By stewartb: Coverage of coronavirus has dominated the news media for months. It’s important. However, almost hidden from view in Scotland – away from much public comment or scrutiny – there are important negotiations being conducted elsewhere to decide the relationship the UK (and by extension, Scotland) will have with the EU after the Brexit transition period. The issue of Brexit, once so controversial and so prominent, is now at best under camouflage in Scotland. And if we wait too long to expose it, will we discover too late that its former potency has evaporated? In a Scottish context, it … Continue reading BREXIT …. don’t let the camouflage fool you!

Leaving aside the YouGov/Hanbury poll in February, we have three Yes leads, two clear at 3%, two tied and one marginal No lead at 1%, in March. The latest poll from YouGov for James Kelly, with fieldwork between 28 May and 5 June gives Yes a 3 point lead of 52% to 48%, with the undecided removed. Detail and analysis at: http://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2020/06/scot-goes-pop-panelbase-poll-yes-storms.html Continue reading Only 1 in 6 Independence polls in 2020 gives No a lead (1%)

Referring to the SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) members failure to consider the findings of the exercise, Professor Sridhar, chair of public health at Edinburgh University , said: It feels like a lost opportunity…On the positive side it’s good that these exercises were conducted, because it meant that they were thinking beyond flu, they were thinking about coronaviruses. But on the negative side it’s surprising, it seems that SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) members were unaware or at least didn’t discuss this exercise in their thinking in January or February, which would have been crucial in making steps to actually … Continue reading English scientists’ Anglo-centrism as they ignore lessons from Scottish coronavirus simulation in 2018

Noting the dread prof’s appearance on Question Time, ‘Rosie Andrew’ sent me this from a Wings over Scotland source: https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-green-ink-gang/ This letter-writing group organised by Scotland in Union is essentially a covert propaganda unit, clearly aware of the need to keep their existence secret. They are writing to journalists, hoping to influence them and readers, pretending to be simply members of the public, honest citizens, if you like. I don’t know about the legality of such practice but it’s clearly anti-democratic. Prof Pennington was the founder of Academics Together in the run-up to the the 2014 referendum, is a founding … Continue reading The BBC’s favourite bug scientist and the dirty tricks of his rarely-mentioned anti-independence activist group

I’m a long-term and genuine admirer of the work of Wings, especially in the years around 2014 when they were surely the major force in the online and paper-based, Yes campaign but it seems that they now share the view that the Scottish government has not done so well in handling the pandemic. This puts Wings in the same company as the FT, the Guardian, Common Weal, Tom Gordon, Iain Macwhirter and Jackson Carlaw! From 3rd June: Anyone, of course, is entitled to an opinion about anything they like. And it certainly seems to be the case that the Scottish … Continue reading More than a ‘minor confusion?’ Does Wings now share the opinions of the Herald’s Mark Smith?

Scotland has much to be proud of in the way that the pandemic has been managed. I have no doubt that the death toll would have been greater without the unwavering support and close working relationship between the government and the clinical community. Dr Dr Stephen Cole, the president of the Scottish Intensive Care Society Strangely or perhaps not hidden away at the bottom of a report on admissions to intensive care in which BBC Scotland give us a fairly dry and descriptive account of the numbers and events in ICUs, there is a glowing comment about the performance of … Continue reading BBC hides away leading Scottish medic saying ‘Unwavering support and close working relationship between the [Scottish] government and the clinical community’ has saved many lives .

The repeated attempts to blame care home deaths on the Scottish Government are largely foundered on the rocks of emerging evidence, that agency care staff inadvertently spread the virus in the first weeks (PHE, BHA) and that testing of those discharged patients or staff who were asymptomatic would have been unreliable and thus ineffective. Now, long suspected and rumoured, the issue of inadequate infection control in the care homes must surely finish-off the attempts of the likes of Carlaw, Murray and Leonard to lay the blame at the feet of the First Minister. No expert myself, I had thought that … Continue reading I’d agree but did the Health Secretary actually say that?

After extended discussion with our Visiting Professor of Ethics, Francis Boyle, we’d like to suggest that rather than virtue signalling, the Permanent Secretary was making a darkly ironic reference to the treatment of Alex Salmond, Mark Hirst and Craig Murray, by the forces of darkness in the UK establishment or ‘deep state’ as it sometimes known. Evans has been associated with the Deep State though that may be a reference to her husband’s Deep Purple tribute band. The next prominent knee-taker is expected to be Tony Blair. Continue reading Did we misunderstand the Permanent Secretary?

Brenda Steele: Looked at the ScotGov Coronavirus briefing of 2 June. https://mobile.twitter.com/scotgov/status/1267780603274985474 (45mins in)   First Minister Nicola Sturgeon holds a press conference on #coronavirus 2/6/20 What caught my attention was the answer to a question from Vivienne Aitken of the Daily Record. It was not what our FM said but what Chief Medical Officer Dr Gregor Smith said about the “strains of coronavirus“ and the use of “molecular sequencing”.   So I went a-googling with different keywords and to my surprise found this dated May 20.   https://inews.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-scotland-latest-scientists-edinburgh-nike-conference-2859627   Nicola Sturgeon said researchers were examining the strain of Covid-19 caught by those … Continue reading Could the Nike coronavirus strain be different from the one in the Scottish outbreak?

Brenda Steele: On 5th May  this article   revealed a plan that caused concern https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/18427443.secret-coronavirus-greenock-port-plan-revealed/   Peel Ports — owners of Ocean Terminal — have applied for permission to dock 12 vessels here for ‘lay-up’ in the wake of the collapse of the cruise industry due to the pandemic.   An Inverclyde Council report on the matter has been withheld from public view, but the Telegraph has learned details of the plan through its sources.   One insider told us that the local authority has powers to refuse permission for crews to come ashore but none to prevent the ships berthing … Continue reading Will cruise ship crews in the Clyde be quarantined?