Leaked SNP document dubbed ‘pathetic’ and ’embarrassing’ by critics – Daily Record

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The SNP has been accused of serving up a “pathetic” briefing parroting “scripted lines” to party MSPs on the ferries crisis.

In the document, leaked to the Record, the Nationalists went back sixteen years to point the finger at the Labour administration under Jack McConnell.

Labour MSP Neil Bibby said: “It is frankly embarrassing for the SNP MSPs expected to wheel out this nonsense in defence of the indefensible.”

The Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow was saved by the SNP Government in 2019 after collapsing into administration, but the rescue deal laid bare a number of issues which would cause multi-year delays to two key vessels under construction.

The decision of Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) – the body tasked with procuring Scotland’s ferries – to invite four foreign yards to tender for two ferries to serve Islay and Jura also created huge anger last week.

Nicola Sturgeon’s Government has been dogged by criticism over Ferguson Marine and Finance Secretary Kate Forbes has said she is “monitoring” the yard’s leadership.

The SNP has now been criticised for circulating what critics believe is a tame briefing to MSPs which does not criticise the Government.

Produced on September 17, researchers said the SNP Government had been clear with Ferguson’s management on the need to get the yard “into shape”.

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Parents have ‘lost faith in hospital as safe place for children’ – STV news

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Many parents whose children were treated at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital have lost faith in it as a safe place for them to be cared for and want answers over what went wrong, an inquiry has heard.

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry began hearing evidence on Monday into problems at two flagship Scottish hospitals that contributed to the deaths of two children.

It is investigating the construction of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) campus in Glasgow and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences in Edinburgh.

The inquiry was ordered after patients at the Glasgow hospital died from infections linked to pigeon droppings and the water supply, and the opening of the Edinburgh site was delayed due to concerns over the ventilation system.

Steve Love QC is appearing on behalf of 54 parents or family members of patients, represented by Thompsons Solicitors Scotland, who were or are still being treated on the children’s cancer ward and neonatal unit at QEUH.

In his opening statement, he said: “The children of those we represent were admitted to hospital for treatment for serious illnesses such as conditions like leukaemia and other cancers as well as other serious medical issues and they reasonably expected that the best possible medical care and treatment would be provided for their children in a suitably safe and clean hospital environment.

“Your Lordship will be told that what they in fact faced was serious infections, life threatening additional illnesses and a catalogue of other problems as a result of the hospital environment, the hospital water supply and the conduct of some of the medical staff there.”

He said that “significant numbers” suffered infection from 2017 onwards and that parents “could not believe that the hospital environment was as far as they were concerned making their already sick children more ill”.

Parents have ‘lost faith in hospital as safe place for children’

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Why the SNP must stop hoarding power in Edinburgh – The New Statesman

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As Glasgow prepares to host global leaders at COP26, the eyes of the world are turning towards the city for the first time since the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The pressure is on, and Susan Aitken, the SNP council leader since 2017, is bearing the brunt of complaints about what critics say are dirty streets, the many gap sites and the authority’s troubled relationship with trade unions. In a recent, excruciating television interview, she was repeatedly challenged to admit the streets were “filthy”, finally admitting the place could do with a “spruce up”.

For the past year, as November’s COP26 summit has drawn nearer, Aitken has occupied an elevated status among her fellow regional and urban leaders. She has addressed the World Bank, formed close relationships with the mayors and administrations of many of the world’s great cities, and worked closely with England’s directly-elected mayors such as Andy Burnham and Sadiq Khan. She has also held discussions with private investors, and would like the UK government to stand behind the multi-billion-pound borrowing Glasgow and others need to renew their municipal fabric and create green infrastructure. She sees COP26 as an unmissable opportunity to accelerate the city’s economic resurgence and improve its global profile.

Aitken admits Glasgow isn’t what it could be. Covid, economic challenges, and strained relationships with the unions have all had an impact. And in important ways her hands are tied, not by international institutions or the UK government, but by Nicola Sturgeon. It’s generally accepted that Scottish local government is among the most circumscribed in Europe. Devolution to Holyrood has not been accompanied by devolution from Holyrood, where instead the SNP administration has overseen centralisation of power to Edinburgh.

A council’s ability to raise funds is greatly restricted. Scottish council taxes have been frozen then capped by successive SNP governments, while non-domestic rates are set centrally, collected locally, sent back to the centre then redistributed. Local authorities face criticisms from local people for challenges and cuts they have little power to address.

Why the SNP must stop hoarding power in Edinburgh

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Warning as nurse and midwife vacancy rate breaks record in Scotland – Nursing Times

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Nursing and midwifery vacancies have been at a record high in Scotland since March, with over 4,800 posts unfilled, unions have warned in response to latest workforce figures.

Latest NHS Scotland workforce statistics, published this week, show that 4,845 whole-time equivalent (WTE) nursing and midwifery posts were vacant at the end of June, representing 7.1% of the total.

They also reveal that in the previous quarter, ending in March, 4,494, or 6.6%, of WTE nursing and midwifery posts were unfilled.

The latter figure has only just been published as not all health boards were able to submit data. The Royal College of Nursing highlighted that the previous record had been 4,013, or 6.3%, in June 2019.

The RCN noted that there were “particular challenges” in a number of health boards and in some nursing areas, such as community and mental health.

Warning as nurse and midwife vacancy rate breaks record in Scotland

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Pensioner dies waiting 40 hours for ambulance after collapsing in Glasgow flat – The Scotsman

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According to a report in the Herald Gerard Brown, 65, was found by family on the floor of his flat in Dumbreck, Glasgow last Monday with injuries to his back and arms from a fall.

Paramedics eventually arrived around 3am on Wednesday, after which time Mr Brown had passed away.

Mr Brown’s son Dylan, told the Herald: “They pronounced that he was only just dead because he still had warmth in his body.

“In this day and age, it should not be happening. I know with Covid people are busy and the NHS is struggling, but that’s unacceptable and we just don’t want it happening to another family.”

Dylan added that his father’s GP had told him “I can assure you that if they’d got to him your Dad would still be here”.

Mr Brown was reportedly a cancer survivor, weighing just six stone, who had a history of alcohol-related health problems.

The GP, Dr O’Neill, was reported as first being made aware of Mr Brown’s situation by his ex-wife on Monday morning, after she called let the practice know the family were waiting for an ambulance.

Dr O’Neill told the Herald: “At 9am on Tuesday we get a phonecall from his ex-wife to say ‘listen, he’s still in the house’. I was like ‘you are kidding me?’.

“I got on the phone to the ambulance service at 9.15am and I said ‘this man is going to be found dead’ – and I used that language, because I knew the situation he was in.

The GP was called by police on Wednesday to inform him of Mr Brown’s death. But he said that the long wait was not an isolated incident.

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New CalMac Islay ferries will not be built in Scotland – STV news

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Two new ferries for Islay will not be made in Scotland after four shipyards from elsewhere were invited to tender for the contract.

More than 30 organisations expressed an interest in taking on the job and 11 entered submissions that Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) said were “rigorously” assessed.

But only four companies, one from Romania, another from Poland and two in Turkey, reached the final stage of the procurement process.

A decision on which shipyard will win the job will be made before the end of March 2022, CMAL said.

The Islay route is one of the busiest services for freight on the Clyde and Hebrides network, and it was decided to contract two new ferries after discussions with Transport Scotland, ferry operator CalMac and communities on the island.

This week CMAL announced that the new vessels will be built at either Damen Shipyard in Romania, Remontowa Shipbuilding in Poland, or one of the Turkish shipyards Sefine Denizcilik Tersanecilik Turizm or Cemre Marin Endustri.

The procurement process for new ferries has come under scrutiny recently because of issues with two vessels from the publicly-owned Ferguson Marine shipyard in Inverclyde.

Holyrood’s rural economy and connectivity committee described the process as a “catastrophic failure”.

New CalMac Islay ferries will not be built in Scotland

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The ‘unhackable’ phones given to prisoners by Scottish Government – which were hacked to buy drugs – ITV news

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So-called ‘unhackable’ mobile phones given to prisoners in Scotland during lockdown by the Scottish Government at a cost of £3 million are now being used for drug deals and other criminal activity, ITV News has learned.

During lockdown when prison visits were restricted, 7,600 inmates in Scotland were issued with their own mobile phone by the Scottish government.

But these supposedly tamper-proof phones were almost immediately hacked by inmates, and, according to the Scottish Prison Service, 728 have been found since August 2020 to operate with illegal SIM cards, used for drug deals and other criminal activity.

ITV News has been given exclusive access to Scotland’s largest prison, Barlinnie, where addiction is described as “worse than ever before.”

John McTavish, Prison Officer at HMP Barlinnie told ITV News: “You give a prisoner a phone, and they’re very, very ingenious. If they put their mind to something, they can do anything at all. Within hours, the tamper proof was gone.”

The prison officier estimates about a third of phones have been tampered with.

“I checked the phones in one of the halls here in March time, and of the 300 prisoners that were there, it was probably about 100 phones tampered with altogether.”The drugs bought with these phones are often simply thrown over the prison walls, but inmates are finding ever more complex and covert methods to smuggle in drugs, including legal letters soaked in drugs that the prisoner then dissolves in water and drinks.

Scottish Government warned about race row comic Janey Godley’s offensive tweets months before hiring her for Covid ads – The Sun

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THE Scottish Government hired race row comic Janey Godley for a TV health campaign despite being alerted to offensive tweets about Asian people in June, it has emerged.

Four Twitter posts were flagged up in a complaint three months ago, including two calling for people to “speak English”.

It came after Godley, 60, was booked for an anti-litter push between the Nats administration and the Zero Waste Scotland agency in May.

But the Scottish Government told a woman who complained that “due diligence” checks were carried out on the comedian and pro-indy activist — and that ministers could not “intervene” in her role.

An official added the complainer should contact cops if she had a hate crime to report.

Godley was later paid £12,000 of taxpayer cash to front the “Stop the Spike” Covid ads but was axed when posts about the disabled and black celebs came to light.

Tory MSP Russell Findlay called the latest revelation “staggering”.

He said: “The Scottish Government decided to hand an SNP- supporting comedian a large sum of public cash despite these vile posts being flagged directly with officials.

“This confirms the suspicion that there’s one rule for protected SNP cronies and another for the rest of us.

“Nicola Sturgeon must apologise immediately. Why were racist tweets ignored when awarding a lucrative contract for a crucial public health message in the fight against Covid?”

Labour MSP Foysol Choudhury said the tweets were “deeply troubling”.

But he added: “What raises more serious questions is the government’s response to this. The public deserve answers.”

Police Scotland: Why there are concerns that the force is being politicised – The Scotsman

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Scotland’s criminal gangs ‘think they’re untouchable’ due to ‘soft sentencing’ – Aberdeen Evening Express

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Scotland’s criminal gangs ‘think they’re untouchable’ due to ‘soft sentencing’