On BBC Scotland’s Mornings with Stephen Jardine, Dr Chris Smith, virologist at Cambridge University in South-East England (the nearest virologist to Scotland where we have none of that clever stuff ourselves), tells us that Covid infections will increase and: The school year is gonna kick off in September and that’s a big amplifier. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001pmhx at 55.54 Stephen Jardine makes no comment about that. Does Jardine know that Scottish schools went back yesterday and that if that amplifies Covid infection, listeners such as head teachers might want to take precautions a bit earlier than September? Continue reading Stephen Jardine worries about about a Covid spike when schools go back, 24 hours after they went back

Including an interview (below) with a very sweaty and distressed looking Fergus Smith ‘researcher’ in a sad attempt to join in with the Northern Ireland Police security breach, BBC Scotland’s repeated inserts in BBC Breakfast from around 06:30, opened with two dark reports not covered in their own website or by the press. Feeds directly to reporters? First, a ‘group of parents’ (Nicola from ASN Reform Scotland, Facebook) is going to protest about support for pupils with additional support needs. Not enough teachers they say and the Scottish Government, not the local authorities actually responsible for staffing schools, is asked … Continue reading Don’t look! Reporting Scotland down, down, down today with their own wee anecdotes

The media carpet-bombing of the SNP on party finances, ferries and f…anything they can dig up, could not last. The Yougov poll for 3-8 August has the SNP up at 41%, 10 points ahead of Labour and a 5% improvement on the last poll by Redfield & Wilton on 5-6 August. The inability of the MSM to completely conceal the Labour schisms on benefits, gas and oil, has surely weakened them. SNP supporters have used social media to good effect on this. Source: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/6i430fpvw4/Internal_Scotland_VI_230808_W_BPC.pdf Continue reading Boost for Yousaf with biggest lead over Labour since he was elected

When you click on the preview you get a story titled Do NHS staff feel safe to whistleblow? And when they do – what happens? which is entirely about an NHS England whistle-blower until McArdle claims: Mr Duffy’s case may have taken place in England, but it echoes experiences I have heard time and again from medics across NHS Scotland: colleagues closing ranks to accuse a whistleblower of wrongdoing; victimisation of a whistleblower through cuts in pay, changes to their job, and malicious grievances; retaliatory GMC referrals; bullying by senior management. https://www.heraldscotland.com/newsletters/bulletin/1698/ Evidence? One anonymous ‘medic’ and a BMA Scotland … Continue reading Is England performing better on waiting lists? How can a supposedly Scottish health correspondent even think this?

Today, 25.08.24, the Daily Record has: Ministers rejected £13.8m deal to buy catamaran and ploughed on with £400m ferry building fiasco It’s an old story based on this from 02 August 2023: Ministers have come under fire as an £800m scheme to create a Clyde shipbuilding revolution and solve Scotland’s ferry crisis with a fleet of 50 catamarans has been sunk. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23694719.anger-800m-clyde-shipbuilding-plan-resolve-ferries-crisis-sinks/ In August 2023, I see this Canadian catamaran had to call off in wind speeds of 55km/h or 34mph. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/hullo-ferries-cancellations-aug-15-aug-14-1.6936635 Meanwhile in Scotland with CalMac: Whether a sailing is cancelled or not is largely depending on the forecasted and current wind speeds … Continue reading Why the Scottish Government rejected catamarans for CalMac – safety in the stormiest waters any ferry service faces

Serious economists have long discounted GDP as a useful measure of the health of a country. GDP can rise at the same time as the incomes of 99% of the population falls and services are cut. In Scotland, but only in Scotland, the GDP deficit widens instantly [above] and revenue plummets as soon as you get an SNP Government, even before they get their feet under the table. It’s magic! Black Magic! Ireland’s GDP is soaring above every other country, as global corporations use it to funnel their wealth out of Europe, but life for the 99% in Ireland is … Continue reading GDP ‘deficit’ – rubbish I know but even that fell 27% in just one year under SNP government

Yesterday in the Herald: New CalMac service turmoil as ferry is sidelined for eight months. CALMAC ferry services have been plunged into new turmoil as one of its oldest vessels is to be forced out of action till at least the end of October due to new technical problems. https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23724925.new-calmac-service-turmoil-ferry-sidelined-eight-months/ Even BBC Scotland seems reluctant to sail with this voyage of discovery, of something, anything, bad on CalMac ferries and by association the SNP in government. The ferry in question is the 38 year-old MV Hebridean Isles which serves the Ardrossan in North Ayrshire to Campbelltown on the Mull of … Continue reading Herald fakes more ferries bad news on a 100% reliability day and in a 98% month

By stewartb – a long read My curiosity was piqued recently by a BBC News website article (published 25 July 2023) on the provision of care services in Scotland. (See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66274301) It featured an individual ‘who runs Bluebird Care’, a business providing ‘care at home’ services. The BBC reported him saying (with my emphasis): ‘his company was providing better value for money to the taxpayer, but was not getting supported.’ He was quoted: “That hourly rate (that his company receives from local authorities) has to pay for the staff, the training, the office team – EVERYTHING we do has to … Continue reading Commercialisation of care in Scotland – linking local services to US Private Equity