In the Herald yesterday: THE MAJORITY of Scots believe independence is distracting from more pressing issues, according to a new poll. The survey of more than 1000 people found that a third believed independence was one of the most important issues facing the country, however 52% thought it was a distraction. This comes from a YouGov poll for the Scottish Fabians, described misleadingly as a ‘think tank.’ The Scottish Fabians are a leftist, openly pro-Union activist group with a long-term hostility to the SNP and to the wider Scottish independence movement, which they prefer to portray as narrow nationalist, ignoring … Continue reading Majority of Scots do NOT think Indyref2 is a distraction

The Herald above delighting in some bigger numbers for their headlines and an opportunity to use a picture of the FM to make sure you know who they’d like you to associate with the outbreak. BBC Scotland below with links to 7 out of 10 stories being about the virus: But BBC England is more relaxed about it with none out of 10 about the virus. At a glance, you’d think Scotland must have more to be concerned about but: England has 10 times the population but today had more than 13 times the infection level, even at a time … Continue reading Don’t let them scare you

In a Twitter survey of 4 800 followers of retired @ProfJWR, SNP member and activist, 2 487 responded. Of those responding 91.6% were opposed to the idea currently being championed by George Galloway and discussed by Kenny Farquharson, that Scots living in England should be able to vote in a second independence referendum. The results, though of course limited by the self-selecting sample, seem to suggest reasonably convincingly, that in a large group of presumably independence supporters, there is very little support for Galloway’s proposal. The results suggest a healthy preference for a civic and democratic rather than an ethnic … Continue reading 92% say Scots living in England should NOT vote in Indyref2

In the National today: SNP MPs have written to Nicola Sturgeon and their party’s ruling body, calling for them to reverse a controversial decision to stop sitting MPs from standing for the Scottish Parliament. More than a quarter of the Westminster group, including both long-serving politicians and those elected for the first time last year, have signed a letter urging the National Executive Committee (NEC) to overturn the policy made last month.The National has been told that other elected politicians are considering adding their names as the revolt over the rule change grows. ‘Stage revolt?’ OMG, have some resigned? Have some charged up to Holyrood … Continue reading The National: Warking the news to undermine the SNP

Once more, the Times seems to have a better grasp on what is right: The MSM campaign to open gyms and shorten lock-downs will cost lives. They should be ashamed but I don’t suppose lizard brains are capable of that. Continue reading The Scottish and English press on Aberdeen

In the Herald today: Though not too open herself about her party affiliations, Lax is refreshingly honest about her serial covert letter-writing activities – how often have I…. How often? Tell us? I don’t know if she ever mentions her longstanding Conservative & Unionist membership and treasurer role but I haven’t seen it once in a string of letters where she pretends to be Josephine Public. When writing about Nicola Sturgeon, she tends not to be transparent about this unsavoury detail: So, Ms Lax, if you are going to talk the talk please also walk the walk? At the very … Continue reading Secret Tory’s unhealthy obsession with the First Minister goes on encouraged by the Herald

The YouGov/Times poll with data collected on 18th-19th August is another sub-poll with only 142 in the sample so we need to keep our hair on, as statisticians say but For the first time, I think, the combined SNP/Green share is 60% (54 and 6). It also has the Cons down at 19%, below 20% for the first time. https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/08/19/voting-intention-con-40-lab-38-18-19-aug On it’s own, this sub-poll lacks authority but when looked at in the context of the clear trend in Independence polls over the last year: and Holyrood polls: You can’t help but be cheered by what might be an omen … Continue reading Pro-Indy parties at 60% in latest poll*

Reporting Scotland at 1.30pm today ignored the great news about Scotland’s 99.7% contact tracing and gave a super-rich gym owner a platform in an extended report to interfere and to patronise Scots with the suggestion that we should be ready for gym re-opening and to follow England into further hasty loosening of lock-down. His report was preceded by the announcer telling us that there is a ‘huge body of evidence that they’re safe.’ That turns out, laughably, to just be his own company records which, he says, have nobody reporting any transmission in a gym. He follows BBC Scotland’s James … Continue reading Gym owner with HQ in Yorkshire (161 new cases today) decides ‘Scotland’s ready for it’

From the First Minister in the last hour: Since the 22nd June, Test & Protect teams have contact traced more than 900 positive cases. Of the people identified as requiring contact tracing, only 3 individuals out of 925 couldn’t be contacted. In other words, teams have traced 99.7% of those positive cases which is a quite remarkable achievement and based on that work, the teams have also traced more than 5 000 contacts and they have been successful in contacting 98.8% of those individuals. For comparison, between 30 July and 5 August, in England, 79.7% were reached: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-test-and-trace-england-and-coronavirus-testing-uk-statistics-30-july-to-5-august-2020/weekly-statistics-for-nhs-test-and-trace-england-and-coronavirus-testing-uk-30-july-to-5-august Perhaps of … Continue reading LATEST: Scotland’s Test and Protect teams contact trace 99.7%!

Writing today on wsws.org, Steve James, says: The horrifying train wreck near Stonehaven, Scotland, last week, was the result of the dilapidated condition of Britain’s rail infrastructure. Starved for decades of essential maintenance funding, the railways have been transformed by successive governments into state-subsidised cash cows for private corporations. Network Rail’s cost-cutting: It carried out a reduction of its maintenance staff by 12 percent between 2009/10 and 2013/14, down by 2,169 to 15,813. Then it set a target of 2019 of further cost-cutting of 20 percent. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/19/ston-a19.html No sources for the above figures are offered but can be checked I’m … Continue reading Stonehaven rail crash deaths come after years of drastic maintenance cuts by Tory Government