The steady flow of briefings by the First Minister for Scotland seems to be having an impact. In recent opinion polls she is approved of by a majority of voters for all but Conservatives. Today at 1 and 6pm, two prominent female broadcasters could barely conceal their admiration for her leadership qualities. Later that night, Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy was clearly surprised and charmed by the way she engaged with his questions. Last night, the BBC UK website too, seemed to recognises that her speech on how we might begin to come out, if only a little, of lock-down, was … Continue reading BBC UK recognises leadership qualities in this time of crisis

It’s really striking hearing all that from Nicola Sturgeon. Even though she’s saying don’t expect anything to change swiftly, she is putting it out there. She’s addressing the topic. Yeh what is fascinating is the four nations of the United Kingdom have been really working together on all of this but when it comes to communication, there have been some differences and I think Nicola Sturgeon standing there saying she wants to have a grown-up conversation with people is inevitably going to put pressure on the UK Government because they are very much sticking to the stay at home message. … Continue reading BBC 1 News can’t hide their admiration for Scotland’s First Minister and Reporting Scotland don’t entirely disagree!

Thanks to a parliamentary question yesterday from the often challenged James Kelly MSP (Labour), we are able to be reassured that our Fire & Rescue staff are ready and able to respond. From Humza Yousaf: As at 1st April 2020, there were no members of staff self-isolating due to their age. 79 members of staff were self-isolating due to underlying healthconditions. This may be due to a family member having an underlying health condition. This represents 1% of staff. 42 of the 79 were working from home. https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20200422.pdf Continue reading James Kelly MSP reveals fewer than 1% of Scottish Fire and Rescue Staff unable to work because of covid-19

I suppose if your agenda is to undermine the SNP by somehow attributing covid-19 deaths to supposed errors by the Scottish Government, then you’re up against it. If the blame gets pinned on UK politicians, as it must, it’s going to be difficult to then blame the Scottish Government. You can’t do it yourself. It’d be too obvious. Readers would laugh. So, the only option might be to find some daft member of the public who writes in to defend the UK Government, the Union, and headline that. They did. It will be no use. The UK Conservative party is … Continue reading Letting the UK Government off the hook to then catch the Scottish Government?

From the BBC today: Over 250,000 people attended the annual four-day event in March, which ended 10 days before lockdown measures began. A former director of Public Health in the region said it should not have gone ahead, and lessons must be learned. The government has defended its decision not to cancel the festival. Prof Gabriel Scally, former director of public health in the south west and visiting professor of public health at the University of Bristol, said there “seemed to be” a high number of virus cases in Gloucestershire.’ Government data shows there have been 972 cases of the … Continue reading Did horse racing event connected with multiple covid-19 deaths go ahead to satisfy Tory donors

Not averse myself to an ugly mugshot of Jackson Carlaw, I know the choice of an image is never innocent but at this infected time, the Scotsman have the above strangely ‘diseased’ image of the First Minister. I’ve never ever seen the FM look like that and she’s ubiquitous across our media every day. They’ve used some technique to make her look like that. What are they trying to say about her at this time? Any psychologist reading this? I’m feeling a mixture of anxiety and pity, so not good? She doesn’t look strong and capable. Should she join the … Continue reading Why did the Scotsman get or produce this ‘diseased’ image of the First Minister?

Three weeks after Army help in England and Wales was announced, BBC Reporting Scotland ‘went big’ on Wednesday evening on the role of a military (RAF) helicopter transporting an individual with Covid-19 symptoms from Arran to hospital in Kilmarnock.  Well done to all involved  – and let’s hope the individual recovers soon. However, the notable profile BBC Scotland gave to this one military intervention led me to wonder: is this an exceptional kind of mission; is the facility to conduct such a mission a rare  resource in Scotland? From a bit of online research it appears that we have a … Continue reading Three weeks later the RAF makes a single Covid-19 trip and it’s big news

Age Scotland has issued a call for a: ‘redoubling of efforts to protect care home residents as the latest figures reveal that 537 have died as a result of COVID-19.’ https://www.ageuk.org.uk/scotland/latest-news/2020/april/care-home-residents-must-not-be-written-off-says-charity-as-coronavirus-deaths-rise-sharply/ The text is missing something obvious. It doesn’t indicate who or what should be redoubling their efforts. So far only the Herald and Courier seem to have picked up on the story. The Herald has no hesitation in deciding who should be implicated – the First Minister and her government. Age Scotland make no mention of her but the Herald mentions her twice in what purports to be a … Continue reading Herald attempts to implicate Scottish Government in care home deaths

The First Minister is making a very good impression in her Covid-19 briefings. On a daily basis she demonstrates clarity, honesty, compassion and morale-promoting qualities. She looks like a leader. Her Scottish rivals seem insignificant. The Westminster elite come across as evasive, callous, immature. Recent Opinium opinion polls reveal high levels of approval for her among SNP, Lib Dem and Labour supporters. Even among Tory supporters around 1 in 5 approve of her performance. When this trauma subsides and a return to constitutional affairs seems appropriate, she and her team will be very attractive to the electorate. It’s not just … Continue reading Reporting Scotland and two sources with anti-SNP agendas exploit deaths of the elderly

In the midst of inevitably worrying and upsetting information, the FM, in a show of real leadership, offered us something to be optimistic about saying: Let me again say that these figures for hospital admissions and admissions to intensive care are really encouraging and there are a cause for optimism, still cautious optimism, but optimism nevertheless. She then reminded us that we, all of us, have an important part to play: The final point I want to acknowledge is that listening to numbers like this is really horrible – reporting these numbers is really horrible, certainly the most difficult experience … Continue reading What the First Minister said today and how BBC Scotland obscured the truth to deny us any hope