At around 06:30am, we heard: Police Scotland has been carrying out a survey on how the public has perceived its performance during the pandemic. They say they’ve had over 30 000 responses from the public since April last year. While offences in public spaces have dropped along with retail crimes, officers are concerned about a rise in hidden crimes like cyber crime and domestic violence. 85% say they feel safe in their local area. Imagine that last bit had been different, say only 15% had felt safe? Would that have been the opening line? Think back to the drug deaths … Continue reading What should be the headline?

Fresh from success in vaccinating 98% of care home residents, NHS Scotland has quickly pulled ahead with overall vaccinations per day: 1st February England 280 513 Scotland 34 881 or 124% pro rata 2nd February England 300 173 Scotland 38 484 or 128% 3rd February England 378 794 Scotland 45 085 or 120% How will Ruth Davidson deal with this next week? https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/vaccinations Continue reading Scotland vaccinating 20% more than England for third day in a row

In December 2020, only 72.1% of patients in NHS England were seen in 4 hours: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2020-21/ In the same period, in Scotland, 85.3% were seen in 4 hours. https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/nhs-performs-weekly-update-of-emergency-department-activity-and-waiting-time-statistics/ I feel we should offer to help in some way. Persuade Jeanne Freeman to take over? Continue reading Scotland’s emergency departments much faster: Should they help England out?

The Black Watch arrive in London for a 30 seconds training course on how to stick sharp objects into old folk. After Michael Gove revealed his lack of knowledge of how many care home vaccinations have been done, as opposed to offered, in England, the Scottish Government has offered the help of Scottish soldiers. The move was triggered by the realisation that England has fallen so far behind in care home vaccinations that they will not publish the data. The Scottish Health Secretary, Jeanne Freeman, is also reported to have been upset by the fact that England does not seem … Continue reading Scottish Army sent south to help deliver on care home VACCINE OFFER

There’s a word missing in the headline – the. The headline above the text dropped the the too: Covid Scotland: International travel had ‘major impact on first wave death rates’ In the text, they do write: International travel had the biggest impact on death rates. Here’s what the research by Aberdeen University actually said: A new study comparing countries most severely hit by COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic has found that international travel showed the biggest impact on increases in death rates. They found that once adjustments were made for these factors (age, obesity, smoking, population density), … Continue reading Does missing the ‘the’ make all the difference to corporate media

Throughout the day today, this from BBC Scotland: A Scottish cancer charity says it’s supporting patients who have a lower chance of survival, because Covid led to services being put on hold. During the first lockdown, 4 000 fewer people were diagnosed with the disease, when screening and testing was put on hold. Although services are back up and running, Cancer Support Scotland say it’s seeing patients who’ll die sooner because of a delay in their diagnosis. We’ve been hearing of tsunamis of cancer deaths since the early days of the pandemic restrictions. The first use of the word, I … Continue reading 10 months later Where IS this ‘tsunami of cancer deaths?’

Typically selective from BBC Scotland throughout this morning: Council employees will start lodging equal pay claims for what a trade union says us a discriminatory pay agreement. The GMB union alleges those working in traditionally male dominated roles are paid substantial bonuses which aren’t available to those working in jobs commonly done by women. Glasgow City Council had a similar dispute and was forced to pay half a billion pounds to settle thousands of claims. Would that have been an SNP Council, do tell? Labour maybe? Did the GMB actually negotiate the discriminatory deal in the first place? No? Some … Continue reading Discrimination Yes, but negotiated BY a trade union WITH a Labour Council

The London School of Economics, eh? They sound impressive. Trusted independent intellectuals who say that independence would hurt the Scottish economy more than Brexit. Oh, well, that’s it I suppose. We’ll need to give up. Oh wait, is it possible they do research and get the results that suits whoever funded the research or whoever can influence their bids for future funding? No, surely not. Hmmmm. In 2008, Libya paid LSE £1.5 million for Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (the elder son) to have his plagiarised PhD thesis passed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSE%E2%80%93Gaddafi_affair#:~:text=In%202008%2C%20the%20LSE%20granted,%2Dwritten%20and%2For%20plagiarised. In 2005: Kids Company has suffered further media criticism after it was … Continue reading The LSE’s Scottish research cannot be trusted

Economic renewal – let’s do it again!  Challenges to be faced – with aspiration not trepidation. By stewartb Much has been written on the demise of the oil & gas industry operating on the continental shelf of NW Europe. This has been expressed in different ways at different times: ‘we’ve passed peak oil’; ‘production costs are too high to attract investment’; ‘the fall in oil price makes the province uncompetitive’. And more recently there is this: ’for the climate, we must leave the oil & gas in the ground’. For the latter, advocates range from wanting an end to production … Continue reading ‘Now we know what the level of England’s oil import dependency will be when Scotland is an independent nation state’

In the Herald today: The number of patients who became infected with Covid-19 while already in hospital has hit record levels, figures show. According to Public Health Scotland, the first full week of January, ending January 10, saw 219 hospital patients catch Covid-19 while on a ward for treatment unrelated to coronavirus. Record levels eh? Let’s see: Looks bad at first sight doesn’t it but we’ve learned to be wary of graphs haven’t we? What percentage are we looking at here. Well the NHS Scotland report tells us: 113 (0.8%) were reported as probable hospital onset (first positive specimen on days 8 … Continue reading Hospital infections up but still far fewer than in NHS England