Nearly £250m needed to bring Police Scotland buildings up to scratch, force warns – The Scotsman
/in Scotland Under the SNP, Scottish Government, SNP, The Scotsman /by sm_admin‘The SNP has leadership pygmies to choose from post-Sturgeon’ – STV news
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Nicola Sturgeon is a “giant among pygmies” in the SNP when it comes to leadership credentials, according to a senior Conservative MP.
Oliver Dowden, the Conservative Party’s co-chairman, took aim at the First Minister as he outlined his hopes for winning seats in Scotland once Sturgeon is no longer SNP leader.
Speaking at the party’s conference in Manchester on Sunday, Dowden said: “I do think there’s a real opportunity for us in Scotland for a couple of reasons.
“First of all, Nicola Sturgeon is not going to be there forever and after Nicola Sturgeon the rest of them – I’m not saying in any way Nicola Sturgeon is a wonderful person, but compared to her comrades as it were, she’s a giant among pygmies, and so I think as she goes they will be very weakened.
“And secondly, I think we have a real opportunity to focus on the actual delivery of the nationalists in Scotland, which has been completely lamentable – whether it’s education, whether it’s health, they are falling massively behind the rest of England.
“Nicola Sturgeon constantly tries to distract from this by talking endlessly about independence.
“We need to bring that focus back on their delivery in Scotland, which is lamentable.”
At Westminster, the SNP currently has 45 MPs compared to six Tory MPs, four Liberal Democrats, two Alba Party, one Labour and one independent from the Scottish seats.
Anger over Glasgow’s filthy rat-infested streets and alleyways hidden from COP26 delegates – Daily Record
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These are the filthy, rat-infested side streets and alleyways that COP26 delegates won’t see when they come to Scotland next month.
Refuse collectors have said they can’t cope with cuts that have led to a rise in rancid conditions in Glasgow’s streets – just miles from where world leaders will thrash out a climate change deal.
GMB officials, who have now pleaded with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to intervene in the waste row, took our reporter to some of the worst-hit areas.
Union officials have said the city’s back streets have become Glasgow’s “secret shame”.
They warned staff were risking injury to get the streets tidied up in time for the eco conference.
In a lane near Allison Street, in Govanhill, in the heart of the First Minister’s constituency, we found rat traps, abandoned mattresses and litter. At nearby flats, overflowing bins spilled into common areas, making it a no-go area for residents.
In neighbouring Cessnock, in lanes that run parallel to the main clean thoroughfare, litter lay piled up in common areas.
Fly-tipping has increased after the council introduced a £35 special uplift charge this year.
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SNP: Gaming The System – Mark Irvine (blog)
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Mhairi Hunter and Jennifer Layden are both senior councillors in Glasgow whose roles are regarded as a full-time commitment because of their additional responsibilities over a backbench councillor who is paid at two-thirds of the full time rate.
The full-time rate can vary depending on the nature of the role and according to Glasgow’s Register of Interests Jennifer is paid a salary of £35,000 while Mhairi receives £26,000 – around £15 and £20 an hour respectively.
Yet both SNP councillors have other paid jobs – Jennifer works in Humza Yousaf’s office having previously enjoyed a similar role in Margaret Ferrier; while Mhairi has a role in none other than Nicola Sturgeon’s office and a separate paid commitment as a member of Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board.
Now I have no problem with councillors being properly remunerated – I was a member of the independent (SLARC) committee which recommended a new salary structure for elected councillors in Scotland in 2006.
Yet the SLARC regime is now being abused because no one has been scrutinising the system since the former SNP finance minister, Derek Mackay – who resigned in disgrace of course, decided that independent oversight was no longer necessary and that the SLARC committee should be disbanded.
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Nearly 200 Scottish care homes took in mainly untested patients – BBC news
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In the early days of the pandemic more than half of elderly hospital patients discharged to nearly 200 Scottish care homes had not been tested for Covid.
Data obtained by the BBC from Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides the clearest picture yet on which homes took in untested and positive patients.
A lawyer acting for bereaved families at an upcoming inquiry called the data “explosive evidence”.
Aamer Anwar claimed it was proof that people’s lives had been put at risk.
The figures, which were released 11 months after BBC Scotland had asked for them, focus on hospital discharges between March and May 2020 – which was the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The PHS data, released under freedom of information laws, appears in this interactive dashboard and shows every hospital discharge by individual care home in Scotland.
It reveals what proportion of people discharged were untested or positive and what proportion of beds might have been occupied by discharged patients.
Although the data cannot be used to link discharges to outbreaks or deaths in any given home, solicitor Mr Anwar believed it proved that lives had been put at risk.
He is acting on behalf of members of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice and told BBC Scotland: “The data supports what many bereaved families have always suspected, that elderly patients were discharged without any regard for a duty of care owed to them, or to residents and care home staff.
“Many of the grieving families I represent describe what took place in our care homes as a massacre that could have been avoided, had a simple test taken place prior to discharge.
“The data makes for explosive evidence for a pending Scottish Covid-19 Public Inquiry.”
Glasgow named among most dangerous cities in Europe in new poll – Glasgow Live
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The city joined the likes of Donetsk (Ukraine), Kyzyl (Russia), Mitrovica (Kosovo) and Marseille on the list, which noted how the murder rate in Glasgow accounted for 19% of all homicide cases in Scotland between 2019 and 2020.
Glasgow has been named among the most dangerous cities in Europe in a new poll.
Scotland’s biggest city came in at number 10 in the list, published by Toronto-based bilingual digital media website Que Pasa, which has over 100,000 followers on Facebook and 60,000 on Instagram.
Joining Glasgow on the list is Donetsk (Ukraine), Tbilisi (Georgia), Kyzyl (Russia), Sofia, Tallin, Grozny (Russia), Mitrovica (Kosovo), Bradford and Marseille – which is regarded by the website as the most dangerous city on the continent.
Introducing the list, the website wrote: “Smuggling and street crimes, such as robberies, are some of the problems that plague the cities of Europe, affecting the prosperity of companies and the community in general.
“In terms of homicide rates, European cities may be safer compared to those in the United States, however, some of them face public order problems that directly affect the economy, ranking as very harmful and unsafe cities to live in. and even to visit.”
And in naming Glasgow in 10th place, they noted: “The murder rate in Glasgow accounts for 19% of all homicide cases in Scotland. The murder rate stands at 5.1 per 100,000 people, which is the highest in Scotland and by extension one of the highest in Europe.
“In Glasgow crime figures are still too high relative to other cities, which is a shame, because Glasgow is a port city in Scotland known for its incredible architecture.”
The most recent homicide statistics released by the Scottish Government back in October last year confirmed that Glasgow City had the highest number of homicide cases (12) in 2019-20,, representing 19% of the Scottish total.
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Why is the SNP gagging charities? – The Spectator
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The SNP handles criticism as well as the Incredible Hulk handles irritation. It’s why the party’s own parliamentarians are banned from making critical comments. The Nationalists are an independence-first organisation and rely on two important psychological tools. The first is projecting Nicola Sturgeon as the ‘Chief Mammy’ (her own term; ‘mammy’ being Scottish slang for ‘mother’), a national figure more akin to the Queen than the Prime Minister. The second is framing any institutional or organisational dissent not as standard, democratic debate (in the way that businesses, unions and charities routinely take the UK Government to task) but as something more controversial, political — even unpatriotic.
As such, it is entirely unremarkable to Scottish eyes to read that charities funded by the SNP government in Edinburgh are being made subject to a ‘gagging clause’. Readers living in normal countries, however, might think the situation revealed in the Scottish edition of the Times not wholly ideal. The paper relays that charities, including Shelter Scotland and Victim Support Scotland, ‘are being silenced by ‘gagging orders’ that prevent them from criticising SNP policies or backing rival campaigns as part of contracts to receive state funding’. The letter received by Victim Support reportedly includes the line:
‘No part of the grant shall be used to fund any activity or material which is party political in intention, use, or presentation or appears to be designed to affect support for a political party.’
The opposition believes the non-political clause will prevent or discourage charities from supporting draft legislation put forward by the Tories, Labour, or any backbencher who doesn’t belong to the SNP or the Greens, the two parties who rule Scotland in a nationalist coalition. Scottish Tory chief whip Stephen Kerr said it appeared the administration was ‘handcuffing charities and third-sector groups on the sly by preventing them from backing bills or campaigns by anyone other than the government’.
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Extreme waiting times for A&E are becoming ‘the new normal’ – Aberdeen Evening Express
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“Extreme waiting” times in Scotland’s NHS have been branded the “new normal” after accident and emergency departments posted the third worst results on record.
“Extreme waiting” times in Scotland’s NHS have been branded the “new normal” after accident and emergency departments posted the third worst results on record.
The most recent data showed that in the week ending September 19, fewer than three quarters (74.4%) of patients were dealt with in this time – an increase from the record low of 71.5 that was recorded the previous week.
But this was still the third worst performance since weekly monitoring began, and well below the Scottish Government’s target of having 95% of patients in A&E dealt with within four hours.
Public Health Scotland data showed that of the 26,872 people who attended A&E in the week ending September 19, 1,413 were there for more than eight hours.
This included 341 patients who spent more than 12 hours there.
Tory health spokesman, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, responded: “Our A&E departments are still overwhelmed, and Scotland’s NHS would be much better served if (Health Secretary) Humza Yousaf focused on fixing the problems on the front line, instead of making sure he gets a photo op.”
With coronavirus continuing to put pressure on the NHS, the Scottish Government has already called in the help of both the army and firefighters to drive ambulances.
But with patients reported to have died while waiting for help to arrive, Mr Cole-Hamilton demanded an independent inquiry into “all unnecessary deaths connected to ambulance waiting times”.
The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader said: “Extreme waiting times in A&E seem to be the new normal in the eyes of the SNP Government.
Scotland has ‘lowest number of hospital beds in a decade’ – STV News
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Scotland has fewer hospital beds than at any time in the last decade, new figures show.
There were 12,869 staffed beds available on average each day last year, a 9.5% decrease from the 14,227 per day in 2011-12 when the current records began.
Bed numbers free and staffed for acute patients have also fallen by 2.5% in the last year, although the numbers that were actually occupied dropped from 85.8% in 2019-20 to 74.7% in 2020-21.
The figures for available beds in acute settings include emergency treatment; routine, complex and life-saving surgery as well as specialist diagnostic procedures.
Beds used for giving birth, psychiatric services and long-stay care are not included in the Public Health Scotland figures.
The latest NHS Scotland figures for admissions and discharges also show there were almost 900,000 patients admitted to hospital in 2020-21 — 30% fewer than the previous year.
This was in addition to approximately 673,000 Scottish residents who visited an outpatient department in the last financial year, taking the total number of attendances to approximately three million, 28% fewer than 2019-20.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman suggested the decrease in acute beds was lower than the 6.5% recorded in England and explained that health boards “regularly adjust the number of staffed beds to reflect actual and projected demand”.