By Alasdair Galloway As I write this, I am listening with one ear to a dialogue of the deaf between Keith Brown of the SNP and Jamie Greene of the Scottish Conservatives, concerning the SNP’s newly adopted plan B. Greene, as a Tory so not a surprise, is a agin it on the grounds that we are right in the middle of a Covid pandemic. Of course, this is in some regards at least, risible. For one thing, even the SNP are not suggesting a referendum next week or even next month. One of their MPs Kenny MacAskill pointed out … Continue reading There’s aye a reason

I was going to rebut Mackay but then I thought, why should I? I have a life, of sorts. It’ll be BS again. So, in response to Neil Mackay’s attempt today to dump some rotten fruit of his brain cells, here’s a wee reminder of just how rotten a media outlet he is currently decomposing in. This is just the first 2 of 68 pages of posts when you search https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/page/2/?s=Herald : HERALD CONFIRMS GUTTER PRESS STATUS WITH VACCINE LIES JANUARY 10, 202113 COMMENTSEDIT The Herald on Sunday this morning goes with the same propaganda as the Scottish Daily Mail, … Continue reading The Herald of Decay

More than 24 hours since the First Minister had to explain to Andrew Marr the blindingly obvious reason why Scotland had chosen to follow the expert advice of the UK Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation, to prioritise care home residents ahead of all other groups, Severin Carrell is either parroting Douglas Ross or hopelessly behind the curve. Writing for an at times, leftist newspaper and certainly one in the past, opposed to Tory brutalism, he does not once mention the JCVI advice. Surely a writer for a supposedly intelligent newspaper, favoured by professionals, should have been able to inform … Continue reading Guardian’s Scotland Editor no better than Tories

An Adult News report from TuS. EIGHT Covid-19 reports but not the good news about infections falling steeply: Meanwhile in England, ZERO Covid-19 reports as new cases fall less quickly to remain nearly THREE TIMES higher than in Scotland. Continue reading New cases of Covid-19 fall to just over one-third of those in England but…

By Alasdair Galloway: One of the qualities regularly observed in the SNP over the years has been its “tribalism” – the SNP “tribe” against the Unionist “tribes”. Whether this is fair or not, it has been one of the assets of the party, insofar as. far and away, the biggest part of the independence movement (SNP) stood against a much more balkanised Unionist movement – Labour, Tory, Lib Dem. If you believed in independence there weren’t too many other places you could go. If not the SNP, then the choice was between the Greens and a variety of splinter, splintering, … Continue reading Tribalism and Iron Discipline

Caitlin Hutchison of the Herald has turned the switch from blue to white envelopes into a delay in the vaccine rollout: White envelopes will be used for the first tranche of coronavirus appointments for those aged 70-79 because blue ones were not ready in time, the Scottish Government has announced. OMG Caitlinn! How long do you think it took to go and get the white envelopes from the stationery cupboard. Did the GMB porters refuse to do the job without full consultation? Caitlin likes a bit of hyperbole. See this back in October: For her, three is quite enough for a multiple. … Continue reading 15 minutes wasted in trip to stationery cupboard leads to GMB call for Health Secretary to resign

From the SNP Media Unit: The SNP has said independence is the only way to regain the full benefits of Scotland’s EU membership – as UK consumers and businesses are hit with more charges as a result of Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit deal. Mastercard has said it will increase fees more than fivefold, when UK shoppers and businesses use a debit or credit card to buy from EU-based companies. The ‘interchange fee’ is capped by the EU for Member States but the cap no longer applies to the UK following Brexit – leading to higher costs for UK consumers. Mastercard … Continue reading TORY BREXIT HITS UK SHOPPERS WITH FIVEFOLD INCREASE IN CREDIT CARD FEES

From Norm M I’ve been reflecting on why I enjoy this blog and the work the Prof (Ed: I’m only a ‘vessel’… for the ideas of Noam…..not Norm!) is leading through it. It can be summed up in its name: Talking Up Scotland. There is so much media openly hostile to independence, no more than ever has it been important for there to be outlets where we can highlight the positives (and throw honest un-spun light on the negatives). One of the things that contributed to this reflection is chatter elsewhere about the minutiae of opinion polls. In this area I … Continue reading ‘Just one poll’

From Norm M So, Gordon Brown is being wheeled out again, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s Groundhog Day not Burns Night! In their ‘analysis’ Nick Eardley seems to forget something:  The Tories already setup a fundamental review of the UK’s power structures, it’s called The Dunlop Review into UK Government Union capability. Commissioned in July 2019, and concluded in the autumn of 2019, but the UK Government has never published it (despite numerous briefings to the press that it’s “coming soon”). We can’t be too surprised that Nick forgot it, as the UK Government is awful shy about it too. … Continue reading Aren’t you forgetting Lord Dunlop, Nick?

On the Marr show yesterday, the Health Secretary responsible for the pandemic strategy in England was asked about the rates in the UK as-a-whole. Why? Does using the term England soften the blow a little? It drags the other three nations into the failure but, of course, it’s quite inaccurate. The UK has only the second-highest death rate: Tragically for our friends and relatives, everyone, down there, England has the highest number of deaths per head of population. Wales has a slightly worse figure and Northern Ireland a slightly better figure than Scotland but the rate in in England is … Continue reading Matt Hancock, why has England the highest Covid-19 death rate in the world and will you resign?