In Ipsos MORI’s poll for 15th to 21st February 2021, 1 031 respondents were asked: Looking ahead to the Scottish Parliamentary election, which, if any, issues do you think will be very important to you in helping you decide which party to vote for? Two issues fascinating the media and activists on social media, ‘LGBT rights / equality / GRA (LGR)’ and ‘Alex Salmond enquiry (ASE)’, appear to be of very little interest to potential voters. Only 7 out of 1 031 or less than 0.7% selected LGR and only 5, or less than half of 1%, selected ASE. The … Continue reading Poll suggests gender recognition and Salmond enquiry having little impact but constitution matters most

I’ve just watched open-mouthed as BBC Newsnight’s Lewis Goodall said: An argument that was effectively being made by the former First Minister, Alex Salmond, the architect of the modern day SNP, someone who’d done more than anybody else to make Scottish Nationalism mainstream over the last two decades, effectively saying that as a result of this scandal, as a result of the political leadership that Scotland currently has, in his view, seemed to be intimating that Scotland wasn’t really ready for independence. Here’s what Salmond said: Some people say that the failure of these institutions, the blurring of the boundaries … Continue reading Salmond did not imply ‘Scotland wasn’t really ready for independence’

NHS England have been keeping ever so quiet on the level of hospital-acquired Covid infections but the Guardian today revealed them to have been typically around 25% of the total admitted. That’s a shocking rate. Why? Well, for one thing the rate in NHS Scotland in the same period has been dramatically lower. In December 2020, for example, the rate in Scotland was 1.9% definite cases and 0.9% probable cases, at worst 2.8% and thus only just above one-tenth of the rate in England. https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/population-health/covid-19/hospital-onset-covid-19-cases-in-scotland/30-december-2020/ Continue reading In December you were 10 TIMES more likely to catch Covid in an English hospital

I’m standing in for BBC Scotland’s Lisa Summers to report another fall in the level of hospital-onset cases of Covid infection to only 2.6% definite and 1.3% probable. Lisa has promised to be right there for me if the number goes up again. The two researchers in England who have promised to update their figures for 2020, when the rate was up to 25% in English hospitals, have not replied to my recent emails. Readers who point out that the falling number of cases simply reflects falling numbers in wards, may have something there but if that didn’t explain Lisa’s … Continue reading Hospital-acquired Covid falls for second week

Between Ipsos MORI’s November poll, support for independence has fallen by 3 points from 51% to 48% but any pollster surely knows that to talk of a trend, as they do above, you need more than two polls. There have been six already this year and dozens in 2020. Here’s what they show: Here are the trends: Support for independence has flattened in 2021 so far after a steep climb into clear lead in 2020. It has NOT fallen back. Support for the Union has continued in a very steep decline in 2021 after falling steadily since the end of … Continue reading Ipsos Morons?

By stewartb There have been a number of ‘prominent’ people opining that the Salmond affair is revealing fundamental weaknesses in the structuring of Scotland’s institutions. There can appear also to an implication here that such concerns – and perceived weaknesses – are present in Scotland but do not exist within the Westminster system. Unsurprisingly this, in my inexpert opinion, seems to be false. For anyone interested in views on not dissimilar issues facing institutions within England – over the dual role of government law officers, their independent status and the publication (or not) by a government of its legal advice … Continue reading Why Scotland’s Attorney General can be trusted more than rUK’s

All over your MSM today, a trade union survey reported as if it came from an independent university-based research group which has to declare any interests. SCOTLAND’S health service is facing a “perfect storm” of huge waiting list backlogs and consultant vacancies which are more than double official estimates, according to a new report. Freedom of information research by BMA Scotland suggests that just over 15 per cent of consultant posts are empty once vacancies which are not being advertised or which health boards have “tried and failed to fill” are taken into account. Why would a vacancy not be advertised? Could it be … Continue reading Vacancies which are not being advertised are not vacancies and a retirement ‘dribble’ is of no concern

Conservative councillor Alan Donnelly (bottom, wee, once) was found guilty of sexual assault in 2019, fined and placed on the sex offenders register. Alex Salmond (top, big, three times) is not guilty of any offences, of any kind. Donnelly refused to resign, collected his salary and expenses for two years and has vowed to stand again for election. There’s an easy headline but not one BBC Scotland would construct for a Tory. Now if they had an SNP politician who had not actually laid hands on anyone, had been accused of no crime, but had messaged a 16 year-old boy? Salmond resigned … Continue reading Which of these two men actually is a sex offender?

All over BBC Scotland today, a trade union rumour used to undermine your confidence in NHS Scotland and by association the SNP Government: The British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland said vacancies for consultants may now be higher than 15%. Doctors were also reporting “widespread burnout” even before the Covid crisis hit, according to the association. This is no better than rumour but we can trust a doctors’ trade union can’t we? I mean it’s not the RMT or the NUM. Did you see this in the small print? The Scottish government said the number of consultants had increased by more … Continue reading Never mind the BIG bollocks in the headline, consult the small print?

I could be wrong. I could. This is not my field but has Wings misunderstood who the Faculty of Advocates is aiming their criticism at? He writes: When the Faculty Of Advocates – the most senior body of lawyers/QCs in the country – is handing out barely-veiled smackdowns like this to the First Minister, then you know you’re in some pretty uncharted jungle. They write: The Faculty of Advocates is becoming increasingly concerned at the debate, both in the media and in parliament, in relation to the parliamentary committee into the investigation of harassment allegations.  The debate appears increasingly to be focussed … Continue reading Winging it like Icarus?