On a weekend when intensive care units in England are expected to run out of protective gowns, endangering their lives, the Herald has headlined a survey from the RCN to try to transfer this shocking situation into Scotland’s hospitals where there is no real evidence of its presence. The survey was done between 6 and 8 days ago. Much will have changed in that time. Only 3.6% of the RCN’s 40 000 members in Scotland bothered to respond. A tiny self-selecting sample during a period of fast moving change is near worthless. BBC Scotland covered the story too though in … Continue reading Unreliable dated self-selecting sample of only 3.6% of Scotland’s nurses used to construct a PPE crisis here too

Jackson Carlaw has made a formal complaint to BBC Scotland of pro-SNP bias. Strangely enough, in a way he’s right. In this time of pandemic and widespread personal trauma, his party leadership has revealed only incompetence, huffiness and insensitivity while that of the SNP, notably in the form of apparently caring, intelligent and competent women, seems to have caused them to defer criticism and to show respect. That makes the BBC seem, to a Tory used to anti-SNP bias as the norm, pro-SNP. This is a longer story than it seems and it’s about both the so-called moderate middle-ground of … Continue reading Jackson Carlaw is not wrong. BBC Scotland at this time dislikes and fears this Conservative Party and for the moment cannot help but admire this SNP leadership

This is not gloating. In the Guardian only 45 minutes ago: NHS bosses have asked doctors and nurses to work without protective full-length gowns when treating Covid-19 patients, as hospitals came within hours of running out of supplies. The guidance is a reversal of Public Health England (PHE) guidelines stipulating that full-length waterproof surgical gowns, designed to stop coronavirus droplets getting into someone’s mouth or nose, should be worn for all high-risk hospital procedures. In a significant U-turn, PHE advised frontline staff to wear a flimsy plastic apron with coveralls when gowns ran out, in a move that doctors and nurses fear may … Continue reading Why NHS England tried to grab all the PPE? SHOCK as ‘Hospitals across England to run out of supplies of protective garments within hours’

There were 307 new cases in the last 24 hours, 354 in the 24 hours below that and 390 before that. In the same article, the Herald reports: ‘Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland’s lockdown restrictions have resulted in a slowing down in the rate of community transmission of Covid-19. That slowdown seems to be reflected in the stabilisation of numbers admitted to hospital and intensive care, she said.’ That’s looking like a downward trend. Maybe you want to leave it for 5 days before you’re sure but you’d have to be pretty dumb to think ‘soar’ was a good word to … Continue reading New coronavirus cases fall for third day in a row but ‘soar’ in the Herald

Tom Gordonstoun headlining in the Herald today PRISON bosses are being allowed to release violent offenders, knife thugs and gangsters on electronic tags because of coronavirus. Oh, dear, gangsters? Many of them? Back in June 2018, his old mucker, David Leask was writing: ‘GANGSTERS are preying on the financial fears of pensioners to take over their homes for drug dealing and racketeering, a major new report has discovered.’ He didn’t get around to context then just as Gordonstoun doesn’t today but I was able to offer this: ‘Scotland has, per capita, far fewer gangs than the rest of the UK. Indeed, … Continue reading Gangsters back on the streets of Scotland but fewer of them than in neighbouring Kingdom of Rumpuk

Though conveniently, as Sarah Smith might put it if he was SNP, out of action, Boris and his government continue to get strong poll ratings in England. Today, we see above, just why they are so approved of, not. Even in the ‘leftish’ Guardian, there’s much approval and only a wee note down the page: Scotland, where the majority of the UK’s fleet is based, has already offered £5m to fund seafood companies initially, with fishermen on vessels of 12 metres or under able to claim half of two months’ average earnings. Northern Ireland is providing £1.5m to its fleet, … Continue reading Tories putting England first…eventually….after Scotland and….

Just as Mile Briggs accuses Douglas Chapman of being smug about Scotland’s lower coronavirus death, his Westminster associate, Andrew Bowie, is quoted in the Scotsman: ‘Together our Union has fought this virus. Together, we have supported one another. And together we will fight the economic fall out to come. Over the last few years, the strength of our union has been tested as never before. It has proven itself to be as solid as the rocks on which these islands are built.’ Why do I think of A.A Milne’s Winnie the Pooh when I read that? ‘When you are a … Continue reading Bowie: ‘The Union has fought the virus’ and the virus has highlighted its weakness

Douglas Chapman’s tweet, above, has drawn cringing resentment from Willie Rennie and Miles Briggs. They accuse him of dubious analysis, being tasteless and gloating. I’d forgotten about the pair of them. They’ve been keeping a low profile. Rennie, of course, has been hiding away until the furore over his refusal to condemn the paedophile apologism of his old leader, David Steel, dies down. Briggs, sensibly, doesn’t want people thinking he might be connected in any way to his boss, Matt Hancock. As for their attack on Chapman, what are the facts and what is it legitimate to say about them? … Continue reading Cringing Lib Dem and Tory hate it when SNP politician stands up for NHS Scotland

In the Scotsman today, the above headline for a report on ongoing maintenance at the Queensferry Crossing. ‘Scotland’s bridge of sighs?’ What sort of mind came up with that? The original in Venice was so named because it was the last sight convicts saw before their imprisonment. It only goes to Fife! It’s not that bad. My mum and my sister live there and seem to like it. Mind you, it is the way to Willie Rennie’s home. We’ve had this before. A multi-million capital project that needs maintenance – who’d have thought that? What about that Rail Bridge? Will … Continue reading Scotland’s ‘Bridge of Sighs of Pleasure’ nibbled at by Rattus Scotsmanicus

Ironically, the Guardian lets that old beast of the ‘New’ Labour Party have that headline. I say ‘ironic’ because this is what they had to say about him in 2009: When he was chancellor, his appetite for deep reading and private pondering was often seen as a strength. “Brown plays his cards against his chest,” a civil servant told me in 2004. “Very important decisions won’t be on an official piece of paper until days before the deadline. In Whitehall, the question ‘What will Gordon say?’ hangs over everything.” But for a prime minister, presented daily with unexpected dilemmas, this … Continue reading Not-so-speedy Gordon Brown forgets his own ‘slow’, ‘ponderous’, protracted’ and ‘dithering’ track record