He’s back. In his 80s but still appearing every second day in the Herald/Scotsman Axis or on BBC Scotland, the Union has had no greater champion. Writing from the Scotland in Union, 30-strong, undercover letter-writing group’s [Geheimnis Schreiben Gruppe or GSG] virtual bunker in his garden shed, Professor Pennington writes as, plain Hugh, in today’s Scotsman to tell us: If Scotland was an EU member it is very likely that it would have been on the wrong side of the counter as well [with other countries worse affected] because our Covid-19 death rate has been significantly greater than any of them. In contrast, … Continue reading Poison Pennington of Scotland in Subservient Union covert writing group returns to lie about the Treasury’s ‘generosity’

In the Herald today, their health correspondent, Helen McCardle submits a ‘Primary 7’ project based on utterly meaningless percentage increases in small numbers of cases and missing the bleeding obvious correlation with testing, reported here, and second-marked by Professor Bauld. Here is the first offending bit: Now, I know that can look like a big increase to a small person but you’ve used the weekly totals instead of the daily averages to make it look worse than it is. The 7 day average today is 12.4 and last week it was 9.4. The rate in England is between 800 and … Continue reading FAIL: No evidence at all in Herald’s ‘schoolgirl statistics’ that we have caused any ‘spike’

Brenda Steele: I do think George Kerevan is right. No matter what they do, these new list only parties are  not the way to get a referendum.  Their votes are likely to come from people who would otherwise vote SNP.  Any reduction in the list vote for SNP will be seized upon by WM as a fall in support for Independence  – regardless of where it has gone.  In their current fragmented state I deem it unlikely that they will actually get any seats and they may very well deprive  SNP of list seats that would give them an overall … Continue reading New list parties are not the way

The Scottish media coverage is, no surprise, leaving viewers, listeners and readers unsure as to who is responsible for this outbreak in Motherwell. John Swinney’s involvement is as Depute First Minister for the government with legal responsibility to deal with it but responsibility for the conditions leading to it in the first place lie with a corporation contracted by NHS England to contact trace people living in England. After closing the 500 staff call-centre in Motherwell, when a ‘cluster’ of six covid-infected staff was identified, John Swinney was asked if penalties could be levied against Sitel, and said: These are … Continue reading Swinney won’t rule out penalties against NHS England’s contact tracing group in Motherwell

A touch younger than Pennington, Paterson is a statistician with a background in agricultural and medical research using statistical methods. Despite that, he’ll turn up on request to say something bad about any Scottish Government decision that involves numbers. Former Head of News at BBC Scotland, John Boothman above, and current hack, Gary Robertson below, have him in today: Boothman writes: Paterson said the disruption was “a betrayal of all the best in the history of Scottish social statistics” Paterson and the Scottish media love a bit of Old Testament betrayal. In 2018, he wrote: Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: the … Continue reading Just another SNP ‘betrayal’ rentagob

In a tragic attempt to convert a UK failure into a Scottish Government one, Hannah Rodger writes: THOUSANDS of masks have had to be destroyed by Scottish health boards after they were found to be disintegrating and a health hazard. The masks, which are understood to be more than a decade old, were sent to frontline staff in March. With Miles Briggs and Anas Sarwar then given space for an opportunistic rant and the regular Jean Freeman reference, you have to then read between her lines to get the actual news. These masks came from a UK-wide PPE stockpile, handled by Medline, … Continue reading UK suppliers sent hazardous face masks to Scottish doctors

In a piece broadly sympathetic to the First Minister and Scotland’s covid strategy, the Guardian writers seem to feel the need for ‘balance’ and use anything they can find even if it’s wrong. Truth, fairness and accuracy are what readers need. You wouldn’t expect to have balance on a piece about the health risks of smoking so why would you need it for a piece on a health strategy which has reduced covid cases and deaths to almost elimination levels? Here are the offending bits. First: On the downside, Scotland has the highest death rate for coronavirus in care homes … Continue reading Recycling the myth of Scottish care home deaths with basic errors

In the Evening Standard, readership 787 000, in February 2020, Ruth Davidson, or more likely a Tory adviser, is given a platform to misrepresent the Scottish Government and to defend the UK Internal Market. It’s a sad appearance from the figure who once gained popularity among ‘remainer’ Londoners with her robust attacks on the current PM but will clearly do anything in her campaign for a place in the Lords. The article, allegedly written by Davidson, is clearly just a free-ride in a large circulation free newspaper to promote the Johnson regime’s agenda and to take a swipe at the … Continue reading Russia, the UK Internal Market, David Cameron, Ruth Davidson and an attack on the SNP

Straight-off: A leading public health health expert has told the BBC that Scotland is in a very delicate moment in its fight against coronavirus. The warnings come as latest figures show there were 23 new cases of Covid-19 in Scotland. The expert is Professor Bauld. She says: Oh this is an incredibly sensitive time. I think we all need to realise that. Unfortunately we know that from international examples. But we need to look at the positivity rate. That’s the relationship between the number of cases and the number tested and it’s still less than one percent. So although these … Continue reading Reporting Scotland desperate for a Scottish covid crisis misses the Professor’s main point

Since the Scottish Government launched its ‘Test and Protect‘ system on the 25th May, we have seen it smoothly deal with the outbreak in the Dumfries area. Here is how it works: As soon as someone gets a positive test for Covid-19, the contact tracing system will be triggered. The patient will be put in touch with the local contact tracing team to talk through and identify close contacts. At present, most of this will be conducted by telephone calls. Phone apps are in development but Nicola Sturgeon has said that “old-fashioned contact tracing” will be at the heart of … Continue reading Hancock to copy Scottish test and trace system TWO MONTHS late