BBC Wales, as ever, referring politely to ‘First Minister, Mark Drakeford‘ not just ‘Drakeford‘, help their readers understand the vaccine certification proposals and reassure them that it will not affect access to crucial public services. Even the Tory rep just gets to say something obvious and doesn’t try to justify the certification in England but not in Wales, as Douglas Ross has, here: The Welsh Conservatives said “we have got to learn to live with Covid” as their health spokesperson Russell George said he was “absolutely against Covid passports for domestic use“. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58515771 No hospitality industry rep is allowed to … Continue reading Welsh hospitality bosses silent on vaccine passports

From the head of Scotland’s ambulance service yesterday: “I want to apologise to anyone who has experienced a delay.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58519296 Not reported of course: The Scottish Ambulance Service changed the way it responds to the most unwell patients in 2016 with 999 call handlers giving the highest ­priority to incidents such as cardiac arrests. An evaluation of the changes has found the system has saved the equivalent of 1182 lives. Under the new system, call handlers are taking longer on the phone to despatch paramedics and some lower priority calls are waiting longer for an ambulance. A Freedom of Information request by … Continue reading BBC Wales NOT reporting UK’s worst ambulance service NOT apologising

There have been 47 Scottish independence polls by major pollsters in 2021. 22 have given a No majority, 5 have been tied and 20 have given a Yes majority. Savanta ComRes, who only appeared for the first time in August 2020, have done 12 of them with 10 returning a No majority, 1 tied and only 1 with a Yes majority, in January. That’s a very negative set compared to Opinium with 2 Yes and 1 tied or Panelbase with 4 Yes and 3 No, or Ipsos MORI with 2 Yes and 1 No. Savanta ComRes has attracted concerned comment … Continue reading Want a NO majority, who you gonna call? Savanta ComRes!

Says who? ‘The chair of BMA Scotland’ First, he’s not a ‘chair.’ BMA Scotland is the GP’s trade union, Scottish branch and he’s the convenor often on TV and radio and in the press to argue for his member’s interests. At best he exaggerates, commonly he lies. A ‘chair’ is a professor who knows a huge amount about something and is appointed in a competitive process on the basis of years of leading research. This is a pretention and a deception which our state broadcaster colludes in to undermine the work of our NHS and by association, the SNP Government. … Continue reading Only in Scotland an NHS ‘crisis’ based on one trade unionist’s campaigning anecdotes

Using the graphics from Mark McGeoghegan (https://twitter.com/markmcgeoghegan), if you take account of the ‘probables’ it’s more like 44% to 39% or, if you also split the dks, it’s 51% to 46%. If you look at the age groups as David Francis tweeted: David Francis@beith123·5h Under 55 years of age – 63% YES Under 45 years of age – 68% YES Under 35 years of age – 70% YES The future belongs to us? No it’s not a Nazi line. You’re thinking of the made up Hitler Youth song, ‘Tomorrow belongs to me‘, in the film ‘Cabaret‘ and written by two … Continue reading Opinium Poll: Why it’s probably even better than 44% to 43%

The Covid death rate in Scotland has now fallen to the lowest in the UK, after several months as the second-lowest and is 67th in the world. The UK rate is 50th and Wales is 57th. Scotland’s vaccination rate, the highest in the UK on the first vaccine and nearly the highest on the second vaccine, is a major factor. Continue reading Covid death rate in Scotland lowest in the UK

This is another trade union / media scare story based on deliberate misrepresentation of the data. It follows from another in the Record, two weeks ago and explanation is the same. See this: In the Record two days ago, the report of a tragic error. Without knowing the whole story, I hesitate but it does look like a mistake was made. However, the report had these features: Yesterday the man’s heartbroken family, who asked not to be identified, called for answers on the “despicable” delay in getting him emergency treatment. And Helena’s husband Graham, 67, called for government action to tackle ambulance … Continue reading Misrepresentation

In recent times, Opinium have not had a majority for No so it seems likely that their sampling differs from that of , especially, Savanta who regularly provide the Scotsman with the negative results they desire. This is the first Yes majority since the end of April and the first poll, at all, since early August. It is also evidence that the SNP/Green deal is popular. Within the data there was also a massive lead for the SNP (51%) over the Tories (21%) and Labour (17%) suggesting that MSM failures to challenge the double standards of Douglas Ross have not … Continue reading Yes ahead again in wake of SNP/Greens agreement

According to Healthcare News yesterday vaccine passports are ‘widely deployed‘ across Europe and: Vaccine passports in large indoor venues and nightclubs in England will be required at the end of September.   UK vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi, who in February described vaccine passports as ‘discriminatory’ has now said it was the right time to start the scheme for sites with large crowds.   https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/vaccine-passports-start-england-following-widespread-deployment-across-europe There will be no vote on this in England so Douglas Ross’ hypocrisy will not be fully tested but, we all know he and his Westminster team would not dare to vote against it, yet it … Continue reading Double standards

When the facts change, I change my mind. The Scottish Government has clearly change its mind on setting up a not-for-profit company to deliver cheap energy for those who need it but they have not given up on the underlying intentions. This is just the first of many attempts by the Scotsman to try to split the SNP/Greens alliance. In the Programme for Government, but conveniently ignored, we can read: Increase funding for home energy and green heating systems installations; provide £50 million for Warmer Homes Scotland to support those in fuel poverty through the heat transition; and investing £30 … Continue reading The SNP/Greens crowbar emerges