Yma o hyd As you are no doubt learning, the World Cup will soon be upon us. England and Wales will both be there. Scotland won’t (again!). As with many World Cup squads, Wales have their own song. Usually this is some poppy crap, fronted by some “pop star” whose career is on the wane. We have had more than our fair share of this. This link will take you to this year’s Wales squad song, “yma o hyd”,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Fag8ZQcz4. What does it all mean you wonder. Well wonder no more. Yma o Hyd lyrics in full Dwyt ti’m yn … Continue reading Yma o hyd – We are still here

Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA Alasdair Galloway The most recent whine by the Unionist side recently has been when they picked up on a statement by the EU that “all EU member states, except Denmark, are required to adopt the euro and join the euro area”, which Douglas Ross used to pose the question “Who’s lying to the Scottish people, the European Union or Nicola Sturgeon?” There are a great many reasons why Ross’s use of this quote is both wrong and highly misleading. First of all, we need to draw a distinction between formal rules (all the codified laws and regulations … Continue reading Scotland and the EU: Sod’s Law on testosterone

Tom Gordon, is at it again. ‘Fresh doubts over Sturgeon’s care service shakeup?‘ A tabloid approach going back centuries, undermining a policy development, carefully and with good intentions, developed by many political and academic figures, with politicised associations such as ‘Sturgeon’ or ‘Salmond’. Calling it a ‘shakeup’ to imply no real philosophical basis. Yesterday, the actual expert on these matters, Derek Feeley, Chair of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, spoke to Holyrood’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee. He said that there were “huge opportunities” in the bill. He added that it is “incredibly encouraging that we are … Continue reading A National Care Service: Fresh reminders of Tom Gordon’s unreliable reporting

Image: PA From Deltapoll with a sample of 1 049 for 4-7 November, UK Labour have dropped from 58% to 47% and the Cons have climbed a bit from 25% to 29%. In Scotland, with a sample of 90, the SNP are at 56%, Labour at 29% and the Cons at 7%. Click to access Deltapoll-221107_voteint.pdf Once more, small samples but that’s nine in a row with little sign of a Labour surge here and the SNP averaging around 50%. Continue reading 9th sub-poll has Labour Scotland failing to catch up and SNP at 56%

Spot the UK Health Secretary Thanks to reader Scott for alerting me to this from the Daily Mail today: NHS England is investigating a ‘potential serious incident’ after giving the wrong type of flu vaccine to some over 65s. A ‘small number’ of people who have received an autumn flu jab have mistakenly been given a standard egg culture influenza vaccine (QIVe), which is known to be less effective. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11404535/NHS-flu-jab-blunder-fears-65s-given-WRONG-vaccine.html?ito=email_share_article-masthead No UK newspaper, no BBC News region and no opposition politician has called for Steve Barclay to resign, so we’re calling for it in support of our readers in England. Why … Continue reading Calls for UK Health Secretary to resign after pensioners given wrong flu jab

Scotland’s MSM have, as expected, turned the plans for a national care service, in the wake of mass pandemic deaths due to corporate greed, into another opportunity to question the SNP Government’s competence. The opposition parties with the GMB and Lisa Summers, above, have little positive to say about the plans and, so far, are giving no space to the actual expert on these matters, Derek Feeley, Chair of the Independent Review of Adult Social Care, who spoke to Holyrood’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, yesterday. He said that there were “huge opportunities” in the bill. He added that … Continue reading Care expert: “In Scotland, we could be way beyond what other countries aspire to!”

Post-Brexit, Ireland has become almost completely free of its former dependency on congested and expensive land routes, through England from Liverpool to the channel ferries at Calais. Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s Minister for European Affairs, told RTÉ News a year ago: “The whole port, the [Nord Pas de Calais] region, the [Dunkirk] chamber of commerce, is behind this, to get even more connections to Ireland. We only had 12 direct routes to France before Brexit, now it’s 44. We are looking as well next summer towards tourism to get Irish tourists into this region, but also of course, tourists from Northern France, … Continue reading Ireland 44 Scotland 0: The other ferry fiasco story not being covered

Image: Politics Home stewartb The latest A&E waiting time statistics for NHS Scotland are getting the usual coverage on the BBC News website. Yes the data are disappointing but this is probably not surprising: there is no quick fix available to NHS Scotland or the Scottish Government. In a UK context, the NHS in Scotland is NOT exceptional in the length of waits and it is NOT exceptional in its inability to fix its problems quickly. However, it is worthwhile reflecting on the comments from opposition politicians in Scotland quoted in today’s (8 November) BBC article. Let’s get Tory spokesperson, … Continue reading Labour fails to treat UK’s worse health service

From Public Health Scotland today, we see that Scotland’s largest hospital, in the First Minister’s constituency, the QEUH, had 2 868 deaths in the last year but, based on previous years, had been predicted to have 3 176. This represents a 9.7% reduction or improvement. From Public Health England, the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in which the PM has his constituency, 2 205 deaths were predicted but 2 370 were observed. This represents a 7.5 increase or deterioration. Sources: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/hospital-standardised-mortality-ratios/hospital-standardised-mortality-ratios-july-2021-to-june-2022/dashboard/ https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiNmEyNTIyZjQtOWQ2NC00ODlkLTkwMjItNmYxZDVmNTI2YWY2IiwidCI6IjUwZjYwNzFmLWJiZmUtNDAxYS04ODAzLTY3Mzc0OGU2MjllMiIsImMiOjh9 Continue reading Sturgeon’s local hospital performing much better than Sunak’s

From Public Health Scotland below, every Scottish hospital is saving more lives than statisticians have predicted based on previous years and the system overall is tight with almost no postcode lottery. In sharp and disturbing contrast, above, NHS England is in trouble with large numbers doing less well than they should and lives being lost when they might be saved. Off course, we see greater inequality in England with 12 hospitals in affluent areas doing far better. Now that’s a postcode lottery! If ever we saw visually the difference between the two countries, the above two funnel plots do it. … Continue reading NHS England in crisis as 10 hospitals record unacceptable high death rates while NHS Scotland have none – now that’s a postcode lottery!