BBC Scotland, relieved that Scotland no longer has the lowest infection levels in the UK, for the moment, can return to their preferred mode of attempting to scare the pants off their aging audience but: hospital admission levels remain at a fraction (one quarter) of those at the peak in early 2021 when NHS Scotland coped despite heavy pressure. Deaths, too, far lower: Because: Scotland has vaccinated so many and: 100% of those most at risk are double vaccinated. A worrying surge but no need to panic? Oh yes, didn’t Douglas Ross push for an even earlier exit from lockdown … Continue reading BBC Scotland panic mongering but forgetting Douglas Ross

David Clegg and Kieran Andrews’ book on the Salmond case is out and reviewed in the Times today. Don’t touch it. Don’t encourage these rats with your money. Clegg is a deeply Unionist, anti-SNP figure, with establishment connections. Here he is on a US jolly with FM office Chief of Staff, Liz Lloyd: James Kelly painted him clearly in January 2019: Their appalling front page today is just the latest in a long line of examples, and David Clegg’s eagerness to promote that front page on social media will be a mark of shame until his dying day. There is … Continue reading Don’t touch this book on the Salmond case!

Ian Macwhirter, Brian Monteith, Brian Taylor, Brian Wilson, Andrew ‘Provence’ Neil and Tom Gordon have been on their Whatsapp thread ‘Womentellinguswhattodo‘, this morning, gloating over the SNP failure to get full support and the Green’s ‘abject failure’ with only 80%, for their ‘coalition of chaos.’ More than 5% of SNP supporters couldn’t bear to ‘swallow the dead rats’ as Glenn ‘Lineman for the County of Buckinghamshire’ Campbell, put it so professionally. That’s around 5 000 members! Another media-constructed civil war is on the way, to their crusty old brains. Continue reading Sad old gits predict SNP ‘civil war’ as more than 5 000 say ‘no’ to Greens

There were 5 858 new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours, down from 6 835 in the previous day. In an effort to control the recent surge after schools returned and full capacity was allowed a major football events, Scotland continues to vaccinate more than the other part of the UK, as it has done since August 14th. There were 8 deaths in the last 24 hours but the rate continues to fall significantly below that in England and Northern Ireland, if slightly above that in Wales. Continue reading Infection rate falls

Under that softest wee headline, the Herald notes: A TASK FORCE set up to help the Scottish seafood industry has produced its final report. The group was established as a reaction to complaints by producers and exporters that Brexit had caused damaging delays in getting seafood into the EU and beyond. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19542882.scottish-seafood-taskforce-produces-final-report-amid-labour-crisis-industry/ The Herald report does go on to be quite critical offering numerous better headlines but they chose the one above. Most notably, they spotted that the report was quietly published yesterday with no statement from Westminster as is normal in these cases. The SNP Press Release was more punchy: Commenting … Continue reading The Herald wins ‘Hide the facts to protect the Tories’ award again

From SNP Media: The SNP has branded the UK government’s efforts to fix the catastrophic hard Brexit issues crippling Scotland’s vital seafood industry as “risible and woefully inadequate”. The final report of the UK Government’s Scottish Seafood Exports Taskforce was published yesterday on the progress made to mitigate the calamitous effects on Scottish seafood exports caused by the UK Government’s hard Brexit. Commenting on the report, SNP MSP for Banff and Buchan Karen Adam said: “After just six months and only eight meetings, the Westminster government’s taskforce has submitted its final report so you might expect that the numerous problems … Continue reading Tories give up on fishing industry

In the above BBC Scotland report on jabbing, we see: In a slightly earlier report for the UK vaccination rates by age: If we stop the Scottish graph lines just a bit to the left, we can make a reasonable comparison. One, around 72% of Scottish 18-29 had had their first jag by the 18th August while less than 60% did across the UK. Two, 16-17 year-olds are not included on the UK graph even though by then upwards of 30% had been jagged in Scotland. Three, and perhaps most striking, is the gap between UK (65%) and Scottish (72%) … Continue reading Young Scots coming forward for JAGS in greater numbers

From SNP Media: The SNP has said the Scottish Tories are making hundreds of thousands of Scottish families poorer by rubber-stamping £1040 cuts to Universal Credit – as new research reveals over a third of families in Scotland will be hit by the Tory cuts. On BBC Good Morning Scotland this morning, Scottish Tory Health spokesperson Craig Hoy MSP defended the cuts, which will slash the incomes of 400,000 people in Scotland, despite a growing rebellion of Tory MPs in England joining the SNP and anti-poverty campaigners in opposition to the move. New research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, published today, … Continue reading ‘Wiping out the benefits of progressive SNP policies’

As with the Herald, we see the usual pro-Union knee-jerk selection of an image of a senior SNP politician to frame a health story. So, so different from the negative framing of working-class trade unions like the NUM or the RMT back in the 80’s, the GP reps are platformed uncritically, evidence-free, to undermine a major SNP Government programme. Remember, Scotland’s has far more GPs per head than England – 76 per 100K compared to only 58 per 100K. If they can’t cope with a bit more F2F, like they did only just over a year ago, what hope is … Continue reading Scotsman turns SNP £1bn package into Sturgeon vs GPs conflict

Here’s the Herald, today, picking out one hospital and selecting one or two cases from hundreds to imply a wider crisis and, as only the Scottish media do, putting a politician in the frame. Remember the Herald’s claim? This falls well short of ‘trusted’ or ‘quality.’ What are readers to make of A&E in their area from such selective sensationalism? Don’t go? Take a chance? Here’s a more useful, informative and trusted piece of information: In July 2021 (most recent comparable data) NHS Scotland saw 80% in 4 hours or less, compared to only 67% in NHS England. Some Welsh … Continue reading The Herald’s rotten cherry picking and politicising of the NHS