By Alasdair Galloway According to Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph (5th March) Johnson and team are gearing up for an early(ish) election – May 2023 to be specific, so not that early but before his term hits the normal five years at the end of 2024. Nelson’s evidence for this is twofold. First there is the significant, continuing and until recently expanding lead the Tories have over Labour in the polls, suggesting the same sort of majority or even more. Secondly there is Rishi Sunak’s budget, which, according to Nelson, could be summarised as “spend now, pay nothing until 2023”. … Continue reading Is Johnson planning an early election?

Based on the words of Francois Balloux of UCL in London, James Cook tells us In countries with high rates of vaccination, including the UK, the pandemic phase of the virus will be over by the spring. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58112939 Well, only if you don’t look at the latest data: After 7 days of falling infections, the seven-day rolling averages in England and Northern Ireland are heading up again. The above graph does not reveal the detail nor today’s figures: It’s only one day but the data for Wales, on a Monday, are disturbing and for England and Northern Ireland seem stuck … Continue reading Pandemic over by Spring 2022? Maybe in Scotland as cases plummet to one-third UK level

From SNP Media New analysis from the House of Commons Library shows Brexit is costing the whisky industry £5 million per week. UK exports of whiskies to the EU were £105.7 million lower in January-May 2021 than in January – May 2019, which, on average, is £5.0 million a week lower. In the immediate aftermath of Brexit – January to March 2021 – the whisky industry saw its exports drop to £135.9 million lower than in the same period in 2019, which works out as £10.4 million a week lower on average. In 2019, Scotch Whisky accounted for 75 per cent of … Continue reading Brexit is costing the whisky industry £5 million per week

From SNP Media today: Scotland has been catapulted to the top of the tables in Europe for countries who produce electricity from renewables – with latest available figures placing Scotland into the top three. Scottish Government figures for 2020 show 97% of electricity in Scotland is produced from renewables.When compared with the latest data from Eurostat for 2019, it takes Scotland into the top three of nations in Europe producing clean electricity. In 2019, only Norway and Iceland produced more electricity from renewables than Scotland. Other nations behind Scotland in the table include Sweden, Denmark and Germany. It also puts Scotland … Continue reading ‘Scotland has been catapulted to the top’

In the Herald today: Liberal Democrats have warned that SNP plans to set up a publicly-funded National Care Service risk handing more power to ministers – claiming the plans will “cut local accountability out of the process”. The Scottish Government is investigating whether social care and other services such as drug rehabilitation, could be restructured in a model similar to the NHS. https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19499719.libdems-say-national-care-service-plan-will-hand-snp-ministers-much-power/ What do we know about the Covid deaths in care homes and what does that suggest we should do? In particular, does the evidence argue in favour of more power for ministers? We know: Privately owned care … Continue reading Lib Dems defend care homes corporations’ right to keep cash cows regardless of lives lost

Not only hitting us in the face with full jackery, the Daily Mail sold in Scotland, deliberately undermines Scotland’s more cautious approach to pandemic control by using the ‘Freedom Day‘ message explicitly rejected by the Scottish Government and reasonably communicated by most MSM in Scotland: Even the Telegraph appeared to know it was a daft idea: The Daily Mail online from somewhere in England had a more useful report including this: SNP health minister Humza Yousaf was also quick to warn of the risks of a new variant triggering another lockdown ahead of the easing of restrictions.   Mr Yousaf told … Continue reading Daily Mail in Scotland goes full Bull

The seven-day rolling average takes time to turn but case numbers in England and, more so Northern Ireland, have been surging for 4 days now. From 19 012 on the 3rd August, England has now had 26 393, 26 512, 28 321 and 25 877, up more than 30% with no sign of falling. From 1 040 on the 4th August, Northern Ireland has now had 1 641, 1 434, and 1349 up more than 30% and rocketing. Scotland is up less than 5%. Wales is still falling slightly. The media coverage? Not a trace. Watch this space. Continue reading There may be trouble ahead

Today, BBC Scotland’s website had the heart-warming tale of an asylum seeker who is now a surgeon in NHS Tayside’s Ninewells Hospital, in Dundee. The report, not by their health correspondent, Lisa Winters, but by Frankie Allan (nope, me neither) is entirely positive. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/frankieelyseallan Really, it is. Including this: Her job eventually brought her to Scotland, where she has found a “magical” country that feels like home. “I never really felt at home since leaving Iran,” she said. “I liked my life down south, but something was always massively missing.” When she was offered a job in Dundee, Dr Shahsavari … Continue reading The best health board in the UK, in the world?

BBC Northern Ireland has noticed that they have the highest infection rate in the UK but, unlike the team at Pacific Quay, they make little of it and make no mention of their status as the ‘Covid Capital’ of the whole of Europe too. No European country can be found above them: I’ve pointed several times to the tendency of only BBC Scotland to politicise health issues and to platform opposition party leaders to blame the ‘SNP Government’ for any negatives: Imagine if Reporting Scotland had an image like the one below but where Scotland was all in black? That … Continue reading BBC Northern Ireland fails to notice they’ve topped Europe’s Covid hotspot chart

As Good Morning Scotland seeks the advice of a strip club owner on how the Scottish Government should manage exit from a pandemic, the Herald’s Brian Donnelly has a similar plan, that we should follow a ‘strategy’ based on a big buffoon. He writes: SCOTTISH firms gave only a wary welcome as First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the lifting of restrictions on businesses for the first time really since last March from Monday. Short-term details about mask-wearing situations were still being ironed out but the longer term was also sharply in focus. https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/19497287.scotland-follow-uk-lockdown-strategy/ ‘Can you dance frenetically with a face … Continue reading ‘Scotland should follow UK lockdown strategy’ to boost infection and death rates?