In the Times yesterday: Alex Cole-Hamilton, the next leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, has distanced his party from any future deal with Labour, but has said he is prepared to work with the Scottish Conservatives to safeguard the Union. “I’m not interested in coalitions or pacts with the Conservative party, but I will work with them in articulating a positive case for our continued membership of the UK,” he told The Times. His view is in contrast to that of his predecessor, Willie Rennie, who argued for a close working relationship with Labour to win back the centre ground of Scottish … Continue reading No surprise there

So, BBC Reporting Scotland, straight in with a quick hello and then more non-expert advice on pandemic management from some business folk who clearly do not give a, about anyone other than themselves. It’s those Scottish Retail Consortium folk again and two representatives of the hyphenated class, Simon Harvey-Potts and Ewan MacDonald-Russell, demanding state support for their businesses. I suppose if they pay the living wage to their staff and have always paid their taxes, they do deserve something, if. We hear quickly, in passing, that the Scottish Government is spending £3.7 billion helping businesses rebuild. Then it’s quickly on … Continue reading An expert in pandemic control? Maybe later, after the bar steward, the strip club owner and the shop manager

BBC Scotland have nothing on this story. They’re busy with stories of how crap our paper-based vaccine certificates are, according to one or two self-centred tourists who want to be free to do whatever they like in posh Italian restaurants. And now, they’re drooling over news that four health boards have paused non-emergency ops. So, this is not at all up their dark end of the street but Sky News have covered it: People pinged by the NHS app in England and Wales are up to four times more likely to have coronavirus than someone who isn’t alerted, a survey … Continue reading Scotland’s Covid app more than twice as effective as one used in England and Wales

Lord Selkirk of Douglas, Director of Lennoxlove House Limited is one of 40 Lords, including several from the Labour Party, exposed by Open Democracy earlier this week, for flouting rules by not declaring details of private companies they run. You can read the full story at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/40-lords-reported-authorities-over-financial-interests/?utm_campaign=Weekly%20flagship%20newsletter%20%2814%2008%202021%29%20%28T96PdF%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Newsletter%3A%20oD%20weekly&_kx=IHVvEYTuBM5mYhI2Q9QmEMj516vQqcho__R0uzple4IGs4V3CxMmH-P7J_jOJAIw.YjCYwm Selkirk or James Douglas Hamilton is Director at Lennoxlove House Limited. Hamilton’s dad was an even more interesting character. When in 1941, Hitlers’ deputy, Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland, he asked to be taken to Hamilton’s dad, the Duke of Hamilton. Hess believed that Hamilton headed a faction people prepared to do a deal … Continue reading Scottish Conservative Lord and son of alleged Nazi sympathiser exposed over lack of transparency

187 000 Scottish baby boxes have now been issued, with none bursting into flames, despite the efforts of opposition MPs to use them as portable barbecues. Despite this, Scottish Labour refuse to accept that they have been popular with the many disadvantaged mums they claim to care about but have done little for over the years. From SNP Media New polling has shown that the Baby Box, introduced by the SNP Scottish Government has been ranked highly by parents – with 97% of them saying it was good. Since its introduction, 187,000 families have received a delivery of a baby … Continue reading Scottish Labour reject 100% baby box safety claims

By stewartb This is the second blog post using findings from a recent (April 2021) report from the Institute for Government (IfG). Covering the post-devolution period from 1999 to the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, the IfG has examined the actions taken by the governments in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London regarding public services. Specifically, the IfG examines three areas: (i) health and the NHS, (ii) adult social care, and (iii) education. The IfG points to a diversity of policy choices and to a mixed record of performance. In this contribution the focus is on health and … Continue reading Comparing the NHS in the four UK nations – new Institute for Government research

Based on a survey reported in the Lancet yesterday with no breakdown of the figures for the 4 devolved NHS services, the Herald gaily reports this a UK-wide phenomenon. RESEARCHERS have warned that “wide variation” in the spread of Covid in UK hospitals needs further investigation, with a quarter of infected patients in some acute sites contracting the virus after admission during the first wave of the pandemic. Experts blamed shortages of PPE, a lack of testing capacity, and confusion over Covid symptoms for contributing to higher rates of hospital-acquired conronavirus earlier in the outbreak. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19510115.one-10-uk-covid-patients-caught-virus-hospital-first-wave/ Only BBC Health reports … Continue reading Hospital-acquired Covid much lower in Scotland in first wave?

In the Herald: COVID cases in Scotland were already rising in the week leading up to the new Beyond Zero freedoms, in what has been described as a “spillover effect” from restrictions easing in July. The latest data from Public Health Scotland shows that the average number of positive cases by specimen date – that is, the date an infected individual submitted a swab for testing – climbed by nearly 10 per cent between August 2 and 8, the day before most Covid rules ended. Covid infection levels have been rising in the last few days, before the most recent easing of lockdown measures … Continue reading Covid: No sense of perspective whatsoever only panic

The above is a masterpiece of distortions, fed to Reporting Scotland by Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie. The truth is actually there in the text. First: The Scottish Ambulance Service instituted a colour-coded response system in 2016. These deemed purple cases to be the most severe – where there is a 10% or more chance of cardiac arrest. Under the bizarre heading ‘Lives being risked’, we see: In 2020-21, 10,687 purple cases were seen in under 10 minutes, compared with 8,304 in 2018-19. So, 25% more of the most at risk, ‘purple cases’ were seen in under ten minutes in 2020/2021 … Continue reading Jackie Baillie reveals Scotland’s ambulance service far far better than in other parts of UK

Reporting Scotland’s health correspondent, Lisa Summers, is an old hand at turn anecdotal comments into to an imagined crisis affecting NHS Scotland more widely and, by implication, suggesting that the SNP Scottish Government is not managing it well. There is clear evidence that fake news can put sick people off attending health services and thus risking their lives: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52337951 https://www.england.nhs.uk/2019/06/fake-news-putting-50000-lesbian-gay-and-bisexual-women-at-risk-of-cancer/ Headlining this story comes against a background of ignoring Scotland exceeding the rest of the UK in vaccinations and A&E waiting times. It comes against the, again ignored, background of much lower infection and death rates than England and Northern … Continue reading None of these medics claim that hospitals, plural, are under more pressure than ever. That headline is fake news risking lives for a story