From Channel 4 News last night and reported in several local newspapers but ignored by BBC Scotland and the other press: ‘In a bid to alleviate the pressure on GP surgeries, as of Monday this week, NHS Boards across Scotland started to use a unique system for treating patients experiencing symptoms. Today they have 50 dedicated coronavirus assessment centres set up across the country.’ https://www.channel4.com/news/scotlands-nhs-using-unique-system-to-treat-coronavirus-patients And from Glasgow Live: The new Community Assessment Centres (CACs) will be appointment-only hubs which will maximise the number of symptomatic people who can be cared for within the community. It will ensure that hospital … Continue reading Why are only Channel 4 and local newspapers reporting ‘Scotland’s unique way to treat virus?’

In the Herald last night: THE daily death rate due to coronavirus has hit a record level.Eight have died in Scotland from Covid-19 – the highest number in one day since the outbreak -bringing the total number to 33. You can sense their excitement at a ‘record level’ to headline and it is a record level of deaths but not a record level death rate. Being pedantic can be tiresome, I’ll admit, but sometimes the target of the correction just deserves it. The crude number of deaths is not a rate but the rate of deaths as a percentage of cases is. Unfortunately for … Continue reading Herald desperate for a shocking headline but wrong again as daily death RATE falls below that two days ago

Though the 8 additional deaths reported today are deeply upsetting, Scotland’s mortality rate remains ‘relatively low’ in a wider context and as described on Good Morning Scotland, nearly four weeks since the first recorded case in Dundee on 2nd March. With 33 deaths from 1059 cases, the rate is 3.1%, up from 2.8% yesterday and similar to the rate on the day before, at 3.2%. In Spain, in the last 24 hours, there were 769 deaths. Spain has 9 times the population of Scotland but nearly 100 times the coronavirus death rate. Hopefully we’ve seen the last of the outrageous … Continue reading Scotland’s coronavirus mortality rate still ‘relatively low’ at 3.1%

Headlining in the UK news at 6pm and then again at 6.30, we see a melodramatic report, based on an unattributed single source from social media, utterly contrary to their own published editorial guidelines: ‘As the number of confirmed Scottish cases climbs above 1 000, there are still (sic) concerns that frontline NHS staff don’t have proper protective equipment.’ The word ‘still’ refers presumably to a previous report based on a Facebook chatroom hosted by one GP. ‘The BMA says provision remains patchy.’ The BMA is a trades union which clearly has no figures to offer here, reliable or otherwise. … Continue reading Reporting Scotland ignores its own editorial guidelines to ‘cobble together’ an infection-control crisis based on a single unreliable social media source

This is prompted by an article yesterday in The Herald: “Coronavirus has sent Scottish economy into ‘sharp economic downturn’” https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/18334799.coronavirus-sent-scottish-economy-sharp-economic-downturn/ I’ll return to it later. It encouraged a look at what’s going on elsewhere in terms of economic policy responses to the pandemic, especially in smaller independent Western countries.  And alongside this, it’s interesting to see what is being revealed of their intrinsic resilience. How does Norway cope with crisis? It’s common in Scotland to look to Norway as an example of ‘what might have been’ for our country.  On 18 March, Reuters reported that the Norwegian Government had committed … Continue reading Talking Up Countries not like Scotland (yet): How we could have been better prepared for a ‘sharp economic downturn’

By Contrary: “First things first This is a “statutory instrument” not an Act of Parliament – it is so-called secondary legislation made under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act1984 This is legally significant” “First, it means that the regulations can only be used for public health purposes, otherwise they are ultra vies the Act Second, SIs (secondary instruments) can be challenged in court and quashed if they are ultra vires” “This means that if the regulations persist longer than the public health emergency – or are not rationally connected to the threat faced – then a court can rule … Continue reading Shopping for sweeties in a time of coronavirus: Clarifying emergency powers legislation

From Contrary: Reading through a twitter thread by David Allan Green regarding the emergency powers legislation – note that it is a statutory instrument based on another act (so it is not a stand alone law) and is not indefinite and must be proportionate – but obviously we have to have our own version in Scotland and I’ve still to find it, though there is a tweet here commenting on the key difference: David Allen Green Overall – this is an exceptionally illiberal legal regime – justified by the public health emergency, but illiberal all the same The biggest legal … Continue reading ‘Key difference between the English and Scottish regulations is that the latter puts social distancing on a statutory footing’

In a longish reflection more about Iraq and Afghanistan, than Scottish politics, and tempting us with a lovely image where we cannot hear her because she is: ‘Kneeling on the sofa with a duvet over my head, curtains closed in the middle of the day‘, Britain’s appointed TV News Commissar in Scotland, Lady Sara Smith, without any apparent sense of irony, asks: ‘Will my reporting appear less credible?’ Breakfasts across the land are spluttered over table-tops, even sprayed onto TV screens, as millions shout: ‘You could not be less credible!’ This is the woman who loves to insert whenever she … Continue reading Sarah Smith asks ‘Will my reporting appear less credible?’

From Time Thrust yesterday: ‘Renewable energy accounted for 90% of all electricity used in Scotland last year, new figures have revealed. The Scottish Government said more electricity was generated from renewable sources in 2019 than ever before – 30 terrawatt hours (TWh), up from 26.5 TWh in 2018. With one year to go until a target of 100% gross electricity consumption from renewables, 2019 estimates found 90% came from renewable sources as opposed to 76.2% during the previous year. The amount of renewable energy produced is equivalent to the electricity needed to power all Scottish homes for more than three … Continue reading Scotland produced enough renewable energy last year to power all Scottish homes for more than three years

The above redesigned by BBC Scotland staff From BBC London last night: ‘The deaths of 67 heart surgery patients at a London hospital were probably, most likely, or definitely caused by “significant shortcomings” in treatment, a report has found.The review looked at the cardiac surgery unit at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust between 2013 and 2018.’ The report has, of course, no references to any responsibility for this stopping at Westminster politicians. Once again BBC Scotland staff had to be drafted in it show how it is done. Not reported by BBC, the PM was cornered by Londoners … Continue reading PM interrogated on ‘third-world conditions’ in THREE London hospitals!