Regulars here will know that I and many of you have batted this stuff back with evidence more than once. I wonder if the First Minister’s refusal to contradict the accusers with the same evidence just invites more or is her strategy more intelligent than that? Anyhow, terrier-like as always, the notion that ‘she’ faces ‘serious questions’ over ‘the death toll in Scotland’s care homes’ is sheer nonsense. I’m not going to refer to the evidence here. It’s all in the blog archives. All points made can be backed up. Once more, the initial death toll in care homes and … Continue reading Scotsman editorial and Ian Murray blame Sturgeon and repeat care home death myths

Things are going a bit crazy around here, in my wee study. In addition to all my usual sources, the 20 or so sites I check daily, I’m getting up to 40 emails a day suggesting things I might write about and, under posts, many extended responses suggesting the same or perhaps which are worthy of being re-posted. I also, get ideas tweeted at me and shared with FB. I am NOT complaining. I love it but there is now real danger of missing things, misunderstanding and offending friends of the site. So, never ever be offended. If you think … Continue reading Reminder: Never be offended if I don’t respond to something

Hallwood did his PhD at Aberdeen in 1988 and his first degree at Hull. He is clearly not an expert on the UK economy judging by his recent, unusual, publications: The FT published his letter as clickbait, I’m sure and I suspect he is better ignored but it is a remarkable idea that an academic, these days, seems to believe that England subsidises Scotland. Does Scotland in Union have a US branch? Affiliated with the CIA? Continue reading Did US academic learn to despise Scotland after meeting Pennington at Aberdeen University?

So, 13 days without one death confirmed, no new admissions into intensive care for three weeks now, and Dan goes for the 8 suspected deaths, some of whom had tested positive more than 28 days before, in the previous week, because the total passes a neat, rounded number. Not only is the headline a cheap selection from the range of possible headline information, to try to alarm and to attract readers, but it is also inaccurate. The 4 200 represent the combined confirmed and suspected cases. The ‘death toll‘ can only meaningfully refer to confirmed deaths but, of course, these … Continue reading STV cub reporter goes for full tabloid shock misrepresentation of reality

In the Herald this morning, why is the First Minister the face of a viral outbreak in Scotland’s largest health board? Is there no top administrator, no infection control expert, no image of the area or of its major hospitals? Why is the First Minister the face of redundancies? Is there no chief executive, no trade union leader, no image of one of the industries or one of the towns it is based in? Here’s what an outbreak looks like in Leicester: And in Belfast: And in Wales: Here’s what redundancies look like outside of Scotland: It’s not just the … Continue reading Only SNP leaders are the faces of disaster

Image: Ian Rutherford From a reader: So BBC Scotland is ever seeking single cases to show how the NHS in Scotland is performing in this time of trial. OK, here’s one – mine. Let’s take it step by step. First off, I’m an 81 year old Scottish male who seemed in pretty good health in February 2020. That month I began to have some bowel problems and met my local GP to discuss things. He checked me out and decided that further investigation was needed pretty urgently. I was referred to Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital for a colonoscopy which was … Continue reading What does this one case tell us about NHS Scotland in a time of virus?

This is wrong in England just as it is wrong in Labour Wales and in SNP Scotland. The Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Meg Hillier (Lab) and populated with enough Labour members, Lib Dems and Tory exiles to support it, has produced a report which fails to consider the key evidence from research which convincingly demonstrates the role of the extensive use of agency workers in spreading the virus across the care home sector. From MHA, the UK’s largest charitable care home provider: I think it’s very difficult not to see that the only real way that this can have come … Continue reading The Tusker exposes anti-Johnson Government lies from English Labour and Tory exile-dominated committee

In the above post, now deleted, I implied that Ms Lax had colluded with a member of Scotland in Union’s covert letter writing group, to share exactly the same letter and to send it to two different newspapers. I had inadvertently misread the naming of the writers, attributing one of the letters to a known member of the group when, in fact, both had been written by Ms Lax who is not on any list of the group’s members and insists that she is not a member. I sincerely regret that mistake. Ms Lax is clearly committed to the Union, … Continue reading Sincere apology to Jane Lax of Craigellachie

Two days ago, BBC Scotland drew our attention to this: Nearly half of Scotland’s 4,193 coronavirus deaths have been linked to care homes. So what do we know about these men and women who succumbed to a disease that has ravaged the world? Surprisingly, the answer is very little. They went on to tell us: Data also reveals that since mid-March there have been 2,365 “excess deaths” [all causes] in Scottish care homes as measured against the five-year average. Their data comes from: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/covid-deaths-report-week-29.pdf They asked ‘What do we know?’ but did not think that we might like to know how that … Continue reading SHOCK: Excess deaths in Scotland’s care homes 10% LOWER than England and Wales despite higher background mortality

In a typically jaundiced piece from the Herald’s Helen McArdle, with an appallingly dishonest headline, we read, but well down the page, that NHS GGC will increase the number of infection control staff across its hospitals from 43 to 46. However in another Scottish MSM report, before a public inquiry, the Herald relies on ‘sources‘ to try to undermine the the health board. Sourced no doubt by the RCN, the three additional staff replacing one infection control nurse are contemptuously associated with a risk of ‘lost skills and leadership’ because they will not be medics. Professor Sridhar is not a … Continue reading NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to increase infection control staffing