On the Andrew Marr show this morning, the smarmy, Sir Simon Stevens lied that Public Health England had not hogged the supply of PPE, produced for contracts paid for across the UK. Donald Macaskill of Scottish Care was shocked and tweeted: Lying like that, regardless of evidence (below) is just standard for the Oxbridge elite running things in England these days. Continue reading NHS England chief lies about PPE being denied to Scottish care homes

What a pile of fibs and fabrications from Martin Williams today. I guess he’s not one of the Herald 4 getting their jotters. ‘The Herald can reveal that NHS Forth Valley has become a new hotspot for coronavirus cases with half of the total 12 for the whole of Scotland on Friday alone!’ OMG! I am so glad I migrated to South Ayrshire in 1984. Wait though, Martin! It’s just six. Remember the Leicester 658? What about the England 36? The 36 areas of local lock-down? https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/30/non-essential-shops-closed-today-leicester-12920228/ And, ‘on Friday alone!?’ Oh come on. Is there any evidence that this … Continue reading The Herald tries to include Scotland in the UK Top 36 for covid hotspots!

Professor Sridhar’s tweet has been removed. I understand why. An army of drooling orcs led by the Scottish Conservatives will be all over her twitter feed. She’s by no means alone in seeing anti-Scottishness, among Americans living here: Sridhar uses the word ‘naive’. It’s a good choice. Intelligent people who are, in one context, naive like the young, are often best at seeing things, more realistically, as they are. For most of us, our grasp on reality is compromised by years of socialisation within a culture. We politely allow Unionists to assert an alternative definition of Scottishness, based on inclusion … Continue reading Naïve realism? An American in the New Town

In the Times today: Support for the SNP and Scottish independence has jumped to the highest level recorded by a Panelbase poll for The Sunday Times. It raises the prospect of a second referendum on the future of Britain within a year of next May’s Holyrood elections. Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, appears to have benefited from the perception that she has handled the coronavirus pandemic crisis far better than Boris Johnson. Three times as many people believe she has done a good job of leading the response to the pandemic, compared with the prime minister. In Scotland the … Continue reading If not now then when? SNP at 55% and secure enough to toughen up and go for it?

Ferdinand Mount, head of the Number Ten Policy Unit under Margaret Thatcher in 1982-83, in the London Review of Books on 2nd July: It has been painful to watch the steadiness and sombre dignity of the first ministers of the devolved parliaments – notably Nicola Sturgeon – and then turn to the slapdash boosterism of Johnson and his associates, many of whom seem to have caught his feckless tone as well as his frightful virus. It is jarring to hear ministers claim that they are ‘proud of our achievements’ in the middle of a pandemic which has cost, so far, … Continue reading Adviser to Margaret Thatcher praises Sturgeon and grallochs Johnson

Old New Labour figure, Brian Wilson, writing again in the Scotsman clearly implies that Professor Sridhar’s views are cynically based on hopes for future grant income from the Scottish Government. His old mucker, Malcom Chisholm, the last of the good guys in Scottish Labour, has put him in his place and the prof has revealed that all her pals are, so to speak, laughing at the wee git. Wilson and Sridhar Continue reading Brian Wilson revealed as even more loathsome than we thought after senior Labour figure defends Professor Sridhar against his attacks

Back in 1854, in the Battle of Balaclava, aristocratic English cavalry showed us how to throw away victory after Scottish soldiers had shown how it might be won. As I watch Boris Johnson lead his own foolhardy charge to victory over covid-19 by opening up to it, I’m reminded of his use of the story in the context of Brexit, last June. The contrasting approaches to the virus, in England and Scotland, suggest to me the contrasting approaches of the English and Scottish regiments in that famous battle 166 years ago. Continue reading Into the valley of Death? Two different ways of dealing with covid to the right of you, covid to the left of you and covid in front of you?

Can you imagine what Reporting Scotland‘s Lisa Summers could do with this story if she lived in Cumbria? You have to read between a few lines and join up a few dots to find out what happened in the Dumfries & Galloway ‘cluster.’ In the TV briefing as the news broke, Prof Jason Leitch said: The initial first case that we were aware of is a health worker from the Carlisle hospital and that may be connected to an outbreak at that hospital, but we can’t be sure yet. From BBC Scotland yesterday: Prof Leitch said the most recent case … Continue reading Second coronavirus case crosses into Scotland from ‘troubled’, ‘inadequate’, ‘unsafe’ Carlisle hospital

As it becomes clear that failed infection control in a Carlisle hospital has forced the return to lock-down, of the area between Dumfries and the border, Scottish Tories remain firmly behind the PM and unconcerned about the safety of their own people. The lovely Andrew Bowie, above, was first to put the Union first on 29th June, after the FM had dared not to rule quarantine out for any group coming into Scotland, triggering his boss, the PM, to thunder and bluster about it, much to his obvious, though sickly, pleasure. Bowie said: We are one nation. Scottish, English, Welsh, … Continue reading Scottish Tories out of touch again as more than 70% of Scots in favour of closing the border to control coronavirus

Looking for other sources, I stumbled upon these two stories and was reminded that campaigning for Scottish independence may attract interest in probing for personal weaknesses that can be used at some convenient time but to challenge the right of Britain and her allies to project power globally and, by implication, to criticise the aims or competence of her security services, will not be forgotten and will be punished. Continue reading Remembering just why the UK establishment has long desired Alex Salmond’s downfall.