Talking-up Scotland

(c) Scotsman

Such is the extravagant wealth and mass attendances at the top games in England with a dazzling array of highly-gifted players, the Scottish game can look a bit modest, but it’s an unfair comparison. I watch Sportscene, enjoy a lot of the football played and I much prefer Stephen Thomson and Michael Stewart teasing each other in the analysis part to most of the nasty criticism from ‘those well-past-it’ or ‘the never-were-that-great-themselves’, on Match of the Day. We have Kris Boyd’s hilarious goal celebrations too. To be serious though we also know this:

Scottish Premiership is the best supported in Europe! It is, really, per capita.

Who’d a thunk? Now, again in Insider (forward?) we read of the financial health and thus sustainability of the Scottish game. See this:

‘Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock and the like are showing the game north of the border – despite generating a relative pittance in broadcasting income – is in good shape.’  

There’s clearly a disparity between the rich and the poor. Celtic, buoyed by UEFA payouts of €32 million, made £18 for every £1 earned by Kilmarnock. Yet Kilmarnock had a good year in 2016/17, as their income was up 28% in the season, partially due to higher gate receipts as the return of Rangers to the Scottish Premiership helped boost attendances for the clubs who hosted them.’

The report goes on to conclude:

‘What is encouraging is that clubs seem to have a handle on wages, as the key performance indicator used within the game is wages as a proportion of income. Kilmarnock’s profits on such a small turnover are astounding. The club has shown that by managing itself prudently as a business and not trying to live beyond its means can ensure both survival in the Scottish Premiership and a happy bank manager.’

https://www.insider.co.uk/special-reports/scottish-football-clubs-celtic-rangers-12149778

This is not pro-Killie propaganda. I live in Ayr and support the Bairns!

(c) Drug Patents International

Growth in patent filing is one of many indicators of a thriving economy. The rate in Scotland for 2017 was up 9.7% compared to the UK figure of 2.4%

From the Scottish Financial News yesterday:

‘The dynamism of the Scottish economy is reflected in these latest statistics from the EPO which shows Scotland to be an innovation hotspot. By filing with the EPO, businesses from the region are protecting their IP both at home, and in key overseas markets, ensuring Scottish innovation is successful globally.’

http://www.scottishfinancialnews.com/16695/16695/

Regular readers will know this is one more in a steady stream of good news stories about the Scottish economy, reminding us that the GDP and GERs figures popular with our media detractors are of little relevance for the aim of Scottish independence. Here are only some of them:

Reports of a strong Scottish economy just keep coming. Now debt decrees down 93% in the last three months

More evidence Scottish economy is strong: Demand for office space in Glasgow highest for ten 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.

Scottish businesses report much greater optimism about their futures for the third quarter in a row but the Fraser of Allander ‘Institute’ can’t help scratching their ‘buts’.

Scottish businesses continue to show signs of health with insolvencies down 23% as the Scottish economy holds strong

Ruth and Kezia sob as they hear Scotland is ranked as the best place in the UK to start a business. Will this good news never end?

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

Most of this somehow missed by our mainstream media.

(c) europeanbestdestinations.com

Another sign that Edinburgh has become one the best cities in Europe for quality of life as well as for economic opportunity. We’ve already seen these recent indicators:

Best UK city for inward investment is Edinburgh

Edinburgh and Glasgow come second and third in survey of UK cities’ ‘smartness’

Sunshine on Leith? Edinburgh the most prosperous city after London

‘Staggering’ 175% increase in Edinburgh office take-up is further evidence of booming Scottish economy

Now we read in Insider, again:

 

‘New analysis has ranked Edinburgh as the third best city in the UK for equality, and 10th overall in Europe for equal opportunity. The research by online home rental company Spotahome is based on data from 10 key categories such as the gender pay gap , wheelchair access, income inequality, immigrant acceptance, LGBTI friendliness, quality of life and political issues. These were then combined to rank each city on a scale of one to 10 for overall equality.’

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/edinburgh-among-best-equality-12156660

NHS England A&E waiting times hit a record high in February with only 76.9% of patients in Type 1 or ‘major’ casualty units being seen within 4 hours.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2017-18/

In NHS Scotland where all A&E departments are equivalent to Type 1, an average of 89.1% of patients were seen within 4 hours.

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Emergency-Care/Publications/index.asp

Another reminder that we don’t want any deal with the USA after a hard Brexit, to allow corporations into our NHS.

Let me know if Reporting Scotland mention this. I won’t be holding my breath.

 

(c) scottishconstructionnow.com

A quick one, based on yesterday’s report from Insider, the business magazine Reporting Scotland just cannot find. I’ve presented here a stream in reports from Insider confirming good news for the Scottish economy. Yesterday, we read:

‘Last year, CITB Scotland said it directly trained 1,930 new Modern Apprentices, up 36% from 1,422 apprentices in 2011. CITB research released last month predicted more than 10,000 new workers are needed in Scotland in the next five years.

Recruitment of Scottish construction apprentices has grown for the seventh consecutive year, according to new figures from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).’

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/construction-apprenticeships-in-scotland-week-12144085

As always, this is not a one off but the latest in a series of reports suggesting improvement in two important elements within our economy – future skills development and youth employment generally. See these related posts:

3 500 additional new-style apprenticeships confirmed for Scotland in 2018 as Scottish Government pushes on to increase youth employment further ahead of rUK

‘Scottish electrical apprenticeship numbers rise to nearly pre-recession heights’ as Scotland’s youth unemployment falls to 5th best out of 29 European countries

Bias by delay and lack? Scotsman takes three months to understate Scottish Government achievement on youth employment

Scottish Government meets its youth employment target four years early to place Scotland as among the most successful in Europe

There’s so much good news out there, I think I’ll start a blog on it. Wait a minute, I have. If only Reporting Scotland would go for some of this stuff, they’d feel better about themselves.

There are no separate statistics for terrorism in the different parts of the UK. There were 412 arrests in 2017, up from 261 in 2016.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/record-412-terrorism-related-arrests-made-in-uk-last-year-1-4702314

I’ve searched at length for anything including the words ‘Scotland’ and ‘terror’ and ‘arrests’. I found plenty arrests by Scotland Yard but only one with both ‘Scotland’ and ‘terror’, in the Times of January 9^th 2018.  Aha, I thought, at least one, but then I read on:

‘One of the world’s most wanted terrorism suspects (Hafiz Saeed) visited Scotland to urge Muslim youths to become jihadis years before 9/11, an investigation claims.’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/terror-suspect-called-for-jihad-on-visit-to-glasgow-rwq7pttsb

So, it was a story about a jihadi recruiter visiting Scotland more than 17 years ago. It’s been more than 10 years since the Glasgow Airport failed attack and nearly two years since the murder of Glasgow shopkeeper, Asad Shah. It’s not a lot compared to 412 arrests in one year. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that there’s something different going on, or perhaps not going on, in Scotland. I don’t think I’m tempting fate by suggesting Hafiz Saed has had little effect on young Scottish Muslims, nearly 20 years later and although there are no separate Scottish statistics, Police Scotland quietly reassured us, in 2017, with:

‘Police Scotland said there was no intelligence to suggest there is any specific threat to Scotland.’

despite feeling obliged to increase patrols following the Tube bombing in London.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-41289362

If there were few or no terror-related arrests in Scotland in 2017, the question ‘Why?’ seems worth considering.  I explored a few, at some length, last year in:

Scotland and Terrorism: Are we safer?

More recently, is this contributory evidence too?

Racial hate crimes increase by 33% in England & Wales while falling by 10% in Scotland: Who says we’re not different?

This feels like dangerous ground but is it another example of how different Scotland is, from Power-projecting Post-imperial Britain and its House of Saud-friendly elites?

After reading today’s piece in the Independent, today – Burst pipe-dreams: Why privatisation hasn’t improved the supply of our water – the Scottish Labour Leader has accused the SNP of failing to keep him up to date and of recklessly not renewing the nationalisation of Scotland’s water, every year, just in case.

In the Independent, we read:

‘Pipes would still burst under national ownership. Public servants are perfectly capable of bungling. Yet it would also be a land without financial engineering, grotesque cash extraction, endemic tax avoidance, and stratospheric managerial pay. Last year Thames Water was hit with a £20m fine for polluting the waterways of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire with a billion and a half litres of raw sewage between 2012 and 2014. The judge cited a “failure to report incidents” and a “history of non-compliance” by the company. Equipment was unmaintained. Warnings from employees went unheeded by management. Thames’s conduct was branded “disgraceful”, justifying the largest financial penalty for pollution in UK corporate history. While all that was going on Thames’s boss, the aptly named Martin Baggs, received a 60 per cent pay rise, taking his total annual remuneration to above £2m.’

We also read that, in total, the English companies made £2 billion in profits, paid out £1.4 billion to their shareholders, created a web of offshore holding companies to avoid tax and paid their executives ‘beyond the dreams’ of other public service employees.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/burst-pipes-thames-water-privitisation-nationalisation-not-improved-a8242286.html

In contrast, state-owned Scottish water did none of the above, is the most trusted in UK and in 99.91% of tests at taps, recorded ‘high quality water’.

http://www.scottishwater.co.uk/about-us/media-centre/latest-news/annual-report-201718

It’s just as well we have Richard Leonard to keep us focused.

(c) Big Riddie Images

Admittedly former, leading academic, Professor (Retired), Dr John W Robertson, BAHons, PGCE, PG Dip Ed Comp, PG Dip Ed Tech, PGC Media Ed, Master of Education, M App Sc (maker of apple scones) has accused the Herald of exaggerating the scale of compensation claims by passengers and fines. According to the Herald today:

‘The Which? analysis came as it emerged ScotRail received £28 million of public money as redress for track problems last year.  The organisation says ScotRail and other firms regularly tell passengers, often via social media, that they cannot claim back all the money they spent as a result of the disruption. They say that only the cost of tickets can be reimbursed and not the cost of consequential spending such as taxi journeys or hotel bookings. However, Which? says this is incorrect and passengers are entitled to other expenses under the Consumer Rights Act.’

It’s not really that bit which is particularly misleading although the connection between the ‘redress for track problems’ and compensation is unclear, well meaningless, and rail firms believe claiming for these additional or ‘consequent’ costs will be difficult for claimants. See this:

The bit that’s most misleading for readers is the Herald’s failure to contextualise the scale of the problem. They write:

‘Last month it emerged ScotRail clocked up a record £3 million in financial penalties over the first nine months of this financial year for failing to meet required standards for running the nation’s trains and stations, having posted a £3.5m after-tax loss for 2016.’

and later tell us that ScotRail paid out £587,527 in compensation in 2016/2017. Was that a lot? No context is given.

Well, in 2015/16, Scotrail provided 93.2 million passenger journeys over 2.8 billion passenger-kilometres.

http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/22384/scotrail-factsheet.pdf

So, assuming comparable figures for 2016/2017, ScotRail paid compensation at an average of 0.6p per passenger-journey or 0.0002p per passenger-kilometre. That’s the first piece of context – ScotRail paid a tiny amount in compensation relative to the scale of their overall activity.

Second, the Herald doesn’t mention what the National Rail Passenger Survey for Autumn 2017, published in January 2018, reported. They found that 96% of ScotRail passengers were satisfied overall with their journeys. This placed ScotRail 4^th (equal) out of 26 UK rail companies.

http://d3cez36w5wymxj.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/29201549/National-Rail-Passenger-Survey-%E2%80%93-NRPS-%E2%80%93-Autumn-2017-%E2%80%93-Main-Report.pdf

So, that’s the second piece of missing context. Overall satisfaction with ScotRail is high, even very high?

Third is the level of fines at £3 million so far in this financial year, very high? The financial year is nearly over. Is that a lot? This answer comes in two parts.

Southern Rail were fined £13.4 million in 2016/17 for just the London to Brighton run so there’s a third piece of context – ScotRail paid a very low level of fines compared to some other rail companies.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jul/13/sothern-rail-unions-say-134m-fine-is-less-than-a-slap-on-the-wrist

Finally, in 2015/16, Scotrail provided 93.2 million passenger journeys over 2.8 billion passenger-kilometres.

http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/22384/scotrail-factsheet.pdf

Again, assuming reasonably similar figures for 2016/2017, ScotRail were fined an average of around 3p per passenger-journey or 0.1p per passenger-kilometre.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16071721.ScotRail_accused_of_misleading_passengers_over_train_disruption_compensation/

Once more, from the Herald, nothing much at all blown up to mislead readers.

Recruitment firm HIJOBS, in the lovely but neglected Insider magazine, report that

‘Outlander has boosted the economy, visitor numbers and now jobs. HIJOBS says the time-travelling Jacobean epic – which has made household names of actors Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser and Caitriona Balfe as Claire Fraser – has had major implications for the job market in the area. Arguably one of the biggest stars of the series and the biggest scene-stealer has been Scotland itself with its stunning landscapes and historic buildings, towns and villages.’

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/hijobs-says-outlander-sparked-recruitment-12130930

Here are some earlier reports on the ‘Outlander Effect’:

‘Outlander links see visitors to historic sites soaring’

‘Scotland enjoys tourism boost thanks to interest in Gaelic’

Tourism spending in Scotland surges ahead of UK figure

(c) cruiseglasgow.com

Again, from the mainstream, middle-of-the-road, Insider, business magazine, so easily accessible yet so often missed by Douglas Fraser and Reporting Scotland, here’s another good-news-story for Scotland:

‘Glasgow has been named the UK’s best convention bureau for the 12th consecutive year at the Meeting and Incentive Travel (M&IT) Awards. Since first winning the title in 2007, Glasgow Convention Bureau has worked to deliver more than £1.1bn worth of business to the city. In the last financial year, it secured 526 conferences for future years through to 2022. It received its latest gold award ahead of Newcastle Gateshead Convention Bureau and Liverpool Convention Bureau. London & Partners, Convention Edinburgh and Destination Bristol also received commendations following a UK-wide poll by industry magazine M&IT.’

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/glasgow-named-top-convention-spot-12136127

This isn’t Glasgow’s first tourism-related award. Indeed, there have been several recently. See:This i

Glasgow only UK city to make New York Times top ten cities to visit. Dundee makes CNN’s most design-savvy list with Tokyo and Paris

Glasgow wins two first places in global tourism awards and comes 4th out of 50!

Edinburgh and Glasgow come second and third in survey of UK cities’ ‘smartness’

Not bad at all, eh?