Members of the Bearsden Amateur Dramatics Society, have been searching for some time to try to find a ‘girl’ to play Trisha in their stage version of the horror story with the local cadaverous hunk, Tom Gordon of the Herald, in the lead as Tom Gordon. Scottish politician Nicola Sturgeon, already familiar with Gordon’s acting, was approached but, as you can see above, quickly rebuffed the offer. Who would you like to see in the role of the girl who wanders off the trail into the woods? Jackie Baillie and Jo Swinson are my favourites for it. The role of … Continue reading Search for the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon goes on after recent failures

Two old guys who really should know better and with nothing substantive to say to justify their fees, reveal the Herald’s plea for readers to support their ‘good trusted journalism’ to be laughable. They take the most serious of government strategies in a time of pandemic, carefully designed to ease the country back to life while at the same time protecting lives and, with their unattributed ‘source’ at No 10, try to make the story this: NICOLA Sturgeon is “following” a path blazed by Boris Johnson with her route map for easing the coronavirus lockdown, Downing Street has said. Did anyone other … Continue reading Two old dinosaurs try to turn adult politics in a time of crisis into an Eton playground game

These are the three men deeply unimpressive yet with a good conceit of themselves, who yesterday felt able to suggest the Health Secretary had lost the confidence of the public. Her crime, resulting in this supposed loss of public confidence, to have in the beginnings of a pandemic, authorised the transfer of elderly patients from acute care in hospitals into care homes, designed to better care for them in the light of their particular conditions and to free-up space in acute care, so that it would not be overwhelmed by a feasible surge in covid-19 cases. No one, certainly no … Continue reading The Health Secretary’s three limp accusers do not impress us

In Business Insider yesterday: Sweden’s strategy for dealing with the novel coronavirus so far has not included a lockdown. Instead, the country has allowed people to go to parks, bars, and restaurants and to keep working, while encouraging but largely not enforcing social distancing. It’s a strategy that most in the country appear to support. But it has sparked alarm among some experts who point to the country’s relatively high death toll, the effects on vulnerable groups, and what they say is an approach that ignores much of the best research on COVID-19. https://www.businessinsider.com/sweden-coronavirus-plan-is-a-cruel-mistake-skeptical-experts-say-2020-5?r=US&IR=T And, the strategy did not work, with … Continue reading Is Sweden’s failed and cruel, herd immunity strategy, a surviving trace of their dark history and one which the Johnson regime almost tested on us?

The less well-known brother of Ed and David, Glen Milliband, has become the centre of media attention after he set up a mock machine gun nest in the entrance to his caravan park at Shankend in the Scottish Borders. Milliband had been threatened by a surge in camper vans from England trying to enter his site without proof of two negative covid-19 test results. Armed only with the anal thermometer he uses with his dogs, Milliband ran into opposition when he offered to test anyone with an English accent, arriving at his site. When asked, Milliband claimed his brother Ed … Continue reading Third Milliband brother Glen calls for hard border to keep infection out of his Borders caravan park

From Deadline on March 11th, the seven contenders for the post of BBC Director General. https://deadline.com/2020/03/bbc-director-general-candidates-1202879325/ The seven, their school and university: Tim Davie: Independent boarding boy’s school and Cambridge University Charlotte Moore:  Independent boarding girl’s school and Bristol University Jay Hunt: Independent girl’s day school and Cambridge University Alex Mahon: Independent girl’s day and Imperial College London Jane Turton: School unknown and St Andrews University Simon Pitts: School and university unknown George Osborne: Independent boy’s boarding school and Oxford University So, at least 5 of the 7 attended gender-segregated private schools, often boarding. Jane and Simon, I’m going to … Continue reading Private schools for segregated boys and girls and elite universities: The reproduction of the BBC elite

Thanks to the reader who sent this. All informers protected! Missed it yesterday behind the Scotsman’s paywall. Right at the end, Prof Burns writes: I’m coming to the conclusion that my friend David Hamilton was correct. If we had shut the border years ago, we would have been able to protect ourselves from UK Government incompetence. I’m reminded of my own earlier suggestions of the same, regarding county lines drug gangs, measles epidemics, novovirus and listeria seeping north: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/05/11/coronavirus-tips-the-balance-in-the-argument-for-a-real-border-with-england/ And, more recently, camper vans from Husbands Bosworth: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/05/11/you-can-drive-to-other-destinations-close-the-border-scotland/ Continue reading If we had shut the border years ago, we would have been able to protect ourselves from UK Government incompetence

Poll after poll putting the SNP at 50% or more and the First Minister trusted by 10 to 12 times as many Scots as the Scottish Labour leader, Shadowy Secretary of State for Morningside, Ian Murray, must be shattered by the public’s lack of confidence in his party and, if they recognise him, him. The YouGov poll yesterday has the SNP at 51% and Labour at 15%, 10 points behind even the appalling Tories led by the frankly unappetizing Carlaw. The wider data here suggest a surge by the English leader, Sir Keir Starmer, to as high as 37% in … Continue reading Murray shattered as Scottish public sticks with the SNP again

In an extensive report with only one reference to the Scottish Government, toward the end, we read: The council said the cost would be split between the Scottish government (£63m), the local authority (£15m), walking and cycling charity SUSTRANS (about £9m), Scottish Water (£665,000) and Transport Scotland (£500,000). So the SNP Government as the Conservative leader likes to call them, is funding more than 70% of the costs for flood prevention in a strongly Tory area. Scottish Borders Council is a Conservative/Independent coalition with only 9 out 34, SNP councillors. Continue reading BBC Scotland hides the SNP Government’s massive contribution to flood prevention in Tory region

Helen McArdle, real journalist, driven by a desire to inform the public and by a corporate pay package, thinks no care homes in these East Asian countries can teach us, well really Nicola, how to do things properly. Aren’t journalists expected to be skeptical especially about such claims? A mere sociologist, I thought, instantly, let’s see if that’s true once we have a wee dig around. I feel sure the facts will not be easily found, so this will be only a starter. I feel equally sure that some friends of this blog will be on this like a pack … Continue reading No care home deaths in South Korea? Doesn’t that teach us to dig a bit deeper?