Alex Lee-MacDonald

Independence is normal. Have a particular interest in how media misreporting leads to common misconceptions about Scotland's economy and public services

[Paul Holden @pauleholden]

An extremely important, devastating story. Starmer and Streeting have colluded to produce a US-UK pharma trade deal that experts say will siphon billions from the NHS and cause huge numbers of avoidable deaths. Disgraceful.

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Portes "Theres a lot of nonsense talked, including on Sky, about the spiralling welfare bill.. as a proportion of our national income.. its lower than it was 15yrs ago & its pretty much back to what it was under Thatcher.. this idea its out of control is just wrong"

Spot on!

[Talking-up Scotland @ProfJWR]

SNP Government builds 6 times as many and sells 18 500 times fewer council houses than England after two years of Labour https://t.co/D8VAvloQ0P

[Tom Forth @thomasforth]

The data is pretty clear that Scotland's economy has outperformed since devolution, even against a tough sectoral backdrop of oil & gas decline. I'm careful to caveat any claim it's because of devolution heavily, but the data exists and is pretty clear. https://t.co/eayroI72YT

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

These two stories trending together reveal a lot about who is the actual victim and who pretends to be.

[Laurie Macfarlane @L__Macfarlane]

The main claim to fame of “Manchesterism” is creating a less absurd but still privatised bus system.

Meanwhile Edinburgh has a fully integrated municipally-owned bus network that’s won countless awards.

Perhaps Burnham could learn from Edinburgh-ism?

[Laurie Macfarlane @L__Macfarlane]

Productivity growth since 2008:

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿0.8% per year
🇬🇧 0.4% per year

Very ignorant post, surprised it hasn’t been deleted yet.

[A.M.MacJ @ammacj]

If Burnham and media again promote the lies about Manchester and Manchesterism economy, point them to these 👇

[MP @P14Murray]

This is an Edinburgh paper. Edinburgh’s gdp per capita is higher than London’s. This kind of empty boosterism to slogan politics is exactly the UK’s problem not its solution.

[A.M.MacJ @ammacj]

Deprivation in UK.
Change in deprivation share by city👇

Between 2010 and 2020/25:
. Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Edinburgh all improved
. Manchester got worse
. Manchester now worse than all 4 Scottish cities.

Another example of the Burnham Manchesterism myth.

[A.M.MacJ @ammacj]

No, Burnham was lying.

From the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey:

. 3 times as many people say Scot Gov ‘good at listening’, compared to UK Gov.

. More than 2 times as many trust Scot Gov than UK Gov

[Mhairi Hunter 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇺🇦 🇵🇸 @MhairiHunter]

If Andy Burnham is serious about funding more social housing & policies like Housing First that would be good news for us. But it's worth noting that Glasgow currently has a larger social housing programme than all the northern English cities put together.

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

The UK could have stopped a genocidal massacre in Sudan’s El Fasher but failed to act over concerns it would anger the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a top war crimes expert has told Parliament.

Human rights investigator Nathaniel Raymond said he provided the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) with intelligence for more than two years warning that the fall of El Fasher would unleash “one of the single largest mass casualty events of the 21st century”.

With his warnings ignored, more than 60,000 people were killed when the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed the Northern Darfur state capital last October. The UN has since said the massacre showed “hallmarks of genocide”.

Addressing parliament’s International Development Committee on Tuesday, Raymond said his team from the Yale School of Public Health believed the UK was its “best hope” for stopping the siege. But his team’s warnings were ignored despite two dozen private meetings with the office of then-foreign secretary David Lammy.

He told MPs that Lammy’s officials prioritised the government’s “economic, security, and diplomatic relationships with the UAE” above “the genocidal slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians living in El Fasher and its surrounding communities”.

As the sole penholder for Sudan at the United Nations Security Council, the UK is responsible for driving international response to the conflict.

“They told me that the UK was facing significant private pressure behind the scenes from the UAE limiting its ability to affect the situation,” Raymond told MPs.

“Direct sanctions against UAE officials, at minimum, could have been used to interdict the clandestine UAE pipeline of advanced weaponry flowing to the RSF,” he added.

A UN report published Tuesday found that the RSF is responsible for 87% of verified incidents of rape and sexual slavery in Sudan, including el-Fasher, since the outbreak of violence in 2023.

“The tragedy of El Fasher shows that advanced technology and analysis can provide leaders essential decision support information, but satellite data and computing power cannot by itself generate either political will or moral courage,” said Raymond.

[Jack Seale @jackseale]

The early signs for Burnham are a lot worse than they were at a similar stage with Starmer. For Starmer you needed a fair bit of inside-baseball stuff to know he was likely to ditch his progressive pledges as leader; Burnham's becoming PM immediately so it's all out in the open

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Meet James Purnell. Andy Burnham's chief of staff.

He supported Iraq invasion; ex chair of Labour Friends of Israel; said that Winter Fuel Allowance and free bus passes should not be sacred; supported PFI, lie-detector tests for benefit claimants.

Next?
https://t.co/8Cnj0hIu62

[Alex Crawford @AlexCrawfordSky]

One of the killings involved a ten day old baby being shot by an Israeli sniper in broad daylight whilst the baby was being breastfed : an independent UN Commission says Israeli authorities and security forces deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, and war crimes in the occupied West Bank

[BBC News (World) @BBCWorld]

UN commission of inquiry says Israel committing genocide in Gaza by deliberately targeting children https://t.co/v7Cul4wHzP

[The Ayrshire Separatist @DanielJMath1]

Murrell committed fraud. The BritNat media kept him as news for months & would have you think he was a serial killer. Sir” Jeffrey Donaldson was today convicted of 18 counts of child sex abuse. Including rape. His wife knew but won’t go to prison. They’ve basically ignored it.

[Des Freedman @lazebnic]

Two horrendous attacks & the coverage couldn't have been more different: Golders Green victims were named, humanised and antisemitism higlighted; Edinburgh victims left anonymous, intent only "suspected" and Islamophobia effectively buried. Very troubling findings from @cfmmuk

[Stephen Smith @SteveNickSmith]

Thing is, he is getting this coronation because everyone with genuine power knows he’ll be continuity Starmer with some actual politician skills. If there was any danger of him being any good such as introducing genuinely progressive policy, all hell would be breaking loose now