Prof Bhopal, leading authority on prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases and of diabetes in South Asians After a rambling account of his own memories of ‘Time gentlemen please‘ and repeating what the First Minister has been saying everyday, telling us to prioritise the young, warning against any more lock-downs, as if he’s the big expert saying it for the first time and before a, clearly getting-embarrassed host, tries to wind him up, he bursts in again to tell us about his ‘methods‘: One thing before I go. I have written extensively and I have been privileged to have many … Continue reading BBC’s Kaye Adams finds another ‘Pennington’ to undermine SNP Government pandemic strategy and risk lives

Sir Keir is to bring his virtual ‘Call Keir‘ (Does Kay Adams know?) event to Rutherglen and Hamilton West. In a cynically opportunistic attempt to take advantage of someone formerly ‘innocent until proven guilty‘ in ‘this country‘, he will do his whiney best to try to present the Scottish Labour Party as the honest alternative. Some tuning in will not be impressed, remembering this kind of thing, recently in Lanarkshire: Some may be aware of the long history of Labour corruption and betrayal of voters, described in Professor Tom Devine’s The Strange Death of Labour Scotland: The first-past-the-post electoral system … Continue reading Labour to ‘throw stones’ at SNP in their Lanarkshire ‘glass house’

In an excited rant, confused about the length of the pandemic, Peter Smith of ITV, comparing Scotland with Eastern Asian countries, says: Ten months on here, we have higher numbers of deaths. It’s just so ill-informed. See these graphs: Though increasing slightly in the last month, the 7 day average Covid-19 mortality rate is and remains far lower than it was. The more accurate deaths from all causes data show that, despite Covid-19, the overall mortality rate in Scotland is close to, often below that, historically. For comparative purposes, the mortality rate from Covid-19 is currently far lower than in … Continue reading Ill-informed rant from ITV reporter

Headline story in the Herald, above but nowhere in BBC Politics: On Twitter, Glenn Campbell is concentrating on the latest from Douglas Ross while Sara Smith is still going on about ironing her clothes and Alistair Campbell’s all-too-understandable depression. From Guido Fawkes, no friend of Scottish independence: A leaked Brexit planning document has revealed the extent to which the UK Government has had to hide information from the devolved administrations in recent months. The Government’s “Transition period planning assumptions (central case)” document, written and circulated to Cabinet ministers in June, includes detailed plans on subsidy control that have only now appeared in … Continue reading BBC Scotland hide how UK Government hid Brexit plans from Scotland

From NHS Scotland today, for August 2020: There were 122,733 attendances at A&E services. 92.9% of attendances at A&E services were seen and resulted in a subsequent admission, transfer or discharge within 4 hours. https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/health-services/hospital-care/ae-activity-and-waiting-times/ In NHS England, there were 1 039 471 attendances in Type 1, full, A&E departments, and 84.4% were seen in 4 hours: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2020-21/ Despite having only 85% of the attendance level in full A&E departments, NHS England was still slower in treating them by 9%. Continue reading More and faster!

From NHS Scotland today: The number of planned operations was up 23.2%, from 11 224 in July, to 13 381 in August as ‘services have gradually remobilised.’ Only 1.1% were postponed due to capacity reasons, down slightly from 1.2% in July: https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/healthcare-resources/waiting-times/cancelled-planned-operations/ Continue reading 23% more operations and 99% went ahead

Boris 7 years ago, above, and Boris today, below: Where the wind power is being generated and is most likely to be generated for the above prediction: In 2019, Scotland’s wind-power alone generated enough electricity to power 4.47 million homes. That was nearly twice the number of homes in Scotland. https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/scotland-wind-power-on-shore-renewable-energy-climate-change-uk-a9013066.html and: Continue reading The blowhard

This is a clear piece of misrepresentation of the facts to support the opposition party project to attack the SNP on the supposed consequences of hospital discharges. Two elderly dementia patients died within five days of each other after being moved into the same Scottish care home against their families’ will, it has been alleged. One of the families is now pursuing legal action against the Scottish government. The headline is wrong. One of the two was transferred from another care home, not a hospital. The other, 80 years-old, picked up Covid-19 in the care home not in the hospital. … Continue reading Sue the care home owners?

‘SCOTTISH Labour has demanded that a full public inquiry that takes place into the Covid-19 crisis examines whether allowing students to return to university during the pandemic was appropriate.’ In the Herald, above Richard Leonard frets about students asked to self-isolate with six chums while UK Labour, including Ian Murray, abstained on legislation to ‘decriminalise torture.’ In the Guardian today: Labour has sacked three junior shadow ministers who joined with Jeremy Corbyn and 14 other Socialist Campaign group MPs in breaking the party’s whip by voting against the second reading of a controversial armed forces bill. The proposed presumption against … Continue reading Labour hypocrisy almost funny if it wasn’t so..

In the Herald today: By Sharon Bar-li (Israeli Embassy) On Thursday, the Israeli and Scottish football teams face off against each other to qualify for the European Championship. Despite a clash on the football pitch, Israel and Scotland share many a commonality and there is much for us to celebrate. Might we need to discuss this first? There is a factory in Fife making guidance systems for missiles used in Yemen and Scottish soldiers have behaved badly on behalf of his or her majesties in the past but I think we’ve cleaned up our act enough to want better friends. Many a … Continue reading The Glasgow Herod?