(c) inkcinct.com.au

According to the Herrod, yesterday:

‘Fears are mounting that only those accused of the most serious crimes will be held in police custody after being charged, under a radical overhaul of the justice system. Currently, officers have the option to bail suspects to appear in court at a later date, but it is often only used for first offenders charged with minor crimes such as traffic offences. Now the Scottish Government has extended this as part of the 2016 Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act – which comes into force on Thursday – to allow the police to “take every precaution to ensure a person is not unreasonably or unnecessarily held in police custody”.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15889691.Only_the_most_dangerous_suspects_to_be_locked_up_under_new_custody_guidelines/

Now, just where are those mounting fears being expressed and by just whom? The Herrod is unable to tell us despite its headline. I’m guessing they’ve been made up by the Herrod or its feeders from the opposition parties. So, there are no mounting fears really.

Further, even if the Herrod could tell us where they are, would they be justifiable? In Scandinavia they’ve been imprisoning only the most violent criminals for decades now. They report no increased threat to the general public as a result and have lower re-offending rates:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/oct/18/prisonsandprobation-norway

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/26/prison-sweden-not-punishment-nils-oberg

Scotland has experienced a dramatic fall in violent crime in the last decade. See:

Of 35 children and teenagers killed with knives in Britain in 2017, not one was in Scotland, yet in 2005, the UN called Scotland the most violent country in the developed world.

Scotland’s homicide rate falls by 47%, is lower than the rate for England and Wales and has fallen faster than many other countries in the ten years of SNP government

So, it’s maybe time to try the Scandinavian approach. It’s also time, of course, for the Herrod to be a bit more mature and stop trying to scare the old folk who might still be up for voting No next time.

Journalism is a matter of making choices. Underlying these choices are mental processes operating sometimes at the sub-conscious level. Confronted with RCPCH’s landmark State of Child Health report, released today, what a journalist writes will inevitably involve a process of selection and of prioritising information. A junior reporter knows that they cannot just write what they want but, either consciously or more often sub-consciously, they already know what those above them in the organisation expect and they work toward those expectations as they report. The editor who will accept, modify or reject their draft also is working toward someone above them and they know what is required. In Scotland’s overwhelmingly anti-Independence and anti-SNP media, reports which might reflect upon the Scottish Government must, with few exceptions, present a negative view of Scotland in some way. Reports may have positive elements, but the overall picture cannot be taken by the reader to be complimentary to the Scottish Government, the SNP or even Scotland generally given that even the latter might be interpreted to reflect well on the government of the day. Rare exceptions are allowed, as these enable the claim of impartiality, but their infrequency means that they cannot change the overall impact and are known by political scientists as ‘repressive tolerance.’

So, when we see the Herald use, in a story on the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s 2018 report, a link to a January 2017 report with the headline ‘among worst in Europe’ suggesting we will be reading more about the 2018 RCPCH report, we see again, the agenda revealed. There is a similar phrase toward the end of the 2018 report, but many other choices could have been made along the way and it is not even one of the main messages intended by the RCPCH. My headline above comes very early in the report and looks headline-worthy but of course does not fit the story the reporter feels obliged to tell. Long before we get to their headline phrase, we see and could select these:

‘Policies that will improve childhood obesity rates, breastfeeding rates, women’s health during pregnancy, child poverty and child and adolescent mental health have all been welcomed in the new scorecard, which sees the Scottish Government performing far better than the Westminster Government when it comes to its focus on child health. However, doctors say that in Scotland, ‘the key now is to ensure these policy commitments are delivered.’

We then see an impressive list of achievements recognised in the report:

‘Key recommendations from State of Child Health that have been adopted include:

• An announcement to expand the number of health visitors by an additional 500 by the end of 2018 through the full roll-out of the Family Nurse Partnership programme.
• A commitment from Scottish Government to ensure specialist breastfeeding advice and support is delivered to women
• A commitment from Scottish Government to review statutory sex and relationships education in all schools
• A commitment from Scottish Government to create a system to ensure that child deaths are properly reviewed
• A commitment to deliver a Child and Adolescent Health and Wellbeing Action Plan
• A commitment from Scottish Government to tackle obesity by supporting families to lead active lives, encouraging more women and girls to take up sport and launching a consultation with the view to publishing a strategy later this year’

Still long before the bad news, we read:

‘Dr Steve Turner, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’s Officer for Scotland, said: It’s heartening that the child health and wellbeing agenda is moving forward in Scotland. At the end of 2017 the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament, providing a positive first step towards reducing child poverty. The Scottish Government has led the way nationally by setting a minimum unit price on alcohol, it has committed to deliver a child and adolescent health and well-being action plan in 2018, an obesity strategy and has committed to adopt a ‘child health in all policies’ approach. All of these developments indicate how serious Scottish Government is taking child health and they will help Scotland become a healthier country for children. “Considering only a year has passed since the launch of our State of Child Health report, it is encouraging that so many commitments to child health have been made. The key now is to make sure these commitments are delivered effectively.’

As we approach the latter parts of the report we find the bit that jumps out to the relief of any reporter from the Unionist media:

‘Currently Scotland has amongst the worst outcomes for child health in Europe, and it’s clear much more needs to be done, specifically around ensuring the health system meets children and young people’s needs.’

https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/what-we-do/rcpch-uk-and-roi/rcpch-scotland/state-child-health-one-year/child-health-agenda-moving-fo

Now why did the RCPCH leave this information so late and why was their headline:

‘Child health agenda moving forward but policy commitments must be delivered, say doctors’?

It’s simple, the RCPCH report was an assessment of what has been done and what still needs to be done by the Scottish Government to reduce child health problems. It was also clearly a report aimed at praising the Scottish government for its achievements so far and to encourage it in further developments. It was not a report about the actual health outcomes. That is clear in that no data on this are actually presented nor is there any discussion on the possible causes of the health outcomes such as UK government austerity policies.

Yesterday under the headline:

‘SNP Government doing ‘far better than Westminster’ on child health’

we read:

‘DOCTORS have praised the Scottish Government for doing “far better than Westminster” on child health policies such as breastfeeding and tackling childhood obesity, but warned that urgent action is still needed in areas such as GP training and reviewing child deaths.  A report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health scored Scotland, England and Wales on their performance against a series of key recommendations a year on from a landmark report by the professional body.’

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15889305.SNP_Government_doing__far_better_than

So that’s good then? Well it was, but only a few lines down we get the chance to click on this:

Read more: Inaugural child health report warns Scotland ‘among worst in Europe’

So, in space of a few lines we have news that the SNP is doing ‘far better than Westminster’ but before we get too cheered up, we are slapped down with the suggestion we’re ‘among worst in Europe.’

But, when you click in the link you don’t get the report. You get another Herald piece from January 2017, with the speech marks suspiciously removed. We then get:

‘Meanwhile infant mortality across the UK is higher than nearly all comparable western European countries including Ireland, Finland and the Czech Republic.’

Sneaky again. Why have we jumped to infant mortality ‘across the UK’ as opposed to in Scotland? Well it’s obvious. See this based on data taken from a BBC website:

‘In the Nordic countries – Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland – the rate of stillbirths and deaths of babies within 28 days is 4.3 per 1 000 live births. This is the lowest in the world. In the USA, it’s about 10. The Scottish figure has now fallen to just 4.72 with the rate for the UK at 5.61.’

Read more at:

Scottish stillbirth and early infant death rates lowest in the UK and approaching lowest in the world

I’ll have a look at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and report back later.

Image: Shutterstock/ELN

As Scotland accelerates toward 100% electricity production by renewables well ahead of its current 50% target for 2030, the Scottish Government has pledged an additional £60 million to low-carbon innovation.

Scotland rushing toward 100% electricity supply from renewables by 2020

See this from Energy Voice yesterday:

‘The Low Carbon Infrastructure Transition Programme (LCITP) will fund large-scale projects which support the ambitions of Scotland’s energy strategy, the Scottish Government said. Projects which deliver low carbon heating solutions, integrated energy systems, and ultra-low emission vehicle charging infrastructure will be able to apply for up to £100,000 to develop investment-ready business cases. Alternatively, financial support of up to 50% of the total capital value of a project up to a maximum of £10 million per project is available for capital-ready projects.’

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/161546/60million-available-scotlands-low-carbon-energy-infrastracture/

This initiative further emphasises the Scottish government’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gases contrary to the self-loathing reaction of BBC Scotland back in January 2017:

Are Scotland’s emission cuts goals ambitious and world-leading as most suggest or too much of a ‘technofix’ as only Reporting Scotland finds?

Today, still looking for any negatives they can scrape up, BBC Scotland News reported:

‘The Scottish government said funding for climate change measures was rising by 20% this year to £558m. But the committee questioned whether that figure gives a full picture.’

For ‘the committee’ read Labour or Tory or Lib Dem MSP leaking selectively committee debate to feed their and BBC Scotland’s Unionist propaganda. No proper sources are revealed to protect the report from scrutiny.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-42793051

As often before, a more objective view can be found outside of the Scottish Unionist media. See these earlier reports:

From Business Green on January 19 2017, see this:

‘Scotland already leads the UK and many of its European neighbours in terms of its greenhouse gas emission cuts, having exceeded its 2020 carbon reduction target six years early by slashing emissions 46 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2014.’ 

https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3002936/scotland-raises-climate-ambition-with-new-plan-to-cut-emissions-two-thirds-by-2032

On the same day, the Guardian newspaper headlined and enthused with:

‘Scotland sets ambitious goal of 66% emissions cut within 15 years’

‘In one of the world’s most ambitious climate strategies, ministers in Edinburgh have unveiled far tougher targets to increase the use of ultra-low-carbon cars, green electricity and green home heating by 2032.’

 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/19/scotland-sets-ambitious-goal-of-66-emissions-cut-within-15-years

Watching Sky News this morning, making sure I don’t even catch a glimpse of Jackie Bird, I saw a short piece on how London police have been learning from Glasgow police on how they might reduce knife crime especially fatal stabbings. There were 80 last year in London and none in Glasgow, none in Scotland even. I’ve reported on the much-changed Scottish situation recently, here:

Of 35 children and teenagers killed with knives in Britain in 2017, not one was in Scotland, yet in 2005, the UN called Scotland the most violent country in the developed world.

In 2005, Strathclyde Police set up a Violence Reduction Unit which used an holistic approach involving education, social work and other agencies to tackle the problem. Fatal stabbings have fallen dramatically as has violence generally in Scotland. Indeed, in a study of University cities, Scotland’s four had much lower levels of violence with injury than any of those in England, See:

Scotland’s university cities by far the safest places to send your children

However, London has seen the worst rise. According to Sky:

‘Last year saw the highest number of fatal stabbings in a decade in the capital, with 80 people killed. In response to last year’s 80 fatal stabbings in the capital – the highest number for almost a decade – the Metropolitan Police is increasing its use of stop-and-search tactics, but insists it will be more targeted at habitual knife carriers and applied in known knife hotspots. The force also has officers based full-time in youth offender institutions and others who visit schools regularly talking to pupils of all ages about the dangers of knives. It works, too, with former offenders who advise officers on gang culture and how to talk to gang members. A relatively new tactic is to have police officers stationed in all hospital emergency departments, encouraging medical staff to share information on evidence of knife injuries. It’s an holistic approach that has helped reduce knife crime dramatically in Glasgow, a city branded by the United Nations 12 years ago as the most violent in the developed world.’

https://news.sky.com/story/london-knife-crime-surge-needs-multi-agency-approach-11218973

In Scotland, there may have been other factors contributing to the changes and these are discussed in my earlier report. London also has marked differences with Glasgow in terms of size, ethnic mix and government policies with regard to poverty. Poverty, is likely to be a major factor and the difference between the harsh UK and caring Scottish governments’ approaches is considerable.

Finally, I can’t find any coverage of this other than on Sky. It reminds of the time I watched, only on Sky of course, Scottish police teaching New York police to hold their fire:

Scottish News Media Conceal Global Status of Police Scotland’s Methods

The story was not to be found on Scotland’s Unionist media for the obvious reason that they were busy demonising Police Scotland and the SNP for creating them at the time.

According to a report on their own survey, Insider magazine stated today:

The picture of an increasingly confident business community despite the wider challenges emerges from this year’s Insider State of Scotland survey. I’ve summarised the key findings below:

• Much more confident                                                24%
• Marginally more confident                                     38%
• Profits on a par with last year                               48%
• Profits better than last year                                   29%
• Profits worse than last year                                   24%
• Panning major digital investment                        57% (up from 44%)
• Not planning major digital investment               38% (down from 43%)
• Planning new equipment/technology                   81%
• Not planning new equipment/technology           10%

https://www.insider.co.uk/special-reports/business-insider-state-scotland-survey-11872351

Needless to say, most were against Brexit and Scottish independence and none gave (were even asked about?) credit to the Scottish Government’s business-friendly initiatives such as those reported here:

£226 million given in relief to small businesses in 2017-18 as part of most generous scheme in the UK

‘£1.2m from Scottish Government scheme for affordable housing in Fort William’

EU Nationals living in Scotland to be helped to stay by Scottish Government

 

https://www.moneysupermarket.com/business-insurance/best-co-working-cities/

From the Scottish Business News Network (A Douglas Fraser bookmark surely?) today:

‘MoneySuperMarket analysed and ranked 18 cities across the UK to determine where in the country best caters for new businesses. There were a number of key factors included in this ranking such as the cost per workstation, business insurance and the number of office spaces available to see which cities are deemed the most desirable places to set up shop. The research found Edinburgh to be the best city to set up a new business, due to its excellent cost per workstation, strong local broadband speed and low number of business insurance claims. Brighton and Hove, on the other hand ranked last, due to the limited and costly desk space.’

https://sbnn.co.uk/2018/01/22/scotland-revealed-top-place-uk-launch-new-business/

Original report at: https://www.moneysupermarket.com/business-insurance/best-co-working-cities/

 

Scotland was the best place, over all, to start a business. The above is, of course one of many in a continuous stream of good news stories contradicting the GDP and GERS reports favoured by our ‘Scottish media.’ See these examples:

17% increase in number of Scots planning to start a new business as Scottish economy strengthens

Silver medal and second in list of best places to start a new business 2017, it’s….. Edinburgh? No, it’s Dundee. Sit down Edinburgh.

Oh no, not more good news about the Scottish economy! Quick get more tissues for Ruth and Kezia. Far Less [Fewer] businesses failing in Scotland for the second quarter in a row

Scottish businesses showing signs of greater health than those in the rest of the UK

(c) businessforscotland.com

In Oil and Gas People on January 15, 2 018, Takayuki Nogami, a chief economist of the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, predicted growing demand and the possibility of prices rising to $100 per barrel. This followed, the July 2017 comments from the Aramco chief describing the outlook for oil supplies as ‘increasingly worrying’, arguing that the transition to alternative fuels will be ‘long and complex’ and that this will result in huge shortages. Discoveries are down 50% in the last four years. See:

Second prediction that Scottish oil may rise beyond $70 per barrel to as much as $100 per barrel and that demand will grow over the next ten years.

Yesterday, London-based consultancy, Energy Aspect,s predicted, in Energy Voice, that Brent prices will rise above £100 next year:

‘A slump in new production outside the U.S. shale patch in 2019 could help to send Brent crude briefly back above $100 a barrel next year, according to London-based consultancy Energy Aspects.’

https://www.energyvoice.com/opinion/161520/oils-rout-hail-return-100-crude-maybe/

This is an even more dramatic prediction in terms of the timescale foreseen. In addition, their apparent confidence in shale may be misplaced making the prediction even more accurate. See:

The Scottish Third Wave of Oil Productivity is built on solid foundations but those of the Shale Oil Industry are built on sand and on sand that is disappearing fast

Finally, further reinforcing the predictions of $100pb oil, we’ve already seen that those presumably well-informed hedge fund managers are piling in to invest heavily in oil production:

Scotland’s oil prices look optimistic as hedge funds invest and shale drilling boom passes peak

Luckily for Scotland, there have been massive finds west of Shetland in the last few months. See:

Estimates of Scotland’s oil reserves West of Shetland now massively increased to around 8 billion barrels! ‘A super-resource now on the cards.’

The signs of a ‘Third Wave of Prosperity’ from Scotland’s oil keep coming now. Make sure everyone knows in time for Indyref2.

As the Scottish media hang on grimly to the supposed negative economic picture for Scotland revealed by GDP and GERS figures, a continuous flow of evidence of real strength comes in.

Today Insider online business magazine reports:

The number of businesses failing in Scotland last year dropped to lows not seen since the onset of the financial crash in 2008, new figures have suggested. According to statistics gathered by accountancy group KPMG, there were 832 corporate insolvencies in Scotland in 2017, the least for nine years, when 803 were recorded.’

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/business-failures-scotland-lowest-2008-11892829

This news is just the latest of a series of reports revealing underlying and growing strength in the Scottish economy, actively supported by the SNP administration, such as:

England ran a massive trade deficit in 2014 and 2015 too. Scotland had an even greater surplus in those years. Who knows how much we’ve been subsidising the UK balance of payments and reducing debt over the years?

Business booms in Scotland under SNP-rule

77% of Scotland’s small and medium-sized businesses report success as Scottish Government reports record numbers exempt from rates and in the wake of figures revealing much greater signs of distress among rUK businesses.

£226 million given in relief to small businesses in 2017-18 as part of most generous scheme in the UK

40% increase in number of new Scottish businesses mainly under SNP government

There are many more comparable reports on the site. Just search for ‘business’ if you’d like to access them to win an argument. These are factual, evidence-based reports unlike GDP and GERS. Both are heavily based on estimates rather than actual measures because the latter are not available for Scotland on its own. See this on GERS:

25 of the 26 GERS income figures are estimates and not the real figures!

As for GDP, even the DAVOS elite have turned against it. See this from 2016:

‘Three leading economists and academics at Davos agree: GDP is a poor way of assessing the health of our economies and we urgently need to find a new measure. Speaking in different sessions, IMF head Christine Lagarde, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, and MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson stressed that as the world changes, so too should the way we measure progress. A country’s GDP is an estimate of the total value of goods and services they produce. But even when the concept was first developed back in the late 1930s, the man behind it, Simon Kuznets, warned it was not a suitable measure of a country’s economic development: “He understood that GDP is not a welfare measure, it is not a measure of how well we are all doing. It counts the things that we’re buying and selling, but it’s quite possible for GDP to go in the opposite direction of welfare.”’

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/gdp/

Despite this, the Scottish media continue to use these unreliable and inappropriate figures to undermine the case for Scottish independence because they’re all they have.

(c) Guardian.com

‘Future-proofed against austerity: new Scottish social security system’

Can you imagine that headline in the Herrod or the Hootsman? Remember the speech marks are mine and were not in the original. The writer means it literally and they are right behind it. Positive and without a hint of an ‘ah but’ to come, this was the Observer’s headline yesterday for a report on the Scottish Government setting up an independent body that will check to make sure any changes preserve human rights before the Scottish Parliament gets a vote. This is, to my mind, another example of how the SNP administration has a real commitment to acting as if they ‘live in the early days of a better nation.’ It’s utterly divergent from current trends in England and makes me a bit more pleased to be living here.

Here’s part of what Libby Brooks, their Scotland Correspondent had to say:

‘Scotland’s new social security system will include an unprecedented degree of independent scrutiny – with the express intention of future-proofing the powers against the kinds of austerity measures that have devastated vulnerable groups in the rest of the UK. Scotland’s social security minister, Jeanne Freeman, announced on Sunday that there will be a Scottish Commission on Social Security, an independent body that will scrutinise any proposed changes to the new system – and give its view of their compliance with human rights protocols – before Holyrood can vote on them.’

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/21/future-proofed-against-austerity-new-scottish-social-security-system

There’s little point in me repeating the article. Go and read the whole thing yourself via the above url link. The point is, it’s not balanced. The writer is enthusiastic about the idea and sees no need to scrape up some opposition voice to find something, anything, to moan about. Notice, they are prepared to compare this favourably with the rest of the UK without a Brian Monteith figure calling it diversionary, ‘whitabootery’.

Now, some people, some journalism students, some journalists, seem to thing you always need to have balance, at least two differing views and certainly not enthusing about things. This a fallacy. Some topics have no reasonable alternative viewpoint. Equally, some developments are so humane, so morally correct, so just, it’s perfectly reasonable for the writer to join in. It would be hard to imagine a two-sided balanced debate on tobacco today thought we did have in the past. Would a writer enthusing about disability rights legislation feel the need to find some argument why the disabled should have less rights? There have been times in the past when that might have been argued but to do so would be to challenge an almost total support for equality of treatment, today in Scotland.

However, II can find no mention of this development in the Scotsman, BBC News or STV News and the Herald offers only a dry, grudging (?) acknowledgement that the SNP claim it will stop the Tories:

‘SNP minister Jeanne Freeman says commission would stop Tories bringing in benefit sanctions’

Why are the Scottish media not enthusing about a ‘new social security system [which] will include an unprecedented degree of independent scrutiny – with the express intention of future-proofing the powers against the kinds of austerity measures that have devastated vulnerable groups in the rest of the UK’?

Is it because it’s an SNP initiative? Is it because it makes Scotland seem better that the UK? Is it because the Unionist media are so bitter and full of hatred for the SNP, they cannot enthuse about anything they do, no matter how close to the values they at other times profess?

Finally, look at the photograph they used. Talk about making the SNP look positive, bright, optimistic.