Diverting funds the Tory and SNP ways

He’s back again, taking turns with Macwhirter, to predict the end of the First Minister. As with his pal, the language skirts the fringes of misogyny and sado-masochistic erotica. Gordon, unlike Macwhirter, avoids suggesting she is like a headmistress but instead goes for that dark dom, Darth Vader, to describe her. There was I thinking, Princess Leia. Anyhow, to business, the SNP collected money from its members to fund a second independence referendum then spent some of it on other things. That does sound wrong and it should investigated. But, they didn’t take money from right-wing, Unionist, dark forces in … Continue reading Diverting funds the Tory and SNP ways

Death rate less than one eighth of January figure so no basis for Project Fear

On the shelves behind a working-from-home BBC Scotland presenter yesterday, I spotted the spine of a book titled ‘Project Fear.’ I meant to go straight to my PC and capture the deeply ironic image but then forgot and can’t see it now. It was this one: However, I can’t even find her name now. Anyhow, never mind, they’re still working away to make us worry and to keep us too anxious to consider going it alone. One day with a high death rate and that news jumps into the headline. It is a fact. It did happen but it’s not … Continue reading Death rate less than one eighth of January figure so no basis for Project Fear

BREAKING: Scotland has given more first vaccine doses than any other part of UK

As of today, Scotland has given the First Dose of the Covid vaccine to 72.3% of the population, overtaking the much-vaunted Welsh system at 72.2% and England’s world-beating rollout, at 68.6%. The gap is expected to widen further in the next few days and weeks. Reporting Scotland is planning a special edition when we hit 100%. Kidding. They haven’t noticed this surge, catching Wales, over the last 4 months. They have other things on their little minds, like today, death: These shocking developments in the last 24 hours combined with a lower death rate in recent months and over the … Continue reading BREAKING: Scotland has given more first vaccine doses than any other part of UK

Flag waving buffoon called out by SNP

From: snpmedia@snpmedia.net  Ian Blackford MP has called out the Prime Minister for his own racist comments, repeating the powerful statement by footballer Tyrone Mings who said “this government doesn’t get to stoke the fires of racism and then pretend to be disgusted by it when it happens.” Mr Blackford asked the Prime Minister what sanctions he thinks would be appropriate for someone who publishes racist content – such as describing Africans as ‘flag waving piccaninnies’ with ‘watermelon smiles’ – as previously written by Boris Johnson in a newspaper article.  Mr Blackford also criticised the UK government’s own report on racism … Continue reading Flag waving buffoon called out by SNP

Reporting Scotland putting money before lives and sharing offensive tripe as always

.…to where it was in the 1970s Most of us know what’s what here. Don’t fn go if you don’t need to! This is just offensive tripe from airport bosses, a bunch of self-interested psychopaths who care for nothing but their inflated salaries. Straight-off at 1.45pm today, Reporting Scotland siding with the selfish interests of big business and a minority who think their cheap holidays in the sun trump the lives of the many who fear that a new mutation of the virus will arrive and kill their grandparents or condemn their children to a lesser life with long-Covid. Yesterday, … Continue reading Reporting Scotland putting money before lives and sharing offensive tripe as always

Herald’s compromised ferret doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it

The formerly edgy, radical, people’s fact-checker, The Ferret, is comfortably in the lap of the Herald and seems not to have bitten Tom Gordon, Brian Taylor or Lord Dunlop yet. Brian Macwhirter has of course got his protective gear on. In a biting investigation, one of three by the media mustelid dominating the Herald today, we read: Ten of Scotland’s major newspapers are owned by just three men: Rupert Murdoch, Lord Rothermere and Frederick Barclay. They are all billionaires who, personally or through their businesses, have used the law to avoid paying tax. An analysis by The Ferret reveals that all but … Continue reading Herald’s compromised ferret doesn’t bite the hand that feeds it

I’m sorry, I seem to have Macwhirtered again

Brian Macwhirter’s troubled, borderline creepy, obsession with the First Minister resurfaces. Does she dress too well for him to relax? If she were more dowdy like his old Primary teachers in the 50s, would he be better able to take a telling from her? Mature readers will understand. The data shifted, she shifted. We’re glad she did. It’s the kind of intelligent behaviour you don’t always get from politicians and which, judging by the many opinion polls, most Scots are deeply appreciative of having in a First Minister, whose actions might make a big difference in our lives. Every time … Continue reading I’m sorry, I seem to have Macwhirtered again

Jackie Baillie’s numeracy lags behind most weans

Yesterday, Labour’s Finance Spokesperson, Jackie Baillie, revealed both a wee plus and several minuses for her private education. Her claim that Scotland’s vaccine effort lags behind the rest of the UK is bizarre when you see the data: Scotland is, to be precise, very precise, a teeny 0.03% behind Wales, though closing fast, and probably ahead by the time you read this, but, requiring no such precision, miles ahead of England and Northern Ireland. That’s first jags but on second jags, though 5.5% behind Wales, we’re still ahead of England and Northern Ireland. So, to be fair, Jackie, that’ll be … Continue reading Jackie Baillie’s numeracy lags behind most weans

Scotland’s biggest wind farms pay tax to London

The Labour-aligned Ferret ‘fact checker’ and ‘corporation-hunter’, in its new alliance with the corporation behind the Herald, makes much of the way in which the owners of wind farms are depriving Scottish public services of funds but little of the fact that it is the UK Government and thus the Union which lies at the root of this, like so many other, problems. Of course, the fact that were the UK to tax these corporations properly, you can be sure that Scottish public services would not see any benefit, is left unconsidered. The SNP already has a commitment to levying … Continue reading Scotland’s biggest wind farms pay tax to London

Have Scottish substitution measures limited opioid deaths in the pandemic?

In July 2020, researchers in Italy identified a major trend in drug abuse, triggered by the pandemic, away from classic streets drugs consumed in social, group settings, toward greater misuse of psychoactive prescription drugs, in isolation, such as benzodiazepines and opioid painkillers. [1] Writing, in Frontiers in Psychiatry, they suggest that the pandemic measures such as border closures affected illicit drug routes and led to a scarcity of classic street drugs such as cannabis, cocaine and MDMA. The researchers suggested, in the light of these trends, improvements in postal police controls to stem the intensification and spread of this activity … Continue reading Have Scottish substitution measures limited opioid deaths in the pandemic?