Two polls on the Holyrood Election 2021 published on the same day, reveal just how important it is to not let just one affect you too much. The Savanta Com Res poll for the Scotsman, as often before, has the SNP a bit down and the Tories stronger than we’d expect. It also has Labour lagging 5 points behind the Tories despite their leader Sarwar’s allegedly strong media performances. YouGov for the Times has the SNP steady on 49% and with a massive 28% lead over the Tories who are down 3 points on their previous poll on 22nd March. … Continue reading Sarwar bobs uncertainly: A tale of two polls

That is an outright lie and it’s an outright lie aimed at deceiving the public on behalf of one party as it struggles in an election campaign. For the more than the umpteenth time, the report referred to found no meaningful link between hospital discharges into care homes and outbreak in those homes. Five earlier reports across the UK also found no such evidence. All of the reports found a strong link between the size of a care home and outbreaks. The larger ones, corporate-owned, high occupancy and with staffing problems plugged by itinerant agency staff travelling between sites, were … Continue reading The death of truth: how we gave up on facts and ended up with the Herald

From SNP Media: The SNP has slammed a Scottish Conservative manifesto pledge which claims to support freeports across Scotland – despite the UK government dragging their heels over the Scottish Government’s greenport proposal. SNP candidate Ivan McKee has criticised the Tories for failing to support the initiative while trying to make political capital out of it. The SNP Scottish Governments greenport proposals created widespread interest from stakeholders who backed the focus on high standards, workers’ rights and green industries in addition to the trade and investment benefits they would bring.  However, due to the Tories refusal to agree to the implementation, Scotland’s ports now … Continue reading Tories prefer free ports WITH crime

From SNP Media: Nicola Sturgeon will today (Wednesday) say that the SNP’s record on affordable housing stands head and shoulders above that of the other parties, as she pledges to deliver 100,000 affordable homes in Scotland over the next decade. Highlighting how investment in Scotland is significantly higher than the rest of the UK – with more affordable homes being delivered as a result – she will say that Housing is key to delivering economic growth, tackling poverty and meeting Scotland’s climate targets. Other key SNP housing commitments include investing £1.6bn in the next parliament to decarbonise the heating of … Continue reading Scotland to soar further ahead on affordable housing

Headlining on Reporting Scotland today: A new report on patients discharged from hospitals into care homes at the start of the pandemic says it can’t rule out a link with Covid outbreaks. This is the sixth official report, to my knowledge, from such as the ONS and the health services in Scotland, England and Wales, to find no evidence that hospital discharges caused outbreaks in care homes and thus triggered the mass deaths there. The large-scale ONS and MHA studies did, however, suggest a significant role for agency staff moving between the larger (corporate) care homes. BBC Scotland staff cling … Continue reading BBC Reporting Scotland unable to rule IN a link with Covid outbreaks

  From SNP Media: Ian Blackford MP has called for a public inquiry into the UK government’s ‘texts for contracts’ scandal following revelations the Prime Minister agreed in a text message to ‘fix’ a tax issue for billionaire Tory donor Sir James Dyson. Following questions from the SNP Westminster Leader, Boris Johnson agreed to publish all personal exchanges on ‘covid contracts’. The messages have come to light amid an ongoing row over lobbying in Westminster with widespread concern about informal contacts and lobbying between government and business after revelations the former Prime Minister David Cameron sent texts to the chancellor … Continue reading CALL FOR PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO TORY ‘TEXTS FOR CONTRACTS’ SCANDAL 

There’s much more in the full BBC report, that you won’t hear: and: I can’t rule out deliberate anti-independence bias in the Pacific Quay staff. Continue reading ‘Care homes that received discharges might actually have seen slightly lower rates of outbreaks’ Robert Cuffe BBC Head of Statistics

Daily Record columnist, Annie Brown, provides Monica Lennon and Scottish Labour with yet another set of misinterpreted evidence which they can use to return to their long-disproved thesis that the Scottish Government is responsible for the care home deaths. It’s a new low in journalism, biased from the outset and ironically ‘cherry picking’ of evidence. First, she writes: In the first wave of the pandemic, more than 1,300 elderly people were discharged from hospitals to care homes in Scotland before a testing regime was in place. The government said a Public Health Scotland report “did not find statistical evidence that … Continue reading ‘A fag paper away from euthanasia’: Lennon and Daily Record side with the corporations responsible for mass care home deaths

Headline story five or six time before 9am, perhaps a further three times on Reporting Scotland full broadcasts and, I guess, given big licks on Good Morning Scotland, as we approach an election with the SNP apparently undented by anything the MSM can throw at them. The BBC Scotland website has resisted the temptation – younger staff and audience more savvy on tabloid propaganda? The Herald and the Scotsman so far sticking with political matters. This is the editorial decision-making typical of the Sun or the Daily Mail but controlling the output of a public service broadcaster – just muck. … Continue reading Reporting Scotland naming the not-guilty while they can

Following the old tradition of Labour leaders having to be reminded by a grinning First Minister that neither the SNP nor they can do something because they wanted that to be the case in1998, Jackie Baillie writes to her hoped-for voters to promise something she can’t: OTT, that’s a very egotistical signature suggesting someone who puts their own interests above and before any collectivist ideology. Continue reading Scottish Labour’s tradition of forgetting what’s reserved to Westminster