It also saw the return of ubiquitous Scottish politics scribe David Torrance from a trip to San Francisco, the details of which he shared at stultifying length with the unfortunate readers of The Scottish Review.
Or at least, what he SAID were the details of where he SAID he’d been.
We’ve commented quite a few times in recent months about the Scottish media’s habit of running statistical stories rendered meaningless by the absence of any context.
The reasons for this aren’t necessarily sinister – sometimes journalists are just lazy or the full stats are hard to establish because like-for-like figures aren’t published – but usually it’s just a way to get an SNP BAD story out of isolated numbers which, if the full picture was presented, would render that impossible.
The above story from STV News today contains no furious rentaquotes from Labour or the Tories (at least not yet), so we should place it in the former category. Nevertheless, we do feel it’s our duty in a general sense to provide readers with the information that the Scottish media can’t be bothered to, so let’s do that.
An alert reader this weekend linked us to a 1963 speech by the famed American civil rights and racial equality campaigner Malcolm X.
We’d never heard of it before, which is probably to our shame, but as we read it we were overcome by an inexplicable sense of incredible familiarity.
We present it to you below for your interest, without further comment or editing, but we’ve included a few pictures just to break up the block of text.
Ruth Davidson appeared on Good Morning Scotland today as part of their series of interviews with what they call “the leaders of the larger parties in Scotland”, which for some reason is also including the Lib Dems and Greens.
You can listen to the piece – which showcased the usual evasive, time-killing waffle technique Davidson employs as standard, noticeably uncomfortable only when Gary Robertson pressed her on welfare-cuts suicides – for yourself if you want, but in our Panelbase poll last month we discovered a difference between Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon we thought was quite interesting, so we’re going to talk about that instead.
The Scottish media has been operating at what former BBC journalist Paul Mason once called “full propaganda strength” for the last few weeks, trying to inflate some pretty standard seasonal fluctuations into a “WINTER NHS CRISIS”.
One of the more egregious examples came yesterday when the state broadcaster’s Scotland editor Sarah Smith announced to the nation that 100,000 patients had waited more than four hours at A&E departments last week – a pretty impressive feat since in reality only a quarter of that number actually visited A&Es in Scotland last week, and four-fifths of those were seen in under four hours.
The 100,000 figure in fact refers to an entire year, not a week. Depending on how you look at it, Smith misrepresented the reality by either 2,000% or 5,200%. Yet at the time of writing we’re not aware of the BBC having issued any correction or apology for this, well, let’s be generous and say “error”.
The stats record the time taken for patients presenting at A&E to be dealt with (that doesn’t just mean “seen”, but seen, assessed, and then either treated, admitted or sent home). For the whole of 2017 the figures for Scotland were:
Patients dealt with in four hours or less: 93.1%
In eight hours or less: 99.2%
In 12 hours or less: 99.9%
Which doesn’t sound like too much of a crisis.
Alert observers will of course be aware that this is all entry-level basic operating mode for the media. Even if they weren’t trying to whip up politically-motivated “SNP BAD” material – and most of them are – it’s a deep journalistic instinct to exaggerate and hyperbolise everything into the worst news possible in order to drive traffic and clicks.
The gigantic-clown-shoed bunglemuppet that is Scottish Tory MP Ross Thomson was galumphing around social media yesterday, quoting a notoriously dim-witted Yoon troll to the effect that the Scottish Government could (and therefore presumably should) use its own money to compensate the “WASPI women” – a group who’ve been robbed of years of rightful pension payments by the UK government changing the rules after they’d already qualified for their pensions.
Our favourite thing was her quote on the nomination:
“I’m very pleased to be Labour’s nominee for the SPCB. Having argued for gender balance, I’m glad that at least two of the five positions will now be held be women.”
…which suggested that she was unhappy exact gender balance hadn’t been achieved by placing two-and-a-half women on the board. (Unless she was getting at some sort of alternative solution, we suppose.)
But since the Herald raised the subject, it seemed a good time to take a look at voters’ opinions as to whether she might be a fit and proper person for such a role.
David Holden on Strike One: “Sadly I am old enough to remember when Scottish law was given a level of respect even from South of…” Dec 11, 19:24
Lewis Moonie on Strike One: “Anyone ever seen a trans woman who didn’t stick out like a sore thumb? Me neither” Dec 11, 18:58
Hatey McHateface on The ginger stepchild: “Perhaps the pollsters were unaware women are allowed to vote. Perhaps when the pollsters asked people, the men refused to…” Dec 11, 18:48
Geoff Anderson on Strike One: “I think this one needs a detailed explanation from the judge https://x.com/anyabike/status/1999121983481536635?s=20” Dec 11, 18:45
Lorncal on Strike One: “It seems to me to be far too accurate in its misinterpretations and unsound quotes to be purely AI or…” Dec 11, 18:41
Lorncal on Strike One: “I’d second that. Alex Massie has written a glowing reference to the Rev, too, acknowledging his forensic analyses.” Dec 11, 18:25
Karen on The ginger stepchild: “I’m surprised that women (and children’s) rights come in at 3% or less.” Dec 11, 18:25
Hatey McHateface on The ginger stepchild: “Cart before horse, Alf. First you have to get a solid majority of Scots to believe your number. Then you…” Dec 11, 18:22
twathater on The ginger stepchild: “The rev talks about supporting yoonionist parties in an attempt to destroy or remove the stench of the Scum Nonce…” Dec 11, 18:15
Northcode on Spoiler Alert: “I’m not allowed friends anymore. Not since… sorry, I’ve been told I can’t talk about it. All I can tell…” Dec 11, 18:08
Dan on The ginger stepchild: “Aye Sarah, it is pretty obvious, so one has to question the motives of supposedly pro-indy politicians, activists, and bloggers…” Dec 11, 17:54
Hatey McHateface on Spoiler Alert: “Wow, Northy! Right out with the worst insult you can come up with. You’re gonna love Sharia.” Dec 11, 17:51
Hatey McHateface on Spoiler Alert: “He’ll be allowed plasticine. As long as it’s the safe-to-eat kind.” Dec 11, 17:47
Andrew Ingram on Strike One: “Well said.” Dec 11, 17:44
twathater on Strike One: “As someone posted yesterday I believe the manipulative unseen hand of the Scum Nonce Party SG deviants and perverts has…” Dec 11, 17:41
Aidan on Spoiler Alert: “@Northcode – have you thought about making some friends?” Dec 11, 17:30
Michael P on Strike One: “This is staggering – the English Courts have recently handed down decisions excoriating advocates for quoting non-existent cases, usually ‘researched’…” Dec 11, 17:24
Veritas on Strike One: “What most people don’t realise is that judges are not “selected” by some higher authority on their merits, they apply…” Dec 11, 17:22
Jay on Strike One: “Amazing and invaluable work by Rev. Stu. Acknowledgement in The Times is good but there have already been attacks against…” Dec 11, 17:21
Steve A on Strike One: “It is long past time that a reputable university conferred honorary doctorate on our host here. The only question is…” Dec 11, 17:20
Northcode on Strike One: “Can judges be sacked for incompetence or crookery? If so there might be wan or twa quakin’ in thair bench…” Dec 11, 17:10
Alf Baird on The ginger stepchild: “Recovery of the £150bn+ plundered by Westminster and other external corporate interests from an annexed Scotland each year would solve…” Dec 11, 17:08
Northcode on The ginger stepchild: “In case you’re wondering I wasn’t replying to your comment, PhilM. I posted it under your comment by mistake. Apologies.” Dec 11, 17:05
Lorncal on Strike One: “Wow. Nailed it again, Rev. It seemed before the amendment that the judge certainly appeared to be, according to his…” Dec 11, 17:01
sarah on Strike One: “Rev, it would be very interesting to know what prompted this Certificate of [non] Correction. Was it your article, or…” Dec 11, 16:56
James on Strike One: “And with Fish-Face standing by in the wings we will soon all be “waiting for the worms…”” Dec 11, 16:56
sarah on The ginger stepchild: “@ Dan at 3.38. You, I and others can see what is blindingly obvious – that all the ills that…” Dec 11, 16:52
Northcode on The ginger stepchild: “Which of these two issues do you think is the most important facing Scotland at this time? A: “Scotland’s constitutional…” Dec 11, 16:40
Northcode on Strike One: “Boak! And it ain’t even the dry boak… what a mess.” Dec 11, 16:37
Anton Decadent on Strike One: “This and everyone else involved in uncovering what cannot be put down to idiocy.” Dec 11, 16:24
