See this from WWF Scotland:

‘New analysis from WWF Scotland published today (Thursday 4 Jan) maps out how the carbon footprint of homes across Scotland has fallen since the Scottish Climate Change Act was passed in 2009. The climate change footprint of each individual’s household energy consumption has been cut by an average of 25% across Scotland, thanks to the growth of renewables, more efficient homes and appliances, and governments’ climate change policies. The charity’s analysis shows how the ‘climate damage’ caused by people using electricity, gas and other fuels to power and heat their homes has fallen rapidly since the first Climate Change Act was passed.’

The WWF goes on to credit the Scottish Parliament with putting Scotland at ‘the forefront of a global energy transition.’

https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/new-analysis-renewables-helping-cut-homes-carbon-footprint-across-all-scotland

Readers will have seen many reports here on Scotland’s progress toward 100% electricity supply from renewables. The government target is 2030 but it may come much earlier in 2020. See:

Scotland rushing toward 100% electricity supply from renewables by 2020

Another familiar type of headline here: With only 8% of the population, Scotland generates 24% of the UK’s renewable electricity and surges toward 100% sustainability well before 2030.

Though I’ve tended to concentrate on the economic benefits of the growth of renewables generation in the context of the debate over independence, it is, of course, very pleasing to hear of the environmental benefits. Further, if we can reduce our carbon footprint by 25% in only 8 years, presumably we can go much further in the years to come.

Footnote: Should WWF Scotland change their logo to a Polar Bear cub now that the pair in Scotland have successfully bred? I’m beginning to give up on these expensive pandas.

*Credit @MoFloMoJo for the clever headline opener.

I’ve already reported on the strong performance of the Scottish Ambulance Service over the festive period. There was no crisis of the kind hoped for by the Unionist media and politicians. Not even one death they could blame on SNP management of the NHS. Predictably, they have scraped the barrel to find something, anything, they can use to worry their audience and to undermine the reputation of the SNP-led government. See:

Scotland’s finest, our ambulance workers, fail Scotland’s media as they cope with Hogmanay demand

BBC Scotland news found something which they felt could be built up and stretched into a bad news story. Today we read:

‘Thousands of ambulances dispatched with single crew. More than 10,000 ambulances have been dispatched with one crew member on board in the past four years.’

As we read on we do get a bit of context. With a grim smile we see that the story comes from the Scottish Conservatives. Don’t BBC Scotland have any reporters out there finding stories for themselves? What are we paying them for? We, also read, now that the headline, which many only read, has had its hoped-for impact, that this accounted for only 1.5% of shifts or 2 204 out of around a quarter of a million shifts in total, in 2016.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-42557798

Also, we see that this figure is down from 3 514 in the previous year but are not offered the percentage reduction. I wonder why not? It turns out to be an impressive 37% reduction worthy of a headline itself, I’d say.

So, it’s not a big story in a quantitative sense but there’s worse than this dishonest inflation of the issue, in the language used in the headline to sensationalise, to distort, to scare and to undermine.

The headline refers to ‘single crew’ rather than ‘single paramedic’, a highly-skilled person and trained well-beyond that of most nurses or GPs to deal with emergencies and to save lives. This is important.

Second, the headline refers to ‘10 000 ambulances’ when it should refer to ‘call-outs’, painting a picture of a flood of separate single-crewed vehicles when often it would have been the same ambulance and the same paramedic called out several times in a single shift and, we must assume, sent to the cases identified by the shift supervisory staff, as manageable by a single paramedic.

Are there even 10 000 ambulances across the whole country?

Remember, we’re talking about 2 204 such call-outs in the last year or 6 in a night. In an 8-hour-shift, it seems quite plausible that it could be the same ambulance and paramedic sent to these call-outs where one paramedic was thought to be able to cope. If the truth is anything like this then we’re talking about 365 single-paramedic ambulances going out in a year and maybe 1 500 over the four years.  You can see why they chose to put 10 000 ambulances into the headline.

Finally, the decision to use the four-year figure of 10 000 rather than that for the most recent year, 2 204, is a clear case of deliberate sensationalism designed to inflate and to titillate those in need of anti-SNP stimulation. Given that the figure changes from year to year, the four-year figure has no information value.

As NHS England doctors start to report ‘third-world conditions’, you can see why BBC Scotland News and its political bottom-feeders panicked and started to thrash around in the mud looking for anything they could find to attack the SNP with.

Under the headline:

‘Rise in pupils staying on at school ‘exacerbating’ teacher recruitment crisis’

We read:

‘TOO many pupils are staying on at school until sixth year putting further pressure on Scotland‘s scarcity of teachers, according to an expert.’

Emeritus Professor and former Dean of Education at Strathclyde University, Douglas Weir, is the expert and provides the supposed evidence. Douglas is the real thing. Hugely well-qualified and experienced in educational management and a prolific researcher too. I agree with much of what he goes on to write about alternatives to staying on, but he’s wrong to have lent his status to the Herald’s underlying strategy which is, as usual, to try to undermine the SNP government, with spurious suggestions of incompetence or flawed policies.

I should admit that, after reporting my former higher education employer to the Scottish Government and to the ombudsman, for the waste of public funds, on vanity projects and jaunts to the Seychelles and elsewhere, they didn’t offer me retirement as emeritus professor but left me to depart as naemeritus professor.

There are apparently 700 unfilled teacher vacancies in Scotland mostly in Science and Mathematics. There were around 51 000 teaching staff in Scotland’s secondary schools in 2016.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/TrendTeacherNumbers

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15803312.Rise_in_pupils_staying_on_at_school__exacerbating__teacher_recruitment_crisis/

So, that’s 1.37% short or, as we soft social scientists might say, just a smidgeon? Now, if a system with 51 000 staff can’t get by just 1.37% down then it clearly lacks the robustness you’d expect of it, or it was already dangerously over-stretched. Was it?

There are 51 500 teachers in Scottish secondary schools and the pupil/teacher ratio is now 13.6 pupils per teacher, down from (better than) 13.7 in 2016.

http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00528868.pdf

In England, there were 457 300 teachers in 2016. The pupil/teacher ratio in 2016 was 17.6 pupils per teacher. England’s population is almost exactly ten times that of Scotland, so you might have expected there to be around 515 000 teachers there.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/620825/SFR25_2017_MainText.pdf

So, thanks presumably to the Scottish Government, Scotland’s secondary schools are significantly better staffed than English ones. Also, I know from personal experience they are better staffed than universities. I commonly did mass lectures to as many as 200 and conventional class teaching with groups of 20 to 30. As for small group tuition or interaction with individuals, I had to make use of new technologies such as ‘virtual learning environments’ or VLEs for this.

We’d also need to look at changes in the number of pupils being taught. Perhaps they’re under pressure from dramatic growth in the number of pupils being taught? No, they’re not. See this graph which shows secondary pupil numbers currently at a low point since 2000 though projected to rise a bit in the next two years:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/TrendPupilNumbers

The article in the Herald alludes to the pressure of these unfilled posts being a factor in teachers quitting and quitting early, but are they? ‘Research’ by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, in 2014, found that only 51% of Scottish teachers were considering quitting while 80% of English teachers were considering quitting. However, the research was based on a small sample of only 900 UK teachers (90 Scottish teachers?) Finally, this was trades union research not academic research. Ask the members of any occupation whether they’ve considered quitting because of unmanageable workload –100% of cleaners, 100% of carers, 100% of hospital laundry workers? I did the last one for 6 months and feel sure of the figure.

Scottish Teachers Less Likely to Consider Quitting

More robust research from Bath found quite a different picture:

Scottish teachers report lower job demands, better relationships and lower perceived stress levels than those in England and only 4% are considering leaving their jobs

(c) Independent

The UK media is utterly dominated by reports of massive cancellations in NHS England. Under the headline:

‘NHS extends suspension of all non-urgent care as doctors warn of winter crisis’

the Independent, today, reports that officials estimate this could lead to up to 55,000 deferred operations [in January] and that one senior doctor has apologised for ‘third world conditions’ in his hospital.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-non-urgent-care-suspended-winter-crisis-warning-latest-a8138646.html

On Sky News today, Jeremy C…Hunt was asked if he was ashamed. It reminds us of the accusation of a ‘humanitarian crisis’, in NHS England last year, from the Red Cross. The Scottish media is quiet though I doubt they’re content. There are no reports of NHS Scotland advising its hospitals to plan for major cancellations in January. Indeed, the most recent statistical data suggests that it has entered the winter period with an improved performance in November.

In November 2016, there were 2 871 planned operations cancelled. Should that really be ‘postponed’? In November 2017, the figure was 2 720 out of a total of 30 820, down from 9% or 2 871, to 8.8% of the total number of operations.

It’s important to note that 977 of these were cancelled by the patients themselves with only 664 or 2.2% cancelled (postponed) due to capacity or non-clinical reasons. Remember, the 55 000 figure for NHS England refers only to this type of cancellation, due to lack of capacity.

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/2018-01-03/2018-01-03-Cancellations-Summary.pdf?50968569518

Constructing a Winter crisis in NHS Scotland is going to take some doing. Are our Unionist media up-to-it? They will try. Be ready to laugh.

(c) heraldscotland.com

Here’s what Kirsty Blackman, SNP deputy leader actually said:

‘I don’t think most folk in their daily lives give two hoots about whether Scotland is a member of the union.’

Here’s the Herald headline today:

‘Voters don’t give “two hoots” about independence, says SNP Westminster deputy Kirsty Blackman’

See what they did there? The headline and the actual statement mean two quite different things. I’m sure she’s correct that most people are not talking about independence everyday as they go about dealing with the many and increasing other concerns we all have under this awful Westminster government. Regardless of that, even I spend lots of time on other matters and don’t debate independence every hour of every day. I’m not sure the choice of ‘two hoots’ was a good one but no doubt it was said quickly in the flow of an interview.

Going back to the Herald headline it implies that all voters don’t give two hoots at all times, about independence, and that’s clearly not true. When actually asked about it, a very large number of Scots do seem to give more than two hoots about the issue. You only have to look at the recent polls. Back in mid-September 2017, Panelbase had support at 43% and Survation had it at 46%. An earlier Panelbase poll had it at only 40% but a new Panelbase poll for Wings over Scotland puts support at 49% for an independent Scotland in the EU.

So close, even before campaigning begins, as new poll puts support for independence at 49%

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15802922.Voters_don_t_give__two_hoots__about_independence__says_SNP_high_flyer/

Now, sometimes, journalists claim lack of responsibility for headlines, but I doubt if Tom Gordon doesn’t get the chance to approve his headline.

Propagandists always have excuses designed to suggest critics are paranoid and don’t understand journalism as if the latter is complex code that ordinary folk wouldn’t get:

‘It would have been too long for a headline with that phrase in.’

‘It was done very quickly at midnight.’

‘It was done by a junior sub-editor.’

‘If you read the whole article, it explains.’

All of the above is, of course, excrement of the male bovine. Many readers only scan headlines. Headlines overpower any subsequent reading.  The Herald has an anti-independence agenda and it shows if you look for it.

How could they? Scotland’s ambulance workers coped with the increased demand on Hogmanay. Don’t they know how much our Unionist media and politicians were praying for a crisis of some kind? A few deaths that could be blamed on late ambulance arrivals would have cheered their ghoulish minds, no end, but it wasn’t to be. All they could do was report grudgingly on the increased demand and ignore the performance of the staff. The Herald and BBC Scotland couldn’t bring themselves to praise the staff and went with these two:

Rise in calls to Scottish Ambulance Service over Hogmanay

Surge in Scottish ambulance calls at new year

The Daily Excess adopted a more creative approach, ignored the ambulance crews, and made up their own wee crisis, with:

‘Four 999 calls a minute: Drunk tank demands in wake of Hogmanay booze-fuelled emergencies’

I’ve dealt with the supposed demand for drunk tanks already at:

As alcohol and icy surfaces increase demand, NHS England considers dangerous ‘drunk tanks’ and sending non-specialist nurses or GPs as first responders. Scottish Ambulance Service stays calm and tweets advice

The Scottish Ambulance Service had clearly checked the weather forecasts and knew ice-free surfaces would prevent any increase they would struggle with.

As for four 999 calls a minute, 1 879 were for ambulances between midnight and seven am, according the Express report. There are 5.3 million people in Scotland and while I know many of them were safe at home or in bed in those hours, we’re talking about 0.035% of the population or, in each hour, around 0.007%, which of course, as we know, our admirable ambulance staff coped with, admirably!

Back on the 5^th December, the Daily Excess headlined:

‘Scottish NHS ‘failed’ by SNP as shortage of doctors and nurses grows’

They went on to make much of the shortage of consultants whose specialisms are so important in extreme cases. To start the new year, we should see more clearly, than they wanted us to see, the somewhat more positive context and trends over 2017 and over the ten-year period of SNP responsibility.

As of September 2017, there were 5 189.8 consultants working in NHS Scotland. Thought there are still 430.5 vacancies still to be filled, the shortage fell in the last quarter by 9.6% and the annual overall number of consultants rose by 3.5%. Vacancy rates for consultants are also down from 8.3% in 2016 to 7.5% in 2017. More strikingly, consultant numbers have risen by 43.1% under the current government! To put that in context, overall NHS Scotland staffing has risen by 25.4% in the ten years of SNP administration.

Also in 2017, the number of specialists in intensive care increased by 27.5% and the number of specialists in acute internal medicine increased by 49.2%!

https://isdscotland.scot.nhs.uk/Health%2DTopics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables2017.asp

https://news.gov.scot/news/latest-nhs-workforce-statistics

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/888554/scottish-NHS-failed-SNP-doctors-nurses-shortage

I agree that the shortages matter but professionalism in journalism requires context to be informative and they do claim to be informing when they’re asked about it. Mostly however, the Daily Express seems more concerned, regardless of the facts, to express the excrement out of us.