From Public Health Scotland today for week-ending 4 October 2021: As at 03 October 2021, there have been 575,231 confirmed COVID-19 cases; 15,050 of these were recorded in the most recent week, a decrease of 29.4% from the previous week. The proportion of all people who were admitted to hospital within 14 days of a laboratory confirmed COVID-19 positive test has declined, from 12% in the week ending 31 January 2021, to 3% in the most recent week ending 19 September 2021. The number of new admissions to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) for confirmed COVID-19 patients has reduced from 50 in the … Continue reading Nearly 30% weekly fall in Covid-19 new cases

From stewartb: The following was written by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) in 2019:“The Scottish Government’s decisive and compassionate move to bring in the new Scottish Child Payment is the lifeline children and their families need, and is a BEACON OF PROGRESSIVE POLICY for the rest of the UK’ ‘This rightly has been LAUDED AS A LANDMARK MOMENT and the MOST PROGRESSIVE POLICY BROUGHT IN SINCE DEVOLUTION 20 years ago. We’ve now seen the Scottish Government decisively put words into action and we believe this will be a foundational step in turning the tide on child poverty in Scotland. Once … Continue reading Not so much shame as a beacon of progressive policy

By Leah Gunn Barrett: According to the recent Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) report, since the UK Government controls 85% of social spending in Scotland and is completely responsible for working-age benefits, the “overall inadequacy [in social spending] falls at the UK Government’s door”.[1] An immediate example is the looming cut to Universal Credit (UC) and Working Tax Credits (WTC) which will affect around 450,000 families in Scotland, reducing their income by £1,040 a year. Although unacceptably high, poverty in Scotland is well below that of England. With its limited powers, the Scottish Government has protected many families from the worst impacts of … Continue reading The real shame is UK poverty

With typically immature photo selection, the Herald’s Tom Gordon sides with the Tories deliberately politicising a serious human rights issue. A more educated and, typically, more humane interpretation is different from that of the Blue Meanies in Holyrood who historically have favoured a harsher regime for even their own children to toughen them up as Masters of the Empire: Tom Gordon is, of course, well in with the English establishment. See this empathetic response to Prince Charles, from March 2020: A FORMER SNP MP has been slammed after using Prince Charles’s diagnosis with coronavirus to promote Scottish independence.  Clarence House confirmed this … Continue reading Herald’s Royal Correspondent sides with UK Court against children’s rights

Ed: From a letter published in the Herald but so usefully succinct and punchy it’s worth sharing again here: From Leah Gunn Barrett Scotland’s deficit isn’t a fact but a farce. Tory-designed GERS shows what it costs Scotland to be part of the UK.  First, the GERS ‘deficit’ includes billions spent outside Scotland “on our behalf” such as nuclear weapons, the military, English infrastructure, London civil servants, and lavish embassies.  Second, GERS is bad accounting. Scottish income such as rents, interest and insurance that should be recorded here is recorded in south east England where the companies receiving the payment are … Continue reading Scotland’s deficit isn’t a fact but a farce

Are retired medics really needed now that hospital admissions are falling from a peak last month of only half of the real peak in February 2021? Prof (not really) Taylor, well-spoken shop steward for the Glasgow Branch of the surgeons’ trade union, the RCPS, is a regular presence in the MSM finding fault and standing up, only, for her members aspirations. She tells us: RETIRED medics are an “untapped resource” who should be fast-tracked back to the frontline to relieve pressure on the NHS over winter, one of Scotland’s leading clinicians has said. Professor Jackie Taylor, the president of the … Continue reading Are retired medics really needed now?

Some readers will remember in May 2020, the sole Scottish Labour MP trying to convince his largely Tory constituents that the Scottish Government had put them at risk by covering up a Covid-19 outbreak, in late February, at a Nike conference in Edinburgh: I’ve received considerable correspondence from constituents who are seeking answers to why they weren’t informed of the Covid-19 “ground zero” outbreak from a conference at a hotel in central Edinburgh in late February. I have written to the First Minister seeking answers. ‘Considerable correspondence‘ and ‘the people of Edinburgh?‘ Hmmm. Murray went on to suggest that lives … Continue reading Ian Murray confirmed as conspiracy nut

I’m sure you remember when you first saw the above and thought how right it was. What should this affluent Tory media Universal Credit cut supporter and doctor’s background be? The poor queuing up at a food bank? I don’t have the techy skills. Maybe you do or know someone who does? Continue reading What should this self-obsessive narcissist’s background be?

New cases of Covid-19 in Scotland yesterday fell to the lowest in the UK by some way, 50% lower than in England, just over half that in N Ireland and one quarter of the rate in Wales. Scotland 1 in every 3 015 England 1 in every 1 990 N Ireland 1 in every 1 754 Wales 1 in every 795 https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases Opposition leaders have not accused the First Minister of doing well. Continue reading Scotland has lowest infection level by some way

Of all planned operations during August 2021, only 2.4% were cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons. In a huge organisation, with 160 000 staff and over 20 000 operations carried out every month, that only 2.4% are cancelled due to a temporary shortage of theatres or of staff is stunning. Zero cancellations would only be possible with the level of over-provision of high cost facilities and accommodation and over-staffing of highly paid surgeons, that no state-funded body could justify. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancelled-planned-operations/cancelled-planned-operations-month-ending-31-august-2021 Continue reading NHS Scotland’s super-efficient surgery machine