414 000 visits in May, up from 330 000 in April and up for the ninth month in a row. Reach: Posts with most views: Continue reading May Statistics for TuSC

In the Herald: Scotland’s coronavirus death rate is one of the worst in the world, according to a statistics expert. The situation in Scotland has been described as ‘particularly acute’, according to Jamie Jenkins, former head of analysis for the ONS. He told The Sunday Times that the excess death rate of people in Scotland, which tracks deaths above the normal level, is higher than Italy and the United States, however is lower than the UK as a whole. Here’s the situation in Europe: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ At the peak of the infection in April, Scotland’s death rate was one of the lowest in Europe: Over the last … Continue reading Herald’s statistics expert means to say Scotland’s coronavirus death rate is by no means worst in world

From Professor Sean Danaher, Northumbria University, in Progressive Pulse on 29th May: In Fig. 4 excess z-scores for Britain and Ireland are plotted. The average z-scores from week 10-20 are: England 19.89 Scotland 7.63 Wales 7.07 Northern Ireland 3.31 http://www.progressivepulse.org/politics/covid-19-is-the-uk-response-improving Continue reading To counter today’s misleading reports, accurate measures of covid-related death levels in England are approaching THREE TIMES HIGHER than in Scotland

Talking to Arlene Foster, this morning, Marr says the deaths rates are: In N Ireland: 26 per 100 000 46 per 100 000 in England and Wales 51 in Scotland The source is not declared. Given the devolved covid-19 strategies, it’s not clear why the England & Wales figures are grouped. Anyhow the actual figures are: From worldometers in https://www.travellingtabby.com/scotland-coronavirus-tracker/ So per 100 000 Scotland 43.3 England 61.1 Wales 42.4 N Ireland 27.8 And, of course, even these figures are unreliable compared with the excess mortality scores or Z-scores: Z-scores:England: peak 43.5 in week 15, now 31.52 in week 18Scotland: … Continue reading Andrew Marr gets the death rates all wrong to conceal England’s figures

By Brenda Steele: What the purpose of the event was remains unknown. A new product line? The upcoming Olympics (since postponed)?  Who knows. I would suspect that for the participants the event passed off as these things do – and it was only in the following days that they learned that all had not been as it seemed.  On Sunday March 1st   an announcement in Business Insider reported on the closure of the Nike World Headquarters  in Beaverton Oregon for deep cleaning out of “an abundance of caution”.   Mention was made of Covid19 cases in Lake Oswego Oregon which Googlemaps … Continue reading Who brought Covid-19 to the Edinburgh Nike event? Nike HQs announce deep cleaning before Scottish Government informed

By stewartb: The journalism on display in the Irish Times regarding the UK’s handling of BREXIT has provided – hopefully will continue to provide – a blast of ‘fresh air’.  I have come to appreciate – to enjoy, to be informed by and provoked into new thinking by – the likes of Fintan O’Toole.  Last week’s (28 May) opinion piece by Una Mullally brings together insights into the current state of politics and society in the USA and the UK, the two nation-states with THAT so extra special ‘special relationship’. And she does not pull her punches! The author takes … Continue reading “Send in the clowns, and you wake up in a circus.”… seeing this ‘precious Union’ as others do!

The Herald ‘owned by Newsquest, one of the UK’s biggest newspaper and website publishers’ is today the media arm of a pre-emptive strike by the private care home industry to try to transfer responsibility for their failures onto the Scottish Government. In two linked pieces, spokespersons for the industry are able to distort the truth unchallenged by the reporter. First, the ‘devastating critique’ comes from Scottish Care, described quite misleadingly as ‘Scotland’s main care body’ when they are merely, as they put it themselves, ‘the voice of the independent care sector.’ Entirely unchallenged by the reporter, the group attempts to blame … Continue reading Private sector media used by private sector care owners to try to pre-empt the blame for multiple deaths coming their way

As the English testing and tracing system collapses and has to be delayed for a month and as the Scottish system seems, judging by the eerie media silence, to be working, BBC Scotland have found something they can use. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has received evidence of a phishing scam themed around the [UK] app, even before the real app has released nationally: Members of the public received texts informing them that they have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The message contains a link to a bogus website which asks for the … Continue reading BBC Scotland transfers phishing scam concerns for the UK app to the Scottish system

At first, I thought this must be faked. It’s not. It’s from a BBC Dorset report yesterday. They’re collecting in a dense crowd to get off the beach after being herded together by police so that rescue helicopters can land to treat three injured beach-goers. Here they are again not observing any kind of distancing as they leave, gasping for breath and puffing out all over each other: They had been spaced out a bit beforehand: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-52864454 Well, at least they’ll get tested and traced by the end of June in a world-beating system. Continue reading Have hundreds of English beach-goers volunteered to be herded into an immunity experiment?

The choice of visual is a bit of a clue as to what will follow. The opening headline seems promising: Coronavirus in Scotland RECAP: First weekend after lockdown restrictions eased, public urged to enjoy outdoor spaces ‘safely’ By Ema Sabljak Off we go with the recap as it was at the end of the day, yesterday: 4:49pm An Observer journalist asks about the Dominic Cummings scandal.. 4:35pm A Sky journalist says 8000 new infections every day just in England.. 4:29pm The UK Government just announced 4:24pm First question from Chris Mason, who asks for Dowden to respond to the scientists … Continue reading The Herald: Providing a service but not really for Scots with 9 reports on England and 1 on N Ireland