The above was put together by unnamed BBC Scotland staff seconded to stiffen coverage of the coronavirus crisis and hopefully lead to the PM being forced to resign. BBC Scotland is now leading the campaign to defend the wider BBC against Tory attacks on the licence. Sources had told BBC Huddersfield: ‘Some staff at Calderdale and Huddersfield Trust said they were told self-isolating would need to be taken as annual leave if they chose not to work.’ Despite this shocking news, the staff at BBC Huddersfield lacked the guts to exploit it properly. Luckily a BBC Scotland staffer, thought to … Continue reading Leaked BBC Huddersfield report says coronavirus infected doctors told to work or lose holidays!

McArdle writes: ‘BEHAVIOURAL psychologists will surely have a field day in future analysing how the British public responded to the threat from coronavirus by stockpiling toilet roll.To me, it bears all the hallmarks of the ‘Prisoners’ Dilemma’, a famous paradox used in game theory to illustrate why everything from society to international relations is often hobbled by human beings’ innate selfishness.’ Game Theory famously was the basis for the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction] strategy, in the Cold War and Henry Kissinger’s brutal Vietnam and Cambodia war crimes. Back to Scotland. Everybody else is panic-buying the toilet rolls so I must too. We’re all selfish. … Continue reading Coronavirus revealing the best in some folk but the Herald is blind

Reports of shortages in protective gear have been headlined by BBC UK but not by BBC Scotland: That BBC Scotland have not picked up on this, suggests that they have nothing on it. If they had, we’d know all about it. Yet, only a week ago, the Herald headlined: It turned out to be just an unreliable rumour from what turned out to be little more than a ‘chatroom.’ I wrote: McIntosh [the source interviewed] is the ‘chair’ of a small pressure group set up to compete, in England, with the RCGP and the BMA. Note these large and long-established … Continue reading Coronavirus update: No sign of shortages of protective gear in Scotland

In an admittedly courageous attempt to read academic research, the Herald tries to panic its citizens with the suggestion that ‘Glasgow has been placed next to Manchester and London as one of the cities tentatively predicted to be at risk for COVID-19 in the coming weeks.’ Here’s the data they base the claim on: This is the kind of narrow research some researchers love to do and, of course, which journalists and politicians in pursuit of simple explanations, leap on. It’s guff. Leaving aside the fact that Glasgow is not placed ‘next’ to London and Manchester but is, in fact, … Continue reading Coronavirus scare-mongering from the Herald

Today, we heard of another tragic death bringing the Scottish figure up to 3 though it now emerges that the first case was a French rugby fan arriving in Edinburgh already infected. Pro rata, we might expect the UK rate to be 12 times that of Scotland at 36 but it is now 104, almost three times higher. As of today, then, with 3 mortalities in 227 hospitalised cases, the Scottish mortality rate is 1 in 76. Across the UK, with 104 in 2 626 cases, the mortality rate is 1 in 25. Continue reading Growth of coronavirus deaths in Scotland remains slow

From stewartb: Mr Gordon and The Herald decide their preferred line – their ‘framing’ – as commercially they are of course fully entitled to do. So whilst I’m happy with ‘no shooting’ of messengers here, I’m also ‘happy’ with the TUSC providing robust (perhaps smaller – but strengthening?) counterweights to partial (and partisan?), context light/free coverage of important and complex matters. There are numerous sources and metrics to draw on when commenting on the state of Scotland’s economy BEFORE the pandemic struck. Mr Gordon selected his metric – with its limitations. (The GDP numbers are as they are.) We can … Continue reading The evidence Tom Gorgon might have used if he wanted to inform us

In the Horrid today, Tom Gordon writes: ‘SCOTLAND’S economy struggled in 2019, growing by less than 1 per cent even before the impact of coronavirus, new figures have revealed. Official statistics show Scottish GDP was up by 0.2 percentage points in the final quarter of the calendar year, the last quarter before the pandemic caused economic havoc.’ I don’t believe that Gordon believes any of this. He can’t possibly. It’s just ritualistic behaviour that he can’t escape from but which will surely damage his mental health. Nobody of any note uses GDP any more. First, even the DAVOS elite have turned against … Continue reading Tom Gordon knows GDP means nothing but still tries to scare you with it

In Holyrood on Monday, Alex Cole-Hamilton asked how many Scottish Ambulance Service callouts were alcohol-related, in each of the last four years. Cole-Hamilton had mistimed his question by a whole year. While the number had been climbing to 2018, it fell dramatically in 2019, from 31 009 to 28 451, more than 8%. Cole-Hamilton has helpfully prompted another reminder of progress in reducing the harm caused by alcohol: Scotland only UK nation where the alcohol-related death rate dropped this century Ludo Thierry Hi all. Beeb Scotland did carry this piece reporting ONS figures on the very encouraging drop in alcohol related … Continue reading Cole-Hamilton reveals more good news as alcohol-related ambulance call-outs plummet

On Monday, in Holyrood, Jenny Marra MSP (SLBr) asked a question about human trafficking and got a polite reply from Humza Yousef. Neither referred to any figures on the level of such worrying crime. https://www.parliament.scot/S5ChamberOffice/WA20200316.pdf A Freedom of Information request and answer published yesterday is interesting: Question: How many people have been prosecuted and how many have been convicted under previous slavery and trafficking legislation in Glasgow between the years of 2016 – 2019 and any in 2020? Answer: Our records show there were no people prosecuted in Glasgow between 2015-16 to 2017-18 for the aforementioned offences. Information for 2018-19 … Continue reading Is Sunday Post Jenny Marra’s best source?

Readers will know that the Health Secretary, Jeanne Freeman, has ordered that all NHS Scotland staff be checked for coronavirus and that NHS England do not intend to do so, for capacity reasons. Writing in the Guardian yesterday, a consultant cardiologist working in England reported a case of an elderly woman, in for an elective operation, who had caught the virus and subsequently died. He is horrified that NHS England staff will not be tested and fears that widespread contamination of staff and of patients who have not been admitted for coronavirus infection, has already taken place. The Scottish Health … Continue reading Health Secretary acts to prevent hospital-acquired infection of coronavirus as cases begin to emerge in NHS England