In its Sunday worst, the Scotsman’s second team comes out to attack the Scottish Government with the popular notion amongs Conservatives that SNP competence is just an illusion. Garavelli, McColm, and Davidson trot out the same evidence-free arguments we’ve seen before. I can’t be bothered listing all the ways in which they are wrong and how Scotland has done better on the outbreak and on education, so if you’re not already painfully familiar with them, try these: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/08/04/adam-boulton-after-months-of-divergence-scotland-has-done-betteras-even-englands-total-death-rate-pro-rata-reaches-67-higher/ https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/06/02/scotlands-covid-record-is-not-flattered-ft-and-common-weal-if-you-did-some-research-youd-know-better/ https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/02/07/attainment-gap-widens-in-england-as-it-halves-in-scotland-but-sarah-smith-lies-again/ https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/04/01/reality-check-scotlands-schools-better-than-most/ https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/02/25/attainment-for-scotlands-school-leavers-far-greater-than-in-england/ Continue reading Day 2 of Scotsman’s Anti-SNP Campaign

From sam: It is, I suggest, profoundly stupid of Macwhirter and others to fail to provide context for their musing. on the SQA and Scottish education. https://infed.org/mobi/the-impact-of-austerity-on-schools-and-childrens-education-and-well-being/ “By 2011/12, 13 million people in the UK were living in poverty. For the first time more than half of these people lived in a working family. (Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2013). The proportion of children that are living in poverty in the UK has risen from 24% in 2008 to 27% in 2012/3. However, this proportion will increase. According to the Child Poverty Action Group the 3.5 million children living in poverty in … Continue reading Profoundly stupid?

I’ve complained about the First Minister’s presidential style for some time but that headline is pure daft. The foundations of Scotland’s democracy have crumbled? Really? I’m well-into to worrying about Robin. Remember the Dead Kennedys punk band and ‘Holiday in Cambodia?‘ Now you can go where the people are oneNow you can go where they get things doneWhat you need, my son…What you need, my son…Is a holiday in CambodiaWhere people are dressed in blackA holiday in CambodiaWhere you’ll kiss ass or crack Common Weal have been right into this kind of misguided hyperbole recently. Remember them on care home … Continue reading The weal that will not heal? Plot-losing, conspiracy-hugging paranoia from Robin McAlpine

There’s a deep irony in this man calling for another’s head but let’s not go there. Macwhirter is just the latest in a foul-smelling gang baying for Swinney to stand-down and to give the opposition parties a sad wee ‘victory’ in their daily struggle against deepening insignificance. Yesterday’s attack by the Scotsman’s ageing trolls led, by Wilson and McLellan, was one of the most naked pieces of propaganda I’ve seen for some time. It saddened me again, as a former reader back in the 20th Century and as retired academic who used to tell undergraduates of my pride in her … Continue reading Just another Anti-SNP pile-on to help the sad opposition score a wee point

I’ve been alerted by a reader of the Tusker today, to the appalling display of unbalanced, ill-informed rants, drawn by the smell of blood in the exam results story, in the Scotsman today. Ignoring the difficulty of the task faced by the SQA, the increased pass rates, the tiny scale of the protests and the adoption of a similar moderation strategy in England and Wales, the editor presents us with five rants by well-known Tory and Labour-supporters, one editorial and letters by Scotland in Union’s [SiU] covert letter-writing group. We’ve got former New Labour minister, Brian Wilson, Tory councillor John … Continue reading Attack on Democracy: The Scotsman today in full propaganda mode

From: Brenda Steele: The author of the EUREFERENDUM  blog is Richard North – a Flexiteer (i.e. wanted a Norway type deal).  I read the blog because he hates the EU and BoJo and his Brexiteers with an almost equal passion, and so has some interesting viewpoints.   He is also quite knowledgeable about technical stuff as it relates to the EU. In this piece –http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.aspx?blogno=87692    Coronavirus: about time, this snippet caught my attention: Nagpaul says more use should be made of the NHS’s £400 million-a-month deal with private hospitals. The NHS should also look at using the seven Nightingale hospitals it created … Continue reading Scotland well ahead of the game with Covid-free hubs

The Conservative’s Islands Campaign continued today with Chancellor Sunak avoiding those nasty urban Scots and following the PM’s strategy, to avoid getting shouted at by locals. Yes Bute were caught off-guard at first but rallied to send him back homeward to think again of becoming PM. In true nasty party style, his motorcade jumped the queue leaving locals stranded. A source told us that his car had a bumper sticker reading: ‘Eat my dust, peasants!‘ There is of course irony in his visiting Rothesay, a placed which welcomed more Syrian refugees than his constituents would have allowed. Continue reading Imperial Master Sunak jumps the queue leaving locals stranded!

Any wean can add up wee numbers to make a bigger one for a headline. Any wean doing Media Studies or not doing Media Studies will know that numbers add up to nothing unless you put them in context. They don’t, of course. Editor [92] to Conor [18]: 216? Is that a lot? Do you think the figure for England might be interesting? You’ve heard lots about Scotland not doing any better so how many infections did they have in the last 7 days? Cub Reporter, Conor [18]: The 7 day average was 832 cases last week and they’ve got … Continue reading Despite Aberdeen’s attempt to copy Bournemouth beach, infection rate in England still nearly THREE times higher than in Scotland

I haven’t read it. Why the..would I? I have enough worries of my own. Since his far from-convincing conversion from rabid British Nationalism to support for Scottish independence, many have watched him with a jaundiced eye. I’m taking pills for it. I haven’t written about him for over a year but it all stands: McKenna has been very active in the last few days [July 21] with today’s George Robertson/Gandalf-like suggestion, in the Observer, that a ‘dark presence has come to possess this [SNP] party.’ In the same piece we read: ‘Some of their [SNP] candyfloss policies can drive you round the twist.’ Leaving … Continue reading Kevin McKenna surfaces again to remind us where his priorities lie