Again, Andrew Marr offered us a set of statistics, unsourced, to claim failure for the SNP ambitions to close the attainment gap in schools. Leaving aside the obvious comment that it cannot really be done without creating a more equal society and that requires independence from the most unequal society in Europe, his selected statistics seem dubious. Here are some more useful ones: ‘94.4% of pupils had a ’positive destination’ including work, training or further study within three months of leaving school last year, official statistics show. The figures also reveal that the gap between those from the most and least … Continue reading Andrew Marr’s hatchet job Part 2

This morning, Andrew Marr threw at Nicola Sturgeon this: What about people dying in Scottish care homes? Again, we have gone back to the data and looking at a report by the University of Stirling – 47% of the deaths in Scotland were in care homes. That’s a lot, lot higher than in England where it was 30%. Terrible in both cases. From the same report: Care homes in England experienced the highest increase in excess deaths at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to those in the rest of the UK, according to new research. A study – … Continue reading Andrew Marr’s hatchet job Part 1

I suspect some former readers may have tired of my worrying of the Herald. I have stopped chasing the Scotsman around the field of media because it’s a hopeless case but the Herald is not all bad for the cause. So, I’m going to keep on nipping at its heels (heels like you know who) for now. The above is a well-rotted piece that needs nipped off toot suit. It’s just this kind of thing: One secondary teacher told the Herald It comes amid claims There have also been reports “I think we’re all feeling that nobody cares about us,” … Continue reading Desperate One Teacher and her app story

In the Herald today: The Scottish Government’s roll-out of digital devices such as tablets and laptops to ‘digitally-excluded pupils’ has been branded a “shambles” by Scottish Labour. The party said the schedule for delivering the devices has been “wildly optimistic”, and warned better planning is needed to meet the “ambitious” targets. Wild optimism eh? Couldn’t we do with a bit of that from Scottish Labour? Something to encourage folk at least a wee bit? No, all we get from them, day after day, are leaked reports from their dwindling support, working in some ‘wildly optimistic’ Scottish Government programme, like the recent flu … Continue reading iPads for the Poor: Scottish Labour’s lust for losing

On BBC Breakfast this morning, the reporter tells Kate Forbes: Your conference today, I’m sure, will look at the Scottish Government’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic and I’m just wondering if Nicola Sturgeon has got off a little lightly when you look at the stats, when you look at the fact that Scotland has one of the highest deaths per million of any comparable country in Western Europe, 30 times higher than Norway when you look at the proportion of people who died from Covid in care homes. Scotland has had 3 676 deaths. Norway has had only 316. By … Continue reading BBC cannot make it up

More than 700 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Scotland in the past 24 hours. Latest figures show that 788 new infections have been recorded since yesterday, with a further 44 deaths recorded. Like a bunch of weans counting up to a hundred and celebrating their skills, the Herald delights in the fact that there have been 100 000 cases of Covid this year then offers us no context to help us understand what the numbers mean for us. Don’t they make some claims about being quality? 100 000? I mean, so what? Oh no! It’s a 100 000 now. I can’t … Continue reading ICU numbers fall to lowest level in last 35 days

Far be it from me to blow my own trumpet, but…. BBC Scotland have reported on care home deaths: Mentioning the corporate-owners HC-One Revealing their failed infection-control inspection report Not mentioning the Scottish Government. The Tusker did this first on May 12th reporting on the care home deaths in Skye: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/05/12/bbc-scotland-accused-of-cover-up-as-skye-care-home-owners-blame-the-locals/ To my knowledge that’s a first for BBC Scotland. Every care home report we’ve done has this kind of information. Then, the Herald publish the above praising the Scottish IVF system and comparing it with the appalling neglect in England. The Tusker has been reporting on this in the … Continue reading Catching-up?

BBC Scotland’s Magazine Health Correspondent, Lisa Summers, has a passion for suffering. If you watch Reporting Scotland Down too much, you’ll be suffering from low mood. I can’t do it any more and rely on friends of The Tusker to alert me to their worst excesses. With her trusty camera operator, Summers has given us a series of interviews with tearful sufferers, where she gets them to talk and, if possible, sob about their suffering. However, her job isn’t to make us greet too but to inform us about the reality of life across Scotland’s hospitals and other health settings. … Continue reading A better reality check: ICU numbers falling

Fresh from misintepreting the contact tracing times and setting the opposition attack dogs loose, the Sun’s Chris Musson isn’t strictly wrong, in the numbers, but wrong in the meaning they have for us. Yes, there are more people in Scottish hospitals than there were in July. Yes, there are more in ICU and yes there are more picking up Covid in hospital but, hey, Chris: What’s the percentage? How many were community onset? How does it compare? Here, I’ll do it for you: 200 or 2.6% of the cases were maybe caught in hospital up from 189 or 2% the … Continue reading Musson gets his facts wrong again

Fresh from welcoming his two new recruits to These Islands, the softer kinder version of Scotland in Union, because you’re worth it, Kevin Hague is in the Herald with this: What’s his evidence? Focus groups carried out by These Islands, him that is. You remember focus groups? Dominic Cummings loves them and used them to get ideas for his Leave Campaign slogans. Back in the 90s, Tony Blair and his chums used them to articulate the ‘Middle Way’ which is now just ‘Blairism.’ They’re great. They do give you ideas about what might resonate with folk in the ‘real world.’ … Continue reading Dog food salesman and two leading coiffurists don’t identify SNP weakness with baby research!