Thanks to Morag Giblin for sharing this with me and to Lorraine from Blackburn, West Lothian.
Lorraine writes in Facebook:
Don’t swallow the state sponsored propaganda spin of half truths and innuendo!!! – Yes ‘Whatsapp’ messages were deleted, but that is only half the story, spun to make it look as sinister in Scotland as it was in England. THERE IS NO COMPARISON!
The First minister has already stated previously that the Scottish Government do not habitually use that or any other non-approved app. They follow the traditional rule of thumb (it works) – those who are in a habit of using ‘Whatsapp’ messaging just as any other apps, e-mails, or written memos, everything relevant to Government is electronically stored and filed in the proper way collectively as ALL Governments are SUPPOSED to transfer and store (I thought by legal requirement, but it appears not anymore, as far as the UK Government are concerned anyway!)
The bottom line is you don’t run competent government by WhatsApp:
In SCOTLAND the ‘Whatsapp’ is a NON-STORY!!!!
In England ‘Whatsapp’ has been a poor alibi to get away with corruption and corporate manslaughter!
Just so.
Lorraine and Morag both well worth following at:
https://www.facebook.com/lorrainefloss.leechmitchell
and
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I have been predicting since the Covid enquiries were announced that the Scottish media would use it to attack the Scottish Government and Nicola Sturgeon in particular.
The daily briefings she did was like a Head Mistress speaking to a class of surly, sulky badly behaved boys. When it came to questions, they were always delivered in an accusatory, discourteous tone and they were invariably put in their place.
So these shits are acting out of spite.
As usual, the ‘line’ taken by the Daily Ranger, Herald, Mail, Times and Scotsman is almost identical. I expect the questioning at Holyrood by the surly charmless DRoss, the flatulent Anus and Cauld Ham to be of similar nastiness.
And, as usual, they select from the massive amount of evidence only those parts which they can portray without context to be baaaaad.
Alasdair Macdonald
LikeLiked by 6 people
Thanks for that, Alistair, couldn’t have been put any clearer than that. Joe
LikeLiked by 2 people
Indeed just so, it’s a desperate media campaign to distort what is being given in evidence at the Inquiry, to portray SG as behaving as did the Johnson mafia.
I’d commented earlier on BBC Scotland’s lead smear effort https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2024/01/19/the-campaign-to-blame-the-snp-for-covid-deaths-contrary-to-the-facts-is-underway/
In hindsight I’d forgotten to comment on one of the innuendo aspects which glared from the BBC Scotland article as bias by omission – Framed as the evidence given by Ken Thomson commencing “Mr Thomson denied there was a culture among Covid decision-makers of deleting messages to prevent them coming into the public domain.”, again drawing parallel between #10 and SG.
What then followed examined a WhatsApp exchange involving Jason Leitch, but with a pivotal and material fact excluded by the BBC – Both Ken and Jason as civil servants were under standing orders by London to delete all WhatsApp exchanges.
Nothing whatever to do with SG, but implied as such…
LikeLiked by 6 people
To me, WhatsApp is the modern day equivalent to talking in a room. Would people having conversations – you know, like they used to in the old days – be expected to have someone record and transcribe every single word said? Of course they wouldn’t.
LikeLiked by 3 people
In Westminster’s case it would be the modern equivalent of chatting in a bar. They spend so much time in there and get so pissed that their words are slurred and messages unintelligible.
Which is why they deleted them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m getting a message that says this site can’t be reached. Frustrating!
Liz
Liz Summerfield summerfield management, training & media summerfield.liz@gmail.com skype: cailleach_bheag Mob: 07865 639 176
LikeLiked by 1 person
No idea why? Do you have a techy person to ask?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve now read in full the transcripts of the first two days of the public sessions of the UK Covid 19 Inquiry. Based on a review of these hearings, my strong suspicion is that the emerging evidence is much more balanced, realistic and indeed often positive than what is being reported by the BBC and mainstream news media. I suspect there would be substantial evidence – never to see the light of day in the BBC and mainstream media – to populate Talking up Scotland.
I am struck for example by the evidence ACTUALLY given by the TUS and STUC on the one hand and a negative headline in the Daily Record about alleged SNP-derived austerity.
And there are other odd things! Why in his lengthy opening remarks on Day 1 – when recounting the time line of Covid-related responses/actions by the Scottish Government – did the KC acting on behalf of the Inquiry twice insert specific references to a non-Covid Scottish Government (SG) policy matter? And what was the matter oddly inserted? It involved actions/ statements by the FM at the time associated with the Scottish Government’s policy regarding to independence!
LikeLiked by 5 people
Thanks Stewartb, Do these inclusions refer to what actions the SG would have taken had Scotland been an independent country, closure of borders, shut down air travel, earlier shut down etc. There were many occasions when if independent Scotland could have acted diffferently.
Golfnut
LikeLiked by 1 person
There are frequent acknowledgements – from various and perhaps unexpected sources – of the constraints and external (notably Westminster) influences on what the Scottish Government was able to do on certain issues and on the timing of certain actions.
Based on reading the transcripts of just two days of evidence – and in the context set in the opening statement by the lead lawyer for the Inquiry – there is likely to be much that is balanced, realistic/pragmatic and objective – even when accompanied by negative criticism on specific issues – that IF reported ‘fairly’ by the media that supposedly ‘serves’ Scotland would give the voting public a quite different picture from the one that is being painted by the media so far!
LikeLiked by 2 people
To Golfnut
Prof Sridhar certainly seemed to think Scotlandcwas constrained by devolution & reserved powers eg over borders in how Scotland could respond. If I remember correctly she said if Scotland had been independent it would have acted differently.
LikeLiked by 1 person
TUS? Should read ‘TUC’.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Statement re UK Covid Inquiry:
I do not intend to give a running commentary on the ongoing Inquiry. Instead, out of respect to all those impacted by the pandemic, I will answer questions directly and openly when I give evidence at the end of this month
However, in light of recent coverage, there are certain points I feel it important to make clear.
Contrary to the impression given in some coverage, the Inquiry does have messages between me and those I most regularly communicated with through informal means.
Although these had not been retained on my own device, I was able to obtain copies which I submitted to the Inquiry last year.
To be clear, I conducted the Covid response through formal processes from my office in St Andrews House, not through WhatsApp or any other informal messaging platform. I was not a member of any WhatsApp groups. The number of people I communicated with through informal messaging at all was limited.
Also, any handwritten notes made by me were passed to my private office to be dealt with and recorded as appropriate.
Throughout the entire process, I acted in line with Scottish Government policy.
I did my level best to lead Scotland through the pandemic as safely as possible – and shared my thinking with the country on a daily basis. I did not get every decision right – far from it – but I was motivated only, and at all times, by the determination to keep people as safe as possible.
LikeLiked by 6 people
The propaganda stand at the shops today. My they haven’t pulled any punches in plastering the whole of the front pages with Nicola Sturgeon’s photo and in capital letters, ‘Sturgeon deleted ALL what’s app messages’. I’m surprised they didn’t have a massive poster instead, might as well have had. The witchhunt continues and will be taken much further as the forthcoming general election gets closer.
The BritNat state can’t have people in Scotland and indeed even in England, supporting the only social democratic party, the third largest party at westminster, which actually has policies to reduce poverty, and to keep the wolf at bay where they can, within English imposed fiscal restraints. Oh no can’t have the SNP party working for the people, that’s an anathema to the UKBritNat state.
Not perfect, but compared to Labour/ToryCONS the Scottish government are performing in the way that every single person should expect at the very least, like not blaming the poor for being poor, but helping them and clammering to do much more, if only the governmnet of the country next door didn’t take Scotland’s vast resources and wealth, sending a few crumbs back while laughing their greedy corrupt heads off.
Scary things is now, there are external forces having a massive influence on the Tory/LabourGov/cabal in London, and they are not very nice, nor are they friends of democracy, to put it very very mildy.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Godsend of an opportunity for the SNP, the SG and Humza and in particular Nicola to launch an offensive. Not often your enemy supplies you with all the ammunition you could possibly want.
Golfnut.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Could not agree more. The positives evidenced by for example the TUC and STUC in submissions to the Covid Inquiry regarding the engagement and responsiveness of the Scottish Government towards trade unions before and during the pandemic is a case in point – and potentially hugely relevant to how Labour-inclined voters may come to regard the SNP government.
The Daily Record has already in a headline in the past week sought to paint the STUC’s view of the Scottish Government during the pandemic as negative. This is a stark misrepresentation of the STUC’s overall position.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Skgroupltd.info
LikeLike