Stephen McGowan, self-proclaimed ‘leading and prolific author‘ of the law firm TLT, is all over the Scottish media today saying: If parliament does not define cafe and it is left to local interpretation as is suggested here, then expect absolute carnage across the country.  Hmm, prone to exaggeration? The Herald has him in this: Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of overseeing a “complete shambles” ahead of a two-week hospitality shutdown in central Scotland.  Experts said the measures risked “absolute carnage” after confusion erupted over which businesses will be affected. Shambles and carnage, both bloody words in their original meaning. There has … Continue reading Café carnage?

In a masterfully vague headline designed to hide the awful truth, the Herald hides the almost certain truth that the UK will do a trade deal on the USA’s terms and sacrifice the interests of the Scottish whisky producers and workers to get any deal. Whisky exports have been caught up in a dispute over subsidising the manufacture of aircraft, with the US punishing the UK with a 25% levy on Whisky imports. The UK minister, Greg Hands, has written to the US trade unions, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to ask for their help in resolving the dispute. … Continue reading US unions to tell Greg ‘Unlucky’ Hands and Scottish Whisky producers ‘Tough shit pal!?’

In another typically unreliable report, the Herald’s Scaremongering Correspondent uses one anonymous source to imply a wider problem, generating anxiety, at least amongst the Herald’s reduced readership. ‘The source‘ claims that Glasgow Royal Infirmary will not cope with increased Covid-19 cases even though it coped with a far greater surge in March and April and that there will be worrying bed shortages even though there were none then either. The reporter forgot to mention the 516 bed NHS Louisa Jordan, unused in March or April but still ready for action thanks to the Scottish Government. ‘The source‘ was unable to … Continue reading Single source used to prompt panic and undermine government strategy

Responding to Reporting Scotland’s own survey of two which found 100% unhappy with their flu vaccination experience and claiming there had been a wave of complaints, the Tusker, independence-supporting media monitor, asked its readers what they thought: Nearly 95% reported a good experience and with a sample of 90, 45 times the BBC sample of 2, this proves that for the vast majority, the Scottish Government has ‘handled it really well.‘ Continue reading BBC Scotland ridiculed as 95% praise the flu vaccination experience

Is Gordon Brown too tired these days? Is Lord McConnell the new dinosaur ‘they’ wheel in now? Lord Jack McConnell has been popping up frequently in the Scottish media (That’s NOT the way to do it!!) to criticise the Scottish Government, regardless of any facts and today he wants to seem elder statesman-like with a pompous and evidence-free pronouncement on how things should be done, headed up with this special, I’m special so I am, snap: Sitting exclusively? Sitting for? Sitting at the Scottish Parliament? My Lord, you do us a great honour! Epitomising everything about how the Labour Party … Continue reading Lord McConnell’s Labour Party lost its way in 1911

Descending into a farce is the kind of cliché I usually avoid……like the plague…..but the opposition pile-on aided by ‘experts’ and the Scottish media has become a cracker of one. Has anyone thought to ask Humpty Dumpty? He knew: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Right at the outset, I thought that the owners probably make that decision themselves when they order the sign and that planning officers will be interested in more important things, like alcohol. I’ve wasted more time than any … Continue reading When is a café not a restaurant? When it says that above the door

This morning BBC Scotland had a ‘wave of complaints‘ by two folk. Along with my own experience of smooth efficiency, in Ayr, these 7 ‘sources’ agree with me. We win, 8 to 2! Continue reading 80% say Scotland’s huge flu vaccination programme ran smoothly

In my local store this morning, the disgraceful undermining of a strategy, backed by experts such as professors Bauld and Sridhar, personalised so as to demonise the the most caring and popular and most democratically representative political leader, in the UK. The press should be ashamed. You can’t even see the supposedly intelligent Telegraph, top left, shouting: Sturgeon signs death sentence for Scottish pubs. Driving home I heard Radio Scotland’s Steven Jardine ask listeners to respond to the question of whether these new restrictions are ‘fair‘. Surely in the midst of a pandemic which has killed thousands in Scotland and … Continue reading Press ‘tsunami of demonisation’ of the First Minister risks thousands of lives

In Insider on the 6th, offering a positive slant to news from a troubled part of the country due to a surge in infections there: Scottish biotech company ILC Therapeutics said its synthetic interferon product is up to twenty times more effective in the lab in tackling the Covid-19 virus than other such drugs. The company, based in Newhouse, North Lanarkshire, hailed recent test results for its unique synthetic interferon called Alfacyte. They showed that Alfacyte is 15 to 20 times more effective at preventing the Covid-19 virus SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture than commercially available interferons such as Interferon alpha 2 and … Continue reading Lanarkshire Covid-19 treatment 20 times more effective, and more

Six or seven times this morning when the older worried viewers are watching, we hear: Changes in the flu vaccination system this year have prompted a wave of complaints. The Scottish Government has said the Covid-19 pandemic means it’s ‘more important than ever’ to get the immunisation this autumn and it’s funding a 50% rise in vaccinations to over two million people. But many eligible patients are frustrated they can’t get an appointment. Then to evidence the above claim, ‘they’ get one to say: I think they. It is just really bad. I think they have handled it really badly. … Continue reading 50% rise in vaccinations to over two million people but BBC use two-week old story from Fife to undermine it