I know, how about: Lowest new infections rate, by some way? Lowest death rate? Most vaccinated? One of lowest R numbers? Only place with hospital admissions falling? Who is responsible for this? Where does the buck stop? Continue reading Anything even relatively positive you can tell us? No?

Headlining in the Herald today: A LEADING MP has called for Scotland to stick with the union and not abandon the north of England with Boris Johnson. Tim Farron made the plea after 17 polls in a row showed majority support for Scottish independence, with the SNP on track for a major victory at the Holyrood elections next year. We’ll leave the ‘leading MP’ thing for now but, this is the Tim Farron whose Christian beliefs apparently made gay sex and abortion problematic though ‘not a sin‘. Continue reading Yes, but is leaving the UK a sin?

Early results suggest that NHS Scotland has been ahead of the game in getting its vaccination programme rolling. That Unison guy and Sarah Smith were not available for comment but we hear that, that woman from Fife will be on Reporting Scotland to complain that her local GP’s phone is always engaged when she calls. Alert readers will notice something odd about the above graph. Discuss below. Why Russia and Canada? Russia approved its own vaccine in August and Canada has reserved more doses than any other country. Continue reading Freeman praised as NHS Scotland vaccinates twice as many as NHS England

From the PM this afternoon: Third, I’m afraid, we must look again at at Christmas. As Prime Minister it’s my duty to take difficult decisions, to do what is right to protect the people of this country. Given the early evidence we have on this new variant of the virus and the potential risk it poses, it is with a very heavy heart that I tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned…..Across the rest of the country, the Christmas rule allowing up to three households to meet will now be limited to Christmas Day only rather than the … Continue reading Boris closes the border with most of England

I know, it’s hard but you are the real thing, not like Johnny come lately meeja profs like me or mere bean counters like Paterson or Lord Curtice of Cowcaddens,so keep the faith. You’re wrong about the desire for another referendum. It’s there in poll after poll. You’re not keeping up with the research on education. See this: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/11/08/scotland-is-closing-parts-of-the-attainment-gap/ You’re wrong to suggest that ‘nearly half of the electorate remains stubbornly attached to voting No.’ See: 40% at worst. Take a drink? Continue reading Oh come on Tom, don’t bE AN OLD FOGEY!

You’d never know it from the media coverage, or for that matter, the Scottish Government, but the infection level is falling, uniquely, in Scotland. OMG Wales! I’m praying, humanistically, for you. The First Minister is staying shtum. Quite right too. We don’t want anyone getting too cocky here. But, BBC Scotland, I feel sure you’ll want to report the facts, in the public interest, just like when only 94% of A&E patients are seen in time. Continue reading ‘Nic’ saves us as infection level plummets?

The Guardian map provides the clearest and simplest illustration of how effective the three mainland political parties have been in their attempts to control this pandemic. Two of them, Labour in Wales and Conservatives in England have made errors of judgement that, in former times, would have led to the fall of governments. The map does not reveal the underlying consequences in lives lost of these failures. Look at the death rate in last month: Now, I know pundits such as Andrew Marr would rather look at the first phase but that reveals only the errors of the UK Government … Continue reading Maybe not quite ‘in the pink’ but in perspective?

A friend alerted me to this saying ‘I suspect we won’t hear if its ‘disproportionate’ relative to the sector in any other part of the UK or indeed to the sector in any other part of Western Europe!’  The well-named Stalker has previous in the use of this low-level , gutter, ‘research.’ In July 2020: I wrote at the time: Revealing herself to be a worthy successor to Lisa Summers and fully integrated into the Sarah Smith / Glen Campbell school of cringe, Fiona Stalker goes ambulance-chasing for chronic pain sufferers whose experience can be used against NHS Scotland and … Continue reading A tendency to stalk?

BBC Reporting Scotland’s opening screens both tell a lie for dramatic effect and to distort the level of responsibility one man could have had for a problem with its roots in the Thatcher regime’s destruction of communities in Scotland’s industrial heartlands, forty years ago, and which was neglected by those ‘lodgers in power’, Scottish Labour, over the same period. The BBC website actually tells a more truthful story than those Britnats in broadcasting: In a statement, Mr FitzPatrick said he had spoken to the first minister and agreed to leave government. He said the “most heart-breaking and difficult problems” he … Continue reading Calls for Reporting Scotland staff to be fired

As the Covid death rate in Wales surges to twice that in Scotland and the infection levels soars to six times that in Scotland, there have been no calls for the First Minister of Wales or the Health Secretary to resign, from opposition parties or from the media. I don’t think there should be. They clearly made a mistake but it would do little good to call for a sacrifice. To politicise these deaths would be shameful and Plaid Cymru have not. However, in Scotland, where drug deaths have doubled in six years but the causes go back for decades … Continue reading No calls for Wales First Minister or Health Secretary to resign but in the creepy world of Scottish politics and media….