Scottish Lib Dem leader, Willie Rennie, who infamously would not condemn his former leader, David Steel, for protecting the serial paedophile Cyril Smith, is keen as mustard to join in the attack on Professor Sridhar by deliberately misrepresenting her words.
In the New York Times, Sridhar wrote:
Scotland and Northern Ireland have looked ahead at the coming winter, and made a concerted plan to minimize community transmission to avoid a serious resurgence of the virus by using the summer to drive cases as close to zero as possible and to reopen cautiously. But neither nation has control over its borders because they are parts of the United Kingdom. So both now face a stream of incoming infections from England and Wales, which are behaving more like the rest of Europe, as well as from people returning from holidays abroad and not abiding by government advice to isolate for 14 days.
Sridhar made no other reference to England or to English people.
In a bizarre comment Rennie said:
Who on earth thinks that Sridhar meant that? The infection rate in North-West England is many times higher than that in Scotland. There is a steady flow of business and recreational traffic from and through that area into Scotland and, often, onward to some of those rural parts with a very low infection level and quite limited health infrastructure. Weeks before Professor Sridhar’s comments were published, the First Minister had urged Scots to avoid visiting North-West England and asked those living there to avoid visiting Scotland.
This kind of rational discourse, in Sridhar’s case based on, for example, advising on the Ebola outbreak, only seems divisive if that is the way your mind operates in advance of hearing anything from the Scottish Government or its advisers.
I can’t help but notice that Rennie has not found Professor Pennington’s many interventions ‘unhelpful.’
Never heard of this little insignificant fellow
Any care to let me know if he a decent chappie and of a old block
Also most grateful for his list of achievements and how he is of benefit
To Scottish society
Hope he knows how to Whack a Mole
Because by god man our society is so full
Of such let loose by London
If so i shall donate a suitable trusted club
For the dear fellow to go a whacking
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So Rennie is accusing a very intelligent, astute and well respected scientist of ‘narrow nationalism’ whose actual expertise in her field has saved many thousands of lives in Scotland?
Rennie in doing that, is attempting to control the British Nationalist ‘narrative’ for his own ‘narrow nationalist’ agenda it seems.
I do hope that people will take Scottish government advice and isolate on returning from hot spots, it would be criminal not to, quite frankly. Most people don’t want to be criminals or act in a way which is criminal. To deliberately ignore actual science and therefore potentially infect others around you with a deadly virus, is criminal, is that OK with the likes of Willie Rennie?
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As Maggie supposedly said–“everybody needs a Willie”, but she wasn’t thinking of a Wee Wullie.
With a bit of luck 2021 will see the end of this tiresome Dumb-o (though like all the rest of the belly-crawlers, he might end up in the Lords).
Lord Whiner of Pointless Ness.
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Mr Rennie should seek help.
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Rennie is implying that none of the tourists coming from England are carrying the virus and could infect anyone in Scotland (even though there are 4000 new cases a day in England) and presumably also thinks that none of the returning Scots could either (but funnily enough forgets that bit).
The guy is either delusional or a liar, or both.
This attack on experts is taking us to a very dark place. Has Brexit taught us nothing.
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It’s akin to the US’s tactics, attack the actual scientists and experts, undermine their work, then remove crucial funding. Rennie is a jobsworth, and what is his own qualification and expertise, in, well, anything really. These people are like mouthpieces, megaphones for the BritNat state, lacking in any real intelligence. They damn well take a massive renumeration from the public purse though, greedy lying troughers.
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Rennie cares not a jot for People living in Scotand. It’s the Union everytime regardless of the cost.
Our ancestors knew their foe. From 1820!
” Scotland Free or a Desert”
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Well said, Rennie and his BritNat pals would see Scotland a desert for sure.
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Did Rennie actually bother reading the NYT article? It is a longish, carefully argued piece which looks at how social; habits may have to change in order to suppress the virus to a manageable level before Winter comes. England and Wales are mentioned precisely once.
The loonyoons are determined to be offended and shocked. The coverage in the Scotland section of the Times is instructive with various of their regular nutters piling in to complain about “grievance mongering”. So a carefully argued and thoughtful piece is reduced to “Ya boo sucks” by our nutty Unionists.
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