By stewartb: The Educational Institute for Scotland (EIS) has just published the results of a survey of members who are headteachers or depute headteachers in Scotland’s schools. ‘Seven weeks into this school shutdown the EIS surveyed its members to find out about the challenges of delivering education remotely as well as in school hubs. Within this survey, questions were designed, also, to understand teacher wellbeing, and what is required as we move into the next academic session in August 2020 on the basis of a “blended learning” approach.’ The School Sector Survey was opened on 12 May and closed on … Continue reading English teachers’ union calls for national plan like that of SNP Government: BBC Scotland AWOL

In a show advertised as featuring shock revelations from two English professors claiming the UK should have locked down two weeks earlier on 9th March, Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University, had something far more powerful to tell us. First, she told us that March 9th was ‘quite a late point to be worried about this‘ and that the WHO had declared their highest level of alarm on what coronavirus would do to our population, on the 30th January! In the light of Boris Johnson’s repeated claims that not enough was known about the virus at … Continue reading Edinburgh Professor contrasts disregard for life in UK Government’s ‘muddled’ strategy with Scotland’s clear plan to protect lives

Suitably irked again by Jackson Carlaw in Holyrood and by subsequent BBC Scotland’s biased reporting about PPE, the Health Secretary, has clarified things (above). Note the point about mutual aid to England. This makes the two points below all the more striking: UK PPE suppliers were refusing to sell to Scottish care homes: Also, we had this astonishing revelation in the Times on April 14th: Major manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE) are refusing to send supplies to Scotland because they are prioritising England. The global supply chain is under severe pressure as countries try to protect their frontline health … Continue reading Scotland helps England out with PPE despite Hancock’s attempts to cheat us

In 2020: STV News at Six continues to be the best watched news programme in Scotland, now regularly achieving ratings of more than half a million.  Year on year, the audience has grown by 21%.  New Ofcom research has confirmed that STV is the most trusted TV channel in Scotland for coronavirus news and information. http://www.stvplc.tv/blog/2020/06/stv-lockdown-ratings-boost Note that Ofcom does not return separate figures for BBC Scotland News but conceals them within the BBC 1 channel’s data, for protection. If 81% express trust in STV News, we can only wonder how low their trust in BBC Reporting Scotland has fallen. Continue reading Despite Ofcom protection BBC Scotland News exposed as untrustworthy

This is a year-old so hopefully things are even worse for them but if only 8% of Scots are tuning into Good Mourning Scotland, I’m a happier man than I thought I was before I saw this. Continue reading Brilliant News: Good Mourning Scotland is on its way down the tubes!

In Energy Voice yesterday: A ‘huge’ multi-billion pound investment opportunity has opened up with the launch of Scotland’s first offshore wind leasing round in a decade, the country’s seabed regulator has claimed. Crown Estate Scotland, who manages Scottish seabed leasing for renewable energy, has today announced the first stage of the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round. It claims total investment in Scottish projects could surpass £8 billion. https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/244880/huge-step-forward-as-scotland-launches-first-offshore-wind-leasing-in-a-decade/ Continue reading Possible £8 billion investment in Scotland’s offshore

By stewartb: It’s important to put the message out there, and strongly! The claims by BBC Scotland and certain opposition politicians in Scotland that the ‘Nike conference’ in Edinburgh was the source of Scotland’s coronavirus epidemic have been amplified in the wider media relentlessly for days.  Now that scientific evidence is available that there was no ‘ground zero’, will this get anything like the same coverage? Aye right! On 9 June the University of Glasgow’s website reported on new research by its staff on Covid-19. The article states: “Scientists sequencing the virus samples from the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 … Continue reading There was no ‘ground-zero’ for Scotland’s coronavirus epidemic

Overheard in the Reporting Scotland ‘war room’ today: FOUR THOUSAND DEAD! OK that’s the headline sorted. FOUR THOUSAND DEAD! OK that’s the opening sentence. What next? Oh we don’t know. Maybe we should inform them on how many just today, whether that’s fewer than last week, how many weeks it’s been falling – that kind of thing? Well OK, if you think that informing them about what’s happening today in the world around them is ‘in the public interest’ but let’s not forget, FOUR THOUSAND DEAD!! We promised Jackson we’d do the FOUR THOUSAND DEAD!! thing. Glenn and Sarah have … Continue reading FOUR THOUSAND DEAD!!! Scare or inform? Reporting Scotland always go ‘SCARE!’

On Reporting Scotland, yesterday: Meanwhile, the chair of the Independent committee scrutinising the way the police have implemented lockdown has told MSPs it’s given the idea of policing by consent ‘fresh life’ and he praised the police for setting up scrutiny of their actions themselves. He told a virtual meeting of Holyrood’s Policing Sub-Committee it was a healthy sign that the committee had been set up by the national force. But, then the independent advisory committee chair, John Scott QC tells us: I’ve been in touch with colleagues in the human rights field in other countries and it appears that … Continue reading Police Scotland ‘ahead of the game’ in human rights-based approach to implementing lockdown.