You can expect the delays being experienced by an unidentified number of callers to Age Scotland to drive today’s anti-SNP media campaign. Based on browsing the reports over the last few days, there is the possibility that the same woman from Fife nurtured by Scottish Labour is at the heart of this but, hey, I can’t be sure of that. Anyhow, you can be sure that the groups representing GPs such as the BMA, will not find themselves examined yet they seem to have had a big part to play in the changes now making it less straightforward for the … Continue reading Is the vaccine ‘shambles’ due to GP’s union campaign to reduce workload?

The Scotsman yesterday, prompted by the Tory health spokesman, selects the news in an attempt to transfer responsibility from the owners onto the Scottish Government and by association the SNP: Missing from the Scotsman report is any wider investigation into the care home owners HC-One. Leaving aside HC-One’s relatively high death rate across the country reported widely in the Guardian and BBC UK (below), this site near Bathgate had worrying signs in its September 2019 inspection report. Overall, care was only rated ‘adequate’, there were not enough staff and the site was ‘maladorous.’ The second point is key in the … Continue reading Lothian care HOME owned by HC-One had bad inspection

By stewartb The Chair of Balhousie is being given a prominent role by BBC Scotland today to voice his negative criticism of the Scottish Government and its guidance for care home visits. The guidance is ‘ill thought out’ he asserts. This is the company that was profiled in a newspaper article on 20 May 2019 where we learn: “A rise in occupancy levels helped Perth-based care home group Balhousie to record sales of £41 million last year.” “Last year Balhousie Holdings Limited’s turnover rose by more than £5m from £36.8m in 2017 to £41m for the year ending September 30. … Continue reading Another of BBC Scotland’s favourite private care home owners exposed

BBC Scotland today say: A leading care home operator has criticised Scottish government plans to relax rules on visiting as “premature” and “ill thought out”. Balhousie Care Group questioned the timing of the move given the rapid increase in the number of Covid cases. This follows several weeks of reporting based on a small Facebook group campaigning for greater access. As soon as the Scottish Government presents a new system of access to satisfy the group, BBC Scotland turns their attack around and find someone prepared to attack the very system they pushed for. The care home group in question is Balhousie … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s ‘Leading care home operator’ has two homes with serious infection control failings

In the last few days we’ve seen our media pundits jumping excitedly to predict that we have passed Peak Nicola. She has been infuriatingly popular in poll after poll. Even the Lancet has lauded her. But Salmondgate Part 2 surely has her now, they drool. Jenny Hjul, the Daily Torygraph’s Dundee Correspondent was a typical example on the 6th October: Two days later, Opinium, had approval in Scotland for the First Minister at 57% compared to 22% for BJ: Two weeks before on the 23rd September they had her on……57%! Again and again, the people show their contempt for media … Continue reading First Minister’s Approval ratings still unaffected by Salmondgate

Ha! We know where the trust is draining. Neil Mackay opens with this: NICOLA Sturgeon is burning up her most valuable asset, trust, through her handling of the toxic and protracted Alex Salmond saga. This self-destruction couldn’t come at a worse time – for the country that is, not the First Minister or the SNP. Political careers and party fortunes mean nothing when weighed against the wellbeing of a nation. The Scottish Government’s handling of coronavirus hasn’t been that much better than the UK Government. We all know that – it’s only the brutally partisan or terminally dim who believe otherwise. We’re … Continue reading Neil Mackay calls us ‘terminally dim!’ Good one!

How many Labour aristocrats are there? Here comes another out of the freezer to call for ‘Beer before Lives!‘ Haughey, lazily and confusingly, blames the universities for being open when it was in the open pubs that the students caught and shared the virus in an orgy of drunken hugging, wrestling, snogging and shouting at each other, in the first place. While I don’t disagree that the universities could have done a better job of managing the return of first-years students, cancelling freshers weeks events, for example, to argue that the pubs should get to stay open and spread the … Continue reading Labour Lord with fridge business cool about surge in covid deaths

In the Herald yesterday, uncritically presenting the case for a ‘free port’ in Peterhead: Ross has qualifications in farming including milking and ‘collecting’ bull sperm. He may or may not have read-up on the pros and cons of free ports or just embraced current Tory ideology on them. Their 2019 manifesto has a commitment to create up to ten in the UK. For readers unfamiliar: Most commonly a free port is a special customs area or small customs territory with generally less strict customs regulations (or no customs duties and/or controls for transshipment).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_economic_zones#:~:text=Most%20commonly%20a%20free%20port,%2For%20controls%20for%20transshipment). What Ross refers to as the Scottish Government’s ‘own ideological reasons‘ to oppose … Continue reading Scottish Conservatives Leader backs scheme to ‘aid the financing of terrorism, money laundering and organised crime’ in North-East of Scotland

This story idea and evidence from reader Andrew Rosie. STV gave us quite an extended piece on the Agriculture Bill, fully explaining the risks and interviewing NFU Scotland: https://player.stv.tv/episode/3zq4/stv-news-glasgow In sharp contrast, BBC Reporting Scotland ignored these hugely significant events for their audience and instead questioned the First Minister’s focus on the pandemic: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone The evidence for a lack of focus? ‘A source close to Alex Salmond.’ So Glenn Campbell, no evidence of, say, Scotland’s lower infection rates or death rates as a more reliable measure of performance? Just a source, you have, from some guy with an agenda that … Continue reading STV reporting Scotland better than Reporting Scotland but Reporting Scotland better at Tory News

Brought in to turn around the swelling tide of support for independence, new Scottish Conservatives leader, Douglas Ross has seen 6 polls in a row with a Yes majority and an average lead of 6.33. Jackson Carlaw, after his appointment, saw 1 No majority, 1 tie and 3 Yes majorities with an average lead for Yes of only 3.2. Carlaw achieved this against a background of 2 Yes majorities, one tie and one No majority in the weeks before his appointment. Continue reading Jackson Carlaw was more effective than Douglas Ross