of Anas Sarwar. Once compared with Prof John Curtice, a writer said he was like a premier league footballer and I was like a third-team reserve at Elgin City. Anyone who saw me play would agree that I should have been so lucky. Goodness knows what league I’ll be relegated to if I question Prof Devine. Anyhow, Sarwar’s support...

In the week ending 7 August 2022, demand at Scotland’s A&E departments climbed from 24 699 to 24 731. Despite that 67.9% were seen in 4 hours, up from 66.3% and 65% in the previous two weeks. Those waiting over 8 hours fell from 2 798 to 2 541 and those waiting over 12 hours fell from 1 040 to 916. Only Scotland publishes weekly figures but in July, the figure was only 57%. For the local...

Just which part of the SNP record do they feel entitled to scrutinise? Is it: the superior NHS performance? the much lower crime rate? the much lower drug death rate among the under 35s? the higher NHS staffing? the higher police staffing? the higher firefighter staffing? the lower cumulative Covid death rate? the effective contact tracing? the lower child poverty? the greater affordable housing...

BBC Scotland, advertising their timid wee pals at Disclosure, tell us: Scots with learning disabilities and autism have been locked in secure hospitals and psychiatric wards for decades, a BBC investigation has found. They remain unable to get out despite [Labour] Scottish ministers saying 22 years ago that they should be living independently in the community....

Towards the end of Reporting Scotland, after tales of being locked in, being cancelled, of fire deaths, road deaths and of storms, we heard: Scotland has become the first country in the World to legally protect access to free period products. They’re already available in many places but from this morning, councils, schools and colleges are required to make sanitary towels and tampons...

We’ve seen this before as the right-wing media try to undermine Scotland’s gradually improving, more progressive, tax regime. In 2015, the Telegraph predicted an exodus of the wealthy and young and 2017, Border Region Tories predicted an exodus to England. I can find no subsequent hard evidence that this ever happened. What is clear is this: Figure 3.1 shows estimates of net migration...

..living in psychiatric hospitals across Scotland. That’s according to an ‘investigation’ by BBC Scotland’s Disclosure. At least 40 people have been stuck in hospital for more than ten years and 15 people for more than 20 years. bbc.co.uk/...ive/bbcone There are an estimated 120,000 people who have a learning disability in Scotland. Learning disability...

Thanks to Scott for alerting me to this. A vaccine which is uniquely equipped to fight mutations in the Covid virus, funded at first by the UK Government to the tune of £214 million and then by Scottish Enterprise at £12.5 million is top be terminated. I wrote about this vaccine back in November 2021 after the UK Government cancelled its contract: I’m grateful, once more, to...

From cuckooshoe The BBC Scotland headline.. bbc.co.uk/...e-62525975 “Water scarcity: Crop failure warning as ban comes into force in Fife” The quote.. “The National Farmers Union (NFU) said it was devastating for agriculture.” And then there’s the elephant in the room.. “It comes as Scotland faces a yellow weather warning for thunderstorms on...