In the Herald today: By Sharon Bar-li (Israeli Embassy) On Thursday, the Israeli and Scottish football teams face off against each other to qualify for the European Championship. Despite a clash on the football pitch, Israel and Scotland share many a commonality and there is much for us to celebrate. Might we need to discuss this first? There is a factory in Fife making guidance systems for missiles used in Yemen and Scottish soldiers have behaved badly on behalf of his or her majesties in the past but I think we’ve cleaned up our act enough to want better friends. Many a … Continue reading The Glasgow Herod?

The SNP MP, suffering now from a massive media pile-on (above), who headed home may have been following instructions from the Westminster authorities. Last BBC Newsnight reporter, Lewis Goodall, shared this extract from an email sent to MPs by the parliamentary authorities: Ferrier had earlier protested the pressure to return to Parliament following the statement by the Commons Leader, Rees-Mogg, that they needed to retrun to ‘set an example’ and to facilitate the passing of laws. While Ferrier’s actions were undeniably misjudged risky, is it possible that she, perhaps affected by ‘brain fog’ many report, then panicked and fled for … Continue reading Did Margaret Ferrier just do what she thought she had been told to do?

There’s clearly no limit to how far or how low Common Weal‘s leadership will go to get back at the SNP Government for repeatedly ignoring them. Six months ago they were pressing for mass testing. So was Jackson Carlaw because he knew it was something easy to nag the SNP about. Who could object to more testing? Today, someone at Common Weal (The Grand Wizard?) has tweeted gleefully that England are going for it and might get there before Scotland. Six months after their ‘press’, don’t we know that mass testing isn’t the answer and is probably a waste of … Continue reading The Common Weal supports Boris against the SNP

In the Herald today: GPS have warned that surgeries are facing a “perfect storm” as patients who are seeking pandemic-delayed appointments, flu vaccinations and mental health issues combine to drive a surge in consultations. One doctor said his practice in Glasgow’s south side had experienced an almost 70 per cent rise in patient numbers and that he had serious concerns the pattern would continue into winter. GPs is repeated several times but only one actually features, Dr John Montgomery of the David Elder Medical Practice in Glasgow. Dr Montgomery has done a survey of the demand for appointments. I see no sign … Continue reading One GP’s ‘survey’ is not enough to generate a perfect storm or a tsunami

This man is no more the ‘Scottish medical chief’ than Arthur Scargill was the chief of mining or Bob Crow was chief of the railways. He’s the leader of the doctor’s trade union, the BMA and he’s cynically prepared to scare you to death so that you’ll accept the need for more doctors and better pay and conditions for them. There’s nothing unusual in that but the Scotsman is using him to further their blatantly obvious agenda of undermining confidence in NHS Scotland and by association, the Scottish Government, the SNP and the whole notion of our competence to run … Continue reading This is not ‘the chief’ and he’s just a trade union convener stirring things up on behalf of his members

From a Labour Party freedom of information request, reported in the Guardian today: Health visitors look after health and development from birth until the age of five. Last year, there were 6,931 full-time equivalent health visitors in England, a drop of 3,378 since the peak of 10,309 in October 2015, figures from Labour showed. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/oct/04/fears-for-mothers-and-babies-covid-19-health-visitor-crisis-mental-health-breastfeeding-england From NHS Scotland in 2019 (latest figures): At 31 March 2019 the headcount of qualified health visitors was 1,865, 7.4% higher than a year previously. The WTE of these staff had also increased by 7.0% in this period to 1,623.8. Based on the aforementioned estimates, this … Continue reading SNP Effect: Twice as many health visitors, half the stillbirths

That headline is not strictly inaccurate though it could be more informative. Adding the word ‘total’ would make it more accurate and perhaps remind you that, as it stands, it would be accurate if there had been only 1 new case. There were 8 more cases the day before and 1 more in the day before that so, really, BBC Scotland, there was a fall not a rise. Do you have a cheery pic of John Swinney? As infection levels climb ‘through the roof’ in North-West England, BBC Scotland fails to inform us with any context and prefers as always … Continue reading Covid Update: Keeping the BBC Blinkers on

Even if there is a weekend effect, the number of new cases in Scotland is at worst on a plateau, with 5 days of figures lower than on Tuesday 29th September. Might this be an early sign of the Scottish Government’s restrictions, including no home visits, which began 13 days ago, having an effect? No ban on home visits was applied in England and infection levels have begun to soar, in the North-West. The sharp increase in the last two days are, in part, due to delays in reporting. Had they been recorded when they happened, the apparent plateau from … Continue reading Getting a grip and losing one

Embarrassing you think but not dangerous? Read on: Nearly 16,000 cases of coronavirus were not entered into the national computer system used for official figures because of a technical glitch, Public Health England has said. Some of the unreported cases were then added to Saturday’s figure of 12,872 new cases and Sunday’s 22,961 figure. PHE said all of the cases “received their Covid-19 test result as normal”. But it means there has been a delay in tracing their contacts, who may have been exposed to the virus. That last sentence is not discussed or returned to in the report as if it’s just … Continue reading ‘IT error’ conceals the collapse of England’s contact tracing system