The greedy decision to get Glasgow University’s halls of residence filled again with UK and overseas students, paying well over-the-odds for pokey accommodation (my daughter was in them two years ago), has resulted in approaching 1 000 infections of mainly the under 30s but also inevitably some mature students. The death rate among the under-45’s is 0.66% or 7 in a 1 000. Equally worrying is the incidence of ‘long-covid‘ among people of all ages including young adults. See this from Time: This long COVID is one reason why we cannot assume it’s safe to let young adults get infected, … Continue reading Glasgow Principal Anton Muscatelli has infected far more than Margaret Ferrier could have so where is he?

In the Herald today: THE NHS is facing the worst crisis in its 72-year history, doctors’ leaders in Scotland have warning, saying the entire system could ‘overheat’ because of the combined pressures of winter and Covid and the weight of public expectation. Dr Andrew Buist, Chairman of BMA Scotland’s GP committee, said he believed the SNP government was reluctant to give a true picture of the increasing limitations of a public service that remains a source of national pride because of fears that ‘opposition politicians will make capital out of it’. From their own site: The British Medical Association is the trade union … Continue reading Another trade union secretary stirs it up for his members to imagine an NHS ‘crisis’

Baroness Davidson joins the pile-on as Margaret Ferrier becomes the only story of the day and the First Minister has to go and lie down after her 247th explanation of why she can’t sack the MP, to dumb reporters. Davidson’s hypocrisy is unsurprising. She didn’t resign over Dominic Cummings or the royal visit to Royal Deeside by the symptomatic Prince Charles and his huge entourage, trailing the virus in their wake. They were like a 21st Century version of earlier royal families, fleeing plague-infested London or Edinburgh, to safer places such as Oxford or Linlithgow. BBC Scotland were on hand … Continue reading Prince Charles to be asked to fall on his sword?

Anti-Independence, anti-SNP and anti-democratic, Scotland in Union‘s undercover letter-writing group, the Geheimnis Schreiben Gruppe or GSG has made it into the Herald letters page with two fine examples of their work. Allan Sutherland and Jill Stephenson are such regulars in the Herald, Scotsman, P&J and Courier, that we can be sure the editors know fine well they are SiU but welcome their clickbait qualities. The organised SiU letter-writing team never discloses who they are and in so doing seek to influence journalists and readers against the SNP and the independence movement. More detail is below, but first the letters: It’s a cracker! … Continue reading Waterboarding, growing a pair and final screws in coffins!

The Herald today get parenthetical with Douglas Ross and the word ‘never.’ I’m guessing they mean he actually said ‘never.’ So, that’s good. When Priti Patel opens the ‘concentration camp‘ on the ‘remote‘ island of Bute, he’ll resign. Maybe, he’ll just ‘resign‘ because he’s in Moscow ‘running the line?‘ When the ‘camp‘ does open will he then try to ingratiate himself with those voters he thinks will appreciate him more if he asks Patel to find some space for those ‘Gypsy Travellers‘ too? As the UK Government gradually prepares to betray the Scottish fishing fleet, in a deal to protect … Continue reading ‘Never?’ Never?

By Dr John the Night-tripper: In the Herald today: The message that the NHS is “safe and open for business” is still not getting through to the public, a leading doctor has warned. Professor Jackie Taylor, president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow (RCPSG) said their members remain concerned that doctors are still seeing fewer patients than they would expect. Once more, we have the anecdotal impressions of a trade union leader, accepted uncritically by a hack, to undermine confidence in NHS Scotland and, by association, the Scottish Government. No survey, properly conducted, has been done. No … Continue reading Cutting Edge Report: Maybe there’s another explanation?

That’s the Ipsos MORI headline demolishing the argument that Scottish independence is a threat to jobs and the wider economy. If it was in the slightest, these guys (one or two women?) would be telling us and headlining in the media. The 95%? Read on. The Herald, of course manages to produce a different headline: It would be funny, if we thought everyone would be laughing at it. BBC Scotland’s business editor has decided it would be better to just pretend it hasn’t happened: Douglas Fraser completely ignoring the report should help the Good Morning Scotland and Reporting Scotland editors … Continue reading 95% of businesses ‘relaxed’ about Scottish independence!

The infection rate in the last 7 days has been higher in Scotland than in England, to the delight of Scottish Cringe Alliance Party members but, over the six months of the pandemic, the infection level in England has been more than 30% higher. Why has this happened? Well, obviously, greater compliance with the government guidance is largely the answer. If there has been greater compliance in Scotland, why would that be? Lots of answers have been offered but researchers from UCL surveyed over 70 000 people and have one simple answer. On BBC 4’s The Briefing Room last night, … Continue reading Following the Covid rules: Only one thing really matters

Self-described as ‘Your source for Scottish political analysis‘: Sitechecker reports: In the above piece correctly laying the blame at the door of the ‘university businesses‘, McAlpine cannot resist his need to have a go at the SNP Government whenever possible and to try to share the blame with them. Interestingly, he opens with this: FOR 12 YEARS of my life I was the spokesperson for Scotland’s universities and their chief political strategist. The current debacle over the students locked in halls of residence is easy to understand if you saw what I saw. When I started in 1999 (the post … Continue reading All hail the former ‘Chief Political Strategist!’

I’m repeating myself but what else can I do when, one after another, politicians from a party that pretends to be of the left, progressive, egalitarian, line up with their former enemies, in a foul-smelling alliance, to attack a party that shares and has enacted many of their policy preferences, because it has stolen their place. Too late. Give up. Go home. You’re embarrassing us and yourself. In some ways the worst of them, Ian Murray, above, joins the campaign to somehow blame the SNP for the student campus outbreaks. Of course, he’s wrong, so wrong. Like his associates he … Continue reading Another so-called Labour politician sides with the rich