(c) projectscot.com
From the often more balanced and reliable BBC Scotland website news than the Broadcast versions:
- Scottish unemployment rate hits record low at 3.7%
- At 3.7%, the jobless rate is below that of the UK, which sits at 4.1%.
- ONS data revealed 75% of the working age population, those aged between 16 and 64, had some form of work.
- Scotland’s employment rate was ‘below’ [statistically insignificant difference] that of the UK as a whole, which is at 75.7%.
- Joblessness fell among both males and females, with the number of men out of work down by 8,000 over the period to 58,000, while the number of women without a job decreased 5,000 to 42,000.
- On employment for women and young people, a rate of 71.3% for women, higher than the UK rate of 71.2%, and 58.8% for young people, higher than the UK rate of 55.9%.
- Lower rates of unemployment for both women and young people.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46522798
It is also important to know about the quality of the employment experienced. It would be all very well to have increasing employment if it were primarily low-paid and insecure. At the end of October 2018, we were able to report that more Scots were getting the living wage, 54% fewer were in insecure work, more mothers were able to return, there were better conditions and better jobs, there was more workplace gender equality, more employee-ownership, there were more educated workers and more apprenticeships. See below for the evidence.
More mothers able to return to work as Scottish Government doubles free early learning and childcare
Scotland ‘poised to be a world leader’ in workplace gender equality
Are Scotland’s employers also different – more willing to pay a decent wage?
UK Government urged to follow Scotland’s praised lead on employee ownership – another 8% story?
Scotland has more educated workers than England: JRF Excerpt 2
Talking-up Scotland 
Well done John, you have managed to anticipate GMS on radio Scotland (haha, they should call themselves radio anti-Scotland up the British empire) with their special report on the Scottish budget (what, no mention on scotgov getting on with the day job unlike the uk gov’t shambles?). Alasdair will have listened properly I’m sure, but my impression of the budget special report involved:
1. Man telling us it was going to reduce recruitment and employment was going to take a dive if they increased taxes. Sigh.
2. LibDems weirdo insistence that having the SNP still pursuing the issue of an independence referendum was too much of a distraction from the budget, and they are having difficulty focusing on budget issues because of it. It wasn’t explained to us why it was a distraction, or what exactly was a distraction – except that the LibDems don’t like the ‘uncertainty’. … HahahaHAHAHAha ,,,HaHAHAHAhaha.
3. ‘Middle earners’ (they seem to mean top earners here, top of the lower earning bracket, before you get to the elite upper quartile outlier earners) are going to be so terribly unfairly hit the worst. This is on supposition of what the budget might be.
Well, we can expect a lot more whinging about how unfair Scotland’s more progressive and fairer (barely) budget will be. Interesting how they managed to report how much employment is going to be hit, without mentioning how much better it is in Scotland than in non-Scottish parts at the mo, eh? Strange.
Huh. Tories are having a leadership contest to avoid government no-confidence vote, chancers the lot of them. Still doing party politics instead of doing governmenty things. Sounds like they are still in fantasy land.
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Theresa May: delivering on first class public services and more homes,,,
HaHAHAHAhaha hahaha! Fantasy land. Thinks saying it convinces people it’s happening when it just is not. That was just the easiest total disconnect from reality for mentioning, her whole speech was a total disconnect.
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Thanks C. You’ve given me a wee side-effects-free boost there.
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Further good news from news.gov.scot regarding Scotland’s reducing carbon footprint. The stats report a significant drop corresponding with the economic recession following 2007 crash – but also demonstrate a continuing reduction pattern over the period of the SNP Scottish Govt (as compared with the rising trend and peak (2007) achieved under the lab/lib coalition of carbon junkies. Link and snippets below:
https://news.gov.scot/news/scotlands-carbon-footprint-1998-2015
An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland.
Scotland’s Chief Statistician today published Scotland’s Carbon Footprint: 1998-2015. This publication provides estimates of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions on a consumption basis; that is emissions that are associated with the spending of Scottish residents on goods and services, wherever in the world these emissions arise, together with emissions directly generated by Scottish households.
Key points
• Between 2014 and 2015, Scotland’s carbon footprint (emissions from all greenhouse gases) remained constant at 76.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e).
• Between 1998 and 2015, Scotland’s carbon footprint fell by 8.0 per cent, from 83.1 MtCO2e in 1998 to 76.5 MtCO2e in 2015.
• Scotland’s carbon footprint rose steadily from 1999 to a peak of 97.7 MtCO2e in 2007 before falling sharply in the following years (coinciding with the recession) and has generally fallen gradually in more recent years. The overall reduction between the 2007 peak, and 2015 is 21.8 per cent.
These things don’t happen by accident – they happen as part of Scotland’s continuing route map to Indy and responsible global citizenship. I, for one, am positive that the UK brexit shambles will hasten that happy day – and it cannae come soon enough.
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Heavens Above – I nearly dropped my scone – beeb Scotland carrying a story that reflects well on the functioning of the Scottish Criminal Justice system (and, therefore, by extension (although not explicit in the article) the SNP Scottish Govt administration of the same) – Wonders will never cease. NOTE: The article focusses heavily on the high payments (from the Scottish Legal Aid Board) to several high profile Advocates – a clever ploy by beeb Scotland to muddy waters and obscure the principal info of a Scottish system finding ways (over a long period of SNP Scottish focussed government)) to deliver better results and leading to savings for the Scottish Public Purse – monies which can be recycled to other desirable ends). Link and snippets below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46541972
Taxpayer-funded legal aid payments fell to £124.4m last year
Scotland’s legal aid bill dropped by more than £10m to £124.4m last year, new figures have revealed.
There were 8,000 fewer applications for the taxpayer-funded legal assistance last year.
The fall in payments is down to a drop in recorded crime and an increase in alternatives to court prosecutions.
The Scottish Legal Aid Board’s (Slab) annual report shows the total cost to the taxpayer of legal assistance in 2017-18 was £124.4m, down from £135.7m in the previous year and £138.6m four years ago.
Criminal legal assistance accounted for £74.1m of last year’s expenditure, down from £85.4m in 2016-17.
Slab’s chief executive Colin Lancaster pointed out that funding for Scotland’s legal aid system was demand-led rather than tied to a fixed budget, so falling cases numbers would continue to impact on law firms’ incomes.
He added: “The 13% fall in criminal payments to the profession this year comes on the back of several years of falling expenditure.
“This is not because of a reduction in funding or in the level of fees, rather it reflects a very significant and long term fall in reported crime and the increasing availability and use of alternatives to court prosecution.”
Mr Lancaster said legal firms needed to get used to a legal aid environment of “lower business volumes and lower overall expenditure”.
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Scotland’s Chief Statistician and the Team have been michty busy over the past couple of days – Saw these encouraging stats on news.gov.scot regarding some further evidence of reductions in health inequalities under the SNP Scottish Govt’s watch. Link and snippets below:
https://news.gov.scot/news/health-inequalities-statistics-released-4
Scotland’s Chief Statistician today announced the publication of the latest Long-term Monitoring of Health Inequalities report.
The gap in health outcomes between the most deprived and least deprived areas of Scotland is reported for a variety of indicators in absolute and relative terms, including premature mortality, mental wellbeing, baby birthweight, self-assessed health, limiting long-term conditions and a range of morbidity and
mortality indicators relating to alcohol, cancer and coronary heart disease.
Main findings
With the exception of the Healthy Birthweight indicator, significant health inequalities persist for each indicator covered in the report.
In a number of indicators, absolute inequalities (the gap between the most and least deprived areas) have narrowed over the longer term:
• Premature Mortality (under 75 years) – the gap has reduced by 17% from its peak in 2002, and is currently lower than at the start of the time series in 1997.
• CHD Mortality – the gap has more than halved since its widest point in 1998.
• Alcohol-Related Admissions – the gap has reduced by 43% since the start of the time series in 1996.
• Low Birthweight – the gap has reduced by 25% since its peak in 2004.
• Cancer Mortality – the gap has reduced by 22% since its widest point in 1998.
The gap for Alcohol-Related Deaths is currently 30% lower than at its peak in 2002.
The gap for Limiting Long-Term Conditions has reduced by 26% since its peak in 2014/2015.
This good stuff is being achieved by a Scottish-focussed SNP Govt under the hopeless ham-stringing of the devolution settlement – Just imagine for one moment what an SNP Scottish-focused Govt of a REAL Indy Scotland could do – This is the stuff Indy dreams are made of – Let’s do it.
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Ludo, I found this article on CommonSpace covering the same Report :-
https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/13655/progressive-scotland-5-graphs-showing-scotland-s-stark-and-growing-health
Sorry, I don’t know how to insert a clickable link in this format.
I was struck by the contrasting tone, indeed possibly even contradictions. I preferred your version.
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Oh, I see its recognised it as a link and made it clickable all by itself itself after posting. Clever!
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