Written by Andrew Rosie Headline and image: Blame the Editor How the mighty have fallen. Founded as a radical liberal newspaper, The Scotsman under a succession of right-wing editors moved from championing devolution at a time when it was not fashionable to opposing independence in 2014.  Under the new editor, Euan McGrory, it seems to be more balanced than the Herald but it still retains an overwhelming number of Unionist columnists. Among these is Jim Duffy who nailed his colours to the mast by proclaiming on Friday that if Scotland breaks free from the UK it faces bankruptcy and would … Continue reading Duffy’s wet dream of Scotland’s bankruptcy

Readers may remember the 2016 version featuring then Health Secretary Shona Robison as the victim and, in the role of chief sneaky, jealous, gossip-monger, Jenny Marra and her BBC Scotland buddies. The Current Health Secretary, Jeanne Freeman, retires this year after perhaps an even more torrid time at the hands of the media, fed by child-death exploiters such as the New Labour favourite, Anna Sarwar and his BBC Scotland buddies. The above suggestion that Freeman had breached the ministerial code, was pounced on by all of Scotland’s media and covered, if a bit more hesitantly, by even the National. Leading … Continue reading The Pursuit of a Good Woman 2

Thanks to Bob Lamont for feeding me this one. I’ve chosen what the headline should be, based on the UK Government’s decision to ignore expert advice from its own expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation . Headlines matter. We know that many only read them before moving on. Two days ago, Matt Hancock admitted that England had vaccinated only 24% of care home residents and on the same day Jeanne Freeman said Scotland had vaccinated over 80%. Months before, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation was very clear that those who live in care homes were … Continue reading Has UK Government been slower to vaccinate the most-at-risk, rejecting official advice?

By the Herald’s Jack Aitchison (14?) Last updated: 9 mins ago Nicola Sturgeon has warned of even tougher lockdown restrictions if new rules in place from Saturday don’t reduce the rising case numbers. LIVE and updated 9 minutes ago! Wow, impressive of whit? Wait, those graphs? They’re cumulative. You’ve used the wrong ones Jack. These just keep on adding up. Don’t use them with Nicola or we’ll never get out of lockdown. When she said rising case numbers, she meant rising new cases. That tells you what’s happening now. See these: That’s a relief. They’ve started to fall. No need for … Continue reading Behind the curve and confused

On Question Time last night, after Dr Philippa Whitford had made a general and constructive point about the NHS, all parts of it, being still open and making no comparison with Scotland’s better data, Bruce pounced: And, Phillipa, let’s talk about Scotland for a moment because large parts of Scotland, I mean, the Central Belt, the most populous areas of Scotland, have been pretty much in lockdown since September and yet the Scottish Government has admitted, as has around the UK, that Covid is running out of control, so what’s gone wrong? This was prepared. It’s a lie. It’s an … Continue reading The Agenda: Fiona Bruce misquotes the Scottish Government

In the Telegraph yesterday, this story chills. It chills because of what I know and what the report only hints at. The report begins with these shocking facts: Coronavirus outbreaks in care homes have more than trebled in a month, with levels of infections now similar to those at the peak of the first wave, new figures show. The latest surveillance data from Public Health England (PHE) reveals that, in the week up to January 14, there were 977 outbreaks of suspected coronavirus – the second highest weekly total since records began in April. https://archive.is/q4dps#selection-379.0-389.64 Further on we hear that only 25% or … Continue reading The Wolf is at the Door: England’s callous elite prepares to sacrifice the old again

You remember the story with it’s sharp simple message suited to the mind of a four-year-old? I don’t care! It’s not fair! It isn’t! Apparently some adults think the same way: Discharge infected people into an old folk’s home? Are you mad? I don’t care if they have infection control. What if something goes wrong? My mum’s in one of those. You’ll not put an infected person in beside her. I’ll take her out before that. I’d rather she died in her own house! The above images, from the thousands we faced day-after-day, for months on end, as opposition politicians … Continue reading Is that it now?

I need to remind my self what the situation was before June: In explaining this, much is made of three factors: The Johnson Brexit The First Minister and Covid-19 Journalists love to explain the surge in terms of one or more of the above factors but there will be more to it. I have no hard evidence but I think: People are just getting used to the idea of decisions being made in the country they live in. Younger voters don’t remember when it was different. Some older voters has passed on. Covid, it may be insensitive to say, might … Continue reading 18 in a row!

Thanks to Peter A Bell for alerting me to this. Writing in THE WEEK yesterday, Joe Evans, makes this astonishing claim: Stricter lockdown measures north of the border have not produced lower death rates. and then toward the end: An Ipsos Mori poll of voters in Scotland published in November, when Scots were dying at a higher rate than England, found that 72% thought the Scottish government was handling the coronavirus well. This compared with just 25% who said the same of the UK government. This is just wrong and you’re left to wonder, is Evans just ill-informed or does he have … Continue reading Astonishing ignorance of the Week

BBC Scotland has been tip-toeing around the crisis in seafood exports for the last few days, either ignoring it, inserting very short reports of only seconds length and late in the broadcast or, as above, minimising it and using innocuous words or expressions in place of ones that may be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant – euphemism. The Times, which to be fair, is one of the few places still featuring anything you could call investigative and which seems prepared to go all the way in criticising the Johnson regime, had this: Scotland’s fishing industry faces a damaging and … Continue reading Fishy Propaganda by Euphemism