I suppose with its shrinking audience, that formerly ‘throbbing organ’ of news, the Herald, just doesn’t like to be reminded of its own flaccid state but, really, is this really cringey? Just human, normal? I’d laugh. The old ones are the old ones? The herald writer’s partner is challenged? Continue reading Herald wins ‘sad award of the year’

I know, the corporate media always put the attraction of readers and online clicks, before accurate public information, though they like to pretend the opposite. Health correspondents seem particularly prone to the scare story. For good scientific reasons there was uncertainty about the safety of vaccines for pregnant women and their babies. It takes time to gather enough data to make a safe recommendation. Does McCardle suggest experts should have just recommended a practice they could not support with hard evidence? Had we now data revealing more deaths among the vaccinated pregnant women, imagine the Herald’s headline. What evidence does … Continue reading Was the increased ICU care of pregnant women in the Delta wave a good sign, saving lives?

On the 12th, Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson, left, fed the Telegraph this, on the attempts by the Scottish Government to prevent strikes during the UK Government’s hosting of COP26 in Glasgow: Simpson said: Nicola Sturgeon and her SNP government are clearly feeling the pressure of Cop26 looming with strikes set to take place. This is a last-ditch attempt to redeem themselves. Passengers will see through this façade. The SNP appear to have suddenly found the money to avoid an embarrassment on the world stage, but have been unwilling to do the same for passengers who have suffered months … Continue reading It only takes a day or two for the Tory mind to jump track

Hospital admissions are falling from more than 1 000 in September to 900 yesterday and way below the more than 2 000 in February. Staff absences have fallen for several weeks and are also far below the peaks. Infection levels have been plummeting for weeks to the lowest level in the UK by some way and vaccination levels are the highest in the UK. So far, we’ve had soldiers doing, at best, 1% of vaccinations in June, driving 1.8% of non-emergency only ambulances in September, and now we hear that 86 personnel will boost NHS Scotland’s staffing of 160 000 … Continue reading 0.05% more staff? It’s just not convincing

I hesitate to comment on just what is happening in Wales, but Scotland remains the only part of the UK where new Covid cases continue to fall despite events such as the recent Scotland match watched in thousands of pubs and currently putting one of my progeny in strict isolation. Scotland’s leading vaccination programme will have been at least a part of this. Continue reading Covid cases falling only in Scotland

Wolverhampton South East MP Pat McFadden has not called for the UK Health Secretary to resign despite ‘About 43,000 people in England and Wales may have been wrongly told their Covid-19 test was negative because of errors at a private laboratory.‘ How many Covid deaths are now due to unsuspecting folk going home convinced it was safe to hug their granny? Wolverhampton’s other two, Tory, MPs are silent and no politician is blamed in the report. Regulars know what is coming next. From BBC Scotland in November 2020: So, with an error of a less serious nature, in Scotland, it’s … Continue reading Wolverhampton MP does not call for heads to roll

On BBC News at 10 last night, we heard that the Conservative pledge in 2015 to boost the GP workforce by 5 000 by 2021 ‘wasn’t met.’ Surely, Reporting Scotland could do a smooth segue into GP shortages here. Nope, three minutes on cops and COP26, sex abuse, Tory cronyism and curling. Why no GP shortages? Continue reading Why doesn’t Reporting Scotland want to talk of GP shortages?

By Alasdair Galloway Over the last three days I have had an exchange with well-known Unionists and SIU member, Alan Fitzpatrick. This was prompted initially by his letter on Tuesday INDY QUESTION IS SIMPLE IS Robert Frazer (Letters, October 11) kidding, or does he really believe that “tens of thousands of ordinary people” are so disinterested in understanding what they would be voting for, or so lacking in intelligence to care, that they would be confused by having to answer such a simple question in an Indyref2 as “Should Scotland remain in the UK? Yes or No”? I doubt such … Continue reading What a bunch of liars

From stewartb: The BBC News website today (14 October) publishes an article headlined ‘GPs told to see more patients in person as A&E waits worsen’. It’s written by its specialist Health Correspondent. (Source https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58904557 ) On A&E performance, we learn here that: ‘In September (2021) a quarter of patients who came to A&E in England waited longer than four hours for treatment.’ And we are told: ‘That is the worst performance since 2004, when the four-hour target was brought in.’ Notwithstanding the sloppy reference to ‘longer than four hours for treatment’ – the formal performance standard is NOT defined in … Continue reading What’s going on at the BBC – deliberate massaging of statistics or careless error?

A staggering 22% ahead of England and 9% of Wales, Scotland has vaccinated 51% of 12-17 year-olds, leads on almost all age groups and is one of only two nations to have done 100% of the over 60s. This has contributed to Scotland having the lowest infection rate and the only part of the UK not currently surging toward winter: Continue reading Scotland far ahead on teen jags