As BBC Scotland fussed over single cases with parents presented as the experts in how a vaccination programme should be run, a major scandal in English care homes was ignored. We now know that the death rate in these homes is twice as high as in Scottish care homes due to the UK Government’s failure to vaccinate care home residents first and before all other groups. Thousands have died unnecessarily. 3 700 UNNECESSARY CARE HOME DEATHS IN ENGLAND BECAUSE…? https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2021/03/03/3-700-unnecessary-care-home-deaths-in-england-because/ The only real attention to the Scottish Government’s success in this prioritising has come in First Minister’s briefings where following … Continue reading Care home vaccination and death: bias by omission works

Yesterday the chancellor froze personal tax thresholds. This is largely something of a stealth tax on those on low and middle incomes. In addition, he made no mention of pay increases for the public sector workers who have made such sacrifices and paid such heavy costs to protect us all in this time of crisis. Last year, between the 5th October and 23rd November, one in three police officers in England & Wales reported that they had been threatened by someone they believed had Covid-19 and who said they would breathe or cough on them. In Scotland, there is a … Continue reading SNP Government’s success in keeping crime down

From the 1st of January 2021 until the 26th February, 9 088 care home residents in England died from confirmed Covid-19. From the 1st of January 2021 until the 28th February, 532 care home residents in Scotland died from confirmed Covid-19. England has ten times the population so pro-rata might have been expected to have ten times as many deaths, 5 320, but had around 3 700 more. Had NHS England, followed the JCVI advice and vaccinated care home residents as a priority above all others, 3 700 lives might have been saved. Who told them not to follow the … Continue reading 3 700 unnecessary care home deaths in England because…?

The Herald’s trusted and reliable reporting helping to to make sense of the world you live in? Well maybe not that one. Try these: New cases down to only a fifth, deaths less than half, hospitals emptying, care homes protected! Yes, the 7 day average for new cases is 543 down from 2 649 at the beginning of 2021. 7 day average for deaths, inevitably lagging but down at 21 from 55 on January 12th. 750 in hospital, down from 2 053 on January 22nd. 69 in ICU, down from 161 on January 21st. 28 deaths in care homes in … Continue reading Will it never improve? What, it has?

I’ve set up my landline phone so that nuisance callers have to say who they are before getting through. They don’t seem bother any more. It’s great. However, nuisance callers remain a problem for those who follow the news. You could easily click on the above and be rewarded with an all-too-predictable line from the Scottish Conservatives. You can see why the headline doesn’t mention them. Even the foolhardy would know not to follow through with a click. I guess most of us know what to expect now and are not tempted but they’re still at it today, as they … Continue reading Nuisance callers

From Reporting Scotland today: Doctors and nurses raise concerns about the standard of their PPE. Just a lie, just a scare story of tabloid accuracy. And then it’s ‘some doctors and nurses’ say they should be provided with higher grade PPE. And then, ‘Some Scottish staff have told the BBC..‘ Some eh? Two? No, just the one: The nurse. And the doctors? Two? Just the one: She doesn’t actually say anything about face masks. Was she asked about them? What did she say? Not useful? Who is Peters? Where does she work? She’s the one BBC Scotland used back in … Continue reading Oh no they didn’t

By Alasdair Galloway Conspiracy, proper conspiracy, emergent conspiracy and garbage cans. A few days ago Peter Bell published an interesting article – “Alex Salmond: A fly bugger” (https://peterabell.scot/2021/02/23/alex-salmond-a-fly-bugger) in which he asserts that when Alex Salmond’s refers, as he does in his evidence to the Holyrood Committee to “a deliberate, prolonged, malicious and concerted effort amongst a range of individuals” he is not quite describing a ‘proper’ conspiracy.” But what is a “proper conspiracy”?  In law a conspiracy is when “A person who agrees with another or others to act in a way which would  involve  the  commission  of  an  … Continue reading A Garbage Can Explanation for Salmond vs Sturgeon

By Alasdair Galloway This title is something of a truism. One form of this is that anything we do can come back and bite us on the bum at some point in the future. This might be something that Alex and Nicola would do well to contemplate. But that, dear reader, is not my topic for tonight. Instead, it is this. Have all of us thought through the consequences of the action that we are set on? As Stuart Campbell pointed out yesterday, “We’re in for a heck of a week in Scottish politics”. We are indeed.  First of all, … Continue reading Actions have consequences: anything we do can come back and bite us on the bum

Let’s leave aside the long-term roots of Scotland’s drug death statistics, in the Thatcher government’s de-industrialisation of Scotland, the destruction of communities and the consequent loss of a meaningful life for a whole generation of, mainly, young men, who 40 years later make up the bulk of the dying, bodies prematurely aged by drugs. Let’s forget, for the moment the, smug contempt, the corruption and the low-browed ignorance of those big beasts of the Scottish Labour Party who did nothing to protect their country from London policies. This report from BBC Scotland is a clear example of the kind of … Continue reading The Needle and the Damage Done to the SNP Government

Growing pressure eh? Woah! Let’s see who’s coming on heavy: Scotland’s largest teaching union has written to Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney, as well as the leaders of all the major political parties, calling for their support to vaccinate school staff against Covid-19. The Educational Institute of Scotland is urging all those in power to reconsider the planned roll-out of the vaccine, claiming teachers and other school staff should be vaccinated as a matter of urgency. I’ve lost track of how many times Larry Flanagan has been on Reporting Scotland or in the Herald trying to get his pals the jag before … Continue reading Scotland’s teacher union leader has learning difficulty