We haven’t discussed just how much, and there is, of course, an argument that we wouldn’t need additional taxes because we’d save so much on the outrageous fees needed to generate profits but, in principle, there’s a massive majority in this wee snap, self-selecting survey in favour of the idea. Here are the comments: Continue reading More than 90% would pay more tax to nationalise care homes

The First Minister and the Health Secretary have both now been open and honest enough to admit that had they known then what they know now, they would not have moved more than 900 elderly, but fit enough for discharge, patients into care homes without them first being tested. It was a well-intentioned act to protect hospitals against a surge of covid cases that many believed might happen and against a background of expert opinion, from Public Health England, that the risk of infection in care homes was ‘very unlikely.’ The First Minister and the Health Secretary are right to … Continue reading First Minister and Health Secretary admit to a human error. Will the care home owners admit to anything? Will Tom Gordon tell the truth?

Why is he in a lab coat when he retired in 2003?! Does he sneak in at night to wear a white coat and play with the test tubes and the Bunsen burners? John Boothman, Head of News and Current Affairs at Pacific Quay in 2014, before being moved out of the way after allegations of bullying, wrote in the Times yesterday: The scale of coronavirus testing planned by the Scots government is “totally inadequate” and a tenfold increase in testing capacity would be an “absolute minimum requirement to cope with what is needed”, according to the leading epidemiologist Professor … Continue reading Retired BBC Scotland Head of News gets retired Prof to moan about Scotland again

In the wake of the Scotsman’s Kevin Christie, Macwhirter tries the same trick of trying to convince the reader that many of the SNP Government’s efforts have been failures and the reputation, of it and of the First Minister, is a con job or trick. Yesterday, he wrote: Political leadership is essentially a confidence trick. It is the art of being in charge, of calling the shots and stopping the buck – or at least appearing to. Nicola Sturgeon has confidence coming out of her ears. Her performance this week, as throughout the pandemic, was exemplary. She was cool, clear, … Continue reading Opinion: Garbage, garbage, but Iain Macwhirter has not yet cornered the market on having an unctuous feel

Despite the daily efforts of the all-too-human Ian Murray in the pages of the Scotsman or the Herald, the Nike conference scandal will not take-off in the public imagination and, in another poll, she soars above the others, wings over Scotland. Based on more than 13 000, the FM is miles ahead on performance during coronoavirus: And from Opinium 4 days ago: Other than that nice FM of Wales, the other politicians in the survey by Opinium are 20 points adrift. Ian must be ticked-off by now. https://www.opinium.co.uk/public-opinion-on-coronavirus-21st-may/ Ticked-off? Geddit? Nike call it a ‘swoosh’ but it’s a tick. Don’t … Continue reading Winged Victory? Nicola Sturgeon most trusted leader by some way

Seeing the above in the Scotsman, I was reminded that nearly four years ago, I wrote this and got a ‘mixed’ response. How about we apply my thinking then about Fort George, to all the National Trust’s castles, palaces, prisons, dungeons, stately homes? Oh, yeh, and, sack Neil Oliver! Images: caernarfon.com, undiscoveredscotland.co.uk, fortapachearizona.org Here’s what the Aberdeen-based Press & Journal thinks: ‘Fort George closure would cost Highland economy millions of pounds. Plans to close the historic Fort George barracks could cost the Highland economy £14million a year and lead to the loss of more than 100 jobs, it has emerged.’ Further down, … Continue reading National Trust properties: Let them crumble or knock them down and recycle the stone?

Seeing the above reminded me of previous pieces on the current president of the NT (Not that…), Neil Oliver, in which I may have been a bit wicked: BBC Scotland urged to replace Neil Oliver to placate historians and attract broader range of viewers If we can’t remove the ‘cancerous presence’ of Neil Oliver from the National Trust we can still stop subscribing to this elitist and wasteful organisation in protest, not just at him though Continue reading National Trust sacking Neil Oliver will enhance Scotland forever

From BBC Scotland today: The document says that firms, including garden centres and drive-through takeaways, can reopen in phase one, while construction, factories, warehouses, laboratories and small shops can resume work in the second phase. However, it does not give a comprehensive list of [356 550] individual businesses and which timelines they should follow. From the Scottish Government in November 2019: Number of Scottish businesses at record high. A National Statistics Publication for Scotland. The Businesses in Scotland 2019 report shows that, as of March 2019, there were an estimated 356,550 private sector businesses operating in Scotland – the highest … Continue reading SNP Government fails to give individual re-opening advice to only 356 550 businesses

With Professor Pennington clearly still asleep and Professors Bauld and Sridhar far too likely to say something positive abut the Scottish Government, BBC Scotland head south for Prof McCoy. He says: What we know is that this virus and the lock-down itself has this differential impact across society whether it’s by ethnicity or its by age group or by you socio-economic position we are seeing this huge differentiality [sic] in risk and vulnerability. Brewer, though based in Scotland, clearly hasn’t spotted the Anglocentrism in the prof’s reference to ethnicity. He’s correct that in England, BAME workers and patients are suffering … Continue reading English prof hasn’t read Scottish statistics on ethnic death rate to appear on BBC Scotland’s Gordon Brewer show

In a bad-tempered interview with Fiona Hyslop, Gordon Brewer, shouted and interrupted repeatedly, as she tried to repeat the published advice on returning to work which he had either not read, or more likely, was prepared to distort in an attempt to appear to have scored a point. Jackson Carlaw was not interviewed to present his views on the matter. Regardless of the potentially very serious consequences for workers whose employers take from this encouragement to call their workers back into situations which remain too dangerous for them, Brewer’s disingenuous confusion can only have weakened the official message, currently saving … Continue reading Is BBC Scotland prepared to tolerate worker deaths just to score points?