Reporting Scotland staff will be drooling as they watch their big pals get into this topic as the risk of covid death is shown to be correlated with obesity. Watch their space. Fatter together! Scotland is not mentioned in the above report but in a linked one, the ever unreliable Nick Triggle writes: England is not alone: It goes without saying that obesity is not an England-only problem. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have almost identical levels. It’s not true. Research from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine says otherwise and credits the Scottish Government for some of the improvements. … Continue reading Fatter Together: How long before Reporting Scotland just have to remind us ‘we are overweight too?’

In February, Mark Smith told us: ‘I call up some teachers and parents and ask them if they’ve seen the new report on the Higher results. Yes, they’ve seen it, and no, they’re not surprised. They tell me about class sizes, and staff shortages, and the effect it’s all having on the kids. But they also tell me something interesting about how it might impact on the Scottish elections. My advice to the Government would be: sit up and pay attention because this is definitely going to affect you.’ https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18256399.mark-smith-scotlands-parents-teachers-tell-us-snps-chances-2021/ ‘I call up some teachers and parents’ You have to … Continue reading Scotland: Mark Smith’s reaction to the Johnson visit tells what he is really like

Brenda Steele regularly sends me far more links to stuff than I can actually use as posts but it’s all of interest to any who follow the blog. Here’s today’s stuff:  typical Tories  – like WM they don’t do their homework. If we ever let them into Government, they will be exactly like BoJo&Co.I see a few Tories have messaged me asking me to release the data behind quarantine decisions. I’d love to, it is UK Govt data so I can’t release it but I wrote to the UK Govt urging them to the publish the data. Still awaiting a … Continue reading The Truffle Hound sniffs out tasty morsels for Indy-supporters!

From the BBC today: In the UK, lobby reporters currently receive twice daily briefings from No 10, but they are not broadcast. Instead, Downing Street is planning to pilot daily televised press briefings from October, modelled on US briefings from the White House. The daily coronavirus briefings – which took place for three months up until the end of June – attracted large TV audiences. No 10 hopes a more permanent arrangement would help the government get its message across, while increasing engagement with the public. The Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Labour (:-)), is concerned about this threat to … Continue reading Scottish Tories silent on threat to UK democracy

In the Herald today, Tom Gordon writes of the Lib Dem leader’s call that the Electoral Commission should deny the new Alliance for Independence (AFI) party a place in the next Holyrood election: Former SNP MSP Dave Thompson explained the strategy: Every regional list vote for the SNP will have no impact – it will achieve nothing. Whereas, if a lot of these votes came to AFI, we can garner a lot of MSPs. We are looking at anything between eight and 24 MSPs. I’m not sure how former members of a party can still be a ‘faction’ within it and … Continue reading Lib Dems in full panic mode?

For someone who often sought sympathy for her experience of depression after being bullied and who complained of the toxic environment for women politicians, the former Tory leader in Scotland seems to have an unhealthy attraction to the language and the images of street violence. Today in the Herald we read: RUTH Davidson has said she regrets “not putting the boot in” to the losing side in the 2014 independence referendum. The former Scottish Conservative leader said it was a “huge strategic error” by the Unionist side not to press home its advantage and keep undermining the Nationalist cause. What sort … Continue reading The appeal of the jackboot on the right of politics in Scotland

In another heap of unreliable story-telling from Helen McArdle, two, just two dentists have a wee rant: Do these seem like reliable evidence to you? Are these two just typical dentists? Are they trade unionists or relatives of Anas Sarwar? It’s clear what really bothers them: How financially vulnerable are dentists? They’re well clustered so it looks like few earn much less. Nope. I’m still dry-eyed. Continue reading Scotland’s dentists in crisis thanks to that Sturgeon!

Before trying to answer the question above, it’s worth putting things in perspective: With 10 times the population, England’s infection rate might be expected to be 270 but it’s 710. With half the population, the infection rate in Wales might be expected to be 14 but it’s 30. Though recently increased, Scotland’s infection rate remains low. Returning to the graphs above, while the pattern is not precise, there is evidence there that increases in testing on the 8th to 10th, on the 15th to 18th and on the 21st to 24th July, precede peaks in the numbers tested positive. This … Continue reading Is Scotland’s increased infection level mostly a result of increased testing?

As, once more, the Conservative Government puts business interests before health and allows gyms to re-open, BBC Scotland asks why the Scottish Government does not follow suit. Note that they do not ask why, with death and new infections flat-lining, England’s gyms have opened? The basis for the criticism is this: Hotels, restaurants and pubs have welcomed customers back through their doors but the health and fitness industry is still waiting for a reopening date. It has led to frustration in the industry concerned that ministers appear to be prioritising alcohol-based entertainment over the nation’s long-term health and wellbeing. If … Continue reading Adam Tomkins and BBC Scotland’s irresponsible campaign for gyms to re-open and copy both England’s policy and death rate

Many times in the day we hear and read of the UK’s coronavirus outbreak, this way: Every day, audiences in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland hear, with no comparative context, how many deaths and cases of infection there are in their nation. Here are the data for yesterday: Audiences in England never hear the words ‘In the last 24 hours there were 61 deaths from coronavirus in England.’ That all of the deaths, sometimes only 99% of them, are in England, day after day, cannot be reported. They DID hear that there were more than 900 new cases of infection … Continue reading The awful truth that saying ‘There have been 61 deaths in the UK’ hides