The Herald’s Westminster, not Health, correspondent helps Scotland’s three minority parties in a desperate attempt to score points by articulating for them a weaponised account of the situation with regard to testing in care homes. It’s a deeply problematic piece of writing full of factual errors and key omissions generating what is essentially propaganda aimed at undermining the SNP. I say SNP because Jackson Carlaw is allowed to say: It’s obvious that care homes are the frontline of this crisis and the SNP have been slow to respond.   Before coming on to the other ‘politicians’ headlined, the ‘facility bosses’ … Continue reading Herald leads Jackson, Richard and Willie ‘ambulance-chasing’ into care homes for the elderly

ED: Headline entirely my responsibility By Brenda Steele: The Scotsman’s Gina Davidson [former Labour SPAD and speech-writer] should have already known the full details as this earlier article, by Katharine Hay, shows: https://www.scotsman.com/health/coronavirus/scottish-government-reveals-day-day-account-and-details-edinburgh-nike-conference-covid-19-outbreak-2851046  dated 12th May The Scottish Government has issued a day-by-day account of what happened during the Edinburgh Nike conference following reports of it being “Ground Zero” for COVID-19. To my mind this shows how difficult Test, Trace, Isolate is – given the fact that the individual did not get tested until AFTER they had left Scotland as related by this from the above article “The individual was not based … Continue reading Former Labour SPAD, speech writer and Scotsman hack deliberately misleads on the Nike conference infections

Jonathon, that’s not the English flag! I wanted the English flag! I know THEY think it is the English flag but that’s the one for the UK. No, the UK and England just seem like the same thing but not everyone agrees they are. I give up. In the Herald today from Features Writer, Mark Smith: Happy birthday to me (messages of goodwill c/o The Herald in the usual way). I hope you’ll also allow me to summarise the five political decades I’ve lived through. The 1970s: chaos. The 80s: the necessary revolution of Thatcher. The 90s: the necessary revolution … Continue reading Mark Smith just writing any old thing he likes but let down right at the outset by his pictures editor (14)

Scotland cannot officially scrap this surcharge for its migrant workers even those working for NHS Scotland but it can, and seemed to last year, turn a blind eye, when payments are not made: From March last year: ‘Three-quarters of NHS hospital trusts in England are using private debt firms to chase treatment costs from overseas patients and refused asylum seekers in a practice branded “inhumane” by critics, the Observer can reveal. Data released under the Freedom of Information Act shows that 77 of 102 hospital trusts have used private debt firms to pursue ineligible patients. Of 60 trusts that provided patient numbers, 8,468 patient debts … Continue reading It cannot be scrapped in Scotland but is a blind eye being turned to migrant health surcharge debt?

We’ve known for a week now that the first minister only became aware of the outbreak when cases were confirmed around March 2. She did not know the venue. Here’s what she said: Why would we have been trying to cover anything up? We were reporting figures on this. I stood up here every single day to be as open and transparent with you, the public, as possible. There is no interest in covering these things up, so that is nonsense. And actually, I don’t know where that accusation comes from, but it sounds like highly politicised nonsense as well. Ian Murray … Continue reading Scotsman headlines repeat of tired and highly politicised nonsense

We’re all familiar with Prof Pennington, Commander of the British Empire, popping up to state the bleedin’ obvious but who knew the the Principality of Wales had one too, in Prof Sian Griffith, Order of the British Empire. The similarities are uncanny. Both ‘experts’ are quick to remind readers that they are probably not the ones to ask any more but the British media like their Unionist thinking. Today: Wales must work closely with other UK nations to secure enough resources to deal with coronavirus, an expert has said. Prof Griffiths said it was “good news” an antibody test was … Continue reading Wales has a British Empire Prof too, pushing for Better Together

From Brenda Steele: Why does the Sunday post not make it clear that it is the performance of a UK Government Testing Hub that Mr Cole-Hamilton is dissatisfied with? If he is unhappy that they lost his results and thinks there should be faster turnaround, he needs to complain to either Deloitte – who manage it – or the UK Government. Telling Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman and Jason Leitch, Scotland’s National Clinical Director, wastes their valuable time and will do nothing to get the problems fixed. And we do know that this system has problems The results of tens of thousands of Covid-19 tests … Continue reading Lib Dem tries to blame Scottish Government for failures of UK Government testing

With Gordon Brewer this morning, Jackson Carlaw shouts: We hear this morning we’ve not recruited any, NONE, of the 2 000 individuals that are going to be doing the work (testing) is deeply concerning. Brewer does not, of course, correct him. Neither know the facts or care about the facts. The First Minister tweets about them that afternoon so who told Carlaw that there were none? Continue reading Jackson Carlaw allowed to lie about testing on BBC Scotland! No? Really? Surely not!

From ragmanbugle12: My blood pressure must be rocketing up. I know that English is overflowing with everyday metaphors – they are part of its richness, and serve to increase its potential for the transmission of meaning – but I have become more and more irritated as I listen to politicians and pundits who pepper their pronouncements with metaphors which are either exhausted or inappropriate. Long ago, an English teacher explained to me that a metaphor is a lie which reveals a truth: the soldier was not really a lion in the battle, but to say that he was reveals more vividly … Continue reading Misuse of Metaphor in a Time of Disease

By Brenda Steele: I find this paragraph from Hardeep Mathura’s ‘Britain’s Chernobyl, Covid-19 & the Cost of Lies’ very interesting indeed: The explosion did not just destroy a nuclear reactor but the Soviet Union itself. Independence movements – particularly in Ukraine and Belarus, the two most affected regions – found life in its wake and the empire fell five years later. In 2006, Mikhail Gorbachev, on whose watch the disaster unfolded, said that “the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl… even more than my launch of Perestroika, was perhaps the real cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union”. Transposing the concept to the … Continue reading Will Covid-19 be Britain’s Chernobyl?