Not for the first time a Herald writer has used ‘soar’ in a headline when the number of new cases falls. There were 197 new cases in the previous 24 hours. In the 24 hours before that there had been 273 new cases so that’s a fall in the number of new cases, isn’t it? And the 13 ‘further’ deaths, is that good, bad, big, small? See this graph: That tell you anything of interest to your readers? Does the Herald need to go back to school? See these previous failures to add up or down: New coronavirus cases fall … Continue reading Coronavirus cases ‘soar’ DOWN in Heraldland

Thanks to nancy689 for alerting me to this. Lisa Summers last night: I’ve got a couple of graphs to show where we are in Scotland. The first one is hospital deaths across the four nations and you can see that while it is still rising it’s not as steeply as it was a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know where this graph comes from but, to be kind, it’s a bit sophisticated for a TV news broadcast and thus misleading. Summers doesn’t explain the left-hand axis with its logarithmic scale and, crucially, leaves it to misrepresent the differences in … Continue reading Reporting Scotland health correspondent uses misleading graph to obscure lower death rate in Scotland

A confidential 2019 Cabinet Office briefing, leaked to the Guardian, warned that the UK must have a robust plan to deal with a pandemic virus and to stockpile PPE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/24/revealed-uk-ministers-were-warned-last-year-of-risks-of-coronavirus-pandemic It’s not clear when in 2019 the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) document was presented to the UK Cabinet. Secretary of State for Scotland, David Mundell or Alister Jack (from 24th July), was the only Scottish representative, unless you count Michael Gove, in attendance at Cabinet meetings with, presumably, some sense of responsibility for the well-being of the Scottish people. The Cabinet clearly did not respond, distracted by the ongoing … Continue reading Did David Mundell or Alister Jack fail to warn Scotland of the pandemic risk and the urgent need to stockpile PPE last year?

At today’s briefing Jim Matthews asked: Boris Johnson hailed the effort and sacrifice of the British public. Is the sacrifice all the greater for decisions taken by him and this country’s political leaders?’ I see no mention, no suggestion, of the Scottish public, nor of the Scottish Government, nor of Scotland in all of that. Was he hoping the FM would say something like: ‘Aye! That bastard has killed my best pal’s grannie!’ She wasn’t, no surprise, going to be drawn on that and his question now looks like maybe he thinks Boris and his Eaton team made the sacrifice … Continue reading Did Sky’s Jim Matthews just blame the Johnson regime for mass coronavirus deaths?

Above: The First Minister enjoying Glen Campbell’s contribution to the discussion At today’s briefing, BBC Scotland’s Glen Campbell asked: ‘With Boris Johnson returning to work todaaay, are you an he as one in your approach to lifting lockdown or are there differences? And if the UK hits its 100 000 testing target later this week what will Scotland’s total contribution to that have been.’ No self-respecting politician is ever going to admit to being ‘at one’ with Johnson as, like Trump, he has blood on his hands resulting from his law of the jungle approach to saving the lives of … Continue reading Glen Campbell, the lineman for the Union, asks daftest question today

Personality Traits and Demographics Influencing Social Networking Site Addiction by Vikanda Pornsakulvanich Overall, the findings revealed that those exhibiting Extroversionwere more likely to be addicted to social networking sites, whereas those exhibiting Emotional Stability and Conscientiousness were less likely to be addicted to social networking sites. Continue reading SHOCK LATEST: Some of you (me) are neither stable nor conscientious!

The Health Secretary didn’t repeat the First Minister’s encouraging comments of the 24th when she presented the briefing on the 26th but the trends are still going the same way, so the comments still apply: These figures for hospital admissions and intensive care are giving us real and growing cause for optimism that the current lockdown is working to suppress the virus. That’s the good news, perhaps the less good news is that also tells us why we must stick with these lockdown restrictions, because as I’ve said many times before standing here, any easing up on that at all … Continue reading Health Secretary confirms encouraging trends

Three times this morning the Herald misspelled the word ‘shielding’ triggering something in the creative mind of our resident Hill-farming Correspondent and leading academic, Professor Jock Robertson, as he was relaxing in his bath – ‘SHEILINGS! THAT’s IT!’ What is a sheiling and what does it have to do with coronavirus? The term sheiling is mainly Scottish, originally denoting a summer dwelling on a seasonal pasture high in the hills, particularly for shepherds and later coming to mean a more substantial and permanent small farm building in stone. Farmers and their families lived in shielings during the summer to have their livestock … Continue reading Herald spelling mistake prompts unique Scottish solution to social distancing according to leading academic

From Energy Voice today: A Scottish marine energy firm has announce it has completed construction on a giant tidal turbine near the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. Simec Atlantis Energy, which has a number of renewable energy projects in Scotland and Wales, today confirmed the completion of its  SG500kW tidal stream turbine. The mammoth structure, with a rotor diameter of almost 60 feet, was installed between the islands of Putuoshan and Huludao in the Zhoushan archipelago in China in the past week. https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/237523/scottish-marine-energy-firm-builds-turbine-near-wuhan-during-pandemic/ And in RECHARGE: China is switching on its first-ever utility-scale tidal turbine, following installation by energy giant … Continue reading Maybe small but too smart to stay in the UK? Scottish company builds giant marine turbine near Wuhan!

This story is all over the ‘UK’ media from ITV to the Guardian but not so far in Tory press or the loyal BBC. I can find no sign of reports of comparable shortages in Scotland, not even from the BBC Scotland and Herald health correspondents who recently ran with insubstantial social media sources from one Glasgow GP who ia Anas Sarwar MSP’s cousin or nephew or brother-in-law or something. Absence of evidence is not always evidence of absence but we can be sure that if they had anything at all, from even the GMB, we’d know all about it. … Continue reading 33% of doctors in non-Scottish parts of UK struggle to access PPE