Peter Murrell has resigned with immediate effect

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65000606

Good. It's all unravelling.

Agreed. It was a massive conflict of interest from the start.

Yeah, fair enough.

At the time the I preferred the stricter guidelines and lower cases and deaths than England was seeing though.

Yes the Nike conference and moving people with covid into nursing homes was hardly a bright move.

Not even all the covid money that Scotland was given seems to have been used to support businesses.

If it wasn't having her hand forced with 'eat out to help out' restaurants would still have been closed. Lots of nonsense policies covid can tell the time you can't eat out after 6pm. Covid also knows if you've a vodka in your cola so no vodka (or whisky for you in a pub)

@WeCome1 there was a massive let's kick the can down the road with little support for businesses.

I'll never forget the Fife softplay owner, kids can round around on my football pitch downstairs but not on my climbing frame.
Same with nightclubs.

Wales delayed lockdown to allow Cheltenham races and a massive pop concert in Cardiff to go ahead. They were warned not to btw

The policy about cafés, pubs and restaurants was ridiculous. I remember an sunny afternoon out in South Queensferry where the tiny, unlicensed cafés were heaving but the far more spacious licensed restaurants weren't allowed to be open.

But all those ‘outdoor’ marquees? Sometimes quadrupling the covers a venue had. Whilst at the same time ‘unessential’ shops were not allowed to open.

in theory because Scotland has a population dentisty much much lower than England there should have been far fewer cases and deaths in Scotland and Wales but in practice the differences are negligble, ( although overall sparsely populated rural areas did have better results world wide so rates for rural argyll were better than Glasgow etc) also it has since been seen across the world that States that locked down in USA did not fare better on average than states that did not neither is there any evidence that mask wearing countries and areas fared better.
lockdown did a huge amount of harm to economies across the world which has led to world wide cost of living crisis exacerbated by Ukraine war
The single most effective measure as with any infective disease is stay at home if you are ill a re-think of sick pay would go a long way to solving this and the well get on with their lives.

When you look back and think of the hoops they made small businesses jump through.

They still make companies jump through hoops for nothing just to be different. The bottle return scheme just sounds like an expensive headache.
Who's paying for the proposed bottle banks? The floorspace they take up, the cost of emptying them, the different bar codes so they know what has a deposit what doesn't.

I have it in my head nurseries and reception kids in England were back in school with a recognition that they are impossible to teach at home - while scottish kids of the same age were in from of Ceebbies

Suspect we should have locked down anyone over 65 that wanted to be , furloughed them plus sick and vulnerable and let the rest get on with work . However all good in hindsight .

Wings site seem to think there are more resignations and entertainment to come . They’ve been on this from the start unlike the MSM and really have been the driving force behind the SNP fall out

Defining as follows:

1 Economic Growth Metrics: Scotland's economy has grown at a faster rate than the UK average since 2010, and in recent years, it has outperformed many other parts of the UK. In 2019, Scotland's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.4%, compared to the UK's 1.3%.
(Source: Scottish Government, "Scotland's Economic Performance," accessed March 18, 2023, www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-economic-performance/)

2 Crime: Scotland's crime rate has been decreasing consistently over the past decade. In 2019-20, the overall crime rate in Scotland was 44.7 per 1,000 population, which was significantly lower than the rest of the UK.
(Source: Scottish Government, "Recorded Crime in Scotland: General Overview 2019-20," accessed March 18, 2023, www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-general-overview-2019-20/pages/2/)

2 Health: Life expectancy in Scotland has been improving, although it is still lower than the UK average. In 2018, life expectancy at birth for males in Scotland was 77.0 years, and for females, it was 81.1 years. The UK average is higher but it has been declining in the past 10 years or so.
(Source: National Records of Scotland, "Life Expectancy for Administrative Areas within Scotland 2016-2018," accessed March 18, 2023, www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/life-expectancy/life-expectancy-16-18/la-life-expectancy-16-18-report.pdf)

3 Poverty: The poverty rate in Scotland has decreased over the past decade, although it is still higher than the UK average. In 2019-20, the relative poverty rate (before housing costs) in Scotland was 19%, compared to the UK's 18%.
(Source: Scottish Government, "Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland: 2017-20," accessed March 18, 2023, www.gov.scot/publications/poverty-income-inequality-scotland-2017-20/pages/2/)

4 Education: The percentage of school leavers in Scotland entering positive destinations (e.g., higher education, employment, or training) has increased over the past decade. In 2019-20, the percentage of school leavers entering positive destinations was 95.3%, which was higher than the UK average.
(Source: Scottish Government, "Summary Statistics for Attainment, Leaver Destinations and Healthy Living, No. 10: 2020 Edition," accessed March 18, 2023, www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-attainment-leaver-destinations-healthy-living-no-10-2020-edition/pages/4/)

5 Civic Engagement: Voter turnout in Scotland has been higher than the UK average in recent elections. In the 2019 UK general election, the turnout in Scotland was 67.3%, compared to the UK's 67.0%.
(Source: House of Commons Library, "UK Election Statistics: 1918-2019," accessed March 18, 2023, commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8647/)

6 Equality: Scotland has made progress in reducing gender pay gaps in recent years. The gender pay gap in Scotland decreased from 16.3% in 2017 to 14.3% in 2021.

(Source: Scottish Government, "Gender Pay Gap Statistics: Scotland, 2021," accessed March 18, 2023, www.gov.scot/publications/gender-pay-gap-statistics-scotland-2021/)

7 FDI projects in Scotland increased by 14% in 2021, with four years of continuous growth and the highest share of UK projects in the past decade.Scotland has ranked second in 2021 for employment, with an impressive 125% increase in job prospects.Scotland has seen strong performance in the digital, utilities and manufacturing sectors, and is a firm second choice for digital investment beyond London.

(Source:www.ey.com/en_uk/attractiveness/22/scotland-leads-the-way-for-fdi-investment)

There’s more but that’s the most of it. It’s fair to say that currently Scotland’s schools aren’t performing as well as say England’s, but England has some of the best education in the world but also a high degree of education related inequality. Drug deaths is the other issue that gets brought up, it’s definitely not good, it’s about 1.5k people a year, but they do at least have a strategy to address this and it looks convincing to me. I personally love the baby boxes- I love the fact everyone gets them and every child gets the same start, it’s good for social cohesion, doesn’t feel like charity, feels like we’re all in it together.

In what ways do you think Scotland’s underperformed?

@Crunchygrass bless your heart for reiterating government published statistics 🤣🤣

Oh god, do you think they are lying? I think gov statistics are generally considered a really good source no? What else would you go by? Happy to be corrected if you have better sources

Do I think they are lying?
I mean it’s hard to imagine the government led by the first minister of Scotland lying to us about anything.
like party membership numbers.
or missing party donations
I have zero faith in government published statistics. I can see with my own eyes the state of this country. Quoting education statistics back as an example of where the government has succeeded? Are you serious?????? Do you have kids? The schools are ON THEIR KNEES

If these are ScotGov stats it’s not like it would be the first time they’d lied 😂😂😂

Going by their track record, yea they are lying and distorting.

Remember statistics are manipulated all the time to fit an agenda. Look at the questions they are asking and the definitions.

Health; remember at the beginning of the month, a spinal surgeon revealed that disabled children in Scotland awaiting surgery were removed from waiting lists. This is disgusting.

crime; look at how crime in this instance is defined. Many crimes that people think should be recorded aren’t. Often people have to push for crimes to be recorded and apparently there are different data bases.

I think NS and her husband have been power hungry to the point they didn’t lay foundations for the future. At the very least NS should recognise that AS did at least prep her for her future role…. I hope all the skeletons come out of the many cupboards and issues addressed fully. What a mess! I have many family members who are SNP supporters and it’s very awkward as everything is ‘better than England’ …. There will be some mad spin being put on this weekends resignations etc which I will have to listen to through gritted teeth!

I’m prepared to believe you, but you need to show me the evidence to the contrary otherwise it’s just your word versus the government official stats.

In the second lockdown the kids started going back to school in Scotland first but it was a phased return by age so English schools were fully back first.

English school pupils returned full time on 8th March, Scottish Primaries returned full time on 15th March but secondaries had a ‘phased returned’ from then which meant all online teaching stopped so teachers could manage them at school with a third at a time going in until after the Easter holidays. So not only were English students all back a week earlier but they didn’t lose the two weeks of teaching.

Manipulating a&e waiting times:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sturgeon-rebuked-for-misleading-a-e-comparison-pwqgwt7vd

www.scotsman.com/news/politics/snp-ministers-criticised-by-watchdog-for-potentially-misleading-waiting-time-statistics-3901151

Misleading parliament on renewables electricity generation

fullfact.org/economy/snp-sturgeon-blackford-swinney-renewable-energy/

dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2022/11/snp-admits-recycling-false-claim-over-wind-power/

the attainment gap in education in Scotland has widened not closed since the idea of GIRFEC, this is obviously impossible you can't get it right for every child even if you have only 2 as getting it right for one may mean getting it wrong for another child,
levels of attainment in English and maths have fallen behind England on international scores to the extent that Scottish government withdrew from it, Scottish students struggle to get into top Scottish universities as places reserved for paying students, so you can see Glasgow university has 20 places in clearing for your chosen subject but these 20 places are only avaialble to English and Foreign students so you can't get one of them. Education in Scotland has always been devolved since 18th century, literacy in Scotland was way way ahead in the 18th and 19th centuries and most of 20th it was just ahead now it is behind, Scots have not become less intelligent, neither have the English children suddenly become more intelligent ( I blame CoE which is neither a proper cirriculum nor excellent)
Drug deaths in Scotland are the worst in Western Europe by miles and increasing

we still have greater levels of Poverty lower life expectancy etc I would love Scotland to flourish but it isn't right now

Drug deaths is the other issue that gets brought up, it’s definitely not good, it’s about 1.5k people a year, but they do at least have a strategy to address this and it looks convincing to me.

Why have the SNP waited until now to come up with a strategy? How many thousands have died while we waited for this ‘convincing’ strategy?

GIRFEC simply doesn't work. You might get it right for one child but to the detriment of others.

Thanking back to the hospitality fiasco. We took our iLs (in their 80s) out for lunch. They couldn't have a wee glass of wine with their meal yet 10 feet away a load of young lads were all getting pished watching an Old Firm match.
The reason? They were "outside" in a marquee.

Complete and utter shite as were many of her rules and regulations 😡