In their 21 second trailer, we hear: ‘What did they think was going to happen?’ Just who ‘they‘ are will be disclosed on Monday. I know who ‘they’ should be – the university managers, boards and principals. Will BBC Scotland be satisfied with that or will the Scottish Government be dragged into the firing line? Will Ruth Davidson or one of her pack get a chance to blame the Scottish Government for not telling the universities what to do even though they can’t tell them what to do? Will the UK government’s role in not stopping English universities from returning … Continue reading Covid on Campus: Will BBC Scotland Disclosure be able to resist?

A lot of things tend to happen after other things. In some families, a ‘one in, one out’ myth has developed. A baby appears and within months an elderly relative dies. The sequence is noted and seems to happen more than once. A creator of some kind is calling one back to make up for the one they have just provided. It’s just a myth, isn’t it? Nobody believes that these days. Sometimes one thing just happens after another. Over a year ago, some people died in the same hospital after they had contracted a fungal infection from pigeon droppings, … Continue reading Patients die after you read this!

Between 12% and 18% of Scotland’s total land area is currently reserved for grouse moors. Despite this, the economics of such activity has been shown to be significantly worse than any other reasonably conceivable economic activity. https://www.commonweal.scot/policy-library/back-life-mapping-scotlands-alternative-grouse-moors-december Of all the possible uses of this land, grouse shooting is not only the least moral, it is by far the least economically effective. In fact, almost any other use will create more value and more jobs per hectare. https://www.birdguides.com/news/grouse-shooting-is-the-least-effective-use-of-scottish-land/ Back in the day, Common Weal did things like this. In 2019, with the Revive Coalition they produced: Back to Life: Visions for … Continue reading Game sports are not at all good for the country

This is a proud moment as the first of my former students to get published, to my knowledge, makes the pages of the Ayrshire Post. Hayleigh Barclay of Prestwick has written Girl of the Ashes, a gothic vampire thriller that your whole family can read and discuss over a rare, dripping, steak with chips dipped in tomato sauce. I remember Hayleigh well as an essentially cheeky student whose honours dissertation was rubbish. It wasn’t, she was………cheeky. Anyhow, buy this book, or else. Or else whit? I’m thinking, but you don’t want to cross me. Scotland 1897. Three hundred and fifty … Continue reading Bloody shameless plug

Stewart has experience of defending some scary characters: A double killer who beheaded and dismembered his victim has had his minimum jail term slashed by four years. David Collins was jailed for life and ordered to serve at least 26 years after murdering Kevin Bishop in a machete attack and severing his limbs and head in a bid to conceal the crime. But lawyers acting for Collins, 47, appealed against the minimum period – known as a punishment part – that he has to spend in jail before he can apply for parole. Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday ruled … Continue reading Scotland’s new advocate General’s hair-raising past

In an astonishingly irresponsible move on a day when the First Minister had just reported 15 deaths and reminded us that half of them were under 80 and that more than one was under 60, Reporting Scotland follow her clear advice on travel by undermining it. The FM reported hard evidence that large numbers of new cases in Scotland have been connected to Blackpool. In Ireland, TV News reports and repeats advice like this to help reduce risk. Here, BBC Scotland contact a public official in Blackpool, feed him the report and platform him bizarrely defending his town’s tourist trade, … Continue reading Reporting Scotland openly undermines the message aimed at saving lives

By stewartb I hadn’t planned to spend any time today (14 October) looking more into the care home sector. However, I was ‘stimulated’ to do so by reading Common Weal’s daily Source Direct newsletter this morning (as is my habit still, just!). In its news review section Source Direct opts to amplify yesterday’s BBC News Scotland website report on the Chair of the Balhousie Care Group and his assertion that the Scottish Government’s revised guidance on care home visiting is ‘ill thought out’. Source Direct’s brief coverage is worse than the BBC’s:  the former chooses ONLY to amplify the businessman’s … Continue reading Common Weal: covering up for corporate neglect!

Today in 1066 AD: The Battle of Hastings[a] was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 miles (11 kilometres) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory. This is when it all started, the British (Norman) Empire, that is. If it hadn’t been for William the Conqueror turning sleepy England into a brutal imperial power determined to conquer every neighbour with its superior armed forces, there would have been no conquest of … Continue reading 1066 and all what? WHY no Battle of Hastings celebrations

Scotland’s media choose their language carefully to make sure none could ever think we have succeeded in something. The truth is that despite the Herald’s attempt to hide our better performance and Imperial College London’s attempt to hide England’s unique horror, Scotland has done better to reduce excess deaths after a bad started tied to a maniac. Imperial College’s research published in Nature Medicine does not of course use the above headline but in the text does say: The fourth group of countries, which experienced the highest mortality toll, consists of Belgium, Italy, Scotland, Spain and England and Wales. More … Continue reading The Excess deaths ‘cringe’ to expose scotland and shield england though 33% more over-65s died there