On Day 4 of the Herald/Labour/Ferret hatchet job on the SNP Government’s record in protecting the environment, as we approach COP26: Scotland’s rivers, lochs, canals and burns are in the worst state on record, with more than 400 damaged by pollution and other problems, according to the latest official analysis.  https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/19660883.scotlands-rivers-lochs-worst-state-record/ But, in paragraph two we read: So, this record pollution is not an actual physical increase but a change in reporting. Until the latest change, SEPA show this: Note a decline in reported pollution levels from 1999 to 2012, then new standards increasing the level of pollution reported, before … Continue reading Healthy rivers in Scotland 66% England ZERO!

Between the spring of 1788 and summer of 1790 fifty seven complaints were made to London Magistrates by women alleging that they had been molested and stabbed [on the buttocks] by an individual stranger in public. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/412011/1/LIBRARY_COPY_PhD_Thesis_Final_Formatted_Version.pdf Reports of ‘lady bottom cutters’ then spread like wildfire across the newly emerging mass media in the form of daily newspapers. While it cannot be shown that there were no actual incidents of bottom cutting, initially, the media-amplified spread has been described as one of the earliest example of a moral panic where mass media take reports of deviance, construct them into a … Continue reading Is spiking by injection just another moral panic like 18th Century ‘lady bottom cutters?’

BBC Scotland headed their September 16 report with ‘Sturgeon under fire over ‘in crisis’ ambulance service‘ and gave Douglas Ross the leading role. They had no photos and no data on ambulances waiting outside A&E but faux angry tirades from three opposition politicians. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-58574791 BBC Cornwall report today: The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) has declared a critical incident due to the pressures it is facing. A critical incident allows all health and care organisations to work together and focus on resolving the situation. The trust reported up to 100 people were waiting to be seen in the emergency department … Continue reading 25 ambulances and 100 waiting but neither Johnson nor Javid under fire

Today’s infection rate in England, 44 400 with ten times the population, is almost twice pro rata that in Scotland, 2 400. It’s more than twice, pro rata in Wales at 4 200 with only 3 fifths of the population. Against that background, making a connection with reduced mask wearing, BBC Health’s Daniel Kraemar tells us: The proportion of people wearing masks has steadily declined. Between 18 July and 3 October, the percentage of people in England, Scotland and Wales who said they had worn a face covering outside their home in the past seven days dropped nine percentage points, … Continue reading Masking the differences as England surges barefaced

In August (the most recent monthly data), NHS Scotland’s A&E department’s saw 77.8% within 4 hours. In the same period, NHS England saw, on average, only 66.2% and NHS Wales saw only 60.1%. NHS Scotland is thus 17.5% faster (11.6% of 66.2) than England and 26.5% faster than Wales. Today, as NHS Forth apologised for only treating 41% in 4 hours, BBC Scotland tell us: Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the latest figures were “not sustainable” and called for an independent review. He said: “Staff in health boards like Forth Valley cannot and should not be expected to … Continue reading Only NHS Scotland need apologise despite the best emergency services in the UK

Note first, the classic ‘Sturgeon’ disrespect. They’ve changed it on the website now to call him ‘Johnson’. I’m going to be lazy again, of maybe efficient (?) and just use my May 2021 rebuttal of Macwhirter’s ‘Sturgeon no better’ drivel. Here it is: Johnson and his SAGE chums delayed the lockdown. The power to do so, but still without the power to borrow for furlough, was devolved only at the end of March 2020. Scottish advisers could attend SAGE but not debate decisions. Johnson spoke of ‘taking it on the chin’ and Whitty is still on Youtube explaining why we … Continue reading Starmer far worse than FM says Robertson

The Herald’s one-sided ahistorical account, written for it by the Labour Party’s chums at the Ferret, reaches Day 3 with accounts of air pollution rising in some of our streets. You know, those places where combustion engines do cause a lot of pollution, do put lives at risk and, of course, where the decisions that matter if you’d like to change things, are reserved to Westminster and have been since the first combustion engine vehicle appeared in 1892, Tory or Labour government. Once more, I’m not saying it’s OK but I am saying our media should be giving us the … Continue reading Say after us: ‘Scotland is more polluted!’

In a piece largely driven by UK data, the Scotsman allow Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie a platform to scare the public with, of course, an ill-informed rant: Scottish Labour said it was time to “raise the alarm” over Scotland’s Covid situation. “It is clear now that case numbers remain at a worrying level across Scotland and that more lives are being lost,” said health spokesperson Jackie Baillie. “Despite this, the SNP government continues to keep its head in the sand and pretend that everything is going to plan. “We know that vaccination is key to tackling this pandemic. But in … Continue reading Jackie Baillie feeds Scotsman scare as infections in Scotland plateau way below rUK

Also the winning the Mince award for journalism, the Herald tell us: Critics have attacked a decision to continue making secondary pupils wear masks in classrooms, branding it an “assault on children’s rights”. Members of Stand By Me Scotland (SBMS), a parent-teacher campaign group, said they were “appalled and disgusted” after ministers announced current Covid-19 mitigations in schools would be extended. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19658430.covid-scotland-school-mask-rules-blasted-campaigners/ Stand By Me Scotland has 1 151 members. They don’t have to be parents with bairns in school. There are 792 000 pupils in Scotland’s schools. How many parents or carers do they have? Let’s give SBMS the benefit of the … Continue reading Herald wins ‘We’ll Print Anything’ award with ‘Only one in a thousand parents ‘blast’ school mask rules

Let me be clear from the outset that by the word ‘Scot’, I mean absolutely anyone who lives here, who regardless of ethnicity or birthplace or other largely physical identifier, has a level of fondness for the place and who wants it to be better than it currently is. I can’t rule out unionists from this group though I think they misjudge the situation. As for Tories, well OK, but that’s quite a stretch given the dominant narrative about Scotland their leaders daily spout and the actions to harm us, their Westminster bosses favour. So, to the point, the above … Continue reading ‘Scots’ different enough to be different?