David Leask’s assertion below: reminds me of the time when a journalism teacher told me that journalists were ‘cognitive misers’ as if that made lack of proper background research somehow OK. Around the same time the editor of Reporting Scotland stunned me by suggesting that it was all ‘very well for academics’ with the time to fully research a topic. Leask’s claim above, is to my knowledge, NOT supported by any research. Of course, even if it were to be shown to be accurate, that would not prove his headline claim that our Europeanism is somehow only skin-deep and, by … Continue reading The problem with David Leask’s problem with ‘Scotland’s skin-deep Europeanism’

Only tiny Iceland has boosted more than Scotland. In terms of the overall vaccine rollout, Scotland is 4th equal with Japan. Reporting Scotland await ‘better’ news, for them. Continue reading Scotland’s booster rollout 2nd in world

From the ONS today it is estimated that 4.52% of the Scottish population had Covid-19 in the week-ending 31 December 2021. The figure for England was 6.00%, 33% higher and the highest in the UK. Some BBC commentators think this is ‘broadly similar’ but we don’t do we? Stricter policies on face-coverings in shops and schools, since the summer seem an obvious explanatory factor along with the FM being clearer and more consistent than that big balloon in Westminster. In the previous week, the ONS estimate was 1 in 15 in England and 1 in 20 in Scotland, 33% lower … Continue reading Latest ONS data reveal strong evidence restrictions are working

The 7 day average, yesterday, was 15 435.1, down from perhaps the peak of 16 220.4 on the 3rd January 2022. Combine this with consistently low and unchanging ICU numbers (c40) and hospitalisations, though still climbing, running at around 25% lower than in England, and there is cause for cautious optimism and, of course, sticking to the Scot Gov rules. Continue reading Omicron wave stalling and beginning to dip as SNP measures kick in

A clearly partisan case for nuclear energy is presented uncritically by the Herald – corporate backscratching rather than informing the public. You cannot trust this former newspaper. Why would Scotland, once independent, never need to import any energy at all. Apologies, regulars, but here it is again: Scotland produces far more electricity and gas than it consumes. With 8% of the population, Scotland produces 28% of the UK’s gas consumption. https://www.gov.scot/news/oil-and-gas-production-statistics-for-2019-1/ And on electricity, Scotland produces 97% of its electricity from renewables, compared to only 35% in the UK or that 25% of the UK consumption is transferred from Scotland. … Continue reading Scots face soaring bills as they power the rest of the UK free

In November 2021 (most recent data), the full A&E units in the PM’s local health trust, The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust saw only 51.7% of patients in 4 hours. In the same period, Greater Glasgow & Clyde hospitals saw 76.7%, 25% more and thus, are 48% better. https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ae-waiting-times-and-activity/ae-attendances-and-emergency-admissions-2021-22/ Continue reading Glasgow hospitals emergency services a staggering 48% better than PM’s local health trust

Like a ravenous rodent, Chris Musson, has pounced on Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s request that those with ‘without a very urgent or life-threatening condition’ try to attend instead one of the board’s three standalone Minor Injuries Units (MIUs) in Greater Glasgow and Clyde – the Vale of Leven Hospital, Stobhill Hospital and the New Victoria ACH. The latter detail is, of course, kept off the front page, leaving readers to think those with broken limbs have nowhere to go other than their GP. MIUs or Type 1 A&E, in NHS England, see more than a million such cases every month. Continue reading ‘Outcasts’ is about right for Sun reporters

As 24 English health trusts declare ‘critical incidents’ (Guardian yesterday) and none in Scotland do, the Scottish media desperately scrabbles around for evidence that Scotland is just as bad, before anyone suggests the Scottish Government has managed its NHS better. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is the preferred target and its announcement, in common with hundreds of top medics across the UK, that folk should only turn up at A&E if they have an emergency , has been pounced on and linked to the health secretary’s rather more limited comment that we are in a worst case scenario, for Omicron … Continue reading No ‘critical incidents’ in Scotland as Glasgow hospitals perform at national average

It’s now more than two years since BBC Scotland’s health correspondent, Lisa Summers, took it upon herself to judge NHS Tayside’s Oncology department to be ‘dysfunctional’ after the medics there tried reduced lower chemotherapy doses to help the patients cope with frankly terrifying side-effects. On 24 December 2021, the Dundee Courier announced the relaunch of a campaign headed-up by Dr Norman Pratt, a consultant geneticist, not an oncologist, Miles Briggs and Jackie Baillie for another formal investigation of the events. As with the ongoing attempts to keep two child deaths at the QEUH in the public, political sphere, this is … Continue reading The ‘Tayside breast cancer scandal’ is merely a cynical media/opposition construct

Only six months since Jackie Baillie lied about Scotland lagging behind the rest of the UK on vaccine rollout at a time when with Wales, we were well ahead of England and N Ireland, she’s back with numbers suggesting she is either challenged or, more likely, plain dishonest. This time, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) attacked her after she claimed that the average number of available, staffed, paediatric beds at the Royal Hospital for Children fell from 200 in 2011-12 to 120 in 2020-2021. The board quickly pointed out that the precise figures for common staffed accessible beds as … Continue reading Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie lies about hospital beds for kids falling as they actually increase