It’s not on the BBC Scotland website but is the headline story on the BBC England site and featured on the UK one. The report tells us, of course that: ‘They will carry out tasks across Britain such as driving ambulances, the Ministry of Defence said.’ They gave themselves away, of course, with: ‘Members of the Royal Navy, the British army and the Royal Air Force will be sent to five NHS ambulance trusts.‘ Alert readers will know there are no ‘trusts’ in Scotland. Etymologists can tell us what that means about them and us as a people in comments … Continue reading Coronavirus: British Army not required by ‘unpatriotic’ Scottish Ambulance Service

Agreed. At first, in Scotland and still in the other three NHS areas of the UK, only deaths in hospital where patients had been shown to be infected prior to death were counted. At that time, I was reporting shocking death rates in English hospitals of a 3 to 4 times higher level than in Scotland. While accepting that there are many variables involved, I used these figures to argue that they revealed, contrary to the PM’s disgraceful, now ironic, claim that NHS Scotland had issues of resilience going into the outbreak, it was actually performing much better. Again accepting … Continue reading Why we need separate figures for coronavirus deaths in care homes and in hospitals

While BBC Scotland has been running daily with reports of alleged shortages of PPE in GP surgeries, based on a letter from one GP related to Anas Sarwar and on disagreements about the type of PPE issued to care workers, in England, things are different. Strangely, we hear nothing from GPs there. Surely at least one must be Keir Starmer’s nephew? Of course he’s playing loyal at the moment. What is there, is a huge scandal about the supply of PPE to front-line nurses. The RCN has told its members to refuse to treat patients as a “last resort” if … Continue reading The Royal College of Nursing is attacking Matt Hancock over PPE but NO nursing group is attacking Jeane Freeman: Try telling BBC Scotland

From Opinium based on fieldwork on 7th April, a UK sample of 2 005 and a Scottish sub-sample of 104, 18+ Scots: Asked if the moon landings in 1969 were faked, 0% of SNP supporters agreed but 4% of Tories and 3% of Labour supporters did! That’s 80 and 60 people! Asked if the world is secretly run by a group called the illuminati, 1% (2) of SNP supporters did but 4% (80) and 3% (60) Tories and Labour supporters did! They are actually correct. I am one of those illuminati. Best of all, asked if the Earth is not … Continue reading SNP supporters less likely to be delusional than Tories

Willie Rennie without his specs on: ‘Does that say 1%? Just 1%? No it can’t be. People like me‘ From Opinium based on fieldwork on 7th April and a sample of 104, 18+ Scots: Con 27% Lab 15% LD 1% SNP 53% Green 3% https://www.opinium.co.uk/public-opinion-on-coronavirus-7th-april/ Also of particular interest were the responses to the question of how well Nicola Sturgeon is handling her job as leader of the SNP. Perhaps predictably, 92% of SNP supporters agreed but 54% of Labour supporters and 63% of Lib Dem supporters supporters also did. Of shocking interest, 61% of the full UK sample (2 … Continue reading 6th poll puts SNP above 50% at 53% and pro-Indy parties at 56%

The number of coronavirus deaths fell in the last 24 hours to 24, down from 64 yesterday and a peak of 81 three days ago. Early days perhaps but this graph from Scotland Coronavirus Tracker suggests, at least, a little optimism is warranted: And from the BBC, a graph, commendably correct for them, suggesting a flattening of cases and of intensive care cases. There is a similar trend for the UK as a whole with both deaths and cases beginning to flatten. In sharp and tragic contrast there were 684 deaths in England. This figure, more than twice as high … Continue reading Sharp fall in Coronavirus deaths in ‘more resilient’ Scotland is third in a row

From sam: The story of a mystery surge in Scottish deaths appears in today’s Sunday Times behind a paywall so not completely visible to me. 361 additional deaths beyond those at this time last year. It has already been raised with our FM who is , for the moment,unable to explain the cause but, for sure an explanation will come. Travellingtabby’s excellent website has a little corner tracking these excess Scottish deaths. No doubt the excess is to be seen across the UK Meanwhile, in England, medical experts journalists and politicians continue to make false claims about the number of … Continue reading The misrepresentation of coronavirus numbers in England

Nobody’s asking the National to lie about suspected care home deaths from coronavirus but given that they have become the current propaganda tool of the Unionist media in sharp contrast to most UK/English media which are concealing the many care home deaths there from their audiences, in the interests of ‘national’ unity, around the plucky PM, might they just report something else? There are a million stories out there and that was just one of them. If concerned about the public’s right to know, they must have known their pals in the Herald, just across the room, were onto it. … Continue reading The limited commitment of the National

From BBC UK today: Some key medicines used in intensive care are “in relatively short supply”, the BBC has learned. Supply of anaesthetic medicines in some areas is “a bit stretched”, according to the Royal College of Anaesthetists. One consultant has told the BBC that supplies are “running low” and alternatives are already being used in intensive care in the Midlands. The government [sic] says it is “aware there is an increase in demand for a number of intensive care drugs”. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52150861 The report mentions London and the Midlands. ‘The’ Government seems to be aware, ‘the’ Health Secretary Matt Hancock … Continue reading Why does Royal College of Anaesthetists alert on medicine shortages not mention Scottish hospitals?

After reading this I feel so anxious. I didn’t realise things were so bad in Scotland. I’d been reading that Talking-up Scotland site which has lots of relatively positive evidence about NHS Scotland and chilling reports on NHS England that make you glad you’re ‘up here.‘ But, no, it’s far far worse than we thought. McCardle, doesn’t have time to mention the higher death rate or the real shortages of PPE or the lower staffing or the outsourced 111 service staffed by ex-cons in England. When she’s enjoying telling us how the First Minister has been forced to acknowledge the … Continue reading 1 200 doom-filled words that will certainly boost distancing but somehow missing the obvious