Thanks to a Freedom of Information request response published today asking for the average number of entries into SQA qualifications per S5 pupil at each secondary school in Scotland, we can reveal that the Scottish average has gone up from 3.5 subjects per pupil in 2009 to 4.9 subjects in 2018. That is a 40% increase in only 10 years.
LUDO THIERRY
Another area of Housing (Regulated property agents) where those in a position to say are indicating that the changes brought in under the SNP Scottish Govt have significantly improved the functioning of this sector in Scotland as compared to our neighbours to the south (note the dramatic difference in the insolvency figures). Link and snippets below from today’s Scottish legal site:
England should follow Scotland’s lead on regulation of property agents, say experts
A report by the working group on the regulation of property agents’ (ROPA) which proposes increased regulation, minimum qualifications, and the formal licensing of agents should be welcomed according to a property management firm.
David Alexander, joint managing director of Apropos by DJ Alexander Ltd, said: “Scotland already has a more regulated sector with agents required to be registered and the key decision makers qualified. However, rather than destroying the sector this has made it stronger and more effective.
“Lord Best, who chairs the ROPA working group, said that these recommendations could lead to some agencies closing but would create a better industry.
What is interesting is that Scotland, which has already been through all these changes including a code of conduct which was introduced in 2017 which is also now being proposed for England, now appears to have a more financially stable property management sector.
The number of companies entering formal insolvency procedures involved in real estate activities in Scotland fell in 2018 to its lowest figure since 2007 with just 17 companies going bust in the whole year. By contrast the number of real estate companies failing in England and Wales reached its highest level in four years in Q1 2019 with a total of 121 and the year as a whole looks likely to be similar to the previous peak which occurred during 2014 when 522 companies entered insolvency.”
In a poll of 15 321 carried out by YouGov for the charity Hope Not Hate, with fieldwork between 26th April and 1st May 2019, but reported in July 2019, the Scottish Tories and Labour are completely wiped out with the SNP taking 55 seats and SLIBDEM taking 4.
Looking at the above table, a pro-remain Lib-Lab pact seems the most likely outcome with the LibDems requiring Labour to deny a second independence referendum at the same time as insisting on a second EU referendum.
Click to access fear-and-hope-report-2019-07-final-1.pdf
The timing of the fieldwork means this probably over-states the current level of support for Brexit party.
Thanks to a parliamentary question from the SLIBDEMs, we can reveal that Scotland is making good progress toward its target of 50 000 affordable homes by May 2021 with 25 000 (50%) already delivered.
Click to access WA20190715.pdf
And in non-Scottish parts:
Scotland’s affordable housing supply continues to increase ahead of non-Scottish parts
Important information for Labour, Lib Dem and Tory supporters:
Scottish Water is a statutory corporation that provides water and sewerage services across Scotland. It is accountable to the public through the Scottish Government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Water
In a ComRes survey of 199 Scots, published today, we see:
Click to access Water-UK_ComRes_Public-Polling_Feb-2019_Data-Tables.pdf
Liam McArthur Lib Dem Prison Scandal Spokesperson
Thanks to a Freedom of Information request published on 12th July, we can see a dramatic fall in all types of prison staff assaults, in three of Scotland’s most notorious prisons. Only Barlinnie, Grampian and Polmont, were chosen by the intrepid investigator in the public interest:
RFI 1 ‘The number of prison staff assaulted during this period (01/04/2018 to 31/12/2018 and 01/01/2019 to 30/04/2019).’
Perhaps the focus on only three institutions was an attempt to get the best/most misleading headline possible? Anyhow the results are
http://www.sps.gov.uk/FreedomofInformation/FOI-6528.aspx
I don’t know for certain who made the FOI request, but McArthur is the biggest fan of writing to the SPS in the hope of exposing the SNP’s ‘failure’ to run the prison service. Here are some of his recent fibs based on FOI:
The last four sub-polls have been notable for a lack of clarity in the level of support for the Scottish Conservative and Labour branches, with figures as far a part as 7 and 28% in the case of the former and 9 and 20% for the latter but support for the SNP has been rock solid at either 45 or 46%. This is remarkably consistent given the nature of polling and these quite small samples.
A small Survation sub-poll of 76 on 10th and 11th July gave:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election
A more useful YouGov poll on 9th and 10th July with 144 Scots, gives:
Click to access TheTimes_190710_VI_Trackers_w.pdf
YouGov based on 138 adults with fieldwork on 2nd and 3rd July:
Click to access TheTimes_190703_VI_Trackers_w.pdf
Finally, in the Ipsos-MORI sub-poll of 133 adults, on 21st to 25th June 2019:
Click to access pm_-_tables_-_270619.pdf
You don’t need me to tell you what 45 to 46% means in terms of wiping out the opposition in all but a handful of Lib Dem redoubts.
In the Guardian today, we read of serious and worsening problems in access to GPs in England:
Based on this Scottish survey published in July 2019, we can see that while overall levels of satisfaction with the quality of the service offered by GPs did not differ significantly, it is in the ease of access that the Scottish system seems to be performing much better:
Though the questions are worded differently, we can see that 87% of Scots ‘finding it easy to contact their GP practice in the way that they want to’ is much better than only 67.4% ‘whose experience of making an appointment was ‘good’.’
We can perhaps link this difference to the higher number of GPs per head of population in Scotland. See:
Lab rats!
On BBC Reporting Scotland yesterday at 1.30
First: ‘A ten-month-old baby has died after choking on food at a nursery in Edinburgh.’
BBC Guidelines: ‘We operate in the public interest – reporting stories of significance to our audiences and holding power to account.’
https://www.bbc.com/editorialguidelines/guidelines/editorial-standards#thepublicinterest
The full report offered no further information of any kind that could be in the public interest. This was, once more mere morbid titillation of a base tabloid form. Reporting Scotland could not even find a dubious link to any wider phenomenon such as the licensing of nurseries or the training of staff, yet it was the headline story.
Second: ‘An anonymous witness has told the blood inquiry he believes his identical twins were treated as lab rats after being infected with HIV through contaminated blood products at Yorkhill Children’s Hospital. The man known only as Mr AB said one of his sons was given a trial drug AZT for HIV while the other son was given a different treatment. The family were not consulted.
BBC Guidelines: ‘This means all BBC output, as appropriate to its subject and nature, must be well sourced, based on sound evidence, and corroborated. We should be honest and open about what we don’t know and avoid unfounded speculation. Any proposal to rely on a single unnamed source making a serious allegation or to grant anonymity to a significant contributor making a serious allegation must be referred to Director Editorial Policy and Standards and Programme Legal Advice.’
https://www.bbc.com/editorialguidelines/guidelines/accuracy/mandatory-referrals
I’ll ask if the Director was consulted. Lab rats? This report is about as down-market as you can get.
Then there was a murder and an understaffed prison to round off your day.
Note: This reminds me of the story that psychologists are no longer using lab rats but rather they prefer to use journalists in their labs. They found they were getting too attached to the rats and there are some things even rats won’t do!
Note: The above joke can be sued with other groups such as Tory MSPs.
NHS waiting lists nearly FOUR times longer in England than in Scotland
Reported on BBC 1 News today at 1pm
‘New figures show the number of people waiting for hospital treatment in England has hit a record high of 4.39 million with the total waiting for treatment in May the highest since records began more than a decade ago.’
Reporting Scotland followed with a baby death, two babies allegedly treated like lab rats, a murder and an understaffed prison but made no mention of waiting times here.
While exactly comparable 2019 figures do not seem to be available, in June 2018, there were around 81,000 patients waiting over 12 weeks for an outpatient consultation, and around 21,500 patients waiting over 12 weeks for inpatient and day case treatment, giving a total of around 103 000. England has around 11 times the population of Scotland so if the rates were similar, then around 1 130 000 patients should be waiting for treatment there. However, the actual figure is nearly four times that at 4 390 000!
Also, the trend in Scotland, in contrast to that in England, is downward. See:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/waiting-times-improvement-plan/pages/3/
Talking-up Scotland 