Dughlas

Plockton Cluster, painting by Pam Carter (1952-2022), Scottish landscape and seascape artist. #WomensArt

Newspapers no longer sell news, they sell opinions. More specifically, they sell the opinions they think their readers already hold eg the Mail. The Daily Record has less than a quarter of the readers it had 20 years ago… but clings onto the unionist line because that’s what it can sell…

The way “only white people can be English” has seamlessly shifted to “only white people can be British” is maddening. We all said this would happen!

Ruth Wishart: What does the political graveyard of new parties offer Scotland? There is one party surging ahead in Scotland, England and Wales and that’s the 'none of the above' option

www.thenational.scot/politics/255...

In Scotland 60+ citizens also get discounted fares on trains and subway systems in our local authority areas and (where applicable) park & ride facilities.

Our National Entitlement Card is a smart card and library card.

ScotRail is in public hands and peak fares have been abolished.

More than 800 deaths in Scotland linked to long A&E waits The Royal College of Emergency Medicine found that 76,510 people waited more than 12 hours in emergency departments last year.

BBC Propaganda watch
They revel in claim from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine that > 800 deaths in Scotland last year were linked to long A&E waits.
It omits to tell us that the English figure was 16,000. This is precisely DOUBLE the rate for Scotland.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Re: Carol Decker.
"He who honours them that despise him is like an ass."

Why does so much of the media pursue a 'Scotland is shit' reporting strategy? Because they support the Union and will do all they can to undermine your confidence in Scotland's ability to control its own destiny. It's a kind of bullying. Do you want to stay in a relationship with a bully?

👇

Why Scotland’s higher school violence is a myth now being pushed by Channel 4 Professor John Robertson OBA From Channel 4 yesterday, the above and: Scotland has Britain’s highest rate of violent injuries to school staff reported to the safety watchdog, FactCheck can reveal. …

Reposted as Scotland on Sunday today repeat the myth:
talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2025/10/17/w...

Times headline: Michael Heseltine: Reform is fascist. We must stop Nigel Farage Sub-headline: At 92, the Tory grandee Michael Heseltine is making a comeback. He has harsh words for Nigel Farage and Reform, whose policies remind him of Oswald Mosley and Enoch Powell.

When I said Nigel Farage and Reform have fascistic features and threaten our democracy and minority communities, the press attacked me.

Michael Heseltine compares them to Mosley’s fascists and there is silence.

The double standard couldn’t be clearer.

The left can’t give this media class an inch.

YouTube video by KernowDamo Labour’s Cracking Wide Open — And Starmer’s Holding the Hammer

The Starmer leadership is throttling the life out of it's own party.

A toxic brand has created a toxic party and to stand any chance of saving itself needs to gut the right wing leadership and return to progressive social values.

Although its likely already too late.

youtu.be/mhAl9tvjNAs?...

Bridget Phillipson ‘ready to take on unions’ over year 8 reading tests Education secretary says mandatory test needed to tackle ‘shocking outcomes’ for many working-class children

Oh Bridget.
Tests don't help kids read.
Fund libraries.
Fund reading specialists.
Help kids read for joy.
Fund play-based nursery schools, where staff read aloud to/with kids.
Read aloud to/with them always.
Tests DEmotivate kids & teachers. Tests kill reading.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Farage Is Coming for Our Human Rights Nigel Farage is waging a war on human rights that will strip asylum seekers of their basic protections from injustice and harm. We can't let that happen.

"Bellicose, faux-patriotic, and inaccurate".

A phrase which could be used to sum up Fartage's entire career.

Demonising the wrong people is his whole schtick. The problem isn't desperately poor asylum seekers. It's unreasonably wealthy con-men.

Like him... 🤮

share.google/eP7kZEwkRn7A...

She should cut out lattes and avocado toast.

She's a "wordsmith" who doesn't punctuate. Aye, okay.

They've now fixed the link.

The classification of Excellent is based on average of last 4 years. The Ferret doesnt quite state that fact, rather it blurts out headlines insinuating the classifications are disingenuous.

I checked Irvine and huge swings, probs rainfall related.

Poor reporting!

John Rentoul @rentouljohn.bsky.so... • 12h → Replied to John Rentoul Striking quotations from ministers here "What those who say we should not stick to that pledge fail to realise is just how important it was in winning the election," a senior minister said. "Elections are hard to win. They are particularly hard for abour to win. We don't win many of them. So breaking that pledge comes with significant risk about us losing the trust of voters." Another minister suggested: "We are going to struggle to recover in the polls if people do not believe what we are saying."

I think that ship has long since sailed, lads

Last night I went to the Puca Festival in Trim, Ireland.

It's all fun and games until someone unleashes a giant demonic hare.

No free bus passes for under 22s, says goverment The Commons Transport Committee recommended scrapping bus fares for young people in August.

Second class England

No free bus passes for under 22s in England

Under 21s don't get full minimum wage; pay rent, food, groceries, transport, tax, NIC at full rate.

Scotland: 5- 22yr olds and over 60 get free bus travel, England at 66 rising to 67.

No uni fees, prescription charges in Scotland.

YouTube video by The Dissenter #321 Dick Swaab: The Neuroscience of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

Facts ~ It’s not possible to turn a cisgender person trans or nonbinary through peer pressure — much like it’s not possible to turn a transgender or nonbinary person cisgender through peer pressure or conversion therapy.

Referring to LGBT+ people as "mentally ill" or "abnormal" is not "a discussion."
It's not "an opinion."
It's not "free speech."
It's not "debate."

It's hatemongering, with the clear and obvious intent to mark a minority out for subjugation, torture and violence.

Being a gay transphobe is such a pathetic position. Sniveling up to cishets claiming you're the good kind of queer! just kill the others! not me i'm normal 🙄

Begging your oppressors to see a difference between you & me, but alas, as they see it, all queers are guilty of the same thing; disobedience

Have Juliet Stevenson, Alexei Sayle, Steve Coogan, Paul Waller, Gary Lineker, Paloma Faith, Stuart Barnes, Kneecap, Massive Attack, Cenk Uighur, Jeremy Corbyn et al written an angry letter about Sudan yet? Called for a ceasefire? Sent a flotilla? Owen Jones done a 20 min upload?

Who would they write a letter to? Anyone who’s loudly saying the war crimes are excellent and the RSF are fully entitled to kill as many people as possible, I guess. But that appears to be almost nobody, as you would expect.

wealthy people aren’t wealthy because they “take risks.”

they insulate themselves from the serious risks working people face every day.

neoliberalism supports this by removing workers’ rights to organize.

@graceblakeley.substack.com on the better future podcast:

The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps' For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?

Two sleeps.

Bots, AI memes and Reform councillors: How foreign Facebook pages are hijacking UK patriotism Fake British “patriot” pages run from abroad are fooling thousands – including elected councillors.

Bots, AI memes and Reform councillors: How foreign Facebook pages are hijacking UK patriotism

Still not get who @teamlabouruk.bsky.social work for you? Ps it’s not the majority of British people

We had a Primary School TA at our foodbank during half term.
Her partner had left her. She had 3 small children and a mountain of debt. She was living on fresh air to provide for her children.
Spare us shite like this...

Obama: "They never miss a chance to scapegoat minorities and blame DEI for every problem under the sun. You got a flat tire? Must be DEI. Your wife kicked you out? DEI. Who knew?"