While BBC Scotland go once more for ‘scare your granny with Covid infections‘ even though they’re mostly in one area connected with a factory outbreak, BBC Int’North is dreaming through the pandemic unconcerned: With a population less than twice that of Scotland, N W England has surged to between 3 and 4 times the infection rate. BBC England will be all over that story to inform the folk living there: No? Oh well, BBC Manchester then? No, Lancashire then? Liverpool? Surely? What, a box connected to the Beatles? Do they want people to just go on as if nothing has … Continue reading England’s most infected area says ‘Pandemic? What Pandemic?’

The above rant offers nothing of value to the debate on Scottish independence yet a newspaper calling us to support it’s ‘trusted, quality journalism’ publishes it. The author is bitter and supposedly fears for his children yet, judging by an Express article in 2014, seems to have been writing this kind of thing to ‘several national newspapers‘ for years now. He has allegedly suffered abusive replies but has not reported any to the police. I strongly support his right to comment on politics in Scotland but does he not see that unsubstantiated insults like the ones above will provoke others, … Continue reading Herald publishes letter calling SNP ‘cancerous’

From research published today by the University of Stirling: Care homes in England experienced the highest increase in excess deaths at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to those in the rest of the UK, according to new research. A study – co-ordinated from the University of Stirling’s Management School – found that care homes in England recorded a 79 percent increase in excess deaths, compared to 66 percent in Wales, 62 percent in Scotland and 46 percent in Northern Ireland. https://www.stir.ac.uk/news/2020/august-2020-news/care-homes-in-england-had-greatest-increase-in-excess-deaths-at-height-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/ The lower level in Northern Ireland may reflect the later onset of the pandemic peak there and/or effects of … Continue reading Research reveals deaths during Covid-19 peak were 27% higher in English care homes

In the Sunday Times today, the less than appealing, to me anyway, Michael Glackin opens with: There’s something about Kate Forbes that reminds me of the scary young girl in the cult film The Ring. Certainly, the economy secretary’s shouty response on television when questioned about the latest Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (Gers) figures the other night was fearsome. ITV Borders political editor Peter MacMahon looked decidedly grateful for the protection afforded by social distancing. But more frightening is Forbes’s inability to master facts. The increase in Scotland’s notional deficit to 8.6%, from 7.4%, is deeply worrying. Our deficit is … Continue reading No mirrors in the Glackin house?

Research published in July, missed by me a the time but now shared with me by a reader suggests a strong correlation between infection levels in care homes which were, for the elderly, large and in private ownership. Carried out by staff at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities in association with researchers at 9 health boards in Scotland, it found: Sixty-six (94.3%) outbreaks were in older people’s care-homes, where 60.6% had experienced an outbreak compared to six (5.0%) of all other care-home types (Table 2). Care home characteristics systematically varied by care-home type. Older people’s care-homes were much larger (median 48 … Continue reading Covid-19 research: Private care homes in Scotland were more likely to be infected

Scotland is now testing at around twice the rate in Wales and perhaps in England too. It’s ‘perhaps in England‘ because the authorities there have stopped publishing the figures. I wonder why that could be when it’s a ‘world-beating system’ according to the PM? Scotland’s percentage of tests positive is significantly lower than elsewhere in the UK. Why does this matter? From the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health: The percent positive is exactly what it sounds like: the percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are actually positive, or: (positive tests)/(total tests) x 100%. The percent positive (sometimes … Continue reading Scotland’s positivity rate is low. That’s good

As the UK Government warns of possible moves to rota-based and remote learning in the event of outbreaks, the Scottish Tories accuse the SNP of politicising a health crisis to ‘promote separatism.’ Here are the stages of response planned for England’s schools: The Scottish Tories are now struggling to regroup and to find some form of words to explain why these earlier statements do not now make them hypocrites unless they attack the Johnson Plan, above. BBC Scotland’s, Gordon Brewer is not expected to grill Jamie Greene, above, on this, but to ask him what tartan his tie is and … Continue reading Scottish Conservatives to accuse Sturgeon of keeping schools open full-time and cynically politicising a national public health crisis

Desperately seeking soothing click-bait advertising revenue, the Herald chooses the above to inform the same public they hope to persuade that they have trusted, quality journalism: Hmmm…does it work for you? Me neither. Here’s something informative: The level of new community infections is very very low everywhere except in Glasgow where there is a very large population (600 000+) and an outbreak restricted to a single factory. So, even in Glasgow, community spread may be very low there too. Continue reading Community infection levels very low across the country

By Gordonb Meanwhile, back in the REAL world….………. GERS was invented in 1992. Holyrood opened in 1999 That detail alone, speaks volumes. GERS are propogandised as ‘Scotsgov’s figures” by unionists. Yet there was NO SCOTSGOV in 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 So NOT ‘Scotsgovs’ figures at all then… WM figures to suit their anti Scots indy agenda. A fact borne out when all but 2 of the data sets used for GERS are WM FIGURES VIA THE ONS and the vast majority of those are ESTIMATED figures (code for: pick a scary number, treble it, present as factual). … Continue reading That £15.5bn is NOT a deficit, it is a SURPLUS !!!

According to the Food Standards Agency for England: Food Standards Scotland appears to be monitoring no outbreak other than the one in Coupar Angus. Might this situation be the result of a higher frequency of environmental health inspections in Scotland? This is evidence from 2017: From Environmental Health News on 20th September: ‘English local authorities are seriously falling behind their devolved neighbours when it comes to resourcing food inspections. The latest LAEMS figures published this week reveals that each Environmental Health professional inspecting food establishments in England is responsible for 345 premises annually while in Wales the figure is nearly half that at … Continue reading England and Wales’ hidden ‘tsunami’ of coronavirus outbreaks in food plants