On Sunday 23rd March 2020 Boris Johnson broadcast to the nation telling us to “stay at home” and isolate in an attempt to stem the spread of a virus named Covid 19 (Covid) which at the time we knew little other than since late in 2019 it had made its way round much of the world doing great damage in neighbouring countries such as Italy and France where the health care systems were barely able – and arguably on occasion unable – to provide health care. Johnson’s announcement marked the beginning of what has come to be known as “the … Continue reading Epidemics, Pandemics, Syndemics and the short life of Margaret Devlin

By cuckooshoe Re “The BBC Scotland broadcast this morning finishes with ‘Scottish Labour accusing the SNP of attempting to distract from their own failure to drive down child poverty.’” BBC Scotland should have ended by asking what a UK Labour government would do. From the statement by Shirley-Anne Somerville on the tackling child poverty delivery plan annual progress report for 2022-23. On 13 June 2023, during his response to Shirley Anne Somerville’s statement in Holyrood on Child Poverty, Paul O’Kane (West Scotland) (Labour), see above for a picture….of his dad, said “It is revealing that the cabinet secretary was only … Continue reading Child poverty – BBC Scotland should ask what a UK Labour government would do

Less than a week ago, the Herald’s Scott Wright was just back from Croatia to tell us how CalMac could learn from his one experience of just one of their many crossings and operators. Today, Alison Rowatt tells us about one day, ‘a few weeks ago‘ when her day was spoiled: We were booked on the 09.45 to Brodick. In the queue early, small people and dog excited, can’t wait to get there and start the holiday. The sailing time came and went. Still parked in the queue. The word went from car to car: it’s too windy to sail. … Continue reading Herald has second ‘what we did on our holidays’ report in effort to keep ‘ferry fiasco’ afloat

Intrepid Reporting Scotland investigators were in Dunoon yesterday, called in by a councillor (party not mentioned) to claim no new NHS provision. By today, they’d found a worried local mum and could now claim “Patients across the Cowal Peninsula are struggling to access NHS dental care.” There is, of course, a 44 minute ferry crossing from Dunoon to Gourock, which has been operating its 13 crossings each way, every day, at 100% reliability for some time now. The local authority, Inverclyde says: All local dentists are accepting NHS patients. Please register with a dentist locally from the list below. https://www.inverclyde.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/health-services-health-improvement-wellbeing/dentists … Continue reading ‘Ferry Fiasco’ to be replaced by ‘Dentistry Disaster’ as BBC reveal access for most deprived ‘plummets’ to only 99.9999..%

Under pressure to report on the schism in the Labour Party between its Scottish branch and its leader and, laughably, between the Scottish branch comments in the last few days and its comments only days earlier, BBC Reporting Scotland had a go this morning. They were careful to make sure that they opened with ‘that’s according to research produced for the SNP.’ See what they’re doing with ‘produced for‘ as opposed to the more common ‘commissioned by?’ Anyhow, what matters most is the lack of any independent, credible, research specifically on those families more directly impacted by the cap in … Continue reading SNP policies have blunted the impact of the two child benefit cap Scottish Labour cannot do anything about

On 20 March 2023, in the Scotsman: “I have made clear my belief Scotland’s government should look as much as possible like the people we represent. As well as being the first ever First Minister from a minority ethnic background, I am pleased that a record number of women have agreed to serve, as well as a significant blend of younger and more experienced members. That said, every single appointment has been made on merit.” and Jackie Baillie, the deputy leader of Scottish Labour, said Mr Yousaf had assembled a bunch of “B rate politicians”. https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/humza-yousaf-unveils-full-cabinet-with-majority-of-women-for-first-time-ever-4084220 Nar mirrors in her … Continue reading Feminist charity did not criticise Humza at all

The Reporting Scotland team have been scouring the country’s teeth for weeks looking for a shortage of NHS dentists after hearing but not sharing this: From Public Health Scotland in January 2023: 95.4% of the Scottish population were registered with an NHS dentist as at 30 September 2022. Nearly all adults living in the most deprived areas were registered with an NHS dentist in September 2022, compared to 91.9% in the least deprived areas. As at 30 September 2022, 87.2% of children were registered, compared to 87.4% on 30 September 2021. As at 30 September 2022, 2.6 million registered patients had seen an … Continue reading Reporting Scotland staff have big smile as they find ‘NHS dentist crisis’ in Dunoon despite ferry fears!

Are you getting bored living up here in calm Jockoland? No health strikes at all while every profession in England has already struck several times with goodness knows the human costs. On reddit, I’m called a ‘ghoul’ for this kind of talk. Most will know that my only focus is the Scottish media’s failure to cover these events so as to inform the people they pretend to have a purpose in informing. Don’t they worry about folk afraid to turn up in a hospital or the old folk putting off a visit to relatives because they think the trains are … Continue reading No rail strikes in SNP Scotland

The Herald’s David Leask is on the case of the latest ferry fiasco narrative. Today, we hear that owners, the Independent-run Orkney Council, with a 62% of the vote Lib Dem MSP for the islands, anticipates two of its nine ferries breaking down and, of course, plans to pass the buck to the SNP Government in Edinburgh which subsidises it. Councillors have warned they may have to consider evacuation proposals for the outer isles. Well-down the page, we read, with interest: So, the Council took advantage of EU funding then lost it due to Brexit? Why do they then think … Continue reading 22% of not-SNP-council-owned ferries could go out-of-service and require evacuation of islands!

Under the headline ‘Doctors’ call for return of face mask guidance BBC Scotland is quoting the Scottish Healthcare Workers Coalition ‘accusing the Scottish Government of playing Russian Roulette with patients and staff.’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66215539 The Scottish Healthcare Workers Coalition seems to be no more than a Facebook/Twitter group of 79 and 94 followers respectively. The FB page has had 3 posts in the last month and no new members in the last week – ‘growing pressure?’ The Twitter thread, with 429 following, seems restricted to healthcare workers affected by Long Covid. Clearly not much of a presence in the context of … Continue reading Unreliable sources on face mask safety – BBC Scotland allows tiny Facebook group of 79 to ‘accuse’ Scottish Government