From BBC Essex today: An NHS hospital where a woman bled to death in childbirth has been given an “urgent” deadline to keep patients at its maternity unit safe. A letter seen by the BBC reveals the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found unsafe staffing levels at the unit at Basildon Hospital throughout August. The CQC said the trust that runs it had until next Monday to implement appropriate measures. The trust said it had a “robust improvement plan in place”. It’s a horror story. Findings from the latest inspection included: Only four shifts throughout the month of in August had … Continue reading A woman bleeds to death in a hospital but the Government is not mentioned and no Labour MP exploits it

Richard Leonard gets a free pass from the Scotsman to attempt an essay on why Sturgeon should not be doing the briefings: His thesis is that she’s not doing well but his true purpose is naked. She’s doing too well and making him look bad or, to be honest, nearly invisible. Back in January 2020, even before the briefing boosted her ratings: On the matter of trust in politicians’ statements about Scotland’s future, only Nicola Sturgeon was in any way trusted with 46% for and against her, improved from 52 to 41 against her in 2014. For the others, it … Continue reading Because she is too bloody popular, Richard 6%?

On the day the 5 Tier strategy launches, based on science, approved after consultation in Holyrood, well explained and with popular support, the evidence is already visible. Above, new cases fall to below 1 000 for first time in more than two weeks. Seven day average of 1 162 is down from peak of 1 452 on 26th October, by 20% – steady but sure. Hospital and ICU admissions lag 1 to 2 weeks behind but increase is slowing. The seven day average for admissions was up 18% in last 7 days, up 31.4% in the previous 7 days and … Continue reading Good reasons to hold our nerve and end it with tiers, 5 of them

No, not infection levels, readership levels. Fifth month in a row with falling views and visitor numbers, the Tusker‘s enormous nose bleed may be stemmed as we only lost around 800 visitors between September and October. I’ve explored the shadow banning notion but with no real findings. The global reach in October: And in May. Spot the differences. A World map game everyone can play. Oh no, we’ve lost Estonia! And most of West Africa! Go on name those South American ones. Most popular posts: Lessons? Mention, in the headline, the National, Brian Taylor or the First Minister. Don’t mention … Continue reading Rate of fall levelling-out?

I haven’t been so disturbed by the First Minister’s words since she enthused about Hilary Clinton, back in 2016. I think, today, she was preparing the ground for a decision to follow England into full lockdown only so that we get the furlough payments we might not get if we had to implement one later, when the 5 tier system just launched, maybe has not worked. Maybe I’ve misread this and, if I’m wrong, I will accept that. However, let’s be clear, there is no case for a full lockdown across Scotland. Here’s why: The restrictions imposed on Glasgow, the … Continue reading Let’s not be bought and sold for ‘English’ gold again

There is no threat from anyone in authority that Glasgow is in danger of being moved into tier 4. All the Herald’s Jack Haugh has is council leader, Susan Aitken, saying: We are nowhere near out of the woods yet. Level 3 is tough but if we move to level 4 that will be awful. If we keep following the rules we can live more normal lives and protect thousands of jobs. It’s just a local leader encouraging folk to keep going because the restrictions are beginning to work. See those ‘woods?’ She’s right. Glasgow is not out of them … Continue reading Complete fib about Glasgow and Tier 4

In another piece from Better Together activist Ken Symon: A care home group owner has offered to pay for Freedom of Information searches to find answers from the Scottish Government on the spread of Covid-19. Robert Kilgour, executive chairman of Scotland’s largest care home group Renaissance Care, was responding to the news that the Scottish Government has refused to hand over details of when the First Minister first learned about Covid positive patients being sent to care homes. It doesn’t seem to matter how often you say: It doesn’t matter when the First Minister knew because five research reports now show … Continue reading Wriggling care home group owner wants to pay for different answers that don’t blame care home groups

From the Herald on behalf of the UK-based Fire Brigades Union and with the intention of challenging another aspect of SNP Government performance: SCOTLAND’s fire brigades are tackling emergencies during the pandemic with nearly 800 fewer firefighters than eight years ago, leading to concerns the nation is not ready to deal with new threats. The Fire Brigades Union has sounded alarm bells as data reveals that the numbers of firefighters and control room staff have dropped by 11% from 7197 in 2011/12 to 6406 in 2019/20. It was actually, in Scotland, only 123 or 4%: Click to access fso_statistics_2018_19.pdf The report … Continue reading 4% Fewer Firefighters but 31% Fewer Fires!

IMPERIAL NOT EMPIRICAL? EXPERT NOTES THE DEVOLVED NATIONS HAVE BEEN SCIENCE DRIVEN BUT MUST STILL SHARE ENGLAND’S PAIN Yet another young epidemiologist and a woman, who clearly knows far more than that Prof Poisonpennington much preferred by BBC Scotland, got stuck right into the UK Government for its failure to act soon enough and making this full lockdown for England necessary, to ‘prevent thousands of deaths.’ At every opportunity, after each question, she reminded the viewers again that this need not have happened, so severely, if action had been taken in September. But, when the interviewer reminded Dr Gurdasani of … Continue reading Scotland has been Science driven but must still share England’s pain

Early this morning, BBC 1 were out in Winchester, 135 cases per 100 000, to ask: What’s the reaction [to the full lockdown] been in towns where infection rates have been relatively low? The reaction was mixed, from a sense of injustice to a weary acceptance. The readers of the Daily Mail there are unlikely to be encouraged to be compliant: North Lanarkshire had 144 cases in the last 24 hours and with a population of 340 000, that’s 34 per 100 000. Only a few days ago, we heard that Lanarkshire just missed going into Level 4. I’m not … Continue reading ‘Low’ in Winchester but ‘high’ in Wishaw?