Talking-up Scotland

From BBC UK News today:

‘Fire safety checks across England have fallen by 42% over the last seven years, according to the new watchdog for fire and rescue services. HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services says brigades do a good job in emergencies, but amid cuts have reduced “vital” prevention work. The watchdog said the number of audits carried out by firefighters dropped from 84,575 in 2010-11 to 49,423 in 2017-18.’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46627987?ns_mchannel=social&ocid=socialflow_twitter&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbcnews

In Scotland, published in August 2018:

‘The number of fire safety audits carried out in 2015/16 was 9,829. Most of the premises audited by the SFRS have relatively adequate fire safety measures and are categorised as ‘broadly compliant’ (9,180 audits: 93%). While 79% (7,779 audits) of the premises audited have average or low levels of relative risk.’

https://www2.gov.scot/Resce/0053/00530445.pdf

In Scotland 2015/16, 9 827 safety audits were carried out. England has 10 times the population and so, all things being equal, might have been expected to have seen 98 270 fire safety audits. However, in 2017/18, England saw only 49 423 fire safety audits, just over half the number. Fire safety audits in Scotland are thus almost twice as common, per head of population, in Scotland as in England.

Why? Cost-cutting Tory local authorities? Cost-cutting Tory central government?

This shocking news, post-Grenfell, follows earlier reports here:

‘Stricter [fire] safety rules leave Scotland out of danger’ The English media spot the difference. Did BBC Scotland?

‘High rise fires in Scotland at lowest level in eight years’

 

 

 

In the Independent today:

‘A survey of 400,000 people in the UK has found significant regional differences in the five basic psychological traits that form human personality: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness. While Scotland tended to be populated by people who scored highly on friendliness and emotional stability, the Welsh were noted for their openness, shyness and emotional instability, the study found. The inhabitants of East England were conscientious and agreeable but not very open, while the people of London were found to be the most open group in Britain, but the least welcoming and not very conscientious.’

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/from-friendly-scots-to-irritable-londoners-plotting-the-uk-s-psychological-map-10131244.html?utm_source=reddit.com

Regular readers will know that I’ve been wittering on agreeably about this notion that Scotland is different enough in terms of the commonality of values such as collectivism over individualism to add that factor to its rationale for independence. Of course, it’s not an essential requirement to justify independence and there are many Scots (Tory supporters) who might be better swapped with ‘nice’ English folk, but it does seem important to our NoMedia for them to want to undermine it all the time:

BBC News tries to spread knife crime crisis into Scotland to tell us: ‘You’re no different. Don’t get any ideas!’

As religious hate crime soars by 40% in one year in England and Wales, Reporting Scotland struggles to keep up

Here are some only of the many reports here on related matters:

Abuse of women and the disabled far higher in England than in Scotland

Less homicide, less knife crime, less domestic violence, safer cities and now much lower alcohol problems: should Scotland’s old stereotypes be sent south?

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

Scottish Muslim students far less likely to report abuse or crime?

Terror de-radicalisation referral rate in Scotland less than one third per capita of that in England

Only in Scotland! ‘A review of small country’s approaches to public policy reform in response to economic, demographic and other pressures found that only in Scotland could this ‘golden thread’ be so clearly discerned’

Scientific evidence that Scots tend to be different from the other groups in rUK?

Who said Scots were not more left-wing than those in the rest of the UK?

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

80 000 lowest paid workers in NHS England still on poverty wages as NHS Scotland follows Scottish Government policy to pay a living wage to all public-sector employees

Scottish care workers to receive Living Wage for ‘sleepover’ hours while English care workers receive only the National Minimum Wage.

 

 

Regarding NHS England, in the Independent yesterday:

‘Patients could again face blanket cancellations this winter as ministers refused to rule out emergency measures to address winter pressures in the underfunded NHS, MPs have warned. The Department of Health and Social Care gave no guarantees on the mass cancellation of non-urgent operations, such as hip surgery and cataracts, which occurred for the first time last year, a report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.’

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-winter-crisis-operations-cancelled-elective-cataract-hip-replacement-mps-public-accounts-a8689461.html

Regarding NHS Scotland, the TuS Research Team (TRUST) have devoted many hours to multifactorial analysis using one of those algorithm thingies but can find no sign of the Scottish NoMedia having the nerve to explicitly predict mass operation cancellations in Scotland this winter. Are they being advised by Jeremy ‘Chicken’ Corbyn?

So far, the evidence is not there with only 1.7% of operations in October cancelled due to lack of capacity.

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/2018-12-04/2018-12-04-Cancellations-Summary.pdf?22613161803

See this for more detail:

91.5% of operations go ahead as planned in NHS Scotland and 15% more per capita are cancelled ‘at last minute’ in NHS England

(c) edinburghtrams.com

From Insider yesterday:

‘Edinburgh Airport has seen passenger numbers in November top one million for the first time. Stats released today show 1,045,708 passengers passed through its terminal last month. The figures are up 11.7% on the same month last year and makes November the strongest month in terms of year on year growth in 2018. International passengers and domestic passengers were both up 11.7%.’

https://www.insider.co.uk/news/edinburgh-airport-passenger-numbers-november-13748824

This is, of course, one of many objective indicators of underlying strength in the Scottish economy, contrary to the useless propagandist GERS figures. For earlier reports see:

Scotland’s airports hit record highs to boost our economy

Scotland’s economic growth evident in increased passenger numbers at Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports

As China consumes more and more of Scottish food, drink and oil from the North Sea, the two capital airports sign a ‘ground-breaking partnership’ agreement

Scotland’s airports hit record highs to boost our economy

Why was Edinburgh Airport named UK Airport of the Year?

 

(c) moray.gov.uk

In Energy Voice yesterday:

‘Developers of a controversial Moray windfarm claim the project will create hundreds of local jobs, while adding almost £27 million to the local economy. Force 9 Energy, project developers of Clash Gour Windfarm, yesterday announced the submission of an application to the Scottish Government for construction of the site. A subsidiary of EDP Renewables, the onshore windfarm will also create a jobs boom during the three-year construction phase.’

https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/188745/controversial-moray-wind-project-to-create-hundreds-of-jobs/

This announcement comes in the slipstream of a great deal of good news about wind power:

Scotland’s wind energy smashes through 100% threshold but fails to bother BBC Scotland

BBC Scotland have only murder on their minds as Scotland’s wind turbines produce enough power on one day to power three times more homes than we have!

First UK wind turbine repair and recycling centre opens in Scotland

Once more Scotland has the wind in its favour

Sorted! Enough wind power for 87% of Scottish homes in August

First subsidy-free onshore wind farm for Scotland?

Scotland’s world-first offshore wind farm electricity to cost less than half that of Hinkley Point C nuclear and has ability to withstand hurricanes.

 

I’ve set up a Facebook page where all friends can post relevant respectable material without me having to approve and edit everything.

Please join and use gaily, daily.

If you’re already on FB, search for Talking-up Scotland Forum or go to:

https://www.facebook.com/Talking-up-Scotland-Forum-374271920003779/?modal=admin_todo_tour

See something we might like, post it, share it!

I’ll remove anything offensive.

Best

John

 

BBC Scotland’s report today on the research showing a 75% increase in the number of children in care since 2004 is, typically, short on context or critical assessment. The research from the University of Central Lancashire showing this increase to be greater than in other parts of the UK was led by an academic whose research ‘focuses on the overemphasis on risk in the child protection system’ was accepted uncritically.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46564865

Reader comment: I too would have thought that it is the number of children who are NEEDING to be taken into care that we should want to reduce. Seeking to reduce the number IN care without due attention to evidence on the nature and scale of need is an objective with obvious potential for bad, even if unintended, outcomes. 

I’m no expert here but isn’t risk to the child easily the most important, critical, factor in this and might the increase in Scotland have been the correct thing to do? See this graph and comment on the number of children on the child protection register in the four nations of the UK:

‘Scotland has seen an increase in the proportion of children on the child protection register over the last decade, but this proportion remains notably low compared to the rest of the UK as Scotland did not have large increases in children on the register in 2007-2011 as seen in the rest of the UK.’

https://www.gov.scot/publications/childrens-social-work-statistics-2016-17/pages/4/

Could the increase in the number of children taken into care in Scotland have prevented the dramatic increase in the number of children at risk we see in the other parts of the UK? This seems an obvious consideration to me but I, unlike BBC Scotland, remain open to alternative views.

The target is for 90% of people referred with a drug or alcohol problem to wait no longer than three weeks for treatment.

6 609 people sought alcohol treatment and 4 638 sought drug treatment.

Despite these numbers, 94.9% seeking alcohol treatment and 93.2% seeking drug treatment waited three weeks or less for treatment.

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Drugs-and-Alcohol-Misuse/Publications/2018-12-18/2018-12-18-DATWT-Summary.pdf?81350344420

I can’t find comparable data from NHS England but:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/spending-on-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-slashed-by-105m-in-four-years-a7912531.html

 

 

 

 

For the three months ending September 2018, 95.1% of patients waited 31 days or less for first treatment after diagnosis. In the previous quarter the figure was 95%, also meeting the target. This was despite a 6.6% increase in demand since 2017.

81.4% of patients started treatment within 62 days after first referral by a GP. There had been an 11.5% increase in referrals since the previous year. Note that after the 95.1% have been seen for a first appointment with specialist, more aggressive cancers will be scheduled for further treatment before less aggressive ones thus making the 62 day target more complex than it might seem. The important target is the 31 days as that enables specialists to treat those most at risk, quickly and increase survival rates.

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/2018-12-18/2018-12-18-CWT-Summary.pdf?24590700865

In NHS England, in the same period, 78.2% were seen within 62 days against a 5% increase in referrals.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-45508622

 

Neil Oliver BA Archaeology    Dr Ross McKenzie Crawford PhD in History

TuS Culture Correspondent, Assistant Professor Rosetta ‘Greek’ Thompson, has urged BBC Scotland to drop the ‘past-it’, unqualified and ‘displeasing’, Neil Oliver, from his many presenting and walking-around trying to look hard, roles in its history shows.

Thompson in 1938

Oliver, whose powerful nose reputedly detected a cancerous presence in the Scottish independence movement has been a controversial figure since his spat with legendary history professor Tom Devine in 2009.

At the time, Devine questioned Oliver’s competence to present a new national history series, given his lack of a history PhD or, indeed, any history qualification. Calling for a real heavyweight academic historian to present the series, Devine allegedly described Oliver as ‘a pygmy on giants’ territory’, as being ‘hapless’ and as having ‘a sad lack of authority.’

Oliver struck back at Devine’s lack of dress sense and compared him to an old man in the Muppets series. Oliver was awarded the Grey & Browne prize for dress-style in 2009.

Thompson has recounted the moment when she first realised Oliver had to go. It was her husband, Glasgow ‘art collector’, Arthur’s outburst, on waking suddenly, seeing Oliver on screen and shouting ‘My god, Pocahantas has let herself go!’

Thompson (98) has suggested that the ‘eminently qualified’ Dr Ross McKenzie Crawford (above), who stars in Oliver’s recent series on the Clans, might replace Oliver. She insists that ‘the camera loves him’ but denies recognising any inappropriate feelings. Arthur (105) has, with a groan of relief, endorsed his wife’s proposal.