In the Herald today, Helen McArdle wonders why life expectancy in the UK has stalled since 2012 and why in Scotland it’s the the lowest and the slowest growing in Europe. Do you think it might have anything to do with Tory austerity combined with Tory privatisation of the NHS and Tory total f**cking incompetence across the board? Is Scotland flatlining because we’re not independent, do you think? No? Being dependent is good for us? Hmm, see below. Then she is surprised that Ireland is improving fast. Is that because she thinks they’re still subsisting on potatoes after their hasty, … Continue reading Independent Living

Anything else? Votes for ‘proud Scots’ living in the US, Oz, NZ and Saudi or on the Dark Side of the Moon? A security pact with Israel? List seats in Holyrood for DUP Ulster Scots? We get to keep Trident? Seriously though, would this mean that a Scot having an RT show is both good and bad at the same time? Would it mean hormone-injected haggis? Would we have Kent-like borders around the remain areas? If passed, will the Clarity Act mean that all the other countries who have left the British Empire now have to revisit their withdrawal acts … Continue reading BBC, RT, Herald and Scotsman to share Scotland in Union Correspondent

On August 6th, we reported a source in Aberdeen telling us: There is a faction of Unionists in Aberdeen who are fanatically anti-SNP anti-Nicola Sturgeon.  They have been deliberately ignoring all the rules to “show support for Boris” and encouraging others to do the same.  I understand this includes giving false details, and not giving details at all. Two days earlier, we read of the City’s Soul Bar, owned by PB Devco, announcing that is was closing after discovering someone who had tested positive had visited the bar. Then on 28th August, the P&J reported: Aberdeen’s under-fire licensing board chief … Continue reading Outbreak on Union Street Part 2: Did Aberdeen’s Unionists cause the spike?

What’s the figure of speech – feeding frenzy, pile-on? This is way over the score. One woman makes a mistake but, in the wider context, by no means the biggest any politician or public figure has made recently. By their decisions, Boris Johnson and the university leaders have caused the infection of thousands. Many will get long-covid and some will die because of their actions. Margaret Ferrier may have infected a tiny number and some of them may get sick. Will her actions have killed even one? Unlikely. BBC Scotland have chosen to write 5 different reports on this one … Continue reading Scotland Politics: 5 out of 7 reports about one woman who made a mistake

So, he paid party membership fees for decades, then when he needed help, they paid for counselling. What a revelation, Hannah! All that training is paying-off. After a TIA (mini-stroke) the day before my 60th birthday, ten years ago, I started telling colleagues to f**k off. They were all bullies who deserved it so they used the University’s anti-bullying regulations to have me disciplined. Once I reminded them I’d just had a TIA, they sent me to a nice woman in HR who taught me to anchor calm feelings to a knuckle. It worked. Any time anyone pissed me off, … Continue reading University pays for prof’s therapy after he tells colleagues to f**k off!

Quite a headline, Ron. Do you think that means that the app is working, or what? Maybe it wasn’t her? Maybe you were too far away? If you only ‘think’ you were, maybe you weren’t? If I were you, I’d relax. Take a pill. Mind you, did you wear a mask, wash your hands, keep a reasonable distance for the other passengers? As the train stopped in towns in the North-west of England, did you keep the windaes shut and hold your breath? Why is the rest of your very long report about just about everything you’ve experienced in your … Continue reading I wasn’t on the train with Margaret Ferrier but my neighbour’s sister might have been, she thinks, maybe

From BBC Scotland yesterday: The delay in allowing fans to return to stadiums in Scotland is “political, rather than clinical”, say two of the country’s top football administrators. Scottish FA vice-president Mike Mulraney made the claim on BBC Radio Scotland – and was supported by SPFL chief executive Neil Doncaster. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54402380 It was quite a surprising and puzzling claim so I thought I’d see if I could find any context for Mr Mulraney’s comments. There’s no sign of any political allegiance just an astonishing workload apparently. As well as being the SFA vice-president, he is the Alloa chairman, a director … Continue reading One man, 75 directorships!

The people of the ‘Red Wall’, that band of loyal Labour constituencies across the north of England which crumbled under a Tory onslaught in the 2019 election have been rewarded, not with jobs or wealth but with a plague and with death. A Tory leadership which they sadly thought might help them more than their complacent, incompetent, Labour predecessors had done over decades in power, has talked of ‘leveling-up‘ but instead has given them weak, confuse and inconsistent management of a pandemic strategy and a contracted-out contact-tracing system, both unreliable and distrusted by many of their people. They now have … Continue reading The Red Wall is now stained with blood

The BBC continues to report infection levels to suggest surges are essentially similar in all four nations when the facts tell a story which exposes the performance of only one of the four administrations: There has apparently been a huge surge in England and in Northern Ireland to levels nearly 50% higher than for Scotland in the same period. The BBC headline seems to use the figures for England. Imagine this was inverted and Scotland was recording infection levels 50% higher than in other parts of the UK. The Scottish public would have a right to know but apparently the … Continue reading The protection racket

He must know that neither of those statements is remotely accurate. They have researchers who know what the situation is and tell the politicians. That being true, it must lead to the kind of internal conflicts which are seriously damaging for your mental health. Scotland, tied to the 4 Nations ‘strategy’ for the early weeks as the virus surged through the population and into the care homes, was punished for that cooperation with a horrific spike in deaths. I don’t remember the Lib Dems telling us we should diverge from the policy in the rest of the UK. But you … Continue reading Lib Dem MSP tells two lies in two lines to damn the country he lives in