Talking-up Scotland

From news.gov.scot, yesterday:

‘Port of Montrose grant to cut thousands of lorry journeys. Montrose Port Authority lands £1.5m Scottish Government grant. More freight will be taken off Scotland’s roads and transported by sea thanks to a £1.5m Ports Mode Shift Grant from the Scottish Government to Montrose Port Authority (MPA). Over a five-year period, it is expected the move will deliver environmental benefits worth £5.2m through the removal of 1.26m tonnes of freight from our roads and 86,000 HGV lorry journeys in the process.’

https://news.gov.scot/news/port-of-montrose-grant-cuts-thousands-of-lorry-journeys

Retired and resigned but still academic, Professor John Robertson, said, seconds ago:

‘This intelligent use of government funds to improve conditions on our roads will surely reduce the stress, pollution and anxiety which contribute to our still too-high level of road traffic accidents.’

Professor Robertson has declared his membership of the SNP and admits never having been in Montrose.

(c) Getty

From ISD on 29^th May 2018:

‘The four IVF centres in Scotland screened 370 eligible patients, compared with 362 in the

previous quarter. 100% of patients were screened for IVF treatment within 365 days. The 90% target continues to be met since it was first measured in March 2015.’

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/2018-05-29/2018-05-29-IVF-Summary.pdf?98669070006

Meanwhile in Tory-run NHS England, only 12% of boards offer three full cycles in line with official guidance. 61% offer only one cycle of treatment and 4% offer none at all. Private treatment costs between £1 343 and £5 788 per cycle.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/ivf-nhs-treatment-fertility-lists-wait-patients-lottery-budget-cuts-a8028116.html

Also, failing to treat infertility can result in problems and further costs for the NHS in other areas. A Danish study of 98 737 women, between 1973 and 2003, showed that women who were unable to have children were 47% more likely to be hospitalised for schizophrenia and had a significantly higher risk of subsequent drug and alcohol abuse.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22020-infertility-may-increase-risk-of-mental-disorders/

Is Ruth Davidson claiming any credit for this?

Made this complaint of bias today:

The report, broadcast six times between 6am and 9am:

‘Fewer students from the most deprived parts of Scotland are entering university. Figures from the Scottish Funding Council show there was a 0.2% drop in the number of entrants from the poorest areas last year.’

It’s not inaccurate, in itself. It is, however missing key facts required for informative value, balance and overall accuracy. The figures used for the broadcast were taken from the Scottish Funding Council Report on Widening Access 2016-17, published on 30^th May 2018. Easily found, on the same page as the figures used by BBC Scotland (3) we can read this crucial piece of information:

‘Combining the number of entrants to full-time FE and HE courses at college and full-time first-degree courses at university, there were 25,490 total entrants from the most deprived 20%, and 15,635 from the least deprived 20%. This means that those from the most deprived 20% have the highest total number of entrants across these full-time levels of study.’

Further reinforcing this as the news worth reporting, we have already seen from UCAS: ‘The problem is that there is rather less sub-degree HE in the non-Scottish parts of the UK than in Scotland but most of what there is appears to be recruited through UCAS; meanwhile in Scotland there’s a much larger amount of HE provided in FE colleges, pretty much all at sub-degree level, which is not recruited through UCAS at all…. Indeed, it’s the HE provided in colleges which gives Scotland the edge in overall participation rates.’ https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/jan-16-deadline-application-rates-report.pdf

This suggests a headline directly contradictory of the BBC Scotland one, today: ‘More students from the most deprived parts of Scotland are entering Higher Education’

This happens every year and in the same way. BBC Scotland take a report on widening access to Higher Education and extract for reporting, only those figures which seem to suggest Scottish Government policy is failing. Here’s the short report, broadcast six times between 6am and 9am, this morning:

‘Fewer students from the most deprived parts of Scotland are entering university. Figures from the Scottish Funding Council show there was a 0.2% drop in the number of entrants from the poorest areas last year.’

The impact, on viewers perceptions of the SNP government, of bad news like this, repeated every 30 minutes, to an audience more sensitive to negative news at that time, may be quite powerful.

As always, with the best propaganda, it’s not inaccurate, in itself. It is, however missing key facts required for both balance and overall accuracy. The figures used for the report were taken from the Scottish Funding Council Report on Widening Access 2016-17, published on 30^th May 2018.

Easily found, on the same page as the figures used by BBC Scotland (3), we can read this crucial piece of information:

‘Combining the number of entrants to full-time FE and HE courses at college and full-time first-degree courses at university, there were 25,490 total entrants from the most deprived 20%, and 15,635 from the least deprived 20%. This means that those from the most deprived 20% have the highest total number of entrants across these full-time levels of study.’

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/web/FILES/statisticalpublications_sfcst062018/SFCST062018_Report_on_Widening_Access_2016-17.pdf

This point is made very clearly and suggests a headline directly contradictory of the BBC Scotland one, today:

‘More students from the most deprived parts of Scotland are entering Higher Education’

According to UCAS, around one third of applicants to Higher Education programmes in Scotland are made directly to local colleges which have articulation arrangements with universities allowing students to progress to degree programmes there after completing years 1 and/or 2 in the local college. This approach allows students to reduce travel and accommodation costs dramatically and is likely to be particularly appealing to those from the poorest areas.

https://www.ucas.com/file/147891/download?token=sjxwG1wA

The UCAS report in 2016 seemed to support this idea:

‘The problem is that there is rather less sub-degree HE in the non-Scottish parts of the UK than in Scotland but most of what there is appears to be recruited through UCAS; meanwhile in Scotland there’s a much larger amount of HE provided in FE colleges, pretty much all at sub-degree level, which is not recruited through UCAS at all…. Indeed, it’s the HE provided in colleges which gives Scotland the edge in overall participation rates.’

https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/jan-16-deadline-application-rates-report.pdf

This happens every year. It’s not a difficult point. The failure to inform year after year suggests a clear agenda to do so – propaganda, thought control?

There are always problems in some direct comparisons between the UK health services  (see below) but percentage changes and independent reports in the BMJ are reasonably comparable and illuminating.

According to a May 2018 report, in the BMJ:

‘The number of people waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS [England] treatment has increased by 35% in the past year, official figures show.’

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2114

In a comparable period, NHS Scotland reported:

‘In March 2018, for all Boards, 81.2% of patients were reported as being seen within 18 weeks. The figures for January and February were 81.0% and 81.0%respectively.’

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/2018-05-29/2018-05-29-WT-18WksRTT-Report.pdf?78953188658

NHS Scotland also reported:

‘88,544 patients in NHS Scotland were waiting for one of the eight key diagnostic tests and investigations. This is an increase of 14.6% compared with the number of patients waiting at  31 December 2017 and an increase of 14.6% since 31 March 2017.’

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/2018-05-29/2018-05-29-WT-Diagnostic-Report.pdf?10685366393

Once Ruth Davidson strong-arms Theresa May into giving more money for health care and into letting more migrants stay and work in it, NHS Scotland can only get better.

Footnote: On NHS England statistics unreliability:

NHS Waiting Times: ‘Unreliable’ Stats Hide Delays – Sky News

 

From SEPA figures in Scottish Field today:

‘More and more Scots are doing their bit for the environment. Scottish recycling, composting and re-use of waste from all sources has rocketed past the 60% milestone for the first time. In 2016, 6.96 million tonnes (61%) of waste was recycled, composted or prepared for re-use, over half a million tonnes more than in 2015. Total waste generated in Scotland fell by over half a million tonnes (0.53m tonnes) since 2015, with Scotland achieving the lowest quantity of waste being landfilled since 2011 – a 10.3% decrease from 2015.’

https://www.scottishfield.co.uk/outdoors/wildlifeandconservation/scottish-recycling-levels-hit-a-new-high/

From the BBC in March 2018:

‘Recycling rates of councils serving 14 million households in England have fallen over five years, analysis by BBC News has found. Half of local authorities recycled a lower proportion of household waste in 2016-17 than in 2011-12. Experts warn the UK is likely to miss its target of recycling 50% of household rubbish by 2020.’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43197454

What could explain this difference? Could it be anything to do with the parties in power at Holyrood and in Westminster. Is it more to do with local authority compliance? Remind me, does the SNP have any part to play in central or local government anywhere? Is it because of Ruth Davidson?

Unrelated to our current sun bonanza, see this from Renewable Energy Magazine today:

‘Elgin Energy has received planning permission for a 50 MW solar PV project at Milltown Airfield near Elgin in Moray, which, when completed, will be the largest solar PV project in Scotland to date.

Upon completion, the solar farm will supply 50 MW of clean and affordable electricity powering up to 15,000 Scottish homes or 19,000 electric vehicles annually. Elgin Energy already has an extensive portfolio of projects across Scotland and the UK. The company previously developed the current largest operational solar farm in Scotland – Errol, a 13 MW solar farm in Perth – completed in 2016. In 2015, Scotland achieved its 50 percent target of gross annual electricity consumption from renewable energy. The country is now on track to achieve its target of 100 percent by 2020. Scotland has a current total installed capacity of 319 MW of solar PV.’

https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/pv_solar/permission-granted-for-largest-solar-farm-in-20180529

For those surprised that Scotland has such potential for solar power generation, see this:

‘Installing solar power in Scotland is beneficial even though it doesn’t receive as much solar irradiation as somewhere like Africa, India or Southern Europe. Looking at the solar irradiation map, we can see that the solar irradiance in the UK and Scotland is not too dissimilar to Germany – the largest photovoltaic (PV) market in the world, which had 24.7 GW of PV installed at the end of 2011 (European Photovoltaic Industry Association: EPIA Market Report 2011).’

See the map above for evidence of this. Further, see this pie chart below as evidence of just how significant an element solar power could be though this is for the UK as a whole so the ratio of solar to wind power would be a bit different. However, latitude is not the only factor and the report from Siser reveals that: ‘some installations in Scotland, like the ones in the Dundee/Aberdeen area, regularly perform just as well as installations down south. Interestingly in April and May installations on the west coast also performed as well as some in Cornwall.’

Also, the quality of the installation may be more significant than the actual amount of ‘solar irradiance.’ So, a top-quality installation in Dundee could generate more than a lower quality one in Essex.

http://www.siser.ac.uk/solar-in-scotland

I know, we’ve already got more wind, tidal and carbon-based resources than we could possibly use but we can sell the surplus.

 

I sat beside Darren ‘Loki’ McGarvey in 2014 as we waited to make our presentations at a wee conference in the Department of Scottish literature of Glasgow University. His presentation made me a bit moist around the eyes with its tale of personal suffering and the loss of a friend.

Since then Darren has got a gig at the Scotsman. He’s not the only Yes activist to get paid work in the Unionist media. I don’t criticise them for that in itself. Its tough out there and they have often made helpful contributions which have improved the daily output of these otherwise failing organisations but, today, Darren has played into the hands of my (his?) enemies by writing:

‘Growth Commission offers ‘timid’ vision for Scotland’

It turns out that I agree with what he writes but I disagree about where and when these thoughts should be expressed if independence matters most to you. I would be happy to express them privately and confidentially where I could be sure they wouldn’t get out and be turned against the movement or after we win independence, when it is safe to do so. We all need the money, but he could have written something else, something calculated to win support for Yes.

Darren hasn’t been the only insider to criticise the Growth Commission. Perhaps worse, we’ve seen leading SNP figures, Jim Fairlie and George Kerevan feeding the Herald’s Tom Gordon and enabling the headline:

‘Further splits in Yes movement over Growth Commission’

We’ve also seen an attack from the left in the form of Jonathon Shafi, the co-founder of the Radical Independence Campaign:

‘In 2014 the independence movement was galvanised around opposition to crushing Westminster austerity. That too was the theme of the successful SNP general election campaign. The Growth Commission, despite claims to the opposite, would open the door to various forms of austerity politics.’

Once more, I agree entirely but to say it now can only weaken the Yes movement. By all means, say it privately or after the great day but, for now, there must be many other targets for the left, where attacks will weaken unionist propaganda directly. Further, huffy threats of defection to Corbyn’s Labour are frankly astonishing. Recent polls tell us that much of England remains wedded to these appalling Tories and to the Monarchy. We’ve waited far too long for UK Labour to give us a Britain we might feel we belong in. Only an independent Scotland can save us. Do nothing that obstructs the road to freedom. It’s not just about you.

 

(c) Richard Pohle

In Oil & Gas People, today:

‘Algy Cluff is celebrating. His oil and gas firm, Cluff Natural Resources, hit the jackpot in the North Sea last week when it won exploration licences for an area the size of Bedfordshire. When the news was announced last Wednesday, Cluff was at lunch with a judge to talk about one of the charities he supports but couldn’t resist toasting the North Sea’s ‘second coming’. Cluff won’t put a precise number on the value of the potential oil and gas resources in his firm’s ten new exploration blocks. But when it comes to ‘North Sea Mark II’, where his Aim-listed firm will drill alongside energy giants BP, Shell and Chevron, Cluff says profits could read like ‘telephone numbers’.’

https://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/16708/big-we-are-talking-telephone-numbers/

Now, without the international prefix, my telephone number has ten digits so we’re talking profits in the billions so we’re also talking big tax revenues. Hopefully the forthcoming Scottish Treasury will make a success of this unlike their predecessor:

Scottish GDP grows by 10 times UK rate in first quarter of 2018 or could that be 30 times with proper taxation of oil revenue?

How to get useful information relating to the Scottish oil industry’s ‘tax haul gush’: try a right-wing English newspaper?

North Sea oil producers making massive profits as costs fall and prices rise. Are we taxing them, or might that damage the Unionist case?

Excellent!

 

(c) subseaworldnews

We’ve seen reports of soaring value, of greater exploration and of returning employment in Aberdeen:

According to Bank of America, oil prices could hit $100 a barrel next year but all of Scotland’s ‘business correspondents’ miss the news again and for the fourth time in a year.

A wealthy independent Scotland? Nearly $300 billion in new oil revenue to be unlocked in latest offshore licensing round.

As oil prices soar and exploration increases, employment in Scotland’s oil industry returns to record levels

Now, we see evidence of growing confidence in the contractors and suppliers supporting the industry. A survey by Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce, in association with the Fraser of Allander Institute and KPMG, reveals the following:

1. 64% of contractors more confident
2. 8% less confident
3. 71% expect growth to continue
4. Exploration value expected to rise 21% this year
5. 46% expecting rise in value of offshore production
6. 70% forecasting an increase in profits in 2018

https://www.oilandgaspeople.com/news/16707/north-sea-confidence-reviving-in-aberdeen-area/

You’ll see I had to go to the industry news agency, Oil and Gas People, to get this story. I can’t see it our mainstream media. They generally love anything from the Fraser of Allander Institute.

The return of affluence to Scotland’s oil and gas sector was not factored into the Growth Commission Report. I understand why but it makes no sense for this to be ignored altogether as we make the case for independence.