In the Education, Communities and Justice committee on Thursday: Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government what provision will be made for the delivery of free school meals when schools are closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20200409.pdf It’s deeply moving, well more stomach-churning, to hear from the leader of the right-wing in Scottish Labour Unionist Group (SLUG) pretending to care about the weans. Back in 2002, when she and her colleagues in government voted down the universal provision of free school meals and the retention of the humiliating means test, she was more like herself. First, … Continue reading Two-faced Scottish Labour and free school meals

https://grain.org/e/6437 In this fascinating and deeply disturbing piece from GRAIN, ‘a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems’: ‘Let’s be clear: there is no solid evidence that the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the cause of the current Covid-19 disease pandemic, is an open seafood market in Wuhan that also trades in domestic and wild animals. All that we know is that several early cases of people diagnosed with Covid-19 either worked at this market or shopped there in the days preceding their … Continue reading Are the Chinese poor and their ‘wet markets’ just another scapegoat for the powerful protected by the media?

From premieroneuk: There are no doubts whatsoever Westminster is cleverly attempting to prevent us making proper statistical comparisons between NHS Scotland and the rest of the UK. If you log on to NHS SCOT covid 19, all key stats are found in a instant whereas if you go to NHS England then you get lost quickly. If you go to UK GOV, you can find the daily updates but today none on tests. If you use the key statistical factor of number of deaths/cases and tests per million population some very interesting figures reveal themselves and clearly point you in … Continue reading Covid-19: Comparing NHS Scotland and the UK

Only by subtracting the 87 deaths, reported by the BBC for the other three countries, from the 881 not reported by the BBC for the UK, can I exclusively report that there were 794 new deaths, not reported by the BBC, in England in the last 24 hours. In Scotland however, there were 48 and it’s the big story: In Wales, headlined too there were 29: And in Northern Ireland, there were 10: England’s a big country. Maybe the regions have the statistics? It’s just one day. It doesn’t mean anything? https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/03/30/third-day-running-and-its-death-for-scotland-wales-and-northern-ireland-but-only-tales-of-resilience-for-england-and-the-uk/ https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/03/31/day-5-and-still-only-scotlands-coronavirus-deaths-are-headlined-by-bbc/ https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/04/01/there-are-scottish-welsh-and-n-irish-deaths-even-uk-deaths-but-no-english-deaths-because-who-would-be-to-blame-for-them/ https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/04/03/only-scotlands-media-politicise-death/ https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/04/05/641-covid-19-deaths-in-one-day-in-england-but-please-dont-mention-them-because-theyre-nobodys-fault/ Continue reading No statistics please we’re English?

From Opinium based on fieldwork on 1st April with 99 Scots adults (18+): Con 32% Lab 11% LD 4% SNP 51% Green 1% That level of Con support is getting scary! Asked if they thought Boris Johnson was doing a good job, the Scots along with the N Irish were the least likely to agree. Asked if they could imagine any of the Labour leadership candidates as PM, the Scots respondents were the least likely to think so for any of them. https://www.opinium.co.uk/public-opinion-on-coronavirus-1st-april/ Continue reading 5th poll puts SNP at above 50%

They were happy to report this one in some depth but when a Tory minister does it, they ignore it, other than to mention that a newspaper has covered it. Cowardly? Had it been an SNP minister, how might they have dealt with the story? Well we know fine from the way they feasted on the Chief Medical Officer: Continue reading BBC expose a minister…in New Zealand but shy away from exposing a UK Tory one

That WAS yesterday. Was he higher up then. I seem to have missed the story altogether. Continue reading Coronavirus: Tory housing minister BREACHES lockdown rules to visit parents! Where is it? At the top like you did for the Scottish Chief Medical Officer? Well just down a bit

In the Herald, of all places, a cry for help from the SNP Government from the struggling rags which daily lie and abuse them. You’ve got to laugh at their shocking brass necks. Anyway, where do these calls come from? Well, you have to laugh again. There’s just the two. The Tories’ finance spokesperson, Donald Cameron and Tory councillor John McLellan. You might remember McLellan: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/01/11/tory-councillor-pretends-to-be-scotsman-journalist-again/ As for the Herald leading a call for funding from the Scottish Government: Continue reading Today’s best headline…for a bitter laugh?

That’s the image the Herald should have had so that readers can see their Shadowy Health Secretary, Miles Briggs, and be reminded that he’s in the same party as Matt Hancock who they ARE keen to criticise: This is just the latest in a very long string of events where one or other of Scotland’s Unionist branches is shielded from the blast waves coming from shock revelations in their Westminster HQs. Continue reading Scottish Tories’ hypocrisy on NHS migrant workers is shameful too but it’s being concealed

There’s no daily update headlined as nearly 1 000 deaths in one day means a rate similar to that of Italy but even when you click on the updates, you only get this: No numbers, of cases or of deaths. Meanwhile in Scotland and, of course, headlined across the BBC UK broadcasts, you get this: Notice anything? More cases more deaths but no context. Continue reading Why is only BBC Scotland telling you how bad things are?