From the Scottish Government News site: An additional £20 million has been announced for the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS), bringing total Scottish Government investment to £75 million. The investment in the facility, which includes the existing Lightweight Manufacturing Centre which opened last year as a specialist technology centre, will help develop the future of Scotland’s manufacturing sector as the economy rebuilds after coronavirus (COVID-19). The announcement comes as a contract is signed between University of Strathclyde and Morrisons Construction to build the new National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) facility. Operated by the University of Strathclyde, NMIS will be an … Continue reading SNP Government invests £75 million in manufacturing

I’n not persuaded, so I haven’t paid. Knowing who the writer is, I suspect it will be just more Tory propaganda. I’ve seen several pieces by McLellan and none of them own up to his back-story. Are they worried that might affect interest? I’m guessing it’s another sneaky attack along the same lines as Macwhirter in the Herald last week but a bit more literate than Ian Murray’s Zoom spluttering for Guido Fawkes yesterday. It’s not just him. Brian Wilson, former New Labour minister, Brian Monteith, Brexit MEP and former tory MSP and Gina Davidson, Labour adviser, appear regularly without … Continue reading If the Scotsman wants us to pay for news ‘we can trust’ shouldn’t they tell us when we’re reading a Tory councillor on Nicola Sturgeon?

In a report by BBC Scotland ‘Data journalist’, Marc Ellison, Google ‘community mobile’ reports are used to compare the movement of people before and after the lock-down in March and before and the divergence between England and Scotland’s policies on 10th May. The data is harvested from smartphones which as fans of crime shows will know, bounce signals off every mast they pass near. Comparing trips to parks in Edinburgh with 5 English locations you can see both a greater tendency to stay at home even in the first days of the combined lock-down in Edinburgh and, dramatically, after the … Continue reading The lock-down more respected in Scotland

In some ways, this is astonishing. Around a third of English respondents, presumably based only on short inserts in the UK news about what is happening in Scotland and featuring Nicola Sturgeon, feel Scotland is handling the outbreak better. The attempts by Sarah Smith and Ian Murray, to tell a very different story in those same broadcasts, have been ineffective. The survey was based on 2 883 GB adults surveyed on May 29th. The Scottish sub-sample will have been around 8% or 230. Even if they all selected Scotland as having done better, a further 36% of mainly English respondents … Continue reading At least a third of English people know they’ve been betrayed by the Tories

Two weeks ago, Jackson Carlaw feared the worst for the people of Scotland: All Jackson’s efforts pushing those lazy SNP folk has now paid off: In Herald yesterday: THE SCOTTISH Government has now reached its target of recruiting 2,000 contact tracers as Nicola Sturgeon refuted claims that pressure is being put on health boards to roll out the test and protect strategy.  Speaking at her daily briefing, the First Minister said that Scotland now has “more than a pool of 2,000 across the country” who will act as contact tracers as lockdown restrictions are eased.  Let’s hear it for Jackson! Ah, no, I can’t really … Continue reading Jackson Carlaw claims credit for getting Scotland’s contact tracing teams fully staffed and up to ‘world beating’ standards

In the Scottish Sun this morning: A MEDIC warned that Nicola Sturgeon’s test, trace and isolate regime may do “more harm than good” — as up to a third of results could be false negatives. Dr Margaret McCartney claimed the system has a “fatal error” which leaves patients with coronavirus at risk of being wrongly cleared to mingle. The story is based on a thread in the GP’s Twitter feed. Here’s what she actually said around 7am yesterday: The test and trace programme may end up ironically doing more harm than good. We need protect and survive – this needs … Continue reading Scottish Sun takes GP criticism of Matt Hancock’s drive through testing and dishonestly applies it to Scottish testing

In a Zoom clip acquired by the right-wing blog, Guido Fawkes, Ian Murray makes the most outrageous, bitter and bizarre claims (in italics) in an effort undermine the Scottish Government at any cost to the reputation of his own home and people. He says: I’ll just give you some stats. Our care home deaths are double that of England because PPE is a shambles. We’re still not testing in care homes. We always slag of the UK Government for not hitting a 100 000 a day. If we were doing the equivalent in Scotland we should be doing 10 000. … Continue reading Ian Murray lies and lies again for an English audience comparing Scotland with Uganda and Walthamstow

‘Demands mount‘ like ‘Calls for’ is one of those largely meaningless phrases which newspapers like the Scotsman use to fabricate pressure on, commonly the Scottish Government. You read on, only to discover that it’s just Ian Murray or perhaps him and Jackson Carlaw or even both of them and Willie Rennie (the Lib Dem guy!). When you wonder which journalist is presenting the case, ‘in the public interest‘, again you find a small set. It’s Sarah Smith or Tom Gordon or even some minor politician pretending to be a journo, like John McLellan or Brian Monteith or Brian Wilson. As … Continue reading The Nike Conference attracted 0.03% of those at the Cheltenham Festival caused no deaths compared to hundreds there yet Ian Murray and Sarah Smith want a public inquiry

As of yesterday, the 7 Day Average for New Deaths in Scotland was 14: travellingtabby.com/scotland-coronavirus-tracker/ As of yesterday, the UK 7 Day Average for New Deaths was 287: The UK has 12.6 times the population of Scotland so, all being equal, it should have a 7 Day Average of 12.6 times 14 or 176 deaths. It has 287 or 63% more. Note: The UK figure is, of course, primarily made up data from England and a spike (see above) caused, perhaps, by the VE Day celebrations there will have widened the gap. Note2: The UK data is based on UK … Continue reading UK Covid-19 mortality level now at least 63% higher than in Scotland

Bad news for Jackson Carlaw and Richard Leonard as Professor Alyson Pollock spoke of the English and Scottish systems on BBC Newsnight, last night: We already know it’s [the centralised Serco system] getting into problems. The call handlers couldn’t log on today. There were crashes there in the system. Scotland has got its contact tracing system in place and rolling out, and they’re doing it at local level. I’m tempting fate here to go so soon here, but one day into the programme all is quiet in media coverage of the Scottish contact tracing system. BBC Scotland, the Herald and … Continue reading Scotland’s contact tracing ‘in place and rolling out’ while England’s system ‘has problems’ and will not run fully till end of June