Miles Briggs, SCUP, yesterday asked the Scottish Government how many NHS operations have been cancelled in each year since 1999.
Jeane Freemen told him that recording only began in 2015 and that the figure for 2018 was 32 010, down from 34 581 in 2016.
https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20190319.pdf
So, that’s a 7% reduction at the same time as a massive increase in demand:
In the regular Scottish insert part of BBC Breakfast this morning at 06:26am, we heard this scary headline:
‘The number of potential victims of trafficking and modern slavery in Scotland has gone by more than 50% in two years. Figures released by the UK crime agency show around a third were children. 228 cases were reported to police Scotland last year.’
Wait a minute, didn’t they report that only a few weeks ago? They did:
Are they trying to scare my mum?
So, did they report the 2017 figures really late or are we getting the 2018 ones really quickly?
I see there was dramatic 42% increase from 2016, but only a 7% increase from 2017 to 2018. Could that be good news? Ah, not so newsworthy?
As always, BBC Scotland News came context-free, so I checked out their sources and found this:
So, people trafficking is 28 times more common in England than it is in Scotland and the trafficking of children is 51 times more common. England has only 10 times the population.
‘Infection control measures here in Scotland are among the best in Europe but it’s impossible to completely guarantee that hospitals are safe.’
That is of course, the headline we should be hearing and it’s a truth closer to the shared experience and information needs of most viewers but by that time, the damage had been done with:
‘Around 10% of health care infections detected over the past three years are likely to be linked to NHS buildings.’
How informed do we feel after hearing that? Is 10% a lot? Is it lower than elsewhere? Is it falling over time? How likely is likely?
‘A flagship hospital with some serious health problems.’
Are they serious – 3 deaths where a hospital-acquired infection may have been a contributory factor (only)? Not one person died because of a health problem posed by the building. Not one. Tabloid journalism.
‘48 incidents may have originated in NHS buildings.’
Once more, without context, we have no idea what to make of that figure. Tabloid journalism.
There is no real health care crisis here. A politically motivated media feeding frenzy initiated by the courtiers at the state broadcaster has constructed a classic moral panic out of unremarkable, statistically insignificant events and, with the help of dodgy opposition politicians, forced the Scottish Government to act as if they were significant or face accusations of complacency.
I’m reminded of Ian Stronach’s line:
‘Shouting ‘Theatre!’ in a crowded fire’
Breathe, breathe….
Between November 2018 and January 2019, unemployment rate in Scotland was 3.4% while the UK rate was 3.9%, below 4% for the first time since whenever.
Scottish Business Minister Jamie Hepburn said
‘Scotland is performing particularly well on unemployment rates for women and young people. At 2.6% for women and 7.4% for young people, both rates are at record lows and significantly lower than in the rest of the UK.’
Has the Scottish Government played any part in this?
We know from a parliamentary question that more than £4.5 billion has been given in rates relief to businesses across Scotland since the SNP came to power. We also know that we can say, as in BBC Scotland headlines that major reductions in unemployment and increase in wages, relative to the UK, have come after these subsidies:
We also know that around 50 000 businesses are exempt entirely from business rates.
Full details:
https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20190227.pdf
Equality and Human Rights Commission, yesterday
Another useful parliamentary question from Kezia Dugdale MSP, Labour:
As you might expect, the answer is long, so here’s an extract covering the efforts made by the SNP Government to compensate for the worst of the UK Government’s austerity programme, recognised today by the EHRC (above) and including free school meals for P1-3:
https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20190318.pdf
The Scottish Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has a target of 75% being acted on within 4 weeks. Since 2007-2008, it has beaten the target, with the figure for last year at 79%.
TuS is grateful to Tory MSP, Liam Kerr, for asking the parliamentary question leading to this good news:
https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20190318.pdf
Let’s be clear, this inquiry would not be taking place but for BBC Reporting Scotland’s leading (others followed) coverage of the deaths of five patients at two Glasgow hospitals. None of the five patients died because of hospital acquired infections. There is no scientific basis for this inquiry. There are at least three good reasons why this inquiry is not necessary.
First, five cases are not a statistically significant indicator of a real problem. Each year, in England & Wales, around 2 300 people die in hospital after MRSA and C difficile infections. In the USA, around 97 000 die in hospital from infections from organisms including bacteria and fungi.
Source: EXCLUSIVE: You are many times LESS likely to die from a hospital ‘bug’ in Scotland
Second, hospital acquired infection rates in Scotland are falling consistently and dramatically, despite soaring demand, suggesting that current procedures are every much on track:
file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/CBP-7533.pdf
Third, the Scottish Government already has plans in place:
Is it not a waste of public funds to start a new inquiry just to satisfy a media frenzy when there are existing ones currently being implemented and evaluated?
Given that so much of our understanding of reality is based on media representation, BBC Reporting Scotland is creating reality, a frightening one, and not, as they might wish to believe, merely reporting on some shared common reality out there. Given the insignificance of these infections as indicators of the shared experience of their viewers, they have chosen to report in a way which distorts it.
Some earlier thoughts on why and what effect this kind of ‘reporting’ might have.
Hospital scare stories tell you the Scottish media elite is politically adrift, anxious and nothing to fear
Too easy! Think of your own title for this.
The expensive Lib Dem MSP for the Shetland Islands, Lavish Tavish, tabled a parliamentary question which might provide the data for an attack on the SNP government’s failure to do the UK government’s work for them. Here it is:
Readers will no doubt already be aware that:
TuS Technology Correspondent, Cameron (9), has used his algorithm to survey Shetland’s 18 000 social media users and has found the following:
Mentions: Number:
Nicola Sturgeon 18 000
Alex Salmond: 18 000
Jackson Carlaw: 3
Willie Rennie 1
Ross Thomson 1
Tavish Scott 0
http://www.sps.gov.uk/Corporate/Information/FOI-Responses.aspx
I suppose, if you keep digging for dirt, preferably blood stains or body parts, you will find something now and again.
This is not Liam Kerr MSP
Liam McArthur has found a juicy if smelly morsel in a Freedom of Information request to the Scottish Prison Service which he has been able to pass quickly, before it even appears online, to Reporting Scotland. It’s on the website and was broadcast late last night. Here’s the gist of it:
‘The funding of mental health care for Scotland’s prisoners must be increased after the number of self-harm incidents “skyrocketed”, an MSP has said. Figures show there were 762 incidents in 2018, compared with 532 in the previous year – a jump of 43%. These include burns, cuts, attempted suicide, ligature, overdoses and swallowing items. Of the 762 total incidents recorded across Scotland, 517 were for cuts, 72 were categorised under “swallows item”, 41 for “overdose” and 31 as “attempted suicide”.’
There are around 100 incidents missing from that list at the end. Why? What are they? Why are we seeing only the one-year change? Did he ask for more? Does the trend look like a mere blip if you get the figures for say ten years? Is self-harm falling? I’ll report on this when I get the full response from the SPS.
A visit to the SPS website for FoI, March 2019 screenshot and link above, reveals the work going on by the diggers, sniffing for blood which they can then pass quickly to our NoMedia, in a campaign attacking the SPS and by proxy the SNP Government.
As always, Reporting Scotland, neglects to include any context which might inform their viewers such as:
All of Scotland’s prisons have a full operational multi-disciplinary mental health team in place. Liam Kerr MSP will know this from his FoI request in only weeks ago. He is determined.
Why didn’t Kerr feed that one to Reporting Scotland I wonder?
Self-harm in Scottish prisons is much, much, lower than in England & Wales
‘In the 12 months to September 2018, there were 52,814 incidents, a 23% increase from the previous year, and a new record high.’
So, there were 52 814 incidents of self-harm in England & Wales in 2018 and 762 in Scotland in 2018. You can probably see where this is going.
First, the prison population in Scotland is 8 020 and 762 is 9.5% of that. The prison population in England and Wales is 82 543 and 52 814 is 63% of that. The population of England & Wales is around 11 times that of Scotland. So, self-harm is more than six times as common in English and Welsh prisons. Hey, great idea for a BBC Scotland Disclosure report?
http://www.prisonstudies.org/country/united-kingdom-scotland
In the next episode of Yes/No: Inside the Indyref, Brian Little, referring to English colleagues who came up to Scotland in 2014, will make the explosive claim:
‘I’m not cynical about [BBC DNA] that but I was quite surprised by some of my colleagues failing to understand their own assumption that the Yes side was wrong. He added that some colleagues thought that our responsibility was to produce a series of pieces to demonstrate how foolish it would be to vote Yes.’
I don’t doubt Little’s evidence is genuinely recalled, but it is anecdotal and from a BBC bubble insider with emotional ties to the BBC in Scotland predisposing him to look elsewhere for fault.
Today, with Gordon Brewer, on Sunday Politics (Scotland), we hear the same narrative being developed to counter the conspiracy theories suggesting BBC Scotland was institutionally biased against the Yes campaign. Here’s an excerpt:
Blair Jenkins OBE: ‘He’s come out with something much more nuanced than the usual view you get on this. The usual view that tends to be expressed on this are ‘100% BBC were systemically biased’ view or ‘there was nothing wrong’ view and the truth lies in between as is so often.’
Jenkins reveals his mere journalistic background and deep conditioning here. Leaving aside the straw man of extreme polar opposite views on BBC bias which do exist, but which are not dominant, Little’s account was not more ‘nuanced’ but just simply blamed the English, coming up here with their misunderstandings, for any bias that did emerge and let his Scots buddies off the hook. A more nuanced account might be one like this:
You don’t need a conspiracy to get overwhelming bias in liberal democracies. All you need is institutions with an overall mission to promote Britishness, staffed by people who are products of an education system which, in the main, also promotes Britishness, led by career professionals with ties to, sometimes past employment with, the three Unionist parties and a climate is created in which Scottish independence seems deviant. Some of the reporting staff may well be pro-independence, some of the senior and editorial staff may be sufficiently non-aligned to ‘leave behind their own opinions’ as Ken McQuarrie put it, but in 2014, the head of the news unit had strong links, including a marital one, to the Blairite Labour party and many reporters were frankly afraid of him. Judging by the output, those not afraid were, perhaps sub-consciously, making decisions about what to report and how to report it, which over time damaged the Yes campaign.
At the time, I was more than worried about the appointment of Jenkins to lead the Yes campaign. His deep conditioning within mainstream Scottish journalism, strong connections in BBC Scotland and his acceptance of a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire badge, should have made him clearly unsuitable. His subsequent performance, diffident, lethargic and dull, could only have knocked points of the result.
As for blaming the English reporters, that’s laughable. Many times, an English newspaper or BBC 1 news at 6 would report on developments where the situation was better in Scotland than in England, leaving Reporting Scotland to follow on, helpless, unable to contradict. They weren’t trying to help the Yes campaign, but they were determined to report news that might damage the Westminster Tories. Two years ago, I was able to write:
‘On more than a few occasions, I’ve thanked BBC Salford at 6pm for telling us about the endless crises in ‘Hard Tory England’ before BBC Scotland come on tell us how bad things are here without even a sniff of comparison or context. If you were only to switch on at 6:30pm you might never know of the repeated strikes by junior doctors, the regular and massive failures of mental health boards, the collapse of respect for police forces there or the endless stories of corporate corruption and fat cat enrichment at the expense of their staff and us. You might even miss the falling-apart of the Conservative Party as it fights within itself over Brexit. Watching BBC Scotland’s fawning over their new ‘Champion of the Union’, Ruth Davidson, you’d never think she was in the same dysfunctional group. You certainly won’t hear of Ruth’s nauseating fawning to the Tory elite and playing the loveable rascal Scot who might steal your cutlery and damage your furniture if you leave them alone in the room. If she was black and saying those things, imagine the reaction?’
It was quite difficult to search the blog archives for this kind of report, so I only have these five examples:
Report of GP staffing crisis in England appears before Scottish media can fake equivalent story
Vital fire safety checks nearly twice as common in Scotland as in post-Grenfell, Tory-led England
Talking-up Scotland 