Anas Sarwar launches another one-woman attack. I suppose the above image is less creepy than this last year: Back to today in the Herald Union: ANAS Sarwar has insisted that Scotland’s cancer times backlog is now a “national emergency” – warning that 7,000 people are now thought to be living with an undiagnosed condition. The Scottish Labour leader has pressed the case for rapid diagnostic centres to be brought forward in a bid to shorten waiting times for those showing symptoms of cancer. ‘Thought to be‘ eh? Any facts at all? Oh, here are some: NHS Scotland: 98.6% of cancer … Continue reading Politics by ‘ambulance chasing’

Tory councillor, advisor to Ruthie, Nicola-obsessive and covert Scotsman columnist, John McLellan, is at it again after, no doubt, a torrid night, dreaming of the FM, in tears. Like so many of the elderly, white, frustrated, aching, bitter, macho, corporate journos at the Scotsman and the Herald – Wilson, Monteith, Gordon, Macwhirter – McLellan lives for even the smallest SNP defeat. Evidence? Well, SFA. What did you expect? Here’s some: God knows what Ross would get today. 95%, up from 93% in October 2021. She’s going nowhere unless she decides to. Take out the don’t knows and it’s 97%. From … Continue reading SHOCK: This man is a Tory councillor!

I’m not reading it. You can’t make me. I’ve read enough of Gordon’s jaundiced journalism to know what’s in there. I’ll just do the headline. Pressure on Sturgeon over Indyref2 as leaders obsess? OK: Indyref 2 in the early years of the next parliament will be explicitly and upfront, in the manifesto for the SNP. Polls suggest they will take an overall majority, even with this commitment and despite perhaps losing one or two list seats to the Alba Party. The Alba Party seems more than likely to take list seats from the Unionist parties. Witness their current panic. There … Continue reading Pressure on Tom Gordon to tell us facts on popular approval of Indyref2

Gary Smith of the GMB, right, in his 2020 campaign to exonerate the corporate care home owners and blame the Scottish Government for deaths due to the greed and incompetence of the care home owners. The GMB surfaces again today, like a Trident submarine, to sink our punt: So, they think NHS workers will reject the 4% they’ve been offered, compared to the 1% slap in England? A ‘tsunami of laughter’ is coming their way. Is it a ‘pre-election punt?’ Maybe. Was the ‘pledge’ in 2014 a ‘punt?’ Are there ‘punts’ everywhere? Do bears….Is the…? Continue reading Nurses laugh at pre-election ‘punts’

Headlining all morning, no doubt three times today on Reporting Scotland, and on the website, selected findings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies: BBC Scotland offers us these points, 5 days after they were published, just as we enter the first few days of an election campaign dominated by the issue of independence and the growing panic in the Unionist parties at the arrival of another pro-independence party in their life-support system, the regional vote: The Scottish government’s funding per person is almost 30% higher than the English equivalent, a leading economic research group has said. The Institute for Fiscal … Continue reading Too poor, too profligate? ‘Nicely timed’ propaganda for BBC from Douglas Alexander group

From TuS regular, Alasdair Galloway: OK, we all know that Alex and Nicola aren’t best pals anymore – anything but. So, its not a big surprise that Nicola is being hostile to Alex’s new party, which she makes very clear in an interview in that SNP supporting organ, The Daily Record, whose Political Editor is Paul Hutcheon (remember him on the Herald?). There were three points that jumped out at me in the National’s report: https://www.thenational.scot/news/19196889.nicola-sturgeon-issues-stinging-rebuke-alba-party-alex-salmond/ The first was “The First Minister insisted the only way to secure independence is to win a majority in Parliament and persuade the bulk … Continue reading Moving on

Up from 35 897 visitors and 148 991 views, in February, with a big contribution from one post, on the Hanbury poll ‘scoop’: Significant gains in Africa and South America but Syria proving too dangerous for our workers and Belarus impervious to our pro-democracy charms. The February imperial map below for those who like them: Sorry to see Romania fall from 2 to 4 Continue reading Significant gains in Africa and South America for March 2021

March 2021 Reports In Scotland: The 31-day standard states that 95% of all patients should wait no more than 31 days from decision to treat to first cancer treatment. 98.6% of patients started treatment within the 31-day standard, compared with 98.4% in the previous quarter and 96.5% for quarter ending September 2019. The 62-day standard states that 95% of eligible patients should wait a maximum of 62 days from urgent suspicion of cancer referral to first cancer treatment. 86.2% of patients started treatment within the 62-day standard, compared to 87.3% in the previous quarter, and 83.7% for quarter ending December … Continue reading NHS Scotland: 98.6% of cancer patients treated in 31-days and 62-day target met 21% more often than in NHS England

Alerted to this by reader Jim O’Rourke, I cannot believe my eyes: In the supposedly pro-independence National today the above astonishing claim. The facts: So, Mr Fry, by any of the three measures, tested, death certificate mention and excess deaths, Scotland’s death rate has been much lower than England or Wales. Continue reading The National’s Michael Fry dishonestly suggests Scotland has had more Covid deaths

This update prompted by a suggestion from reader, 2012nancy: From the National Records of Scotland, last updated 24th March 2021: The 2011 Census showed that the Scottish population was 4% minority ethnic. This data show that the number of minority ethnic deaths in Scotland relating to COVID-19 is between 1.4% and 2.7%. https://spice-spotlight.scot/2021/03/22/coronavirus-covid-19-in-scotland-latest-data/ Yet: In England and Wales, males of Black African, Black Caribbean and Bangladeshi ethnic background had the highest rates of death involving COVID-19, all exceeding 250 deaths per 100,000 and significantly higher than all other ethnic groups.  https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/updatingethniccontrastsindeathsinvolvingthecoronaviruscovid19englandandwales/deathsoccurring2marchto28july2020#:~:text=In%20England%20and%20Wales%2C%20males%20of%20Black%20African%2C%20Black%20Caribbean,than%20all%20other%20ethnic%20groups. What can possibly explain this? Earlier today, I wondered if ethnic minority groups … Continue reading UPDATE: Better educated, less impoverished, why the minority ethnic Covid-19 death rate in Scotland is only half that of ‘white’ population