For some time, The Tusker, edited by former Primary teacher and prof at pretendy wee uni UWS, John Robertson (Higher English C pass, Grangemouth, 1968) has been shocked by the Old Testament style of Common Weal founder, Robin McAlpine, in the Source. Now, it seems the Source is not only losing the plot but also the grammatical accuracy and sense required at this level. In yesterday’s panicked attempt by them to join the MSM’s scare campaign against SNP school re-opening, the Source report is somewhat flawed. Bad grammar and nonsense are not tolerated here, so their no! Anyhoo, here it … Continue reading Common Weal’s ‘Source’ downgraded to an E by our grammar and sense algorithm

BBC Scotland have already been reprimanded by both the First Minister and by Professor Sridhar, for triggering anxiety in the phased return to school by irresponsibly associating two infected students with Bannerman High School when those students had not even visited the school campus. Now the Herald headlines the above. The four students visited the schools only briefly and NHS Lanarkshire judged the risk to the wider school community to be low. It should not be the purpose of our ‘quality’ media to create panic and to undermine a key government strategy in this way when at the same time … Continue reading 1 284 cases today 7 300 in one week in England and this is Scotland’s ‘trusted journalism?’

From sam: “In the psychology of human behavior, denialism is a person’s choice to deny reality as a way to avoid a psychologically uncomfortable truth. Denialism is an essentially irrational action that withholds the validation of a historical experience or event, when a person refuses to accept an empirically verifiable reality.” That is from Wiki. This is from The Nine   https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000lrlv/the-nine-13082020 James Cook refers to problems with landslips that are raised in 2014 and 2019. He asked Michael Matheson what action did the Scottish government take on it. Mr Matheson said in reply that mitigation efforts were put in. This is true. Network Rail reported:”Remediation of … Continue reading Denialism and Psychopathy in the age of Choler*: What does James Cook think the Scottish Government can do?

On Good Morning Scotland this morning, Professor Bauld said: What I would say is huge progress has been made in Scotland. We have these Covid-19 statistical reports from Public Health Scotland. I was delighted to see those a number of weeks ago. She then goes on to talk about a missing element in the data. Later in the interview she says: Scotland has done extremely well on other aspects of the the data. I would argue, above and beyond what has happened in the UK. But in the above report and, on Reporting Scotland, ‘huge‘ and ‘progress‘, ‘above‘ and ‘beyond‘ … Continue reading ‘Above and beyond the UK’: Professor Bauld’s delight in Scotland’s statistics goes missing

BBC Scotland’s response to the above complaint is below with some remarkable statements and/or adolescent fibs in bold: Dear Prof Robertson Thank your forr contacting us. Your comments were passed to the Editor, Reporting Scotland, who has asked that we forward their response as follows: “Thank you for being in touch about the lunchtime edition on 3rd August. The intro accurately stated that patients in chronic pain said they were being abandoned and were being forced to travel in agony for costly treatment in England, because they could not get access here. Pain relief services, it said, were put on … Continue reading My BBC Complaint met with adolescent fibs

Nine days after the SQA released the exam results, John Swinney is still a headline story in BBC Scotland. One day after the similar but far bigger ‘fiasco’ in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and both the story and Gavin Williamson are clearly not in the public interests for the state broadcaster: Continue reading Nine days later

On BBC Scotland’s The Nine last night, James Cook, repeatedly interrupted the Scottish Transport Secretary, Michael Matheson to say: Well, exactly! Well, that’s rather the point! Isn’t it. We hear that are these problems. In 2014, a report specifically mentioned this exact area being greatly affected by earthslips. A report last month warned that there had been over six times more flooding events in the year to 2019/20 and earthworks failures nearly trebled. Did you read that report? And if so, what action did your government take on it? For whatever reason, Matheson did not expose Cook’s misrepresentation of the … Continue reading The Blame Game begins: BBC Scotland blurs the lines to imply Scottish Government could have done something about risk to rail infrastructure

In the Times this morning, the shocking accusation: A stretch of railway where three people died when a train derailed and slid down an embankment after huge storms was identified in 2014 as being “greatly affected by earthslips”, it has emerged. I can’t see the actual source for this dramatic claim which would, if true, cast the UK rail safety regulator and its inspectorate in a very negative light. The ORR annual health and safety report published in July 2020, of which much is being made, does not in fact, offer any specific evidence that could be used to criticise … Continue reading 2014 warning to UK rail inspectors about the Stonehaven accident location

Relax, you’ll just feel a little prick. On Tuesday 11th in Holyrood, Murdo Fraser asked: Then, in what may have been only minutes later, Oliver Mundell seemed to ask the same question. https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20200811.pdf Is this some new strategy or sign of collapse? Readers are invited to add their own needle and prick comments below. Continue reading Scottish Tories champion acupuncture

Johnson and Gove’s latest wheeze to contain the SNP surge seems doomed to failure. Sticking Union Flags on new footbridges or covid-19 testing devices is a repeat of the 2015 plan to do the same and which singularly failed to stop the SNP then. Has anyone ever noticed one of the 2015 plus generation of wee badges? Even if this one gets off the ground in any noticeable way, I foresee them being chiselled off by weans to stick on their denim jackets or depending on football affiliation, drop down a drain. Continue reading Get you free wee Union Flags here!