A wee bit of distraction triggered by the above Herald headline. Dear reader, see if you can come up with a funnier one. Other good ones: iNews 2021: Labour leader Anas Sarwar predicts he ‘will be First Minister’ in 2026 The National 2020: Jackson Carlaw vows to topple SNP and become next First Minister Scotsman 2019: Boris Johnson: I back Ruth Davidson to become Scotland’s next First Minister BBC Scotland 2018: Richard Leonard: ‘I intend to be next first minister’ The Times 2017: Kenny Farquharson comment: The next first minister will be . . . Kezia Dugdale TuS 2021: Jackie … Continue reading I’m going to be the next heavyweight boxing champion of the world!

By stewartb: BBC Scotland’s viewers/listeners/readers might have been interested also in broader, relevant context. This is readily supplied using data from the UK government’s web site – so it must be authoritative! It comes from comparative mortality data during the whole pandemic for each of the four nations up to dates earlier in July and on both of the measures in official use. (https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths ) 1) Deaths with COVID-19 on the death certificate by nation to 9 July 2021 (the list is ordered by data per 100,000 population): Wales: = 7,873 (249.7 per 100,000) England = 130,957 (232.7 per 100,000) Scotland … Continue reading Why is England not the least impacted by the pandemic ?

Yesterday, the Herald reported on six men ‘arrested in Edinburgh and Wolverhampton on Wednesday and charged in connection with various drug offences.’ None were ‘from’ Edinburgh. Last week the Edinburgh Evening News reported ‘the menace of County Lines drug dealing which is growing‘ and that these gangs are from London, Liverpool and the West Midlands. Readers will remember the video of young men armed with knives and shouting in clear English accents in Glasgow only a few weeks ago. Two Police Scotland warnings, in January and October 2019, referred to English County Lines drug gangs terrorising rural and small-town Scotland. Only the Sunday Post in February … Continue reading Why are Scottish media not reporting on ENGLISH gangs terrorising Scotland’s communities?

Is piecemeal mitigation of Westminster policies enough for Scotland’s people? By stewartb The annual review of the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) has just been published (20 July). The Commission is an ‘independent advisory non-departmental public body’: its remit is to monitor progress in social mobility across all four UK nations but only to advise on policy for England. The report examines how governments across the UK are tackling poverty, addressing inequality and improving social mobility. It identifies these as the critical measures of low social mobility: child poverty; income inequality; access to stable housing; unemployment for young people; gaps in … Continue reading The choice will be upon us soon

In the latest of a sequence of negative reports, BBC Scotland seek to worry us with more misrepresentation. Looking at this graph, free of any confirmation bias, the under 29s are still increasing fast and at even a slightly less steep climb, will close the gap with the under 40s and the under 50s in a week or two. In some ways the under 55s are more of a worry, plateauing at just over 90%. Are too many of them reading the anti-vaxxers? Needless to say the BBC report does not consider two obvious factors in slowing the uptake – … Continue reading Young people are not slowing Scotland’s vaccine drive but BBC does threaten it

In that steady stream of bad news about Scotland, Reporting Scotland staff manage once again to ignore the vaccination successes, the falling hospital admissions and the falling infection levels. There has been a rise in the number of death certificates mentioning Covid as a possible, maybe, contributory factor: It’s just anecdotal but several relatives have now contacted me to cast serious doubt on this process, some even suggesting some kind of future funding benefit to be gained from inflating these figures. A bit titchy in the wider context of the last 16 months, but hey knock yourself out, Pacific Quay. … Continue reading Glenn! I’ve found more dead old folk!

From stewartb ‘What would happen to devolved NHSs if England privatised?” Whether privatised or not, the key thing will be how much public spending is involved. Of course there may be other knock-on negatives beyond funding that will arise for Scotland from privatisation in England. Just on finance, here’s my understanding of the general principles that apply. If a Westminster government – elected and empowered by a majority of voters in England – chooses to spend MORE on a public service that is ‘RESERVED’ then taxpayers (personal, corporate etc.) in Scotland, just as taxpayers elsewhere in the UK, may be … Continue reading ‘What would happen to devolved NHSs if England privatised?”

From SNP Media: Following reports that the UK government is set to hike National Insurance (NI) to fund social care reform for England, the SNP has said the plans would be no more than a Tory tax to fix their social care failure in England. The SNP’s Depute Westminster Leader, Kirsten Oswald MP, has also highlighted that an increase to NI would disproportionately hit lower and middle income earners – of which a large proportion have already been left struggling after ten years of Tory austerity, Brexit and the coronavirus crisis. Commenting, Kirsten Oswald MP said: “If the Tory government … Continue reading Care homes: UK wide tax to fund an England only policy

We’ve seen this many times before where only Reporting Scotland and in cohort with them, Good Morning Scotland, have a worrying story to headline that is not featured much elsewhere, even on their own website: This is another of those stories based not on recently published statistics but on anecdotal evidence from a very small number of medics selected by their trade union, and fed to the likes of Lisa Summer to construct a crisis of sorts for which the ‘SNP Government’ can be blamed if only by implication. Where is the evidence for a shortage of beds? Where is … Continue reading Hospital beds: This is a political campaign not ‘the’ news

So, not for the first time, a decent man works to save lives and is attacked by a bunch of creeps for what they hope is political gain and clicks on their website. How the Herald chose to present the story. Swinney must have advisers and researchers. He made a wee mistake. They should have prevented it but as Doctor Steedman says in the last paragraph of 20 – the bottom line – face coverings and masks provide protection. Nit-picking is fine when the target has evil intent or is bumptious but, please, remember what John Swinney’s purpose was – … Continue reading Bottom line is face coverings and masks provide protection