Judging by the opinion polls suggesting 90% support for her pandemic measures, this tactic to undermine her and provide benefits to employers is going nowhere. Perhaps ‘pub chiefs’ and others in hospitality are unlikely to attract sympathy from us PAYE tax payers because of this kind of thing? Five minutes browsing gets you the above. Tip, iceberg? I know what’s endemic. Continue reading Should pub chiefs have paid tax before to get support now?

BBC Scotland, above, telling you none of what follows. Do take care in case you are radicalised by facts. As always, England has 10 times the population. Scotland had 4 336 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. All things being equal – leadership, mask compliance – England should haver had around 43 000 but had 83 693, nearly twice as many. Scotland had 7 deaths so, again, England might have expected 70 but had 90, 40% more. What about booster jags though? Sandy Gullane MD MSP was on BBC Scotland and said the SNP did something wrong. I … Continue reading Covid Update: Half the infection rate, fewer deaths and more jags – we have a right to know!

First Graham Stewart calls it the ‘Omicrom‘ variant, then Andrew Kerr tells us that the FM had said the UK Government was ‘unconsciable.’ The whoever or whatever does the text underneath got the virus name, Omicron, correct and heroically knew it should be ‘unconscionable‘. The FM was word-perfect. You may say this is trivial but for the price of the licence I will accept no errors whatsoever! Continue reading Paying for BBC Scotland’s ignorance is unconscionable

Today from BBC Scotland: A care home is under investigation amid claims serious failures led to elderly people being hospitalised. Some residents at Golfhill Nursing Home, Glasgow, required hospital treatment for gangrene, according to a report in The Herald. The Care Inspectorate said concerns about the home were raised after an October inspection and there has been “insufficient improvement” since then. Operator Advinia confirmed a “large scale investigation” is under way. The problems are reported to centre on the intermediate care unit, where elderly residents are transferred after being discharged from hospital. They normally spend about a month there before being … Continue reading Gangrene outbreak in Glasgow care home owned by billionaire banker and Tory donor

I’ve posted several times here on the Scottish Government’s attempts to compensate for Tory austerity policies. It’s some time now since they took steps to compensate for the ‘bedroom tax.’ This year, the Child Benefit payment was described by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as likely to make a major impact on child poverty, already lower in Scotland. This is now to be doubled. In September, the Scottish Government boosted the Family Pandemic Payment and today SNP-led East Ayrshire has announced a further boost to the already existing Family Pandemic Payment: Christmas in East Ayrshire should be a little cheerier for … Continue reading SNP Council goes even further on child poverty measures

18 days after the first Omicron case was identified in Scotland and so probably 3 weeks after it arrived, hospital admissions and ICU cases continue to fall, to the lowest since August 2021. Hospital admission rates in Wales and Northern Ireland are similar to those in Scotland but England, subject to the Johnson communications strategy, has a rate around 20% higher. Why is this happening? Faster booster rollout and greater compliance with the FM’s more clear and more consistent messaging? No hypocrisy in the FM’s party-going? Continue reading Evidence of a milder variant or of Scots’ canniness?

Today, BBC Wales tells us of ‘chaos’ in Cardiff University Hospital of Wales’ A&E department and Ian Cottrell’s wait of nearly 40 hours. Mt Cottrell said: There were others that were shouting, lying on the floors because there were no beds,” he said. They were saying they were going to discharge themselves. It’s chaos in there. No one knows what’s going on. It seems like there’s no duty of care to anyone. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59689043 The health board, no names offered, responded that anyone unhappy with its care should report it, to them of course, and not to BBC Wales’ version of … Continue reading Sturgeon demonised, Drakeford excused all

Note how England’s hospitality firms call only for help. They clearly have no bar staff qualified in epidemiology who could then tell the government where it’s going wrong with vaccine certification and call for a change in pandemic strategy. Note another record for daily Covid cases ‘in the UK?’ Of 88 376, 5 951 were in Scotland which is far short of the record of 7 113 on August 2021. DUP/SF Northern Ireland had 2 237, slightly more, pro rata, than Scotland Labour Wales and Con England are not publishing their figures, with the latter, supported by the BBC, hiding … Continue reading England’s pub bosses are submissive as their plague is buried in UK stats