Hanging on like grim death using two-week old ONS estimates, BBC Scotland try to make us feel bad. For some time, Northern Ireland, aided by their watery separation had the lowest overall infection level in the UK but a massive surge in July, and August 2021, puts them top of the pile. Despite a massive surge in the second half of August, the level of infection in Scotland has now fallen for the last week, putting us at the bottom with the lowest infection rate of the 4 UK nations. The death rate in Northern Ireland remains the lowest but … Continue reading Scotland still has lowest infection level in UK

They, BBC, loved it when Scotland, after following the JCVI guidelines to jag all the care home staff and residents before all other groups, did lag behind on the less at risk groups. You’ll remember Andrew Marr in January 2021, frothing at the First Minister: ‘Scotland is lagging behind England’ and Reporting Scotland repeating the claim for weeks but, now, where are they? Scotland has been ahead on first doses since mid July and has just caught Wales, in first place, on second doses. BBC Wales were quick to praise NHS Wales when they hit 50%. BBC Scotland? Not in … Continue reading Scotland ahead on jags

Thanks to reader, exile, for drawing my attention to this. Well at least it’s not Monica Lennon telling us this after she had the dumb nerve to tell us the Louisa Jordan had been a waste of public money: It’s one Glasgow GP pretending to have known all along that it was a mistake to close it on July 19th even though it had never been required for Covid patients despite hospital admissions being then less than 200 and though the current level, just over 1 000, is only half what the system coped with, not apparently needing the LJ, … Continue reading Damned if you do…

From the Corporate Herald today, a typically uncritical view on freeports. Here are the facts: There is clear evidence in a House of Commons Briefing Paper that they simply transfer business away from other areas and, according to the Royal United Services Institute, ‘encourage drug trafficking, trade in counterfeits, money laundering and a vast array of other crimes. Backup evidence: Full report: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8823/ Additional evidence from Institute for Government on economic factors: There is also a risk that freeports and zones don’t create new economic activity but rather divert existing business into the area with the allure of tax breaks – at a cost to the … Continue reading Lucky escape! Drug trafficking, money laundering and lost tax revenue: The Tory plans for a freeport in Scotland

Why is only Scottish Ambulance service in ‘crisis?’ BBC Wales and Northern Ireland report no crisis either. Yet, according to BBC Scotland in August: The Scottish Ambulance Service instituted a colour-coded response system in 2016. These deemed purple cases to be the most severe – where there is a 10% or more chance of cardiac arrest. In 2020-21, 10,687 purple cases were seen in under 10 minutes, compared with 8,304 in 2018-19. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58188218 The situation in NHS England is worrying for this group of patients. From BBC Health: And for category 2 emergency calls – which cover heart attacks, seizures … Continue reading Scotland’s ambulance response saving more lives

In the BBC Scotland report on the right, on ambulance waiting times, there are no statistics, no data, no figures, merely ‘stories.’ It seems the stories have just ’emerged’ but we know better than that. They have been gathered after social media trawling of this kind: Not reported of course: Scotland’s Accident/Emergency services 20% better as NHS England fall to lowest ever: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2021/09/08/scotlands-accident-emergency-services-20-better-as-nhs-england-fall-to-lowest-ever/ Or: 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 … Continue reading ‘Stories have emerged’ is not the news

With only 5 529 cases in the last 48 hours, the 7 day average infection level has fallen to 3 174 from a peak of 6 391 on the 7th. BBC Scotland clearly don’t like the look of this trend and have gone for the ONS estimates for the week before last. Here are the scot gov data: Date 7 day average 7             6391 12           5197 13           4793 14           4462 15           4335 16           no data 17           3174 https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/ Continue reading Infection rate plummets

Scotland has had the highest infection rate, since the end of August, but it’s falling very fast so BBC Scotland are going to need to be smart on this to keep it going. I know, don’t use the actual data based on testing, use the ONS estimates for the period ending 11th September, a week ago, and present them with the word ‘still’ in the headline. And, tell a big lie: ‘The latest daily figures show 5,529 new cases in the past 24 hours.’ Huge fib. Due to technical issues, no data were released for the 15th so those 5 … Continue reading Quick just lie! Before it’s too late and they’re not the worst

At the very beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, Boris Johnson cast doubt on NHS Scotland’s resilience. As BBC Scotland and others rejoice now that Scotland too has called in the army: we can reflect on that resilience. When did NHS England make the call? Four weeks ago. Did they have higher infection levels to cope with? Nope, on the 20th August, when they called them in, infection levels in England were far lower than in Scotland or Northern Ireland. Resilience? Continue reading Resilience

In yesterday’s Herald letters: EITHER Nicola Sturgeon’s army of special advisers is becoming nervous, or she herself is. Her conference speech sank to a new low, making absurd allegations about the “damage” Westminster will do to Scotland – “our working population is likely to fall. Who knows what will happen to our NHS in future trade deals” (“Sturgeon says unionists will try to exploit Brexit impact”, The Herald, September 14). Actually, it is under SNP health governance that every health board in Scotland has signed a contract with the US private health company, IHI. Westminster has, allegedly, “made us poorer”. The truth … Continue reading Prof says ‘the UK would save money if Scotland left it!’