9th February 2017
I just can’t decide which of those three things will do the most for Scotland and/or make me the happiest. They say pigs are happiest in mud. Are construction workers? Midwives spend time in worse fluids. I’ve seen it four times.
Anyhow, here is my talking-up-Scotland update for today.
Student numbers and funding boost for Scotland
The above headline and this below, from 1st February 2017, is from the much-respected Royal College of Midwives so it must be true. They used exactly that picture of the Scottish flag alongside the news release. They must like Scotland, Nicola and the SNP to use that rather than, say, placenta.
‘The number of student midwives in training in Scotland next year is set to increase. Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, made the announcement. She also promised protection for student midwife and nurse bursaries, free tuition fees, and additional help for the most needy midwifery and nursing students. Mary Ross Davie, RCM director for Scotland, said: ‘This is good news for Scotland’s maternity services and for those looking to become midwives. The additional financial help will go a long way also towards supporting those from less financially well off backgrounds to enter midwifery.’
There will be an extra £3m to help up to 1000 midwifery and nursing students with dependants. The number of government-funded university places for those starting midwifery and nursing training will increase by 4.7% in 2017-18, bringing the total intake to 3360 places.
The RCM must be as happy as pigs in mud.
https://www.rcm.org.uk/news-views-and-analysis/news/student-numbers-and-funding-boost-for-scotland
12,000 new workers needed to service Scotland’s growing construction sector
Again the headline and the text below are from the robust Construction Industry Training Board on February 8th 2017:
‘Most sectors of Scotland’s construction industry will experience growth over the next five years with 12,000 new construction workers needed to meet demand, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has forecast. According to the Construction Skills Network (CSN) report, all sectors are expected to grow with the exception of infrastructure and industrial, which will decline following record highs.’
http://www.scottishconstructionnow.com/category/news/
So, that looks good too. I don’t suppose they can wait for the output from the extra midwives though. However, they’ll be looking forward to even tastier bacon rolls.
Scottish farmers invited to name their own pig research needs
People in a wide range of professions have been calling for relevant and useful research for decades now so this from February 6th 2017 seems a wise if a little slow response from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC)
‘Scottish pig farmers are being invited by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) to outline what areas of future research they would like to see developed. The focus for the producer-led research ideas programme is a pig research roadshow which is due to be held in Inverurie on February 21, as part of an initiative backed by SRUC’s pig information group.
‘Pig Information Group?’ PIG? Cleevver!
“This is a two-way process,” said college consultant, Ross Mackenzie. “Pig farmers are being invited to hear all about the current research which is being undertaken while we want to engage with them to hear what research is needed in the future to help take the Scottish pig industry forward.”
I hope you’re impressed by my highly professional reporting here – not a hint of a bad joke about pig farmers. I look forward to reading the final draft of this report which I was, for some reason, asked to review prior to publication:
Porcine, P (2017) ‘Scottish pigs shown to thrive best in mud between 15 and 25cm depth’. European Journal of Pig Farming. Vol 1: pages 1-2: Forthcoming
How many will read and share this sort of stuff, I wonder. Whatever; I feel better already for not having mentioned those fucking lying pigs at……………stop it!
Footnote for your diary. Don’t miss it:
The Big Pig Research Roadshow: Inverurie: February 21
Talking-up Scotland 
Hooray , good news articles , I like it !
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I just google ‘Scotland new research positive’ or something like that.
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Are these good news stories connected? Could the 12000 construction workers be used to build new pigsties for the expanding pig industry and the 3000 new midwives be utilised in delivering the resultant piglet boom. Joined up government 🙂
Keep up the good work – you may have just doubled the circulation of the European Journal of Pig Farming.
Seriously, I was aware of the midwifery story but totally unaware of the other two. Thank you for that.
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Those connections make sense…..to people like me.
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I do hope the pig industry in Scotland gets a boost, you can get lots of tasty food from a pig, and they are useful for research as their physiology is one of the closest to human (though I don’t know of any particular research that keeps fields of pigs). But I have heard (anecdotally from a farmer, years ,,, decades,,, ago, that kept rare-breed animals) that pigs don’t necessarily like mud, it is just that they are very resilient and can put up with smaller-than-ideal spaces, and tend to churn up the ground with their rooting about. Put them in a big field and they are very clean and un-muddy. Apparently they are kind of difficult to catch, though, and can be a bit stubborn about being eaten. I do hope you will keep an open mind while reviewing that paper by P. Porcine,,, hmmm. I am beginning to get that fake-news tingle in the brain cells. I hope you weren’t relying on no one checking the reference?? While you are reviewing pigs, can you find out why there is not a bigger sheep-milk industry in Scotland?
I see that the Scot gov is giving £5m to give decommissioning (oil rigs) a boost, hope that gets things moving for a new industry.
Right. Yoga-solidarity, just going to get that done, as long as there are no other handy distractions,,,
Btw, John, I am sure you could have used the phrases ‘pig in a poke’ and ‘let the cat out of the bag’ (it is pig-related, but too obscure?) to enhance the connections, porkie-pies and ‘,,, lying pigs’ should be sidestepped for good-news stories 🙂
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Thanks for the kind and funny words. Big cheer-up!
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Is Mary Rose Davie director of RCM Scotland the person our State Broadcaster had on telling us there was a crisis. ( note I didn’t use the broadcasters initials) ……. Coz if it is there’s a big change in her attitude to the way our Midwifery service is being run.
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Prompting?
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Yes, I’m confused too. Editing?
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You mocking my colleagues? Haven’t seen you on campus (shocker!) so you must assume you’re safe 😉 There was a lot of thought went into that PIG acronym…
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Sorry, I can be a bit of a swine. Scottish Women in Naughty…..?
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Steady! I’m beginning to get bad images of some of my female colleagues!
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Strange, Elaine, I was getting good ones. E for Endeavours?
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