Only in Scotland does a majority, 51.3% feel safe or very safe outside of their home. The Scottish figure is 25% higher than in Tory England and nearly twice as high as in Labour Wales. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandwellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandthesocialimpactsongreatbritain/5june2020 This confirms other surveys showing greater approval for the SNP Administration’s performance in managing the pandemic: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/health/articles-reports/2020/05/01/three-quarters-approve-scottish-governments-handli And, in stopping any future second wave: https://news.stv.tv/politics/more-confidence-in-scottish-government-to-stop-second-wave?top Continue reading Scottish Government handling of pandemic has reassured majority

Early this his morning and to be repeated throughout the day, we heard: Scottish airport passengers should be tested for coronavirus on their arrival at the airport instead of facing a two-week isolation period. That’s what Scottish Labour is calling for. They’re also proposing a follow-up test at home. The party also wants ministers to agree a specific support package for the aviation sector. Astonishing! It’s clear that testing at the airports is unreliable due to the incubation period of the virus. Telling people they do not not need to self-isolate after returning from places where the pandemic is now … Continue reading BBC Scotland promotes covidiocy and care home infection

By some way, Scotland has the lowest infection rate per million population and the second lowest death rate: Scotland has one of the highest testing rates: Of great significance but not recorded for comparison is the success in contact tracing. Scotland’s teams are contacting more than 99% while the average in England it is only 75.5% https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/08/19/latest-scotlands-test-and-protect-teams-contact-trace-99-7/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/aug/27/uk-coronavirus-live-people-on-low-pay-to-get-covid-isolation-payment?page=with:block-5f479b928f08767dd7f1044e#block-5f479b928f08767dd7f1044e Continue reading Scotland has lowest infection rate in UK

Survation’s poll of 1 018 16+ Scots, on 2nd to 7th September is the first full poll indicating how Scots are judging the new Tory leader, Douglas Ross. On the Holyrood Constituency vote they remain at 20% still more than 30 points behind the SNP but with Labour closing. Survation have not polled for some time but the YouGov poll one month ago also had them on 20% down from 25% in April. On the Regional List vote they are down at 18%, no better than Labour despite their troubled leader. For the first time for years now, on the … Continue reading Dross! Scots react badly to the new Scottish Tory leader

By Brenda Steele: Question 1a from Distorting-the-truthie Ruthie was about the launch of Scotland’s app. She was expressing doubts about the efficacy of the app as it is dependent on uptake and there will be people who don’t have access (is that too wee, too poor and too stupid?). She does not get the point that the app is an add-on to the basic system of Test and Trace ScotGov has set up in Scotland, and that system works pretty well. Perhaps she is confused because England put all its eggs into the (supposedly world-beating) app basket and then failed … Continue reading Was Ruthie at the Moonshine / Methamphetamine party with Boris & the boys?

From saoralba07 Despite misleading headlines in The Herald and Scotsman, at no time have the majority of people living in Orkney or Shetland expressed a wish to be independent from Scotland and no requests have been submitted to the Scottish government for additional powers.  Last month, the Scottish government announced that the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland would benefit from a £50m growth deal. Orkney and Shetland have been part of Scotland for twice as long as Scotland has been ruled by Westminster and of course they should have as much local autonomy that is possible. Unionist interest in self-determination for … Continue reading ‘At no time have the majority of people living in Orkney or Shetland expressed a wish to be independent from Scotland’

At the briefing today, only minutes after the FM had reminded us that we are currently in a far stronger position now than we were in March, even as cases increase, BBC Scotland’s David Lockhart Wallace asked: Is it hard to sell these new restrictions to the public when it feels a bit like there’s been six months of effort with little or no reward? The FM responded I would challenge very strongly this idea that it’s been six months of pain for no reward and I’ll go back to what I said earlier on. Had he been asleep earlier? … Continue reading BBC Scotland encourages defeatism

From Brenda Steele: Internal correspondence reveals that the UK government is prepared to almost match what it spends on the NHS in England each year (£130bn) to fund mass testing of the population “to support economic activity and a return to normal life” under its ambitious Operation Moonshot programme. A briefing memo sent to the first minister and cabinet secretaries in Scotland, seen by The BMJ, says that the UK-wide Moonshot programme is expected to “cost over £100bn to deliver.” If achieved, the programme would allow testing of the entire UK population each week. A separate PowerPoint presentation prepared for the … Continue reading Not Moonshine. Its Operation Methamphetamine!!!!

SNP spokeperson: Yes, we know they’re behind us. They’re always behind us. I doesn’t seem to matter what they do or who their leader is, they’re always behind us. 30 points behind in the last 10 or 20 opinion polls. What can they do. I feel for them. Well, no I don’t. Who could? The Herald’s veteran reporter David Bol (18) writes today: THE SCOTTISH Government has been accused of “snobbery” and being quite happy to “kill the panto season” after theatres have been left without emergency cash. Conservatives have written to Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop over the fears after … Continue reading They’re behind you!

By Brenda Steele: Up on the BBC website.  Unfortunately, there are no details. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-54083725 UK PM sets out ‘moonshot’ plan for mass testing. PM also outlined a “moonshot” plan to control the virus with mass testing There is a little bit more here. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-testing-operation-moonshot-boris-johnson-covid-19-chris-whitty-b421394.html The government plans an ambitious mass testing programme, codenamed Operation Moonshot, which aims to conduct up to 10 million Covid-19 tests a day by early 2021. But scientists and health professionals, including the government’s own chief scientific adviser, have raised doubts that the programme would work. The transport secretary admitted on Thursday the technology for the … Continue reading Operation Moonshine! Oh sorry, Moonshot