Posted in the early hours, like me often, this on the BBC Scotland website: Is Scotland moving towards independence? By James CookChief news correspondent for The Nine: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54630729 It’s long and OK at first until, 25 wee paras down we see: First, the more that campaigners for the union highlight Scotland’s dependence on tax receipts from the richer south east of England, the less attractive such a state of affairs may appear. Increasing numbers of voters in England are asking why they should be writing the cheques and many north of the border are wondering why Scotland is poorer than … Continue reading Deep in the Mix James cooks the books

By stewartb I am prompted to write this now for a couple of reasons: the current doubt over what Barnett Consequential funding Scotland will get from Westminster’s borrowing to support our economy impacted by Covid-19, and for how long – and such uncertainty over Consequentials is the norm. And this: the recently heard claim from scare-mongering Unionists – also from media Vox Pop (‘scare-mongered’?) contributors –  that Covid-19 and the need for emergency funding shows up that an independent Scotland could not have coped with the financial challenge – and if independent, we would have been doomed! So it is … Continue reading Anything they can do in emergency we can do too, once independent – the case of New Zealand’s public finances

Douglas Ross is developing a reputation for fibbing to compare with his boss in London. His latest excuse for not turning up where he should be, is that he didn’t vote for school meals because ‘he was in Scotland.’ Running the line for a bit extra on some football pitch? He insists that he still has plans to implement free school meals in Scotland when he wins the next election. Don’t laugh. Ross is famous for not turning up. In 2017: And earlier this year: He doesn’t just fib to cover up his absences. He claimed in September that Nicola … Continue reading They seek him here, they seek him there

It was bound to happen. If you find yourself rejected, time after time, to survive, you will start to say and to believe this sort of thing: We never wanted to be popular. It’s quite shallow really. We’re not going to court popularity like those others do. We’re better than that. Yesterday, Jenny Marra MSP didn’t disappoint to disappoint us, again with this intervention: It’s clear. For Marra, like the others in the current pile-on, civil servants should not just do what they’re told, they should accept abuse from politicians without complaining. Does the bitterness comes from this? Never better … Continue reading Scottish Labour to Just give up!

It was three hospitals, yesterday. It was three wards in one hospital the previous. The same Herald journalist (14) wrote these multiple (2) stories which use the word ‘multiple’ accurately if unhelpfully. I wrote, previously and I repeat: Do you think your headlines might discourage some anxious folk from attending? Might some then get worse, even die? Is this the Herald’s trusted, quality journalism? Continue reading Multiple Herald Stories exaggerate numbers!

Pennington was never really a ‘leading scientist’ at all. With a career based on an E-Coli outbreak in one Wishaw butcher’s, more than twenty years ago, retired 17 years ago, he is now a full-time political activist spending his days writing letters to the press as just ‘Hugh’ on behalf of the anti-democratic Scotland in Union covert letter-writing group. Every major Scottish university has one or more professors of virology and of public health, active in their fields today. Professors Bauld and Sridhar from Edinburgh University are regularly featured on UK TV and in the press but, of course, are … Continue reading Very Ordinary scientist prepared to risk lives for the Union

You remember how much the Scottish media and their opposition party feeders love PISA scores when we’re allegedly doing badly in narrow wee tests of the 3 R’s which serious educationists have no time for? Hear the silence as the latest PISA scores come in we are near the top of the table. Today, we hear: In 2018, Scotland participated in the innovative domain for the second time – global competence – and this report represents the results of that assessment. Global competence is defined as: A multidimensional capacity that encompasses the ability to examine global and intercultural issues, understand … Continue reading Scotland does very well in PiSA TESTs! Hear that silence?

After quite a long period when the infection rate in Scotland has been essentially the same as that in the other parts of the UK, a gap is emerging again. The line above began to diverge around four weeks after the tougher measures in Glasgow and the surrounding counties were implemented. Though it seems that the ‘slightly older adults‘* of Lanarkshire are not all ‘with the project‘, there are some grounds for optimism. The infection rate in England and Wales is 30% higher per million population. *Covid: Older people ‘partly to blame’ for bar shutdown: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-54642877 Continue reading Keep going. It’s working

Where’s the evidence that closing bars and restaurants helps to suppress the virus, they protest. The experience of closing down the Aberdeen cluster in August revealed the role bars can play in the rapid growth of a covid outbreak. Quite a severe lockdown was required to suppress it. The revellers will have infected at least some elderly and vulnerable people. It’s possible some of them died. Do we need to wait for academics to get a peer-reviewed survey published before we act on that knowledge? Good news! At least three have already been done: First, the highly respect Nature Medicine … Continue reading 75 dead in one week and the Campaign to increase covid death rate gets media backing

There are at least 36 wards in Ninewells Hospital. Three have been closed to new admissions and visitors after ‘a small number‘ of cases of covid-19 infection were discovered. So, come on Caitlin Hutchison (14) of the Herald, left, people are going to be disappointed after they click on your article and find it’s only three and that they’re not really closed, just closed to visitors and new admissions. Ah, you still get the advertising revenue regardless of their disappointment, once they’ve clicked? Do you think your headline might discourage some anxious folk from attending? Might some then get worse, … Continue reading Multiple? Oh come on! Stop it!