Conservative apologists are out in force today. The government has published a five point rebuttal of the Sunday Times article. It was produced and published with a remarkable aclarity. We can only wish that the British government had responded to the looming epidemic in the same way.
The British government is incompetent, slow to respond, and lacking in energy and enthusiasm. Or at least it is when it comes to public protection, when it comes to the protection of their arses and their own careers, there is nothing to beat the British government in its speed, energy, and enthusiasm. Ever since the Sunday Times published its damning report into the many and manifest failures of the British government’s handing of the coronavirus crisis we’ve been subjected to a veritable torrent of UK government ministers robustly defending themselves. It’s just a shame that they don’t show one tenth of the energy defending the public good. What was that about taking it on the chin? It doesn’t seem to apply to criticisms of this government.
The rebuttal itself read like the product of a university debating club. Never mind how repugnant the argument, it’s how you defend it that counts. It’s an exercise in style not substace and has Michael Gove’s slime all over it. Michael Gove has built an entire career on insulting people’s intelligence.
The rebuttal is full of specious arguments, straw men, and deflections. We’re told that it’s outrageous to suggest that the virus only arrived on our shores simply because the Prime Minister didn’t attend some Cobra meetings and let Matt Hancock chair them instead. And that indeed would be an outrageous thing to claim if anyone had claimed it. It fails to address the real point – that everyone knew that the virus was going to result in a global crisis, the worst since WW2, and if that doesn’t count as a national emergency then what the hell does. If the Prime Minister couldn’t be arsed to attend Cobra meetings about it, it shows that the British government was not taking the threat seriously. That lack of understanding of the serious nature of the threat was confirmed by the public speeches that Boris Johnson was making at the same time.
Yesterday we had Michael Gove sliming all over the accusations, and Iain Duncan Smith angrily shouting over a reporter who dared to point out that Iain was – yet again – talking what could only politely be described as a considerable quantity of urine. Today we got Liam Fox demanding higher standards in public debate. Or to give him his full title, Disgraced Former Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox. Liam demanding higher standards and more truth in public life is like Harold Shipman demanding better standards of protection for elderly patients. We can only assume that he ought to know.
You know, I can cope with lockdown. I have come to terms with the worry of losing loved ones. I can deal with the loss of income. But what really sticks in the throat is the likes of Liam Fox or Michael Gove or Iain Duncan Smith pontificating on our TV screens as though they represented some sort of moral authority. They’re a greater infection in our public life than any virus.
Labour MP Rosena Allin-Khan, who like Liam is a qualified doctor, responded to the coronavirus crisis by going back to work at her local hospital. Liam’s contribution is to take to the airwaves to blame NHS staff for the failures of the government that he’s a part of. Liam is a man who has zero credibility. After a career littered with lies, dubious claims and a resignation under a cloud of disgrace, he’s still popping up as a voice of authority on our TV screens as though he had an ounce of credibility. If we lived in a society where there were those higher standards that Liam is demanding, Liam would have been removed from office a long time ago and we’d never have to listen to his specious self-serving finger pointing ever again.
Liam decided that this is the ideal time to tell us that after this crisis is over the management of the NHS is going to have a lot of questions to answer. Because everything’s just peachy with how the British government has been operating. Austerity didn’t happen. Underfunding didn’t happen. There was no ideologically driven running down of public services. There was no abandoning of the UK’s pandemic response plans. Boris Johnson hasn’t been missing in action. The Prime Minister didn’t give that speech at the start of February when he likened the UK to a superhero that would stand alone as a beacon of free trade holding out against lockdowns. The only problems with PPE are due to the NHS management. There’s unicorns, rainbows, and magic lanterns with genies in them for everyone. The fault is everyone else, not the Conservatives, never the Conservatives.
We have seen all this before. After Orgreave, they blamed the miners. After Hillsborough, they blamed the fans. After Grenfell, they blamed the fire brigade. After coronavirus, well you can see where this is going. According to the British government, “We have taken the right steps at the right time to combat it, guided at all times by the best scientific advice.” So there’s not one error, not one misstep or mistake, not a single failure, despite the death rate in the UK being so much higher than in other European countries even though Britain had a headstart, there are no issues with PPE or ventilators, there’s no problem with supplies to care homes. There are no issues around testing. Move along now, nothing to see here. So when the organisations representing hospital trusts in England directly attacked the government yesterday over failures in deliveries of promised PPE and spoke of their intense frustration and exasperation, according to the Tories they’re making it all up. See : https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/19/hospital-leaders-hit-out-government-ppe-shortage-row-escalates-nhs
The questions remain. Why does the UK have such a high death rate? Why was the pandemic response run down after 2010? Why was the UK so lamentably unprepared? Who stripped public services of funding? Why has testing been so slow? Why are there no health checks or mandatory quarantine for travellers arriving in the UK from abroad? We’re not interested in the Tory attempts to take the high ground. Do your job with a fraction of the energy that you put into saving your own sorry skins and we might, just might, listen to what you’ve got to say. But we’re still going to hold you to account.
And finally, because we could all do with some cheering up during these difficult times…
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Wee Ginger Dug 
Agreed Paul the speed of these cornered rats defending their arses is breathtaking, all the more revealing when the UK media is wholly owned by five tax evading billionaires who decide what the public get to find out.
I am sick to the back teeth of all this ” our staff are wonderful pish ” from these proven liars who present a front of actually caring who are they kidding .
The Labour Party in England have been well and truly neutered by the appointment of a Sir being chosen as their leader , recent comments have confirmed this with the collective now is not the time for questions about the English governments handling of this pandemic , oh just join the bloody Tory .
Every single thing that comes out of any of these Tory ministers mouths is proven to not just be false is down right lying , what they say and what is actually happening are so removed from the truth it’s on a different bloody planet .
Brick wall … head … banging….this is what we are faced with when any attempt is made to ask critical questions of the Government ( for want of a better name for this collection of invertebrates in suits- including the women ) .
Methinks, thou dost protest too much. Questions must be asked of the NHS, really. Which NHS England I presume. It would not have anything to do with the privatisation and lack of investment over many, many years now would it now.
Following scientific advice, whose in particular. Even some of our own scientists were telling you that you were wrong. Seems you didn’t pay enough attention as per usual.
Why are our airports still open, spewing out 15,000 people per day, no checks, nada. Out through the airport and into the various communities . This was one of the first things that other countries did, but oh no, not the great Brits. Still practising herd immunity, care more about the economy than actual human beings, who by the way, is your duty to look out for.
I’m like you Paul, I’ve learned to cope with the lockdown, not seeing family or friends. I’m in the age group that would probably be carted off with the disease. The one thing guarenteed to make me mad, is folk thinking that my heid buttons up the back. Well it doesn’t, and I know who needs to be answering the questions.
The Tory UKGov is following the Trump playbook: deny, distract and deflect. Except the Tories wrote the book in the first place, many years ago.
But taking on an NHS that they themselves have run down over many years is maybe a step too far, even for their (increasingly-desperate) brassneckery.
No matter how much these Tories are exposed for their lies and incompetence the people of England still vote for them in enough numbers for them to be in power. Power in the hands of some very dangerous inept, incapable and injurious self serving gits ever to walk this earth, and during this pandemic that reality makes it all the more utterly sickening.
The Britnat ENG(UK) government I would like to say have blotted their copybook, but they will come out of this unscathed, unlike so many thousands upon thousands who have been condemned by them, health care workers, families, all grieving for colleagues and loved ones. Devastating for all.
What are voters in England going to do about it? They need to think hard about getting together to start a new social democratic party, because Labour are red Tories, in bed with their blue pals, so nothing will change, yet so many pin their hopes on one day (in la la land) Labour will win an election and pave the streets with gold, we know they will carry on with Tory pals’ austerity just in a slightly different way.
Scotland as we know, gets what England votes for, that is untenable, unjust, undemocratic, and unsustainable. If Scotland forced a particular party of their choice onto England, well, all hell would be let loose. If Scotland really was an ‘equal partner’ in the UK(‘OK’), then the English majority for the party of their choice might be just the way it would have to be as it was for many many decades. All one country, four nations, ‘pooling and sharing’. Such a successful myth and gigantic lie, a massive scam on Scotland.
The ‘union’ is a scam, Scotland needs to realise that and save itself, or be robbed blind until there really is absolutely nothing left in the bank at all, not a penny, nothing, then what. I was thinking about how councils will struggle now and into the next few months, possibly years because so many people will not be able to pay their council tax, and as we all know, Labour UK office Branch in Scotland when at Holyrood for TEN years, plunged Scotland’s councils into £BILLIONS of debt, still to be paid. Another scam.
Scotland what are you going to do, accept total ruin across your land or get on and ensure that independence is nabbed ASAP?
Agree wholeheartedly to your response to yet another great post from Paul.
As a commercial artist, many of my commissions came from English companies which meant regular visits there.
On a couple of occasions, fed up with the constant moaning about their (Thatcher) government of the day, I felt it necessary to point out to them that at least it was their own government, not one foisted on them by the electorate of a neighbouring country. I also pointed out that the UK had to be the worst governed state in Europe, blundering as it does from one crisis to another with staggering regularity.
The reaction couldn’t have been more startling had I slapped them with a wet Scottish-sourced haddock.
They just couldn’t grasp what I was saying. An analogy I used was for them to visualise the result of an English union with Germany along the lines of the UK model.
I asked how they would feel if, on waking the day after a general election, they found themselves with a social democratic government rather than the ultra-conservative one they had voted for, due to the simple arithmetic of being outnumbered.
Their blank expressions said it all. “But we’re British, it’s not the same thing”, was the usual response.
I don’t mean to be cruel. They were, without exception, good people.
They were also, probably, among the many who have stood clapping on their doorsteps these past Thursdays, blind to the hypocrisy of installing a government responsible for the woeful state of the quality of work and home life experienced by the health and care service workers they claim to respect and support.
What a shower….
A SECOND RAW NERVE
‘Never seen the Government issue a rebuttal to a Twitter thread. Let alone devoting nearly 3,000 words to it. @pmdfoster has clearly hit a raw nerve.’
‘I cant think who would write a blog post rebuttal like this…’
‘Bit short for him?’
Twitter banter in response to Peter Foster’s excellent FT story on the great Tory ventilator cock-up. –
– https://twitter.com/EdConwaySky/status/1251817928787460096
‘NEW: The inside story of the Ventilator Challenge – the muddled thinking, the wasted time the political egoism. It’s a mad tale. Stay with me. Me with my superb @ft
colleague @Michael_Pooler 1/Thread’ – FT – Peter Foster @pmdfoster Twitter –
– https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1251434219139665920
Tory rats ‘backfilling the truth’ ? No change there, then !!
IS ‘CLASSIC DOM’ COMING UNDONE ?
‘A must-read @pmdfoster twitter thread and THAT @thesundaytimes piece saw the government put its rebuttal unit into overdrive.’ via Peter Foster – Sam Macrory @sammacrory twitter –
– https://twitter.com/sammacrory/status/1252307888179154950
Why plugging 440kV into your raw nerve may not be the best policy.
Brilliant – ‘Dominic Cummings right now:’ ; ) – Sarah Mackie @lumi_1984 twitter –
– https://twitter.com/lumi_1984/status/1252371369876008971
I cannot fathom the mindset of those who continue to defend the actions of this government. How blind must people be not to see the corruption – or do they just not care because, at the end of the day most of them will still be all right, Jack? I’ve lost all faith that the majority in the UK will ever have their eyes opened. They have been so susceptible to the propaganda of the MSM that they are utterly brainwashed. If we can’t win independence after this fiasco there is no hope – ever. At least, not in my lifetime, and that’s all that matters to me.
[…] Wee Ginger Dug The Empire Strikes Back Conservative apologists are out in force today. The government has published a five […]
I am afraid it is the same mindset of individuals who slaver over and call soldiers “hero’s” each year yet sent soldiers to the death because of the absence of or the provision of inadequate equipment. Iraq comes to mind. Or, fronting up fundraising campaigns without a hint of irony ( with HR Approval) by reducing year in, year out, monies going to mental health services or health and social care generally. Ian Duncan Smith is enough to make anyone boak as he punched the air in the English parliament when he got his bill through to make poor people poorer. I remember it well as the normal bbc tv coverage broke convention by zooming in on him. The establishment set up.
For those reading this who believe in the union of equals searching for PPE, hand sanitiser or grieving or worrying for a loved one surely now you must rethink? There has got to be better than this? There is. It is called Independence.
Just for the record I have relatives mainly in England USA and Ireland, some are tories, some are labour some even like Trump. I feel sorry for them for they have been conditioned to think that they can only go along with what has come before. They are wrong.
In Scotland it is clear that the best people to govern this nation (crisis or not) are the people of Scotland. Not Johnson or Gove, not Rees-Mogg, Duncan Smith or Hancock.
It’s us🏴.
Reblogged this on Tory Britain!.
Aye you can TRUST the EBC.
They’re not reporting the delay of the RAF picking up the 84 tonnes of PPE.
They’re busy with the loss of Virgin IF we don’t bail out the BILLIONAIRE and his airline and not a mention of his cruise liner.
I can’t understand why a Scottish tory would defend the people who MIGHT just have condemned them to suffer all because they didn’t order enough PPE for the staff who are subject to the Health and Safety Laws, we must protect them.
A neighbour of mine was on Christmas Island to witness the bomb going off, with no PPE.
His airline in Australia, Virgin Australia, is also going bust and the Australian Gov has refused a bailout.
Immense, Paul.
Gove was on Marr Yesterday, outside his millionaires’ terrace, dressed like tailor’s dummy in a brand spanking new Savile Row suit, ( a snip at £1995 if you have got an extra £10,000 to work from home) lying and Marr letting him get away with it, as usual.
He blustered through the ‘first cut’ defence of Boris, and Cobra, then lied by declaring that NHS England procures PPE for all 4 nations.
WE would have had more sense, logic, and humility from a tailors dummy.
No they fucking don’t.
Marr knows this. Or if he doesn’t, he’s not up to the job as Uncle Tam stenographer for the English Establishment.
Tom Gordon surfaced on Sunday, where has he been hiding, in a Herald ‘Opinion Piece’, (his opinions are his own, nothing to do with us at the Herald honest), lying by quoting the Usual SNP Badders, that the Scottish Government is letting (Gordon’s estimate) 8000 air travellers into Scotland without testing for the virus.
It’s all that Nicola Sturgeon’s fault.
Well, last time I looked, Smirky Patel is in charge of the Home Office, and the Border Force, soon to be renamed Homeland Security when the Blue Tories force through the Patriot Act, and declared on 31St January that we had left the UK, and Freedom of Movement had ceased, and that Boris Johnson had taken back control of the borders, of all 4 nations in the UK.
There is of course no UK wide testing for Covid 19, because the Blue and Yellow Torries sacked 500,000 public servants during the Cameron and Clegg Love In.
But hey, if I can crow bar in an ‘It’s all Nicola Sturgeon’s Fault’ into my Brit Nat cut and pastry, I might just hang on to my miserable little job, when US owned Newsquest looks at the plague sales and downsizes and rightsizes the Herald. again.
There will be a night of the long knives when this is all over.
BBC Reporting Scotland shunted is a wee clip of a Fred McKite GMB nobody last night, lying about shortages of PPE in Scotland and our ‘heroes’ threatening to go on strike if they felt scared and there was no PPE.
What a stupid little insert from a wee Commie Momentum idiot, attempting to foment fear and panic, for the Great Socialist Cause.
Glenn Campbell (remember him?) was stood in front of the Scottish Parliament building today, whimsically musing that because of all this Plage fuss, we had all forgotten about Brexit.
Oh, no we haven’t , Glenn.
There followed 90 seconds of waffle about the UK Government still on track, concerns of the Scottish Road Haulage industry, and the EU concentrating all its efforts on dealing with the Virus crisis.
NO interview with B-Lister ‘Union’ Jack?
NO bluster and buss from the ruddy faced Carjack Lawson?
Of course not.
They are ‘self isolating’.
There were 19 Brit Nat Hacks doing the job of the ‘opposition’ at todays FM Daily Report.
But more of that later in another post.
As a taster:-
This idiotic question, which opened the Q&A, from Lisa Summers, BBC Scotland, of course.
I paraphrase: Is there a danger that the £43 million spent on the Louisa Jordan facility may be money wasted that could have been spent instead on ‘testing’? (A constant theme of the 19 hacks gathered for today’s ‘Get Nicola Sturgeon’ assault.
The warped logic of this pathetic question was breathtaking.
NS advised another rhack later that there were 585 ICU beds at present, not including the 300 at the remarkable Louisa Jordan facility, and that the SHS was oin target to have 700, beds, with trained staff and ventilators.
She revealed that there were 248 patients in Scotland now. 169 of whom are Covid 19 cases, and as she spoke, there were 300 ICU beds available but not in use.
If only Lisa Summers were FM, she’d have consulted Mystic Meg and scrapped plans for an overspill hospital, and saved all that money.
I look forward to tonight’s Distorting Scotland GOOD News story on ICU capacity.
More later.
IF there is a heatwave, there will be riots in all the English ‘hot spots’ within weeks.
.
You’d be lucky to get change out of £5000 if you wanted a bespoke Savile Row suit.
I googled it, Paul. The ‘cheapest’ was £1995, which I used to avoid being accused of exaggerating.
4 times the monthly State Pension, for a suit, from the cheap end of Savile Row.
But you are our sartorial expert, Paul.
You wear it well.
That’s for an off the peg suit. Two grand, for an off the peg suit.
I get mine second hand from eBay.
Scotland’s press pack is nothing short of astonishing. Note the difference between the two daily briefings – one on full on attack mode, all as one including a certain Mr Jack Foster. And the other, sycophants (almost) united.
But the worm might be turning, down there not here. Highlights of today’s reading (aside from our host, of course) has to be Richard Murphy and the latest from Craig Murray, with perhaps a chilling we comment added near the end…
Jack,
Carlaw and Union Jack aren’t self isolating, they’re *Self Hiding*
As for the BBC, they are so busy thrashing about looking for any angle on SNP Baaaad! that their own arrogance doesn’t let them see that the people of Scotland can see right through what they’re trying to do and are being sickened with their lies and distortions of the truth.
Everybody heard Nicola and Jane Freeman stating at the time that they hoped the Louisa Jordan would not be needed, but was there as back up just in case.
Prudent planning.
I’m sure Carless Jackass will bring it up at FM questions as £43m wasted and the majority of the public will be aghast at his attempt at political point scoring which will be the final nail in the coffin of the union.
Jim I wish Nicola would stop for a minute and call out the BBC live on air , along the lines of ok sweetie you say it’s wasted money , ok how exactly do you base this unwarranted attack on the Scottish Government ,you have just now asked if it’s a waste of money planing for the worst , have you actually checked the shitstorm that’s taking place down south or is your derision just reserved for the SNP government .
Robert, I’d love that to happen.
Like the SNP walking out en-masse at the commons, it gave a massive boost to people joining the membership and I believe would only increase the numbers for independence.
Robert, see my post below on todays Update and the Brit Pack.
Some of this lot made right fools of themselves, in glaring public.
“As for the BBC, they are so busy thrashing about looking for any angle on SNP Baaaad! ” They have been doing that since before 2014.
Jeez, check out my typos.
On todays showing, the hacks and broadcasters in Scotland have just gone Full Metal Jacket on ‘Get Nicola Sturgeon’.
She was quite simple magnificent today.
I repeat, imagine Carlaw, Leonard, or Rennie at the lectern during this pandemic.
It is just too ridiculous for words.
Anyone checked out this ferret fact checking service ? , this latest one on Mike Russels comment that Scotland pays its way , according to this ferret its not true and we are subsided by England , I smell shite in fact I remember quite a few times I have questioned this particular outfit , another branch of the English civil service probably .Just how deep does this infestation go in Scottish politics .
Scotland has always been poverty stricken and will never amount to anything, that’s why the UK refuse to let us go, because they luurve us so much while continually telling us we’re a worthless verminous race of drunks and drug addicts
I’m quite sure many people will recognise those characteristics of the abusive spouse
when in truth it’s the abuser who is dependant on the one they’re abusing
If there were such a thing as a politics police the UK political establishment would’ve been arrested and jailed a very long time ago for mental abuse and unusual cruelty
The world has been getting rid of England and its *Empire Britishness* a bit at a time for many years because of its toxic effect yet still they never admit to their own guilt, and they never will
”I’m quite sure many people will recognise those characteristics of the abusive spouse
when in truth it’s the abuser who is dependent on the one they’re abusing.”
Typical narcissistic behaviour with the perpetrator gaslighting the victim. In this instance Westminster and their MSM cohorts constantly attempting to gaslight millions of Scots into believing that they’re worthless and totally dependent on England.
How about the 500 billion, 1/2 a trillion, of the Scottish oil money they stole.
Robert,
You may wish to watch this short clip in which a BBC reporter let’s the cat out of the bag about what the Scottish economy contributes to the UK’s GDP – £200 billion
We also subsidise their TV because only 69% of the TV licence fee raised in Scotland is spent in Scotland. The rest, around £100 million goes to HQ in London
Unbelievable! That’s equivalent to £40,000 for every man, women and child in Scotland yet the Barnett Formula gives us £40bn a year, equivalent to £8,000 for each man, women and child. So we are subsidising the ‘British Government’ to the tune of £32,000 for each and every one of our citizens.
Yeah! who are the f****ng subsidy junkies now.
It’s exactly as they have done with India, Kenya, South Africa and the many, many other nations that they’ve robbed blind for centuries.
Ask yourselves England, how many have clamoured to come back into the fold?
Nye Bevin never said truer words when he described the Tories as ‘ lower than vermin I simply cannot understand how people cannot see them for what they are . The MSM and the BBC Scotland are just as bad and would love to see Nicola Sturgeon fail . When will we be told about the number of deaths in care homes in England ? BBC Scotland continually raise this issue but there is just silence from England . I just hope the National will survive through this pandemic without it and your blogs Paul we would have to endure all the biased reporting and lies .
Just saw a bit of the chancer’s debrief.
Graph shown was carefully marked as ‘deaths in hospitals’,the other countries not marked.
The schemes are paper loans to keep people in work,80% is enough, they can’t do without the Ts&Cs,can they?
The RAF aircraft,ONE, has just left for its 12+ hour round trip to Turkey, hope they’ve got TWO crews as 12 hours flying is a bit much for one crew.
By the way,anything associated with aviation can lose track of time,aircraft to be fuelled up and loaded for the return trip, flight plans and slot times.
So who will the Brits blame?
The Chinese, the UK NHS – which of course doesn’t exist but they couldn’t blame NHS England now could they, and the SNP in Scotland of course.
I say the Brits because the red and yellow Tories will be right there behind their fascist chums. They are in it together always.
The only possibility of Scotland getting out of this is eradicating the cringe. I have no doubt that every day a few more Scots say to themselves, ‘bugger this, we can do better ourselves’. The performance of the SNP during this pandemic will accelerate the numbers. The shambles and the lies of the Brits will further accelerate it. Every Scot recognising the truth is a plus for independence and a negative for the Brits – forever.
We have to be patient in these desperate times.
I’m back. Spoiler, this is a bit long.
The FM concluded today’s Covid 19 Briefing by thanking the sign language staff for their tireless service during the briefings.
I mused with my Evelovin’ that there must be a ‘Chewin’ the Fat’ sketch in there somewhere.
She Who Lights Up My Life marvelled at the animation, the expressiveness, and energy, and obvious enthusiasm of the Signers who have become the innocent ‘stars’ of the Daily Update.
However, being the cynic in this family (never, I hear you all cry) I suggested that there may have been some new signs added to the Sign Language lexicon because of a Very British Covid.
Two fingered V signs to represent Johnson, mimic violent retching for Gove, and a sly smirk for Patel.
You may wish to add others.
NS concluded by thanking the journalists for their questions.
The lass is class.
here follows a potted version of The Brit Nat 19 on their take on Covid 19.
As I posted earlier, Lisa Summers demanded to know why £43 million was ‘wasted’ on The Glasgow Nightingale White Elephant?
Next up, James Matthews, SKY:- If you (yes ,you, Nicola Sturgeon !) had started testing earlier, would the lockdown have ended earlier, and fewer people would have died?
They were on a roll now.
Peter Smith; ITV News. Should the Scottish Government follow Denmark’s lead and not subsidise businesses with offshore accounts, not paying taxes here?
(As an aside, Richard Branson declares that he is looking for handouts but did not quit the UK to avoid tax, but because he liked living on a private Caribbean island.)
Ross ‘Gubbins’ ? ( Incoherent) Funeral of firefighter in Inverness. When was NS going to relax numbers attending funerals?
Peter McMahon Borders TV, and fast becoming B-Lister ‘Union’ Jack’s PPS.
Dairy Farmers in the Borders pouring milk down the drain NFU worried. Will NS step in and bail out Alister Jack and his Country Set?
Jack Foster Global Radio asked the ‘ICU capacity’ question, which I detail in another post above.
Channel 4. Name incoherent.
How many gowns will be used if the Louisa Jordan is full to capacity. ‘We have a right to know’ !!!
Was NS not going to give us figures?
Hysteria setting in now.
Chris McLaughlin BBC Sport. When are the knuckledraggers going to be able to herd together at Ibrox and Parkhead and chant Fuck the Pope/Queen?
Just think of the drop in attendance at A&E because this lot aren’t ‘exchanging gifts’ on our streets at the moment.
Tom Magner: Mental health and support of unpaid cares ?
At last, a genuine question.
Katrine Bussey(?) Press Association. Sunday Times article, Johnson not attending first 5 Covid 19 meetings. Trying to draw NS into slagging off Johnson. Didn’t work.
Scottish Government attended all Cobra meetings.
Severin Carrell of the Guardian. An oldie but goldie; ‘Testing, only 1250, why not the 3,5000 promised?
Tom Martin Daily Express: The English Government is being lobbied by Money Advice to defer Council Tax Rises. Will NS do the same?
The clue’s in the name, Tom. Council Tax. LA’s set rates, and additional funding available from SG during Covid 19 crisis.
I could go on, but you have suffered enough.
– Home schooling, PC’s for the poor kids? COSLA?
– 72% drop in cancer cases. Suspension of breast screening to blame?
-A quote from ‘Harry Burns’ that it was all the UK Government’s fault. Did the FM agree?
And so on, and on, and on..
Two special mentions.
Vivien Aitken from The Record: She was writing her headline as she spat out :-
‘Another day, another massive Care Home Death Toll’.
Brand new state of the art Dumbarton LA Care Home still admitting patients untested. What is NS doing about it?
Hail our heroes, Aitken?
You’ll push the latest gang land killing off the front page of the Raggard with that one.
Alistair Grant at the Good Old Herald.
When are we going to get stats breaking down deaths by ethnicity, social status, income, sex. He demands to know! Now ! Stop what you are doing! I need a plague map to include in my SNP BAD piece.
Enough of all this. You get the picture.
Thanks for that synopsis Jack, glad I don’t have to watch it now.. The “journalists” with rare exception are a waste of oxygen, although the “Stereophonics/Apology” question to Jason Leitch the other day was an amusing interruption…
Listened to a clip of the arse wi teeth Gary Smith making a great hoohah on GMS over Care Home Positive/Don’t Know admissions, presumably the “all across the country” was the new one in Dumbarton, and “all the press” was the Daily Haggard, Fred Kyte’s understudy in full vomit…
Word must have been sent up by Cummings to deluge SG with bad publicity in mid-crisis, as if there are enough REAL issues to deal with at this time…
Jack,
Re testing earlier. Public Health England started testing in mid- to late- January. They did all the testing for the whole of the UK. Scotland had to send their samples from suspected Covid-19 cases. This meant quite a delay before results were known. Eventually PHE released the testing kits and Scotland was able to start testing by Feb 10th onwards.
It was the UK Gov that called a halt to wider testing and contact tracing around March 12th. Why? Shortage of testing kits? Cost? Or were there problems with the tests? See this:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/19/scientists-raise-concerns-about-quality-of-uk-covid-19-tests
From yesterday’s Guardian.
Is it not now time to initiate the compilation of The List of those guilty parties who will face retribution after the revolution?
For Starters:-
Johnson
Raab
Hancock
Gove
Patel
Rees Mogg
Duncan Smith
Fox
The Barclay Twins
Murdoch
Brillo
Dacre
Whoever is responsible for the content of The Express & Star ( Have you seen the front page of today’s Express?)
Suggestions for additional names welcome I have not yet covered The BBC and Scottish MSM.such as Tom Gordon.
The Scots government is doing well. The tories are struggling and people have died as a result of their inaction.
Almost worse than the tories are those pretendy independence folk on other sites calling the First Minister as Johnson’s Governor General. For the 100000 SNP members to the 1 million plus supporters of independence recognise the underminers who help the state broadcaster, express, Mail and that mob. They intend to damage the Scots government.
Just from conversations and discussions online some persons who were NO in 2014, Brexit and this crisis, has opened their eyes further to the opportunity of Independence. I feel it in my bones that Unionism is in difficulty. Let’s hope so.
The most disgusting aspect in all of this has been the behaviour of the English/British nationalist media.
“Why are there no health checks or mandatory quarantine for travellers arriving in the UK from abroad?”
So much for the Tories’ much vaunted “Taking back control of our borders” then! 😦
Double speak. 1984 style.
They have taken back control of the borders.
They decided to have an OPEN border,no checks.
Same as the grants to keep business running, loans to be paid back later.
They’re masters at it, you couldn’t believe a word, underneath is a get out phrase.
Hamish 100,
Don’t concern yourself with those ‘pretendy’ independence supporters. They will neither persuade nor dissuade anyone about independence. When people understand the common sense of independence they don’t change their mind.
There are and will increasingly be enough genuinely smart people who understand the need for independence to achieve it. The Dug is a good example.I
But I do understand and share your impatience.
Oil price has collapsed in US. One dollar, or less, per barrel.
BBC 6 o’clock news tonight led with a longish item on Wishaw hospital. Fairly detailed. What was noticeable as they filmed in various parts of the hospital including ICU was that all staff were wearing the appropriate PPE and, just as importantly, had put it on correctly thus insuring they got maximum protection.
No mention of PPE shortage in the piece as far as I can remember. I should imagine staff on Reporting Scotland were no happy about this because no SNP-bad. No mention of it on Reporting Scotland either unless I missed it.
..”After a career littered with lies, dubious claims and a resignation under a cloud of disgrace, he’s (Liam Fox) still popping up as a voice of authority on our TV screens as though he had an ounce of credibility.”
If you thought that was bad ”another one” popped up on our screens this morning like the inevitable Westminster we canny get rid of you Jack-in -the- box. Victoria Derbyshire interviewed warmongering Tory Bliar for quite some time …. with as an example, ”If you were Prime Minister what would you be doing now?” He was loving it, sitting smirking and preening himself. He didn’t have a bad word to say about what’s been going on, of course, no doubt because he’s of the same ilk. Another lying, corrupt millionaire who is also a mass murderer. Birds of a feather and all of that. Next up .. chickens coming home to roost.
……………………………..
If you want further insight into what’s been going on check out the Allyson Pollock / Philippa Whitford interview.
‘Full Scottish – 19/04/2020. On this week’s Full Scottish, Kenny McBride is joined by Professor Allyson Pollock and Dr Philippa Whitford, SNP MP for Central Ayrshire.’
http://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/full-scottish-19-04-2020/
Perhaps Tony Blair would have carpet bombed London for 24 hours. That would get rid of the virus.
It worked for him in Bagdad.
How this man is walking the streets free beats me.
You’ll like this, Scotland. 🙂
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/columnists/prime-minister-boris-johnson-did-not-take-coronavirus-seriously-uk-paying-carelessness-2543066
[…]
No doubt scientific advisers share blame for Britain’s dismal response, although it is hard to judge when the key advisory committee keeps even its membership secret.
This is such shameful contrast with its Scottish equivalent – which publicises membership and minutes within days of meetings – especially when citizens are locked down and the economy lies shattered due to its decisions.
[…]
From my previous MP:
Give NHS workers on coronavirus front line citizenship, MP says
Arfon’s Plaid Cymru MP, Hywel Williams has called for all non-British people working on the frontline of the Coronavirus crisis in the NHS to be granted citizenship if they want it.
https://nation.cymru/news/give-nhs-workers-on-coronavirus-front-line-citizenship-mp-says/
they will absolutely go for the medical profession – they have no fucking shame and our media have no fucking balls
I was pilloried just last week on FB for predicting the healthcare heroes would be made the scapegoats for the public school boy ineptitude of our .betters’.
Erm ‘betters’.
Is the ventilation system fir for purpose, and are there disease ridden pigeon droppings in the Louisa Jordan ‘field’ hospital?
Tomorrow’s starter for ten at the Daily Briefing.
Is there a want wae these guys? Westminster, in particular the Conservative Party, has robbed, and continues to rob, Scotland blind. Are we to believe that they don’t know this? Carlaw is beiling (spelling?). His Big Boss Boris is letting him down. Big time. I’m into astrology and by God his chart shows that he’s one VERY angry man right now. His boss’s failures in conjunction with Nicola Sturgeon’s successes show that he’s going to be decimated come the next election. To be remembered for all time coming as the Scottish runt, a Burn’s rogue, who contributed greatly to the dissolution of the Union. Named in our history books for all time coming. Failed cars salesman to failed politician. Davidson of course handed over this poisoned chalice to dafty so hell mend him for never questioning non-maternal, non-empathetic rape clause Ruthie’s, “a jist want to be a mammy noo” feeble excuse for bailing out. https://mobile.twitter.com/Jackson_Carlaw/status/1252157852803792897
In one miserable little tweet, this utterly contemptuous little man (in a moral and intellectual sense) tries to frame us Scots as grateful recipients of England’s largesse and charity.
This failed businessman, who has ducked and dived every issue since Johnson ascended the throne, has nothing to offer Scotland, other than promoting another 300 years of obsequious servitude to his English Masters.
I repeat, can you envisage this bloated little loser at the podium as FM facing the Scottish Public, delivering the daily Covid 19 briefing?
Of course not.
He couldn’t even hire out cars in affluent Cathcart.
And Leonard, Rennie,?
Where are they today?
Under the duvet, hoping we don’t notice that they continue to be feckless little servants of a Greater God, England.
WE are Scotland, Carlaw, not a beggar, down on our knees thanking England for their charity.
You disgust me, sir. Get up off your knees.
We bow to nobody.
It’s comin’ yet, for a’ that.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52214177
62% of deaths in Scotland are in hospital – giving 38% further tragic fatalities are at home, care-homes, prison and the Street.
England has only declared 15,000 hospital fatalities. On 38% non-hospital deaths implies Whitehall/Westminster is suppressing approximately 9,000 Coronovirus mortalities, so far.
Whitehall/Westminster disgracefully quash NINE THOUSAND BEREAVEMENTS with no hesitation. Happy to trust them with their figures on economic performance ?
The Tory boys never change. Over and over again. Camera, video tape and lies. Trying to hide all the evidence,
The Brexit conmen. Tax evaders.
It is sicking to watch all the Tory voting tax evaders. Applauding the NHS and raising money for charity. They must live on a parallel universe. Pay their taxes to fund essential services. The Tory bastards lied and cut.
The Tories call themselves, ‘psycho bastards” for a reason. The Tories will be finished soon. They are killing off their own members. Male men over seventy.
The Tories could not make a bigger mess, as expected. Deja Vu. Time and time again. Repeat behaviour. Along with the rest of the unionist imbecile. The state of Labour, LibDem conmen letting them get away with it. Getting away with murder. Cutting essential services. Appalling repeat behaviour of broken promises,
MSM do not watch or bitter with it. They will get their comeuppance. Out of a job. Cutting off their nose to spite their face. Their lies leading to 5eir own demise.
Murdoch male over seventy away with £32Billion. That could have helped the NHS and essential services. Keeping people alive instead of killing them.
The tax evading non Doms Press barons supported illegal wars and Brexit so they could tax evade and ruin people’s lives.
The SNP Scottish Gov doing all it can in it’s power to help and care for people keeping them alive. Under stressful conditions.
Difficult to get your head round this – particularly in the current circumstances – but this may give an idea just how desperate and corrupt HMG has become.
And we are told Russia’s bot operations are nefarious. Welcome to blighty’s best..
Sarah Wollaston, former Chair of the Health Committee.
https://twitter.com/sarahwollaston/status/1252510982489939969?s=20
More analysis here:
He’s a little reserved but gets his point across nonetheless.
The Barnett Formula. Formulated to take revenues and resources from Scotland to fund London S/E. Secretly and illegally. The North=South divide. More congested London S/E where unionists parties get votes. Poor decision, poor policies. Cameras, video tapes and lies. To get unionist parties in power in Westminster. To tax evade and ruin the world economy. (Tax havens). Established by anti EU Thatcher. The Tory imbeciles. EU established to stop War and starvation after 11WW.
Scotland raises £63Billion back. (Approx) £30Billion Block grant back. £15Billion for (UK Gov) pensions/benefits. Scottish resources pays for that.
£3Billion loan repayments for monies not borrowed or spent in Scotland. Scotland can’t borrow £5Billion to grow the economy. It would pay for itself. Pays £4Billion towards Defence. £1Billion over. Loses £3Billion from tax evasion. Loses £5Billion for lack of investment growing the economy. Investment in renewables and essential services. More investment = more people. Generating more income.
£63Billion + £17Billion = £80Billion. The same as Norway.
Scotland pays for Westminster poor, bad decision. Illegal wars, financial fraud and tax evasion. Scotland Independent would make a prosperous better more happy place, equal place.
The UK the most unequal place, society in the world. With unequal, unhappy people. Non cohesive. People are dying because of it illegally.
Unelected Dominic Cummings is destroying the world economy. On the way out. Even supporting policies to damage himself. Self harm. The Tories harming everyone else.
The UK raises £668Billion in tax revenues. The Westminster imbeciles cannot even fund essential services. Cut NHS £20Billion from 2015 to 2020. £4Billion a year. Instead of increasing it. Cut Education £6Billion a year £30Billion. Cut welfare £18Billion over 6 years £3Billion a year.
Over 5 years. Revenues £3300Billion (approx) Cut essential services £68Billion. Instead of increasing essential funding. Despite being elected to fund and support healthcare and education etc. Increasing poverty and early death.
The Scottish Gov has to mitigate all the cuts to essential services. Increase funding etc. With better policies and decisions. Raising more revenues pro rata.
Ken many governments around the world have refused to bail out the billionaires if they are based in offshore tax havens. If they don’t pay tax they don’t get a hand up from the taxpayer. Fair enough. There is however one country that has do far refused to rule out helping the tax Dodgers. No prizes for guessing which one. Same old guff excuse about protecting the workers. Aye right.
We have to use taxpayers’ hard earned cash to bail out our very rich, tax dodging, Tory party donor chums right?
Well one of them does have an island in the Carribean and we know who loves, just loves, a Carribean holiday don’t we?
Today’s online Telegraph
In today’s online Telegraph It is a revelation that will fill NHS frontline workers with despair. Millions of pieces of vital protective equipment are being shipped from British warehouses to Germany, Spain and Italy despite severe shortages in this country. We can disclose that lorries are being packed with masks, respirators and other personal protective equipment (PPE) to supply hospitals in the EU. With the Government facing growing criticism over the crisis, Bill Gardner has spoken to UK firms who say they have “no choice” but to sell the gear abroad because British officials have repeatedly ignored their offers of help. So why is the UK so ill-equipped? Read the inside story on Britain’s PPE shortages.
It would also appear from some reports that I saw this morning that when the UK Gov announced on Saturday that PPE would arrive on Sunday from Turkey NO such agreement had been reached with Turkey for the supply of PPE.
I think it was Sky news that was reporting this.
Here is the link to the story
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-uk-only-formally-asked-turkey-for-ppe-shipment-after-it-said-it-was-already-on-its-way-11976238
And from the Grauniad …
Turkish PPE flight: only ‘slim’ chance goods will arrive in UK today
Today = Tuesday 21 April 2020.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/21/turkish-ppe-flight-only-slim-chance-goods-will-arrive-in-uk-today
There is only a “slim possibility” that an already delayed order of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Turkey will arrive in the UK on Tuesday, British sources have conceded, raising the prospect that the saga over the much-needed shipment could spill into a fifth day.
An RAF A400M Atlas transport plane is on the tarmac at Istanbul, but it is yet to start loading the 400,000 gowns and other vital equipment for the NHS and is not expected to do so until later on Tuesday at the earliest.
Hopefully most Scots will now see that allowing the government of the United Kingdom of England to decide Scottish policy is not only a bad democratic idea but has cost some people their lives.
When this is all over,I have hope for that fact to permeate the minds of most Scots. and they will act accordingly.
Wow even Davidson was called to the crease to bat for Johnson and his hapless bunch of spivs to herald the most detailed rebuttal there’s
ever been in the history of rebuttals. Surprised she never mentioned “no 2nd independence referendum” before going back to her other job( s).
Report in the Herald online that the Labour Shadow Scottish Secretary, whose name escapes me, received a £5000 donation from a Tory donor during his campaign to become Deputy leader of the Labour Party. Nice
That would be Ian Murray, Legerwood, darling of the Morningside Ladies Tearoom Club. He’s a Blair Boy, a neo conservative Cool Britannia, Red Tory.
You may recall him posing in his butcher’s apron 3 piece suit at some genteel Brit Nat Bring and Buy summer fare.
He is our ‘pet’ Labour MP. Every country should have one, lest we forget. But he is on a short leash.
He is trousering our money for nothing..a permanent ‘opposition’ politician, who has been sent to Coventry by his English Party Bosses, but now back in the fold as Starmer tries to breathe life back into New New Labour.
He hates the notion that Scotland is a country, which will ultimately return to Self Determination, at which point this will o’ the wisp, will suddenly declare that he was pro independence all along.
Murray supports Trident, backed austerity, the Iraq war, and suffers from bum sores sitting on
He spends his time in London lolling about on Select Committees, and posing for photies at wee do’s in his constituency.
He boasts of the tens of thousands of interventions which he has had on behalf of his constituents in North Britain.
There would have had to be three of him to meet his reported constituency work. But no one challenges it in the Brit MSM.
He is a nobody, doing no one any harm in the Westminster bubble.
By your deeds ye shall know them.
He is a Brit Nat, and would sacrifice Scotland to keep his nice little earner.
Of course a blue Tory backer has bunged him cash.
Would you support this man to run your country … ‘after he had a few ciders’?
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/scottish-independence/ian-murray-union-flag-jacket-photo-result-few-ciders-glastonbury-1375948
‘I was drunk at the time’.
A size 42? Aye,right.
Thanks for the link, WS. Gina Davidson at the Hootsman attempting a wee warm and fluffy piece on this fellow traveller.
£1500 a week plus expenses plus £10,000 to ‘work from home’. (Plus appearance money on BBC/STV/ and Dead Tree Scroll articles.)
Money for Nothing and your toilet rolls for free.
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female.
Just watched Nicola Sturgeon give an absolute superb performance
Answering questions about the Coronavirus update in Scotland.
In a very dignified way being honest.and transparent.
To an absolute repugnant disgusting shower of so called journalists
Trying their best to try and destroy Nicola.and the SNP.government.
SNPBAAAAD.this shower of individuals.words fail me.not one of them
Knows the meaning of honest journalism.the word honesty to them
Is alien.surely the people in Scotland are beginning to see through
This lot for what they are.they are the scum of the earth.everday they
Stand up and try to crucify Nicola.and are determined to make
everything that goes on in Scotland is SNPBAAAAD.i know what
they are doing.they are displaying their true colours they
Are cabal of disgusting ignorant despicable Britnats unionist.
Scotland will gain independence from this lot and this discredited
Vile union.and the sooner the better.
They are running out of banal questions to punt at the FM, aren’t they?
She really should be giving rash Yes/No answers to fit in with the hacks’ ‘news cycle’.
After all they have articles to write, ‘papers to print, to lie on newsstands unsold because of the lockdown.
Wait….
And the Hootsmon going apeshit that trash like Broadcasting Scotland get a wee shottie…
she should certainly stop being so polite and accommodating to that shower – I’d love her to tell them where to get off , in the nicest possible way of course.
‘Deaths in care homes First Minister , are they due to your governments mismanagement ?’
” No . Next question from the next pillock please”
I love all the pleading to buy a newspaper – a free press is necessary , buy a newspaper when you are out for your walk , let’s set up a fund for the press – hell mend ’em!
Fourth estate that has forgotten its function , has forgotten truth , integrity , honesty , investigative role and now opines and prints malevolent gossip , spite and shite.
The unfortunate thing for them is that most folk now recognise their deficiencies and would prefer to spend their money wisely.
They raise my blood pressure and give me ulcers – could I sue??
‘Rave themed barbecue’ Devonport Dockyards. Nuclear sub naval Captain reprimanded. No lockdown. Trident an absolute abuse of public monies.
Just ignore them. Stop engaging or buying the printed nonsense. Leave other people who are paid to deal with them. MSM ignorance and arrogance displayed for all to see. Just turns folk off. Turn over. Leading to their own demise. Out of a job. Another one hits the dust. Switch over or switch off for sanity.
There are plenty of other realistic outlets. Especially other people giving information.Go there for news. More interesting, cheaper and less worrying.
@ Religion Jewish
5,000:In Edinburgh. 1000: Glasgow.
Murray of the Union attire.
Unionist Influence in the Holyrood Parliament.
The paid (public monies) Labour Party Officials campaigning against a Labour victory. The 5th column. Utter disgrace and illegal. Lord McNicol former Labour Party Secretary stands down. Now all those implicated suing each other. Trying to keep it secret. Another waste of space and public monies. Disgusting. Now Lording over others. The leader a Sir. Total corruption. Supported illegal war and destruction.