From the Herald above and BBC Scotland below: Here’s the supposed ‘dismissal’: Asked whether travellers bound for Scotland but arriving in England would be quarantined, Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “If travellers arrive in England from a red-list country and wish to continue to Scotland, they will first need to complete 10 days in managed quarantine in England. “If a traveller arrives in England from an amber-list country and wishes to continue to Scotland, they will be able to do so but will then fall under Scottish quarantine rules on entry.” Asked if the UK Government accepted there was a “loophole” … Continue reading My mum dismisses Herald journalism

New Secretary General of the Nordic Council appointed – and how friendly relations between neighbouring independent nation states work when scare-mongering is set aside and trust is established! By stewartb Talk of independence for Scotland often comes round quickly to Unionists making dire predictions for the nature of the land border between Scotland and whatever the nation state to the south ends up being called. Border posts and passport checks; restrictions on cross-border commuting for those living in border areas; bad consequences for cross-border trade in goods: these and other fears are promoted time after time in case making for … Continue reading We can still be friends across the border

We’ve had to sort this Scotsman header and report in the light of its tendency to come at things from the right. All the facts are there but they’ve put them in the wrong order. Here’s the bit they should have put first: Just one in five (21 per cent) say it is going badly, with 15 per cent saying quite badly and 6 per cent saying it is going very badly. It is estimated that around 21% of Scots can vote Tory, 15% probably will and 6% have serious problems with one or other sense even the ability to … Continue reading Scotsman reveals 6% of Scottish Tory voters don’t even feel wee pricks

Wait, Scotland’s Quarantine system is ‘well-managed?’ Professor Bauld on BBC Scotland this morning at 06:27am, cannot be serious. Hasn’t she read the newspapers? Doesn’t she know it’s a shambles? And that ‘loophole’, what about that, Prof? Eh? Wait, what’s this? You can hear their regular letter writers: ‘Undermined by system in England?’ She said the E word! Don’t encourage the nats! Stone her! There’s a new editor at the Scotsman. Will he try to save them? Has he dumped McLellan, Wilson and Monteith? Has Gina Davidson switched? And, on that loophole whereby some folk get past the soft English system … Continue reading Leading academic contradicts airport boss and every single reporter

They’ve been saying this ‘recently’ thing for some time now. It’s kind of stupid to keep saying it, know what I mean. If it was recently a while ago, it can’t really really be recently any more can it? Unless, you don’t want it to seem more established. See this: See that blue line representing Scotland? On February 1st, it picked up, after the care home folk had all been ‘done.’ See how it has climbed far faster than all of the other nations, for 14 days, two weeks now? Is it still recent? And, see how it’s far higher … Continue reading Not just ‘Recently’ Reporting Scotland’s language is ‘choice’

The death rate in England was twice as high as in Scotland, only three weeks ago. The lockdown there is working. and lessons have not been learned again: This time we really have to close the land border. Continue reading Death rate in England now only 50% higher than in Scotland

NHS Scotland has now vaccinated 22.4% of the population. NHS England has done, maybe, 22.5%. NHS Scotland has also, done, really, 99% of those in care homes, 99% of those over 80, 99% of those 75-79, 94% of all of those in care homes and 78% of those over 75. https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/ The Army has done, maybe, 0.5% of the above. NHS England has done quite a lot, allegedly, but has definitely done offered 100%. Continue reading Gotcha!

They have taken your personal experiences and they have exploited them for their own self-serving political influences. The words this morning of one of the women who had accused Alex Salmond, dug up again and relished by Glenn Campbell in a long sequence of such reports in the months after he was found not guilty. They will not let it lie. Would that they had been so determined to pursue their own criminal offenders in previous years. Anyhow, when I saw that line, above, I immediately thought she must be talking about the group of civil servants who initially enticed … Continue reading Just what I thought two years ago

This morning on the improved, Brewerless, BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show, Martin Geissler introduced some good news including the massive fall in infection rates in care homes, and wondered: It’s too early to say for certain, but this could be a vindication of the Scottish Government’s decision to give vaccinations in care homes priority over everything else. That was it but it was something I didn’t expect. He could, of course, have used the death rate, also in dramatic decline, and compared the data with those for England, where a terrible price for their strategy is still being paid. Too … Continue reading Has BBC Scotland vindicated the Scottish Government’s vaccine strategy??

The claims of the Defence Secretary seem exaggerated. A poll by Talking-up Scotland found that only 0.5% of them had been vaccinated by a soldier and only 2.7% had even seen soldiers at the centre they attended. There were 557 respondents to the the poll. 29 of them made comments. One nurse wrote: I worked with the British Army for a week. They didn’t want to be there and to be honest weren’t much use anyway. Others wrote: As far as I’m aware there’s been no army assistance in the Scottish Borders area at all. Saw 6 of them hanging … Continue reading Army vaccinating less than 1%