BBC Scotland will be dwelling on Scotland’s drug deaths for some time and the press such as the Herald below will be digging up multiple attack lines. None will be exploring the roots of the spike in Thatcherite policies from the 80s but will that matter anyway? I’ve mentioned before, that after a very difficult time coming off opioid painkillers myself, my empathy for drug addicts has been much intensified. I genuinely want to see increased efforts to save lives even if it means tholing the hypocrisy of the Tories but how widely shared are my views? Will the accusations … Continue reading Will blaming the SNP for drug deaths be even slightly damaging?

BBC Scotland seem to have lost interest in Covid infection levels these days: For some reason, they seem to think the public needs a real dose of the nasties with possible accusations that the SNP Government is failing. Back in March, Scotland’s infection rates were all the rage at BBC Scotland HQ. What’s changed? Ooh, look at that map. It’s just like the one of SNP MSPs. When you see that, maybe a hard border makes more sense? Northern Ireland looks like a satanic budgie. And, look at this: Scotland has the lowest infection rate in the UK, just below … Continue reading Covid in Scotland: Where are the latest cases? Eh well, not so much in Scotland at all

That the discharges of patients from hospitals into care homes did not cause outbreaks or deaths in those homes and that the over-use of agency staff and failed infection control in, especially, the larger privately-owned homes, did is now settled. Today, with the assistance of Conor Matchett, Highland councillor John Gordon (Independent) will try to shift the blame onto the Care Inspectorate who, for obvious reasons, reduced inspections during the pandemic. We read, mouth dropping as we do: He said: “I think that a lot of the problems that care homes are facing and what we have experienced during the … Continue reading Another attempt to shift the care home deaths blame

I agree fully that we should do all we can, now, to reduce drug deaths. Isn’t it encouraging that the SNP is supporting a Tory bill to do that even though they won’t support the safe injection strategy proven to be effective in hundreds of studies. But, this ‘crisis’ may be burning itself out. See these graphs: In a BBC Scotland report from December 2020: The National Records of Scotland statistics are six months late after a huge backlog in processing toxicology results and delays due to Covid-19. They show that two-thirds of those who died were aged 35 to 54. The … Continue reading Is the drugs death crisis deepening or coming to an end naturally?

The Herald gives the wee Lib Dems the platform to accuse that SNP Scottish Government of causing an exodus of teachers and sacrificing the futures of our weans or bairns. It’s true, more left in 2020 than in the previous years but, hey, here’s a thought, maybe the ‘SNP’ has replaced them all and more? In December 2020, the Scotsman’s Scott McNab, no SNP supporter he, revealed: Teaching numbers in Scotland’s schools have risen to their highest level in more than a decade, official figures show. It comes after hundreds of additional teachers were recruited to address concerns over burgeoning … Continue reading But the Scotsman said ‘Scottish teacher numbers hit highest level in over a decade’

Leaving aside the dubious extent to which this can reasonably be called a ‘carrier strike group’, why is the UK attempting to project power nearly 12 000 miles away by sea with a massively expensive but dated, 20th Century technology, in an area where the enemy is equipped with 21st Century ‘super weapons?’ Only at the end of the BBC report, do we read: China has recently embarked on a major uplift in its nuclear ballistic missile arsenal, building new launch silos in the remote Xinjiang region. It has also been developing Hypersonic Glide Vehicles, high-velocity missiles that can reach … Continue reading Projecting power with last century’s technology in a world of 21st Century ‘carrier killers’

News can be a bit here today, gone tomorrow, and if its the kind of thing which they might use to cast a squint negative light on that SNP Scottish Government, Scotland’s media will want longer lasting coverage. So, predict it’s coming, report it over at least two days and then bring it back for further days by getting people in to talk about it more. In August 2020, BBC Scotland managed to run with the SQA exam results story for 7 days! One day after the similar but far bigger ‘fiasco’ in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and both … Continue reading How to get the most out of SNPbaad News

BBC Reporting Scotland has contracted out it’s pandemic reporting after the latest viewing figures suggested they were in deep doo doo after years of telling fibs. TuS has stepped in to present the official figures any fool can access. If we can… Anyhow: Scotland has vaccinated more of its population than other parts of Rumpuk: 2. Lowest R Number thus lowest risk of spread 3. Lowest infection rate now and overall: And, finally, second lowest deaths because N Ireland cheated by being on a different island: Nuff? Continue reading BBC GB: ‘Scotland ahead on vaccines, behind on R Number, infections and deaths’

In April 2020 in the Glasgow Times: MORE than 80% of drug injectors in Glasgow would use a safe consumption room and the service could help those most at risk of dying from overdose, a major study has found. The first Scottish research of its kind involving 1469 drug users found that 75 per cent would be willing to use a supervised service but support was highest in Glasgow at 83 per cent. Willingness was greater among people who reported injecting heroin (76%), cocaine (79%), and those with experiences of homelessness (86%), public injecting (87%) and recent overdose (80%) suggesting drug consumption rooms … Continue reading Annie Wells wouldn’t know drastic action if it….

The SNP has been bizarrely accused by Annie Wells, MSP of refusing to invest in a time machine to go back and kill Margaret Thatcher There is, of course no other way to remove the circumstances which produced Scotland’s lost generation of drug addicts now approaching the ends of their shortened lives other than the above. Why? Drug-related deaths in Scotland 1979–2013: evidence of a vulnerable cohort of young men living in deprived areas by researchers at Glasgow University, published in 2018 in peer-reviewed BMC Public Health found that drug-related deaths (DRDs) were more common among those born between 1960 and 1980 and, … Continue reading Scottish Conservatives leadership hopeful accused of not being able to read long sentences