In the week-ending 1st August (most recent data) 7 850 patients were reported for Covid. Only 1, one, had been infected in a hospital. That’s an astonishing performance in infection control across 279 hospitals. This data is hardly ever reported. BBC Scotland’s Lisa Summers will tweet excitedly if the graph goes up at all. At this level, the only way is up. Watch for it. NHS England deals with this by not reporting at all but a study published in Hospital Healthcare Europe suggested a figure of 10% over the first wave: https://hospitalhealthcare.com/covid-19/over-1-in-10-covid-19-infections-were-hospital-acquired/embed/#?secret=U9pV1osZUKAdvertisements Continue reading Only 1 out of 7 850 Covid cases was picked up in hospital

I wondered how long they would take. 3 days. 3 days ago, infection levels in Scotland caught up and surpassed for the first time in two months, those in England. The Herald has not asked why they were so low, the lowest in the UK, for most of the pandemic, nor for that matter why they are currently far lower than in Northern Ireland. Perhaps the most important questions never asked are based on these facts: Why has Scotland had the lowest overall infection rate? Why has Scotland had the second lowest overall death rate? Why has Scotland vaccinated more … Continue reading Why were Covid cases in Scotland so low compared to England for almost all of the pandemic?

I am/was a prof so my opinion counts, on anything at all. I like Janey Godley. She makes me laugh so she must be a good comedian too but she’s wrong on this. Connolly was very funny at first but soon lost touch with us, started sounding a bit Kelvinside and then began to despise our smallness, our ‘pretendy wee parliament.’ Boyle is the sharpest tool in any box. This is the man who, after the referendum, told a crowd, that he knew more than half of them were cnuts. This is the man who, wondering how we might teach … Continue reading ‘Funny’ prof says ‘Boyle far better than Connolly’

You might think the BBC’s practice of shielding child rapists and abusers was a thing of the past, a legacy of the Saville era, but they remain protective to this day. In the above report today, you’ll find no mention of the fact that Anthony Hampton is a Tory. Indeed I had to do a bit of scouring the press to find out, though I had guessed it to be likely. In April 2020: See him, down at the bottom? Hidden away and not one mention of his party allegiance anywhere in the BBC reporting. I searched for a sign … Continue reading BBC still hiding Tory child sex abusers

By stewartb For regular visitors to this site, that question will seem odd – and redundant! But it has just been asked. I stumbled across it a few weeks ago in a headline in The Telegraph (15 July) above an article written by former Scottish Labour MP Tom Harris. We’re given Harris’ answer upfront: ‘Only if he ignores the hard-Left’.  Locating his piece, Harris adds: ‘Labour has a chance to establish a presence in Northern Ireland, and unequivocally reject the pro-unification SDLP’.  The background of course is the longstanding comradely relationship between the UK Labour Party which doesn’t stand candidates … Continue reading ‘Can Keir Starmer make Labour a truly Unionist party?’ – long read

Reporting Scotland’s grudging report on the Scottish Government’s clear promise to have a judge-led independent review into all aspects of the pandemic, months ahead of the UK Government, allows an ambulance-chasing, disreputable solicitor representing a small group of families to cast doubt on the Scottish Government’s attitude to the families. We are told: A prominent (sic) solicitor in Scotland acting on behalf of members of what is know as the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice Group (how many?) has welcomed the inquiry but says it must be an independent panel and leave no stone unturned. He also said families must … Continue reading ‘Sturgeon’ promised that more than three months ago!

Keir Starmer is thought to be planning a re-launch of the Labour Party as ‘Non-Labour’ and to considering a new name for Universal Credit to remove the stigma but not the hunger. ‘Dignity Dosh’ has been proposed. Readers are invited to suggest better names below. The best will get dignity dosh. More from SNP Media today: The SNP has slammed Labour for failing to commit to reversing the Tories’ planned Universal Credit cuts if they were in government – and said this shows Scotland is vulnerable under any Westminster government. In an interview with the Mirror, Labour’s Shadow Work and … Continue reading Non-Labour launches new ‘Dignity Dosh’ but at just the same inadequate level

In a report less bad than I feared, suggesting Robertson has recovered from the worst of his ‘dark forces will delight in Scottish independence’ delusion and his warnings that Scotland could not fight aliens without Tom Cruise and Will Smith, he does still suggest: What then are the consequences of this catastrophe?  First of all, the terror threat increases. Every jihadist will be re-motivated by this retreat. Second, the standing of the US, the West and NATO has been hugely damaged. Russia and China with Iran and North Korea will get real pleasure from the situation in Afghanistan Third, the … Continue reading 20 years later and well behind the pace

The ever vigilant MSM Monitor (https://twitter.com/msm_monitor) has been drawing our attention to the constant tendency for BBC Scotland to omit any mention of Brexit in discussing issues which have been clearly triggered by it. Today, they noted: The flagship pro-Union news programme Good Morning Scotland carried another bulletin about the shortage of HGV drivers this morning and *again* failed to mention Brexit or the EU. Today’s diversionary issue is apparently libraries. This is bias by omission, a common, cheap and probably effective form of propaganda which, when used repeatedly and consistently across TV, radio and websites can gradually break any … Continue reading Helping us to forget what we have lost

Any excuse to to use that image of former Lib Dem leader, perhaps their greatest leader, Willie Rennie trying to help out farmers? Anyhow, in Insider today: The Scottish Government has launched a loan scheme for crofters and farmers. A total of £337 million is available to those in agriculture, which could see each given up to £133,638. Letters will be sent to eligible crofters and farmers this week and the first payments will be made in September. Rural Affairs Secretary, Mairi Gougeon, said: “Our absolute priority is ensuring farmers and crofters receive their payments and this scheme will ensure that … Continue reading SNP help farmers and consumers after Brexit but not the Lib Dem way