Tag: scotland

With 850,000 on waiting lists, NHS spends £300k hiring actors to pretend to be patients

Scotland’s cash-strapped NHS is under fire for spending hundreds of thousands of pounds hiring professional actors to pretend to be patients.

The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that a body called NHS Education for Scotland is setting aside an astonishing £360,000 to pay actors and role-players to impersonate people with illnesses and medical conditions.

The body claims the fake patients have a vital role to play in training doctors and nurses.

But at a time when 850,000 people in Scotland are currently on a waiting list for NHS treatment, including diagnostic tests, critics said spending cash on actors was a waste of precious resources.

Meanwhile the health service is facing dire warnings over its financial future.

And Callum McGoldrick, investigations manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance campaign group said: ‘Spending more than £300,000 on professional actors to play patients while more than half a million Scots sit on NHS waiting lists is completely backwards.

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Number of rapes reported to police in Scotland soars by 11 PER CENT in single year

Rapes or attempted rapes are reported to police every three hours in Scotland, shocking new figures reveal.

The number has risen by 11 per cent in the past year to more than 3,000 – and is up by a quarter in the past four years.

Nearly 500,000 crimes have been reported overall, including a daily average of 200 violent offences, according to the Scottish Government.

The figures also show a 129 per cent rise in shoplifting in the past four years, prompting the Tories to warn shopworkers are ‘under siege’.

Last night Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘These deeply alarming figures are the direct result of the SNP’s cuts to policing and their relentless weakening of the justice system.’

Statistics released by the government show 3,043 reports of rapes and attempted rapes in the year to September, up from 2,746 the previous year.

Since the same period in 2021, the number of rape or attempted rape reports has increased by 25 per cent (from 2,436).

In the past year, the total number of reports of sexual crimes rose 7 per cent (from 14,651 to 15,704), including a 24 per cent rise in offences including indecent photos of children (from 756 to 936).

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Scotland’s Chief Constable lands taxpayers with £134,000 expenses bill to help pay for her second home

Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell has landed taxpayers with an eye-watering £134,000 bill to help her buy a second home, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The police chief – who earns £270,000-a-year – has bought a £595,000 second home in an upmarket Edinburgh suburb while keeping on her £1 million five-bedroomed family home 100 miles away in Northumberland.

Police Scotland’s annual accounts – due to be published later this month – reveal Ms Farrell received relocation expenses of £69,901 – while oversight body the taxpayer-funded Scottish Police Authority (SPA) paid out additional “tax costs” of £64,525.

It is thought that part of the expenses claim relates to Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) – a controversial extra tax introduced by the SNP government for all second homeowners.

Details of the huge bill come just days after the Chief Constable demanded an extra £140 million from the Scottish government and said Police Scotland was at a ‘crossroads’ financially and it would have to slash officer numbers if ministers short-changed it.

The “benefits in kind” attributed by the SPA to Ms Farrell are the equivalent of four new police recruits’ starting salary of £31,400.

Last night Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay, MSP, hit out at the SPA approved reimbursement and called for a probe into the rules on police relocation expenses.

He said: ‘Struggling frontline officers and the paying public might question whether such huge sums of taxpayers’ cash should be spent on a second home for a chief constable who’s on more than £260,000.

‘This highly generous deal must now be subject to proper scrutiny and a full public explanation from Police Scotland, the SPA and the SNP government. If such largesse is within the rules, then the rules should be looked at.

‘Taxpayers are sick of being relentlessly hammered by SNP ministers who far too often spend their cash with reckless abandon.’

Under ‘Remuneration’ in Police Scotland’s annual accounts it is noted: ‘Jo Farrell received taxable relocation expenses of £69,901 (£134,426 including tax costs paid). These costs are in line with the Chief Officer relocation procedure. The costs facilitate the reimbursement of the incremental accommodation costs upon the recruitment or transfer of Chief Officers.’

The rules on chief officer relocation expenses state the retention of a second home may be considered only in “exceptional circumstances” and that LBTT and ADS may be eligible for reimbursement.

It is understood the Chief Constable, who joined Police Scotland in October 2023, makes frequent trips back to the Northumberland home she bought in May 2023 with her retired police officer husband Peter.

In August 2024, the couple bought a two-bedroom apartment in a well-known property hotspot in central Edinburgh.

The total LBTT and ADS tax due on a property worth £595,000 would total £68,500

Due to strong demand in the capital, similar properties increase in value by an average of 5 per cent annually, meaning the Farrells could benefit from a £150,000 uplift in just five years.

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Scotland is getting sicker under the SNP as HALF of population now suffers from long term health problems

Scotland is getting sicker under the SNP as HALF of population now suffers from long term health problems

The Scottish Health Survey found a staggering 50 per cent of people reported a long-term condition last year, the highest since comparable studies began in 2003, when it was 41 per cent.

The prevalence of doctor-diagnosed diabetes also doubled over the same period.

Around 1 in 13 Scots now have the life-limiting condition.

A fifth of adults have ‘harmful’ alcohol intakes, and almost as many (18 per cent) have been diagnosed with asthma, up from 13 per cent in 2003 and another unwelcome record.

The Scottish Tories said the worsening picture threatened to ‘overwhelm’ an already over-stretched NHS.

Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: ‘Scotland is getting sicker under the SNP.

‘Their failure to support our NHS and invest in preventative health means that Scots are the unhealthiest they’ve been since 2008.

‘On their watch, mental health issues are on the rise, harmful alcohol consumption remains dangerously high and the number of children at risk of obesity is at record levels.

‘This rising tide of poor health threatens to overwhelm our already overstretched NHS and cost taxpayers’ a fortune in the process.

‘SNP ministers need to act now to tackle this crisis by boosting GP numbers, focus on improving mental wellbeing, prioritising preventative health and cutting waste to ensure that Scots can access the healthcare they need.’

Published by the Scottish Government, the annual survey defines a long-term condition as ‘a physical or mental health condition or illness lasting or expected to last 12 months or more’.

Around four in five (81 per cent) of those living with a long-term condition say it limits their activities, with most citing problems with mobility (32 per cent), stamina, breathing and fatigue (28) and mental health (26).

The percentage of Scots with diagnosed diabetes has risen from 4 to 8 per cent since 2003, with most people affected by Type 2 diabetes, often associated with an unhealthy lifestyle.

The disease, caused by the body not making enough insulin to regulate blood sugar, can damage the heart, kidneys, eyes and feet if untreated and shorten life expectancy.

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SNP minister accused of ‘rank hypocrisy’ after boasting about his woodburning stove just days after voting against protecting them for others

An SNP minister has been accused of ‘rank hypocrisy’ after boasting about his woodburning stove just days after voting against protecting them for others.

Jim Fairlie posted a picture of the heater on Facebook at the weekend after Storm Amy knocked out the power to his all- electric house for several days.

‘Thankfully we’ve the wee stove keeping us warm,’ the agriculture minister wrote.

But only last week Perthshire-based Mr Fairlie, as part of the Scottish Government’s rural team, voted with SNP colleagues to defeat a Tory proposal to safeguard woodburners.

Highlands & Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston, who forced the Government to U-turn last year on a proposed woodburner ban in new homes, wanted to protect them long-term.

Mr Halcro Johnston said: ‘It beggars belief to see a Scottish Government minister voting against protections for woodburners in rural and island homes during the week, then message their constituents about the benefits of having one the very weekend when the power goes down.

‘Thousands of homes lost their power over the last few days and were left reliant on the kind of heating that Mr Fairlie enjoys but doesn’t think others should have.

‘Last year, when the SNP/Green coalition attempted to ban stoves in newbuilds, I championed them for these very reasons.

‘I was pleased that we forced them to U-turn then, but was disappointed when Jim Fairlie joined his SNP colleagues last week in voting against my proposed protections that would ensure cack-handed attempts to outlaw woodburners couldn’t happen again without the full scrutiny from the Scottish parliament.

‘To vote against something on Tuesday and sing its praises by Saturday is rank hypocrisy. I know how angry it has made many of my constituents across the Highlands and Islands.’

Mr Halcro Johnson’s amendments to the Housing Bill would have meant woodburners and other ‘direct-emission heating systems’ avoided future bans by creating a ‘presumption in favour’ of such back-ups in island, rural and remote homes.

He told MSPs it would ensure people still had the means to heat, cook and have hot water when ‘essential connections’ were lost.

He said he knew ‘all too well’ how important a backup could be, as he had once been snowed into his Orkney home for five days and his woodburning stove saved the day.

‘It is important that remote, rural and island homes have access to viable and reliable secondary heating options,’ he told Holyrood.

‘They are not luxury items in our homes or just something that looks nice in the corner of the room. They help to keep people safe, warm and alive in the worst of conditions.’

But Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan objected, saying the change would ‘restrict policy making in any future attempt to regulate heating systems’.

She said the Government already protected backup heating systems in rural homes ‘for exactly the circumstances that have been referred to.’

She added: ‘Voting against this amendment is not a vote against wood-burning stoves or other secondary heating systems, because the amendment is not needed to protect their use – it is simply unnecessary.’

Mr Halcro Johnson said the existing regulations on the issue were flawed.

But MSPs, including Mr Fairlie, rejected his proposals by 70 votes to 38.

The ban on woodburning stoves in new-build homes was scrapped last November after a backlash from industry, rural communities, opposition parties and some SNP politicians.

Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes was among those to raise concerns about the ban, citing the impact it could have on older people in her Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘There are no restrictions on the use of wood-burning stoves in Scotland, in either new or existing homes.’

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Scottish Police Arrest Serial Speaker: Elderly Woman Charged After Holding Sign Offering to Discuss Abortion

Rose Docherty is what they call a criminal recidivist in the United Kingdom. The 75-year-old woman has been arrested for a second time for the same fiendish act: offering to speak to women considering an abortion. She was arrested  outside the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow for carrying a placard which stated “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” Fortunately, she and her sign were quickly seized by the local police to protect the public.

Free speech literally does not have a prayer in the United Kingdom. We previously discussed the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, who was arrested for standing near an abortion clinic while silently praying. Police asked what she was doing standing at the location and when she said that she was praying in her head, they arrested her.

How Docherty ended up in the hoosegow in Glasgow is a chilling tale of how censorship can consume a nation.

The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act came into force last September. The architect of the law, Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay, denounced protests of abortions as “totally unacceptable abuse and obstruction” outside hospitals. So it is now a crime to behave in ways that could influence the decisions of women and staff to access services within the buffer zones.

In other words, it is a crime to exercise free speech. In this case, the “unacceptable abuse” was offering to speak with other women about abortion.

The United Kingdom shows how limiting speech can create an insatiable appetite for greater and greater speech controls. I discuss the UK as a cautionary tale for the United States in my book, The Indispensable Right.

A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”

British censorship now extends to not just silent prayers but toxic thoughts.

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Scots patients forced to have electric shock treatment more than 1000 times.

Patients in Scotland were forced to receive electric shock treatment against their will almost 1,100 times last year – prompting calls for the NHS to stop using the ‘ethically unacceptable’ procedure.

In each case, people suffering from mental illness were compelled to undergo electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) even though they objected to the treatment or actively struggled to resist it.

The World Health Organisation and United Nations recently warned that involuntary or forced ECT risked breaching patients’ human rights – and could be regarded as a form of torture.

The procedure, which sees electric currents passed through the brain to induce a brief seizure, has been used since the 1930s but remains deeply controversial.

A new report shows that ECT was carried out in the Scottish NHS more than 4,000 times last year.

Women in their 60s were most likely to receive the treatment – while the most commonly treated condition was severe depression.

In around 2,000 cases, ECT was performed on people who, because of their mental state, were deemed incapable of giving consent.

In 1,081 cases, treatment was given to patients who said they didn’t want it or fought against it – but who were over-ruled by doctors.

While health chiefs in Scotland acknowledge ECT can produce ‘adverse’ side-effects, they insist it is safe and effective.

First developed in the 1930s, the procedure was infamously portrayed in the 1975 film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, in which Jack Nicholson plays a convicted criminal who feigns mental illness.

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Scottish Girl Arrested For Using Knife And Axe To Ward Off Migrant Stalker

The systematic and engineered destruction of Europe through “multicultural” invasion is heartbreaking to watch.  It is clear, beyond any doubt, that this program spearheaded by progressive politicians (and fake conservative politicians) is designed to crush the spirits of predominantly white, native born citizens still retaining a sense of national pride and cultural heritage.  That is to say, they have become the targets of a government funded terror campaign to subjugate the west.

Starting around 2014, millions of third world migrants have been allowed to flood into Europe’s borders, often encouraged by globalist NGOs, the UN and leftist political leaders within the host countries.  The effects of this decade long campaign have been devastating. 

Violent crime has skyrocketed and migrant “grooming gangs” have spread, targeting underage girls for sexual exploitation.  Rape has become a common problem, which local governments have chosen to ignore.

Just this week an American man visiting Dresden, Germany was stabbed in the face while bravely preventing two migrants from assaulting a pair of women on a tram.  One of the man’s attackers, a Syrian refugee, was arrested by police and then immediately released by prosecutors back onto the streets.

And so the story is repeated, over and over again.  European elites invite third world migrants, largely military age men, into their borders in the name of progressive multiculturalism.  The migrants then attack the native population because their culture tells them Europeans are cattle to be farmed.  Whenever a European dares to speak up or defend themselves, they are slapped down by officials or arrested.  The population slowly becomes apathetic, passive and easier to control because they have no recourse but silence.

At bottom, the migrants are merely an ugly symptom of a bigger disease; the source of the problem is the political oligarchy that is facilitating the multicultural agenda.

Yet another example occurred in Scotland this week with the arrest of a 14-year-old girl who went viral on social media after defending another girl from a migrant man stalking them on video.  The teen can be seen pulling out a kitchen knife and a hatchet and screaming at the man to leave them alone. 

She warns the migrant man “Don’t touch my sister, she’s fucking 12…” 

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UK discloses ‘serious nuclear incident’ at Navy base

A “serious nuclear incident” occurred at a Navy base in Scotland earlier this year, the UK Ministry of Defence has admitted, prompting concerns over poor maintenance of Britain’s nuclear weapons and a lack of transparency.

The Category A event – the most serious classification for nuclear site incidents – took place between January and April at HMNB Clyde in Faslane, which houses all Royal Navy submarines, including Vanguard-class vessels armed with Trident nuclear missiles. Such events carry “actual or high potential for radioactive release to the environment.” The ministry has refused to provide details, leaving it unclear whether radioactive material actually escaped.

The disclosure was made by procurement minister Maria Eagle in response to a parliamentary question about Nuclear Site Event Reports (NSERs) at Faslane and the nearby Coulport naval base. Eagle said Faslane recorded one Category A event in that period, along with two Category B, seven Category C and four Category D incidents, according to media reports on Thursday. Coulport, which stores nuclear missiles and warheads, reported four Category C and nine Category D events.

Category B incidents involve a contained release or unplanned radiation exposure, Category C entails moderate release potential, while a category D incident is unlikely to cause a release but may show negative trends.

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Judge rules Scottish schools must provide single-sex lavatories

A judge has ordered that Scottish schools must provide single-sex lavatories for pupils after parents won a legal fight against a council which insisted on installing only gender-neutral facilities.

In a case hailed as the “first of many” in which the rights of women and girls will be upheld following last week’s Supreme Court ruling, Scottish Borders council conceded it had been wrong to flout the law by installing no sex-segregated bathrooms at the new Earlston Primary School.

Lady Ross KC said she would issue a declarator, a court order, making legal obligations on Scottish state schools clear after Sean Stratford and Leigh Hurley brought a judicial review over their concerns around transgender policies at Earlston, where their son Ethan, eight, was a pupil.

Stratford and Hurley had complained about the lack of separate-sex facilities at the replacement school, which recently opened and cost taxpayers £16.6 million, as well as trans inclusion policies around sports days, and potential punishment that their son would face if he “misgendered” other pupils.

Their concerns were dismissed by Kevin Wilson, the head teacher, and later Scottish Borders council, which claimed it did not have to consult with parents about the lavatory policy.

The parents went to court with the support of For Women Scotland, the campaign group which last week won the landmark Supreme Court ruling declaring that for the purposes of UK equalities law, biological men could not become legally female.

On Wednesday morning at the Court of Session, Scotland’s top civil court in Edinburgh, Ruth Crawford KC, representing the council, accepted the terms of the declarator making clear that the bathroom policy had been unlawful.

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