After reading this I feel so anxious. I didn’t realise things were so bad in Scotland. I’d been reading that Talking-up Scotland site which has lots of relatively positive evidence about NHS Scotland and chilling reports on NHS England that make you glad you’re ‘up here.‘ But, no, it’s far far worse than we thought. McCardle, doesn’t have time to mention the higher death rate or the real shortages of PPE or the lower staffing or the outsourced 111 service staffed by ex-cons in England. When she’s enjoying telling us how the First Minister has been forced to acknowledge the … Continue reading 1 200 doom-filled words that will certainly boost distancing but somehow missing the obvious

In an interview with the PA, yesterday, Scottish Conservative Branch Manager, Jackson Curlew was asked about the effects of the virus outbreak on politics in Scotland. He just shouted: ‘Say no to Indyref-21!’ Readers, I was shocked, both by his poor taste in these tragic times but also by a flashback to the Vietnam War in 1970, when President Richard Nixon, above, was asked what he would do about the disease caused by the toxic chemical defoliant, Agent Orange, that was spreading through both the civilian population and US troops. Without pausing, Nixon shouted: ‘No surrender. Bomb them into submission!’ … Continue reading Inspired by former US President, Scots Tory leader claims cure for Covid-19 is to say no to Indyref-21!

From stewartb On the BBC News website, at the top level ‘Health’ tab, dated 9 April you find this headline: ‘Coronavirus: A&E visits drop sharply as calls to 111 double’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52232941 I read the article carefully looking for a certain ‘something’ but didn’t find it anywhere in the text describing NHS England’s A&E. Bear with me! On 7 April the BBC News website, on its ‘Scotland’ page, had covered a similar story on A&E visits under this headline: ‘A&E numbers ‘lowest on record’ since Coronavirus lockdown’ Again I read the article carefully, searching for that special ‘something’ in the description … Continue reading That the BBC makes starkly different editorial choices on ‘health’ in Scotland and England is hard to deny – the question is why!

From stewartb As the ‘F’ word gets peddled once more by the Labour Party, it was timely to have Peter A Bell’s critique the party’s policy on UK constitutional reform as the solution to its Scottish ‘problem’.  Source: https://peterabell.scot/tag/federalism/ One of the points made by Mr Bell that stood out for me was this: “For a federal arrangement to be feasible it would not only have to be fair and equitable, it would have to be seen to be fair and equitable. Which means that the negotiation of the arrangement would have to be seen to be fair and equitable. … Continue reading Willie Rennie and Gordon Brown stiffen Tory case against new powers and federalism

These appalling figures were, of course, only for the UK altogether, where the people of England can be shielded form the awful truth of 819 deaths in one day alone. BBC England’s page makes no mention of the carnage that Tory austerity has inflicted upon them. Way down the page we read: In Scotland 47 more deaths were reported on Saturday, while 36 were reported in Wales and 15 in Northern Ireland. The brutal arithmetic is: England: 1 CV death just today for every 66 000 people. Scotland: 1 CV death today for every 115 000 people, just over half the death rate of England … Continue reading Coronavirus: Tory austerity and NHS privatisation are deadly

Thanks to Glasgow Correspondent, Brian McGowan, for alerting me to this. Following BBC Scotland editorial guidelines, I’m going to break with those at TuSC, to rely on a small number of social media sources warning of a crisis in NHS England’s 111 service. This tweet though from a clearly lefist individual seems convincing: The source provides this evidence of her employment at Intelling_Ltd: I’m aware of no such problems with NHS Scotland’s 111 service. Were there any, Reporting Scotland would be headlining them. This is not surprising given what the Scottish Health Secretary had to say at the time it … Continue reading Covid-19: NHS Scotland 111 service seems effective but outsourced NHS England 111 service is putting lives at risk

This petition, the ‘Hanif Hundred’, based on, maybe, 100 signatures by, maybe 100 medics, maybe, or maybe their relatives sponsored, maybe, by the Scottish Labour MSP, Anas Sarwar has gone viral (sorry) in the Scottish media. Though an ‘open letter’, it seems it was only sent to BBC Scotland who quickly flashed it by the cameras, without the ‘signatures’ being revealed, before NOT posting it on their website for proper scrutiny. a friend captured this I’ve emailed Sarah Smith, Royal Commissioner for British News in Scotland, for a peek at it. It’s had a lot of attention compared to this … Continue reading A tale of two petitions. BBC Scotland prefer wee dodgy ones?

Jerked into life by the First Minister’s apparent though tentative support for the Reform Scotland think-tank urging a basic income guarantee, or universal basic income (UBI), Tom Gordonstoun writes in the Herald today: ‘Even on these antique numbers, the costs are astronomical at £20bn a year, or half the current Scottish budget. It would be partly paid for by scrapping some benefits, scrapping the personal tax allowance, and adding 8p to all rates of income tax. So the starter rate of income tax in Scotland would be 27% on the very first pound of earnings as opposed to 19p on earnings over … Continue reading Likeminded? Herald’s Tom Gordonstoun and IEA’s Kate Andrews

This report of ‘coronavirus medics’ having to make their own PPE is based on a single source, Labour MSP Anas Sarwar’s brother-in-law, unsupported by the BMA or by any of the royal colleges and flatly contradicted by the Health Secretary days ago, yet it’s still there infecting the public sphere. Here’s the debunking: UPDATE: Can we trust BBC Scotland’s single source when he’s Anas Sarwar’s brother-in-law? The BMA IS accusing NHS England of putting doctors’ lives at risk but their target is Matt Hancock and there is no mention of Scotland in this long BBC UK report. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52252470 Continue reading Cobbled-together protest letter from relative of Labour’s Anas Sarwar still on BBC website 4 days after debunking

BBC Scotland yesterday headlining as yet unconfirmed statistics after making an editorial decision to foreground them. This is not accidental. Consider this list of ways in which BBC Scotland has made different editorial choices from BBC UK or BBC England and sometimes from BBC Wales and Northern Ireland too: Only BBC Scotland places photos of politicians [SNP} beside stories of coronavirus deaths; Only BBC Scotland has headlined over several days a senior figure who has broken the social distancing rules [Where is Ruth Davidson?]; BBC England and UK almost never headline the huge infection and death statistics there while BBC … Continue reading Care home deaths: BBC Scotland reveals its agenda again