As of today, NHS Scotland has 6 fatalities in 322 cases hospitalised. This rate of 18.6 per 1 000 compares with the tragic Italian rate of 83 per 1000. The overall UK figure is now 177 fatalities in 3 269 hospitalised cases or 54 per 1 000. I know some readers are uncomfortable with this reporting but it remains important to tell the truth in the interests of the morale in NHS Scotland which has so often been unfairly damaged by media distortions and scare stories based on far smaller sets of data, often individual patients, than we see here. … Continue reading Scotland’s hospitals’ impressive and heroic efforts in holding back coronavirus mortality

What? Thousands of claimants are making individual claims of up to £150 million each? How many disabled weans have they got? In more than six hundred words on those welfare claimants suspected of defrauding the taxpayer we can see whose side Michael Settle is on. There’s no space for any useful context such as the scale of legitimate benefits not claimed or of the scale of tax avoidance in the UK. It;s easy to find of course. Here it is: Families in the UK are missing out on £21+ billion a year Tax lost though avoidance, evasion, omission and error: … Continue reading Let’s all stick together in Coronavirus UK? Herald bemoans welfare fraud running at less than one percent of unclaimed legitimate benefits and less than half a percent of tax fiddled by the rich

Readers will remember that other Herald writer, TG, claiming that the virus would kill Scottish independence. Now with a little help from our page reconstruction assistant, Jamie (14), the Herald can play a balancing part in strengthening the case for independence as I’m sure their editor would have wanted. Today they announced breathlessly (self-isolate!): ‘Frontline healthcare workers face losing benefits they are entitled to if they take on extra shifts to help fight the coronavirus. The alarming details have emerged after a nurse in Glasgow contacted her MP having been told by HMRC there would not be any exemptions for those … Continue reading UK Tax Office to punish Scottish health workers!

See him, down at the bottom? Contrast these alleged crimes with those alleged of the former SNP leader. Hidden away and not one mention of his party allegiance anywhere in the BBC reporting. I searched for a sign of his party affiliation. I was difficult to find any mention. Only on the third page of Googling did I find out that he was a Lib Dem. We have to hope they will be quicker with him than they were with Cyril Smith. Perhaps Willie Rennie could advise them on procedure? Readers might remember our report on the BBC non-coverage-at-all in … Continue reading Another Lib Dem accused of repeated child sex abuse but BBC can barely find a space for him and never mention his party

Thanks to a parliamentary question from the Lib Dems on Wednesday, the Scottish Government was able inform us that the mortality rate for children aged 1 to 9 has fallen 7%, from 10.39 per 100 000 in 2013 to 9.7 per 100 000 in 2018. The UK rate is also 9.7. Since 2007, the Scottish rate has fallen from 15 per 100 000 to the UK rate. In 2008, the UK figure was 12.3 per 100 000. Click to access WA20200318.pdf https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/childhoodinfantandperinatalmortalityinenglandandwales/2017#cancers-continue-to-be-the-most-common-cause-of-death-for-children-aged-1-to-15-years Readers will remember a series of Scottish government initiatives to reduce poverty which of course plays a part … Continue reading Child mortality falls 7% in 5 years to reach UK level

Tom Gordon knows that most Scottish hospitals do not charge for car parking and that the three which do, do so because of PFI contracts signed by a Labour government, but in the Herald last night: Tom Gordon MSPs are demanding parking charges are waived at hospitals during the coronavirus crisis after it emerged NHS staff avoiding public transport are paying extra to the [sic] right thing. Most readers will know that the SNP scrapped hospital car parking charges 12 years ago, except where they could not do so, in 3 hospitals, where the car parks were built under PFI contracts signed … Continue reading Coronavirus hospital parking Update: Herald sickens us

It is so hard to look beyond the Covid 19 story currently that lots of good news can get missed. I realise that the economic stats from even very recently are now being rewritten by the impacts of Covid 19 but these very recent 2 examples from Scotland’s Chief Statistician demonstrate that – even within the manacles of the devolution settlement – the SNP Scottish Govt and majority YES Scottish Parlt have been working small miracles with our economy despite Brexit and Johnson’s publicly stated policy to ‘F—- business”. Link and snippets below: https://news.gov.scot/news/employment-unemployment-and-inactivity-for-young-people Statistics from the Annual Population Survey … Continue reading Small economic miracles even within the manacles of devolution

From Ipsos MORI today with fieldwork on 13th to 16th March, SNP support is at 49% with Conservatives at 27% and Labour at 16%. This follows the Opinium poll for 12th to 13th March which put SNP support at 53%. https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2020-03/political-monitor-march-2020-tables.pdf Given that support in December 2019 was only 45%, does this mean that the Salmond trial and, in particular, the media feeding frenzy, has had the effect of increasing SNP support? Why? The media coverage? Continue reading Salmond trial INCREASING support for SNP

It’s the headline story: ‘The number of coronavirus patients who’ve died in Scotland has doubled from 3 to 6.’ It was then repeated but no context to help viewers put it into any context was forthcoming. Doubling? That sounds bad, really bad. Is it? Is this a high figure? Is it a high ratio? What does it suggest about the ability of NHS Scotland to cope? Information to at least begin to answer these questions is easily found: In Euronews at 13.44pm yesterday: ‘The United Kingdom has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the world, latest data reveals. It has … Continue reading Reporting Scotland tells us deaths double but fails to put this into any perspective

In Euronews at 13.44pm yesterday: ‘The United Kingdom has one of the highest coronavirus death rates in the world, latest data reveals. It has reported 104 deaths and 2,626 total cases of COVID-19 up to 17 March, meaning a fatality rate of around 40 per 1,000 infections – similar to China’s. When compared to all countries that have reported more than 1,000 cases, it is the third highest in Europe and the fifth highest overall.’ https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/19/coronavirus-uk-has-3rd-highest-covid-19-death-rate-in-europe-on-a-par-with-china At the same time, the NHS Scotland fatality rate was only 13 per 1 000 infections, less than a third of the UK rate. … Continue reading UK has 3rd highest coronavirus death rate in Europe and equal to China