Suitably irked again by Jackson Carlaw in Holyrood and by subsequent BBC Scotland’s biased reporting about PPE, the Health Secretary, has clarified things (above). Note the point about mutual aid to England. This makes the two points below all the more striking: UK PPE suppliers were refusing to sell to Scottish care homes: Also, we had this astonishing revelation in the Times on April 14th: Major manufacturers of personal protective equipment (PPE) are refusing to send supplies to Scotland because they are prioritising England. The global supply chain is under severe pressure as countries try to protect their frontline health … Continue reading Scotland helps England out with PPE despite Hancock’s attempts to cheat us

In 2020: STV News at Six continues to be the best watched news programme in Scotland, now regularly achieving ratings of more than half a million.  Year on year, the audience has grown by 21%.  New Ofcom research has confirmed that STV is the most trusted TV channel in Scotland for coronavirus news and information. http://www.stvplc.tv/blog/2020/06/stv-lockdown-ratings-boost Note that Ofcom does not return separate figures for BBC Scotland News but conceals them within the BBC 1 channel’s data, for protection. If 81% express trust in STV News, we can only wonder how low their trust in BBC Reporting Scotland has fallen. Continue reading Despite Ofcom protection BBC Scotland News exposed as untrustworthy

This is a year-old so hopefully things are even worse for them but if only 8% of Scots are tuning into Good Mourning Scotland, I’m a happier man than I thought I was before I saw this. Continue reading Brilliant News: Good Mourning Scotland is on its way down the tubes!

In Energy Voice yesterday: A ‘huge’ multi-billion pound investment opportunity has opened up with the launch of Scotland’s first offshore wind leasing round in a decade, the country’s seabed regulator has claimed. Crown Estate Scotland, who manages Scottish seabed leasing for renewable energy, has today announced the first stage of the ScotWind offshore wind leasing round. It claims total investment in Scottish projects could surpass £8 billion. https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/244880/huge-step-forward-as-scotland-launches-first-offshore-wind-leasing-in-a-decade/ Continue reading Possible £8 billion investment in Scotland’s offshore

By stewartb: It’s important to put the message out there, and strongly! The claims by BBC Scotland and certain opposition politicians in Scotland that the ‘Nike conference’ in Edinburgh was the source of Scotland’s coronavirus epidemic have been amplified in the wider media relentlessly for days.  Now that scientific evidence is available that there was no ‘ground zero’, will this get anything like the same coverage? Aye right! On 9 June the University of Glasgow’s website reported on new research by its staff on Covid-19. The article states: “Scientists sequencing the virus samples from the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 … Continue reading There was no ‘ground-zero’ for Scotland’s coronavirus epidemic

Overheard in the Reporting Scotland ‘war room’ today: FOUR THOUSAND DEAD! OK that’s the headline sorted. FOUR THOUSAND DEAD! OK that’s the opening sentence. What next? Oh we don’t know. Maybe we should inform them on how many just today, whether that’s fewer than last week, how many weeks it’s been falling – that kind of thing? Well OK, if you think that informing them about what’s happening today in the world around them is ‘in the public interest’ but let’s not forget, FOUR THOUSAND DEAD!! We promised Jackson we’d do the FOUR THOUSAND DEAD!! thing. Glenn and Sarah have … Continue reading FOUR THOUSAND DEAD!!! Scare or inform? Reporting Scotland always go ‘SCARE!’

On Reporting Scotland, yesterday: Meanwhile, the chair of the Independent committee scrutinising the way the police have implemented lockdown has told MSPs it’s given the idea of policing by consent ‘fresh life’ and he praised the police for setting up scrutiny of their actions themselves. He told a virtual meeting of Holyrood’s Policing Sub-Committee it was a healthy sign that the committee had been set up by the national force. But, then the independent advisory committee chair, John Scott QC tells us: I’ve been in touch with colleagues in the human rights field in other countries and it appears that … Continue reading Police Scotland ‘ahead of the game’ in human rights-based approach to implementing lockdown.

In the Herald, a Scottish newspaper RIOTS could break out across the UK this summer as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic take hold, a scientific adviser to the UK Government has warned. Professor Clifford Stott, a behavioural expert, said there was a risk of disorder on a scale last seen during the London riots in August 2011 – sparked by the police shooting of Mark Duggan – if urgent efforts were not made by police forces to quell any potential unrest in the neighbourhoods they served. Stott is based at Keele University (Midlands) and is a member of the UK Government’s … Continue reading English expert warns of street riots across England but Herald equates that with ‘UK’

Research published today and covered on the BBC Scotland website, for easy comparison with Reporting Scotland, reveals: Professor Jim Lewsey: Incorporating data from England and Wales into our analysis controls for any changes in sales in a neighbouring region where the legislation was not introduced. We’ve also been able to adjust for other factors, such as household income, sales of alcohol through pubs and clubs and of other drink types. Alongside a range of additional analyses accounting for various other factors, we have demonstrated that the introduction of MUP was associated with a fall in population consumption of off-trade alcohol … Continue reading Alcohol sales increase in England and Wales but SNP policy works to reduce them in Scotland