Spat? Latest spat? Bird? Is that because the FM is a woman? Is she not able to have a rational disagreement based on public health evidence, with the ‘man’ in Westminster? You’ll see below that Dalgety claims expertise in ‘women in politics.‘ Trivialising Sturgeon’s disagreement with the actions of a right-wing government in London, now responsible for an infection rate 5 times higher than ‘SNP politics’ has enabled here, as a ‘spat’, suggests Labour tribalism has trumped any affected sisterhood. This is beyond cynical or calculated to plain stupid. Here’s the stupid author in question: Dalgety is not ashamed of … Continue reading Former Jack McConnell adviser and Labour councillor allowed to hide as journo to insult First Minister and women in politics

According to the Herald today: The UK government is planning to introduce daily televised press briefings later this year. The new format is expected to be in place by October, and will follow a similar style which is currently used by the White House in the United States.   Presumably this will allow the PM to abuse members of the media and say whatever he likes without Keir Starmer making him look stupid. Unfortunately Johnson’s close ally in Scotland, Murdo ‘Second or third best‘ Fraser, has already made clear his opposition to such a format: Part of the problem for Fraser … Continue reading Will Murdo Fraser condemn Tory plans for 30 minute party political live every day with no opportunity for a response?

Our spoof above. The actual headline was: Coronavirus: Five-mile restriction kept around border cluster Way down the page in the BBC report yesterday: Scotland’s clinical director Prof Jason Leitch added: “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. In the briefing yesterday, Leitch reflected on the probability that a failure to follow proper infection control procedures tended to be the explanation for small outbreaks like this one. Imagine that was a Glasgow hospital? STV … Continue reading Imagine the headlines if six English towns were put back into lock-down ‘after’ failed infection control in a Glasgow hospital?

Rebecca McQuillan, regular cosy-upper with Gordon Brewer, tries to fool readers into reading on after that apparently friendly headline. Hah! Quick as you like, she inserts this: I’d suggest that she gives us some evidence of that but then we’d have to read it. I feel sure she’d find endless articles where Carlaw, Fraser, Davidson, Bowie, Murray and, of course, the PM, are outraged or insulted or both. She must have seen Johnson, Bowie and Rees-Mogg affecting outrage at the FM’s response to Prof Sridhar yesterday. I feel sure everyone can see who was doing the inflating. I can’t be … Continue reading Don’t be deceived by the headline, McQuillan will be ‘stabbing’ the First Minister before you know it

Another classic headline from the Herald attempts to locate blame in Scotland when it belongs in a Westminster department: Network Rail is an arm’s length public body of the Department for Transport with no shareholders, which reinvests its income in the railways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Rail Continue reading Herald writer is dunce! Network rail is not Scottish

In the Herald today from the always reliable Tom Gordon: A FORMER SNP cabinet minister has warned his party risks alienating its working class base by ignoring pleas for another independence referendum and prioritising gender politics. Kenny MacAskill, the former justice secretary and current MP for East Lothian, warned not to treat traditional supporters “with contempt” or look down on them as “the Great Unwoke”. I hesitate, but only for a minute or two, because I admire Kenny MacAskill. He’s a fine researcher and writer on Scottish working-class life and especially protest, but on this, he’s in a bubble, the Holyrood … Continue reading Gender politics is not alienating the SNP’s working class base

I’m a big fan of David Olusoga’s work. In the series Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners and, in particular, in The Establishment and the Barbados Slave Code, I was moved to deep sadness, horror and some kind of shame, as he, deeply moved himself,  introduced us to the instruments of torture used to ‘discipline’ some slaves, including children. I say shame because I know Robertson’s were part of those horrors. I know that, just as Campbells, Smiths and others do, because of the many British Afro-Caribbeans, we meet or hear of, carrying the names of their ancestral owners. Olusoga has moved … Continue reading While Scotland’s elite and middle classes were soon to share in the tainted wealth of the slave trade, she was not a founding or defining member 80 years before Britain existed

This is a survey by a union based in Licky Hills Country Park in North Worcestershire. Their Scottish membership is not published. The EIS has 54 580 members in Scotland, including FE and HE lecturers, and over 80% of all schoolteachers are members. So NASUWT membership, in Scotland, 10 000 or less? The survey ‘report’ indicates: Nearly half of teachers who responded to the survey said they do not feel prepared to return to their school or college in August and just 22% said they feel safe or very safe as a result of the provisions their employer is putting … Continue reading Are nearly all Scottish teachers not uncertain about returning?

Thanks to: Eileen May @suleskerry for sharing this with me. Yesterday’s Guardian, hiding the above facts: Continue reading At last the true picture!

Perhaps just a victim of bad timing, Prof Chris Isles of Dumfries and Galloway, speaking yesterday on Good Morning Scotland, called for lock-down restrictions to be lifted in areas such as his: We have had no new Covid positive cases throughout the region for the last eight days, no Covid positive cases in the hospital for the last five days and no Covid positive deaths for the last fortnight. And, wait for it: Prof Isles said his area had locked down and waited for a “tsunami of Covid positive admissions” which had not happened. You’d think Isles would be aware, … Continue reading As Covid-19 strikes South-west Scotland, Dumfries medic calls for lifting of restrictions