As BBC News, presumably informed by BBC Scotland, continues to talk of tough lockdown and allegedly increasing infection rates in Scotland, perhaps with relief that they are not alone, Scottish audiences may not know what the actual facts are. The 7 day infection rate has now been falling for 10 days, from 2 323 on January 7th to 1 753 yesterday. It’s still too high for comfort but a 25% fall over that time period offer some cause for cautious optimism. The infection rate has been falling in England too but remains more than twice as high as in Scotland. … Continue reading Infection rate average falls for 10th day in a row

Research by our Healthy Correspondent, Brian McGowan: More than 5,000 health and social care staff are booked to be vaccinated at NHS Louisa Jordan today (16 January) as part of a mass vaccination drive by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The operation sees a team of 95 NHSGGC staff working in close collaboration with NHS Louisa Jordan staff to deliver up to 500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine per hour over the course of the day. Readers will remember Labour’s Monica Lennon desperately seeking something with this tweet: More than 5,000 health and social care staff are booked to be … Continue reading More for Monica: 5,000 staff vaccinated at NHS Louisa Jordan

Written by Andrew Rosie Headline and image: Blame the Editor How the mighty have fallen. Founded as a radical liberal newspaper, The Scotsman under a succession of right-wing editors moved from championing devolution at a time when it was not fashionable to opposing independence in 2014.  Under the new editor, Euan McGrory, it seems to be more balanced than the Herald but it still retains an overwhelming number of Unionist columnists. Among these is Jim Duffy who nailed his colours to the mast by proclaiming on Friday that if Scotland breaks free from the UK it faces bankruptcy and would … Continue reading Duffy’s wet dream of Scotland’s bankruptcy

Readers may remember the 2016 version featuring then Health Secretary Shona Robison as the victim and, in the role of chief sneaky, jealous, gossip-monger, Jenny Marra and her BBC Scotland buddies. The Current Health Secretary, Jeanne Freeman, retires this year after perhaps an even more torrid time at the hands of the media, fed by child-death exploiters such as the New Labour favourite, Anna Sarwar and his BBC Scotland buddies. The above suggestion that Freeman had breached the ministerial code, was pounced on by all of Scotland’s media and covered, if a bit more hesitantly, by even the National. Leading … Continue reading The Pursuit of a Good Woman 2

Thanks to Bob Lamont for feeding me this one. I’ve chosen what the headline should be, based on the UK Government’s decision to ignore expert advice from its own expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation . Headlines matter. We know that many only read them before moving on. Two days ago, Matt Hancock admitted that England had vaccinated only 24% of care home residents and on the same day Jeanne Freeman said Scotland had vaccinated over 80%. Months before, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation was very clear that those who live in care homes were … Continue reading Has UK Government been slower to vaccinate the most-at-risk, rejecting official advice?

By the Herald’s Jack Aitchison (14?) Last updated: 9 mins ago Nicola Sturgeon has warned of even tougher lockdown restrictions if new rules in place from Saturday don’t reduce the rising case numbers. LIVE and updated 9 minutes ago! Wow, impressive of whit? Wait, those graphs? They’re cumulative. You’ve used the wrong ones Jack. These just keep on adding up. Don’t use them with Nicola or we’ll never get out of lockdown. When she said rising case numbers, she meant rising new cases. That tells you what’s happening now. See these: That’s a relief. They’ve started to fall. No need for … Continue reading Behind the curve and confused

On Question Time last night, after Dr Philippa Whitford had made a general and constructive point about the NHS, all parts of it, being still open and making no comparison with Scotland’s better data, Bruce pounced: And, Phillipa, let’s talk about Scotland for a moment because large parts of Scotland, I mean, the Central Belt, the most populous areas of Scotland, have been pretty much in lockdown since September and yet the Scottish Government has admitted, as has around the UK, that Covid is running out of control, so what’s gone wrong? This was prepared. It’s a lie. It’s an … Continue reading The Agenda: Fiona Bruce misquotes the Scottish Government

In the Telegraph yesterday, this story chills. It chills because of what I know and what the report only hints at. The report begins with these shocking facts: Coronavirus outbreaks in care homes have more than trebled in a month, with levels of infections now similar to those at the peak of the first wave, new figures show. The latest surveillance data from Public Health England (PHE) reveals that, in the week up to January 14, there were 977 outbreaks of suspected coronavirus – the second highest weekly total since records began in April. https://archive.is/q4dps#selection-379.0-389.64 Further on we hear that only 25% or … Continue reading The Wolf is at the Door: England’s callous elite prepares to sacrifice the old again

You remember the story with it’s sharp simple message suited to the mind of a four-year-old? I don’t care! It’s not fair! It isn’t! Apparently some adults think the same way: Discharge infected people into an old folk’s home? Are you mad? I don’t care if they have infection control. What if something goes wrong? My mum’s in one of those. You’ll not put an infected person in beside her. I’ll take her out before that. I’d rather she died in her own house! The above images, from the thousands we faced day-after-day, for months on end, as opposition politicians … Continue reading Is that it now?

I need to remind my self what the situation was before June: In explaining this, much is made of three factors: The Johnson Brexit The First Minister and Covid-19 Journalists love to explain the surge in terms of one or more of the above factors but there will be more to it. I have no hard evidence but I think: People are just getting used to the idea of decisions being made in the country they live in. Younger voters don’t remember when it was different. Some older voters has passed on. Covid, it may be insensitive to say, might … Continue reading 18 in a row!