You have to read some way in to find that the accusation below comes only from Ian Murray, Tory MP for Morningside. Here’s what the FM had to say: 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 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. To say that cases were associated with … Continue reading For highly politicised nonsense you can trust to be highly politicised nonsense, support the Herald

Former Brexit candidate, Dr Stuart Waiton in the Herald today: WHEN the police in Scotland are asking for clarification about the arrest policy for those daring to go to a drive-through Costa coffee, you know you’re in trouble. The Stay at Home slogan has become a mantra, a script repeated hundreds of times a day, by the Scottish Government and their experts, but also by every second advert on TV. My local radio station even has its own Stay at Home jingle, just in case we’d forgotten. As with the Labour and Tory politicians who write undercover for the Herald and Scotsman, Waiton’s … Continue reading Herald gives ‘Far-right’ Brexit candidate platform to attack ‘Stay at home’ message

I know, I’ve mixed a bit of George Lucas in with a dash of Philip Pulman there but, hey, so what? In the Clickbait Herald today ‘British Irish Investigative Journalist’, Neil Mackay: It’s repellent to behold. Power and ambition seem more important than keeping the party of government united at a time of national crisis. Labour and the Tories are doing less to undermine the FM than some on her own side. What is Mackay thinking when he writes this kind of thing? He knows it’s not even remotely true. All he has is a handful of senior, or once … Continue reading Herald’s Neil Mackay tipped as new Darth Vader after star performance with his dark materials

In a Survation poll on 16th to 23rd April, those at Occupation Level 1 and 2 were the most likely to highly trust the UK Government to provide them with information on Covid-19 (57.2%) while those at levels 3 and 4 were the least likely to do so (47.6%, 49.3%). The levels are not defined. https://www.survation.com/survation-covid-19-public-attitude-tracker/ In an Opinium poll on 5th May, the week when the UK became the country with Europe’s highest coronavirus death toll, car-owning professionals were the group most likely to approve of Boris Johnson’s leadership (56%) while the non-car-owning working class group were the least … Continue reading Are the UK’s upper classes willing to risk the lives of manual workers?

By Sam: What was also ignored by the BBC was the decision by the UK government to allow the importation from abroad without any checks whatever of covid 19 carriers. This paragraph is damning of the UK government’s failure: “From a statistical point of view, the probability of physically encountering the novel coronavirus or of being exposed to infected individuals in large international airports or in the cabins of airplanes is much higher than in homes, workplaces, schools or other public spaces. These pandemic simulations show that large international airports and airplane cabins are major sources of risk, and are … Continue reading Scottish Government’s early attempts to stem flow of infected air travellers ignored by BBC

We have no reason to be surprised when BBC Scotland does not talk truth to power. The programme last night had two fatal flaws. First it did not investigate the power and access to information differential between the UK and Scottish governments and it did not investigate the powerful global corporations milking the Scottish care sector and responsible for the massive failure there to staff properly and to control infection. Daly does mention in passing, the SAGE meetings at which CMOs and chief scientific advisers from the devolved administrations could only listen in, could not ask questions and instead had … Continue reading ‘Scotland’s Lockdown’: A whitewash for the powerful and an attempt to blame the Scottish Government

By brenda steele: Put these three facts together and the new Boris plan should worry us all: Many people who have Covid19 are Asymptomatic. The UK Government approach was justified by the many similarities between SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, including high genetic relatedness, transmission primarily through respiratory droplets, and the frequency of lower respiratory symptoms (fever, cough, and shortness of breath) with both infections developing a median of 5 days after exposure. However, despite the deployment of similar control interventions, the trajectories of the two epidemics have veered in dramatically different directions. Within 8 months, SARS was controlled after SARS-CoV-1 had infected … Continue reading England risks a Second Wave of Death

In the Herald, yesterday: Tory leader Jackson Carlaw said the First Minister had to explain why the falling rate of infection, or R number, had apparently “stalled” in Scotland. He asked whether it was related to the “appalling rate of infection and loss of life in Scotland’s care homes”, the site of most recent fatalities. The R number is of course nothing to do with deaths though had it, Scotland’s far lower death rate than the UK average, by any measure, might have made his questioning of the First Minister more interesting. As for the infection rate, regardless of the mysteries of … Continue reading Carlaw can’t grasp coronavirus statistics as FT/Imperial estimate London’s infection rate 27 times greater than in Scotland

In the Herald yesterday we read: In a letter to Ms Sturgeon, Mr Carlaw demanded the First Minister produce daily evidence to justify her “slower approach” and convince the public it was the right one. On the same day, YouGov did a snap survey revealing that 60% of Scots oppose the UK Government’s plan to encourage people, who can’t work from home, to go into work and 72% support the Scottish Government’s view that only: “Stay home, Protect the NHS, Save lives” makes it clear what I am supposed to do. https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/h6nwhcsrrv/GMBResults_200511.pdf Readers may also remember the poll at the … Continue reading Carlaw gets it all wrong as poll shows Scots reject Tory plan to risk working-class workers’ lives

From Brian McGowan: A six year old has been bringing sunshine to a Glasgow hospital after painting rainbows and selling them to her local neighbours. Little Hallé Glass raised £1,830 from her paintings and has donated the money to support patients at Lightburn Hospital. Hallé and her nine year old brother Cooper presented a cheque to the staff at Lightburn as a thank you for caring for a relative at the hospital. Hallé’s mum Samantha said: “Hallé is six years old and decided she had a strategy up her sleeve. http://www.nhsggc.net But, in BBC Glasgow and Westworld this is you: Continue reading A wee Glasgow girl moves us more than VE Day but BBC Scotland have only murder on their minds