Gordon Bennet! That’s a corker of a front page. Will it work? Will it attract or repel Sunday-readers? Natural disaster? What, really? Have the wind turbines killed all our birdlife? Are they causing a surge in ear cancer? Are they attracting UFOs? Is the headline a bit National Enquirer? Seriously though, this is another disgraceful piece of misrepresentation by the Herald. Leaving aside the irrelevant references to job creation, the headline above and the sub are based on UK data from the UK Department for Business Energy, for April to June 2021, indicating a fall of 9.6% across the UK … Continue reading Herald uses UK data to blame Scotland for UK ‘surge’ in fossil fuel use

In the Times today, co-written by John Boothman, former head of news at BBC Scotland before being moved on after bullying the daughter of Margo MacDonald: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/16/bbc-scotland-news-executive-john-boothman-moves-jobs BBC ‘bully’ finally moved out of top news job after staff protests Nicola Sturgeon kept Scotland in the dark over its first mass Covid outbreak against the advice of her health minister and the deputy chief medical officer — and a leading scientist says it potentially exposed more people to the virus. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nicola-sturgeon-overruled-covid-aides-cover-up-outbreak-nike-conference-edinburgh-sd7zszg3p?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1633848594 The remit of the health minster and the deputy chief medical officer is to put public health as a priority … Continue reading Sturgeon decision on Nike conference shown to have been wise

Foreword: I am of course, like Prof Pennington, not an epidemiologist or a virologist, though I do, again like him, know what it is to have turned up my nose at Wishaw spam. On the 20th June, the Sunday Post, reported: Scotland faces an influx of 6.4 million visitors this summer as UK staycationers head here in record numbers, according to industry data. Tracking research commissioned by GB national tourist boards, including VisitScotland, is used to measure UK residents’ holiday intentions, with the latest Scotland report, up to the end of last month, showing a “more positive” outlook than at … Continue reading Is this why Covid soared in Scotland from mid-August?

ACH (Write your own acronym – a complete….) is getting heavy media coverage with his call for weekly reporting of ambulance waiting times given the titchy size of his party. Shouldn’t the Greens have a bigger presence? Anyhow, it seems that his boss Sir Ed Davey is not calling for the same from NHS England where they are only prepared to make them up monthly despite them having been ‘off the scale’ according to BBC UK. Was ACH prompted by one of the two opposition leaders he’s keen to ally with, Douglas Ross, based on a typically dyscalculic report from … Continue reading Will Alex Cole Hamilton get Ed Davey to demand ambulance waiting times every week too?

There are five columns on this Scotsman page and former New Labour minister, Brian Wilson, with Lord McConnell’s special adviser, Susan Dalgety, make up the fifth column. These two are regular attack mutts on the SNP on an almost daily basis. Unhampered by any responsibility to offer evidence or, heaven forfend, the truth. I probably don’t need to remind of just how venal they can be but: Anyhow, Fifth Columnists: A fifth column is any group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can … Continue reading The Fifth Columnists?

There were around 18 000 new cases of Covid-19 in the same week as the TRNSMT festival: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases. Around 50 000 attended and according to BBC Scotland, 551 of new cases had been at the festival, though it is not clear home many picked up the infection there. Either way, that looks like 3% of all infections in Scotland or 1% of those attending – not big news. Continue reading TRNSMT transmitted a tiny 1% of cases

A long time ago, I was a fan of Kevin McKenna’s writing, appearing often in the Guardian. On issues of social justice and economic compassion, I thought him the most articulate and persuasive. Then his initial responses to the Yes movement, equally articulate and no doubt persuasive for many but, of course, just wrong like most Labour supporters of the time. Unlike George Monbiot then, he did not appear to get that this is a leftist movement or that the SNP is clearly to the left, on taxation, benefits and human rights of the Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems. … Continue reading Kevin McKenna’s plot: lost or still laser-sharp?

The above claims are astonishing in the nerve or disassociation with reality required to lie on such a scale. Goebbels would be proud. RD Laing would be worried. The sick will not attend and some will die. On A&E, NHS Scotland is 26% better than NHS Wales and at least 17.5% faster than NHS England (they fiddle the data): https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ae-activity-and-waiting-times/ae-activity-and-waiting-times-month-ending-31-august-2021/ https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Health-and-Social-Care/NHS-Hospital-Waiting-Times/Accident-and-Emergency/performanceagainst4hourtargetallemergencycarefacilities-by-localhealthboard https://inews.co.uk/news/health/nhs-england-covering-up-true-scale-of-12-hour-hospital-waits-1335856 On hospital discharges, the average number of beds occupied per day is the same as it was in 2019 and Scotland has 50% more beds than NHS England: https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly-figures-for-august-2021 https://www.interweavetextiles.com/how-many-hospital-beds-uk/ On staffing, Scotland has 50% more nurses … Continue reading Living a lie and the collateral damage to all of us

By stewartb It looks as if BBC Scotland has been found out once again! On 5 October btl of the TuS post entitled ‘NHS Scotland’s super-efficient surgery machine’ I asked if anyone else had heard on Reporting Scotland that evening the piece from BBC Scotland’s health correspondent. Had she really just referred to ‘thousands of cancelled operations’. No one offered confirmation. Today’s TuS blog again reveals the performance of NHS Scotland regarding surgery. It shows up a mismatch between reports. This can now be demonstrated not by recollections of an RP presentation but by an article on the BBC News … Continue reading BBC Scotland Lisa Summers lies again and again

Infection rate falls again in Scotland contrary to trend elsewhere in UK. BBC Scotland busy with Andy Murray ring crisis. Fewer in ICU than at any time since 5th September. BBC Scotland busy with Andy Murray ring crisis. Continue reading Infection rates climbing again in 3 out of 4 parts of UK