The Edinburgh Evening News, today:
“Families across the Capital are facing a £780 cut to their annual income following a shake-up of the benefits system, new research has revealed.
Welfare reforms being brought in at Westminster are set to suck £130 million out of the city’s economy – equivalent to £390 for every working-age adult.
The study – produced by experts at Sheffield Hallam University – reveals parents collecting child benefit are most likely to see cuts in their payments while those on incapacity benefit will see the steepest yearly reductions of up to £145. And it has emerged that some of Edinburgh’s poorest areas will suffer the most.
The average family in Craigmillar – the worst-hit neighbourhood in Edinburgh – will lose out on £1240 per year once the full range of reforms are introduced.
But significant losses will be felt even in the city’s most affluent districts, with each family in the Meadows-Morningside ward set to shoulder an average annual hit of £440.”
Well, as long as the poor people are suffering three times as much as the rich people, and the disabled are being hit hardest of all, clearly coalition policy is working as intended. Of course, if Labour get in, it’ll be different – they plan even MORE welfare cuts than the Tories, and they’re proud of it. If you can’t work, you’re dead weight.
We didn’t quite grasp the meaning of the phrase “we’re all in this together” when David Cameron said it before, but we think we’ve got it now.
Tags: lizardsqft
Category
scottish politics, uk politics
Professor Patrick Dunleavy of the London School of Economics, a man with absolutely no dog in the Scottish independence fight, has now published his detailed assessment of the set-up costs of an independent Scotland.
He puts the actual additional cost – that is, what Scotland would have to spend that it wouldn’t have to spend anyway if it stayed in the UK – at around £200m. That’s the total, not every year, and is somewhat below the UK government’s own “estimate” of £2.7bn, issued just three weeks ago to widespread derision.
For comparison purposes that’s very roughly what Scotland spends on the upkeep of Trident nuclear submarines every year (our share of the £2.24bn annual cost), but as the Unionist parties constantly complain that Scotland’s savings on Trident get spent several times over by Yes supporters, we thought we’d come up with an alternative.
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Category
analysis, scottish politics, stats
We are not making this up. This is not a spoof.
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Tags: foreigner watch
Category
scottish politics
This is from today’s Scottish Sun. (Click to enlarge.)
Murdo Fraser actually thinks that houses getting 25% more expensive while wages grow by just 0.7% is a GOOD thing. He really believes that “It’ll cost an extra £23,000 to buy a house if you vote No” is a plus point for staying in the UK.
That’s all we’ve got on that one, folks.
Category
comment, scottish politics
The second weekend in June played host to the Selkirk Common Riding, the oldest of the Ridings events in the Scottish Borders. For the uninitiated, this centuries-old tradition incorporates a series of festivities in the town, the centrepiece of which is a cavalcade of several hundred horses galloping around the perimeter of the Royal Burgh, ensuring the town’s ancient boundaries are in good order (ie that no pesky Sassenachs have invaded the territory).
Despite being raised in the nearby village of Ashkirk and attending Selkirk High School, I was never interested in the Riding. Even in primary school whilst being taught the lyrics to “Auld Selkirk” and “Hail Smilin Morn” it didn’t seem relevant – I only went to my first ride-out last year because my Polish girlfriend was intrigued.
That’s when the penny dropped.
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Tags: Adam Learmonthperspectives
Category
comment, scottish politics
(Story, just in case you missed it in this week’s media “cybernat” horror orgy.)
Tags: cartoonsChris Cairnshamish
Category
pictures, scottish politics
If you’re not on Twitter, readers, you’ve been missing ALL the fun today.
Above are just the creepiest two of a series of tweets posted this morning by “social justice campaigner” Mike Dailly of the Govan Law Centre – previously known to those of this parish – to the effect that he’d really rather prefer if people stopped following my personal Twitter account, @RevStu, because I was so all-around awful.
It didn’t work out quite as well as he’d hoped.
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Tags: and finallysmears
Category
comment, scottish politics
Europe Direct is the official information service of the EU. A reader recently contacted them with a query. Their reply seems significant. We’ll let you read it for yourself.
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Category
debunks, europe, investigation, reference, scottish politics
“…make sure you keep a place by your side for us.”
Now that’s what we call lovebombing.
Category
culture, scottish politics, video
The other day we highlighted a really good piece in the Scottish Sun, which while not perfect was a pretty decent stab at the sort of evidence-based journalism Scotland’s media should have been doing throughout the referendum campaign.
Today, not so much.
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Tags: headline ferretmisinformation
Category
comment, media, scottish politics
Labour MP and nuclear weapon enthusiast Jim Murphy is out and about this week, flitting bat-like across Scotland as part of his “100 Corners” tour where he stands on a box and tells wide-eyed Ordinary Members Of The Public ™ about the splendour of the union. Some of Jim’s pals have been proudly tweeting shots of the packed crowds.
But our eagle-eyed viewers couldn’t help spotting something.
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Category
pictures, scottish politics
Kerry Gill in the Scottish Daily Express, 19 June 2014:
“Think back to the Second World War, as we have all been doing this month in commemoration of the D–Day landings. The BBC was foremost in selling the rightness of Britain’s eventual victory to the rest of the world.
It was most certainly not unbiased or objective. If it had been, the German Gestapo and their Axis colleagues would not have spent all their days and nights trying to stop anyone from listening to BBC broadcasts.
Of course, you will say, the independence referendum is entirely different. We are not at war with each other. We are discussing the merits or otherwise of separation in a, mostly, sensible and grown–up manner.
It is the BBC’s duty to report all that is said and done without bias, and without favour to either side whether Unionists or Nationalists. But, for the reasons above, I don’t believe this should be so.”
Yes, you really did read that in a “Scottish” national newspaper, folks: the BBC should be biased against independence because it was biased against the Nazis. You can go ahead and follow that wee gem through to its logical conclusion yourself.
Tags: smears
Category
comment, media, scottish politics
