Senior police officers say there’s no one reason for a spike in deaths on the the A9 this year. Headlining on BBC Scotland broadcasts, above, and on the website: The story will no doubt headline on Radio Scotland’s Good Mourning Scotland and Drivetime shows, with dramatic accusations from the opposition parties. The website report does have the crucial context: but the report misses something entirely – the pandemic. The very low level from 2019/20 to 2020/21 is explainable – people were driving far less and tourism in that area was massively reduced. So, if the 2018 level (5), in a … Continue reading 10 years of reducing A9 deaths due to SNP A9 improvements including speed cameras

Matt Hancock’s metaphors are murder but I suppose a diet of wallaby willies may have infected his brain. The facts, clearly not of interest to most former Tory ministers tell no lies. The situation in Scotland compared to that in England, just as Hancock was moved on from Health Secretary, in late 2021: The lowest infection rate in the UK, over the whole pandemic, by some way. The lowest current infection rate by an even bigger gap as the new variant arrives. The highest vaccination rate for all three vaccines but especially the booster jag. The second lowest death rate, … Continue reading Matt Hancock Fact Check: Sturgeon’s Covid plan saved many thousands

The Herald’s front page headline, perhaps not for the first time, has ‘soared’ into the frankly unbelievable. I’ll take the second part first, if I may. Mortality rate soars? From the National Records of Scotland, last week: 28% of the 63,587 deaths registered last year were considered preventable or treatable, up from 27% in 2020.  The rate of avoidable deaths in 2021 was 4% higher than the previous year. Half of the increase in the latest year is attributable to COVID-19 deaths which are considered preventable.  https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2022/avoidable-deaths-increase-by-4-percent So, 1% in the last year is soaring? Note the last bit about … Continue reading Mortality rate soaring? Oh no it isn’t!

Again the Guardian today: Care workers have hit back at claims by the former health secretary Matt Hancock that the Covid virus was brought into homes by infected staff. In his book, the Pandemic Diaries, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail, Hancock said only a small proportion of cases were caused by his decision to discharge patients from hospital without testing. “The vast majority of infections were brought in from the wider community, mainly by staff,” he wrote in May 2021, citing data from the UK Health Security Agency, which found that 1.2% of care home cases between … Continue reading Retired prof defends Matt Hancock because he was almost correct

There’s Steve Barclay above. Here’s what the Guardian tells us today: Ministers were under intense pressure last night to open new pay talks that could avert a devastating series of NHS strikes as health unions suggested a deal could be struck if both sides were willing to negotiate and compromise. Amid claims from Labour and from NHS sources that ministers appeared to be playing politics and deliberately “spoiling for a fight”, union leaders strongly suggested that an improved, but still sub-inflation, offer similar to that made to Scottish health unions at the end of last month by the Holyrood government … Continue reading Barclay or Yousaf? Which of these Health Secretaries should resign?

The Herald’s Health Correspondent has just notices a trend and an anomaly – cancer deaths falling despite less treatment during the pandemic – which TuS reported on the first signs of two years ago. Amid the current media feeding frenzy to topple another Scottish Health Secretary with supposed malpractice in NHS Tayside’s oncology department also two years ago, this story is fascinating. From the Herald today: Here’s what we wrote in October 2022: Throughout 2020 and into 2021, Scottish Labour tastelessly weaponised the inevitable reductions in cancer treatment, especially surgery, to protect vulnerable patients from a deadly virus. The ‘tsunami … Continue reading Why are cancer deaths lower? Could it be NHS Scotland just keeps getting better?

In the Herald today: You see that ‘influential pro-independence’ there? That’s the issue here. Common Weal are largely ignored by the SNP and by the Scottish Government and they have been, for some time now, just been in one great big huff about it. The previous director started to act like some messianic figure cast into a wilderness of impotence by those SNP devils in the Scottish Government. See this from two years ago: Under his leadership the supposedly pro-independence group seemed to decide that only their kind of independence would do and if they couldn’t have it they’d fight … Continue reading SNP savaged by huffy sheep’s sister?

Regular readers will now have seen reports here of more than 10 sub-polls with 80% suggesting the same thing. Scottish Labour’s reported resurgence is a media myth and wishful thinking by media supporters of Anas Sarwar’s rightist, Starmerite, politics. The latest from Osmosis, based on those likely to vote has UK Labour on 44% but in Scotland, the Cons on 14%, Labour on 20% and the SNP on 49%. Source: https://omnisis.co.uk/poll-results/vi-12-results-02-12-2022 Continue reading Scottish Labour’s never-ending failure to catch up

By stewartb One of the benefits of being a regular reader of TuS blog is the ‘education’ it provides by shining its spotlight on ways journalists construct their reports on news and current affairs. One learns of the importance of being an alert – and a sceptical – recipient of their output at all times. However, experience makes one especially wary of certain media sources, and especially when the topic being addressed relates to Scotland. One the learning points is to note how a news report is being ‘framed’. Sometimes this is done subtly, sometimes not! Note the framing inherent … Continue reading ‘… looks like carelessness’ – a case study in BBC Scotland reporting

Sub-polls of 100 to 140 Scots are, of course, not reliable on their own but when several say the same thing, they start to add up to evidence of what is happening. There have been one or two sub-polls suggesting a Labour recovery in Scotland but these have been outliers. Most recently Deltapoll and YouGov on 24-28 and 29-30 November, with almost identical results, suggest no resurgence for Sarwar’s branch.. Deltapoll has UK Labour at 48%, Scottish Labour at 21% Cons at 14% and SNP at 45%. YouGov has UK Labour at 48%, Scottish Labour at 22%, Cons at 14% … Continue reading Two more Scottish sub-polls suggest Scottish Labour NOT recovering and lagging well behind UK Labour