[0762]

Concentrating on Scotland's push back to normality from this COVID crisis has been the main narrative from the FM even during the recent election campaign. One can see exactly what was being pulled by unionist parties and Brit govt owned media because that is all they had "in their locker". What was really irritating about this bullshit was the fact all these so called political adversaries, Scot Labour v Scot Cons v Libdem were all colluding on the same anti-indy campaign ticket - absolutely desperate to stop Scotindy with any underhand tactics that they could "dream up". Eg the pseudo green parties issue (eg on the peach form - Independent Green Party, a fascist party, was a joke!!) was one of my biggest bugbears where the Electoral Commission really didn't do its job at all in blocking the use of this kinda deceptive text!!

[0762]

Reading about the Tories latest stunt called OBON (One Britain, One Nation) asking schools to celebrate this backdoor fascist brainwashing shit tomorrow, Fri 25 June, and I must say, just like the Scot FM, I thought it was a "spoof" and didn't think it was real. Needless to say, most Scottish schools break up for the summer shutdown tomorrow - now that's handy! I also think it says so much re the misguided priorities, the hypocrisy and just the ridiculous nature of a lot of what this Brit govt is doing as part of their hated and bogus Brexit Project up here. It also looks like the Welsh haven't been taken with the idea either - gone down like a "bucket of sick" with the Welsh govt commenting that they were not engaging with this project. Even the Welsh international footie team had time to criticise this "creepy" ( a great word/adjective to describe this nonsense!) project by encouraging the schools across the country to sing a different song ahead of their upcoming Euro match v Denmark - sing "Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" (Old Land of My Fathers) with pride and none of this shit together with displaying red, white and blue colours. Imagine if Scotland did the same thing retrospectively?????? The response from our resident unionist hypocrites would be vitriolic!! It never ceases to amaze me how the people in charge of educating children in the UK are so palpably ignorant of the country in which they live. The UK is not "one nation"; it is one state comprised of three and a half nations!!! More focus should be placed trying to encourage people to understand and respect the differences between people and the fact that our strength comes from our diversity, not our sameness.

[0762]

Yesterday there was an interesting poll of Euro residents conducted by Euronews and carried out by Redfield and Wilton Strategies. It focused on 5 years after that horrific Brexit result and polled about 6k people from Germany, Italy, Spain and France. I was interested in the view re Scotland's quick re-entry to the EU after independence - across the board, 81% said they'd either support or wouldn't oppose Scottish re-entry to the EU. What struck me about this data and other pro-Scotland comments was an awareness of Scotland's predicament of voting against Brexit and effectively being "shat on"/ignored by a bullish British state that is morphing into a den of autocratic governance and diktat to another country within their UK that is "different" and doesn't share their political ideology or values and whose Brexit unionists have been recently "slaughtered" in a Scottish election.

[hibeejim21]

For the people that drove this its isn't really about Europe or nation states (look how many of em picked up EU passports in the aftermath) its about how much lovely loot they and their pals abroad can pick off from the UK taxpayer for various projects without any regulation, how much they can just outright steal and then avoid any scrutiny or taxation from the EUs clampdown on tax avoidance. The paradise papers showed the whole 'trickle down' effect is not really in evidence anymore, the wealthy are getting obscenely rich and the rest of us are getting chucked crumbs and stories about the royal family to keep us all warm inside.

Just get Joe Bloggs riled up about too many poles in the queue at Greggs and its amazing what you can achieve.

[ritchiebaby]

I'm beginning to despair now about the authorities' attitude towards the new record figures for positive Covid cases. Even Jason Leitch is trumpeting the news that football stadia could be full in August as well as music festivals resuming. It seems to me that, like England, the message is to go out and enjoy yourselves, don't socially distance and don't wear masks. A huge chunk of the population will just do what they want (it already happens) and they will probably forget about hand hygiene too.

Not me, thank you very much. I'll still err on the cautious side, no matter what the experts might tell me.

[0762]

About 3500 COVID cases reported today and a positive test percentage of 12.6%!!! Note the WHO max "under control" percentage is 5%!!!! I slammed into a certain bbc presenter this morning re the reticence from various media people and other agencies re the connection to this latest surge in infections, that being the fact any fool can see there was a significant causal connection to the recent behaviour of footie fans (not the only cause of this; but IMO it is a huge factor!). The reticence was breathtaking at the time of a clear threat to public health. I'm picking up stories from family sources re returning footie coaches full of fans being totally infected with COVID - f####### unbelievable (not surprising though!!!) and hugely frustrating for people/citizens who have tried so hard to conform with all the requests and advice to battle against this virus!! It is not the first time that the sport of footie has impinged on the battle to suppress this virus and it really has "set us back" again. IMO all these relaxations in travel, footie attendances, attitudes etc are so disappointing and I listened to the Scot FM at lunch time reiterating that regular message to be cautious and follow the FACTS advice on tackling COVID - the battle is not over says she and be aware of this surge! But don't panic as the vax prog is having a significant effect on reducing hospital admissions and deaths compared with events that happened this time last year.

[hibeejim21]

The key thing is hospital admissions and deaths.

The vaccine means we have to look at the data differently now.

[ritchiebaby]

That's the general view jim, but they are not reminding people about the fact that the vaccines are 90-95% effective. So between 5% and 10% do not have full protection and that could be as many as 500,000 people in Scotland.

I fully agree that we all have to learn to live with Covid, but I think the Government are avoiding stressing the importance of continuing the basic rules of Covid prevention. It's all right stressing the importance of regular testing, but by that time somebody could have caught the virus and could have passed it on.

[hibeejim21]

I'm not sure thats how a vaccines effectiveness is gauged Ritchie ?

Of course you are right about being cautious, we are going to be one great Petri dish at the moment with infections raging through the younger population. There is always the risk that a really dangerous mutation could develop. Also the risk of long covid is something that shouldn't be taken lightly.

But whilst people are not being hospitalised or dying in any great numbers people are just going to go for some kind of normality again, and I doubt there is much the politicians can do to stop them now.

[0762]

Just reading a report from the HOC library that compared UK wealth with other European neighbours and it transpires that the UK is the "poor man" of NW Europe. The UK has had the lowest wealth per head for every year of the 21st century!!!
It shows the UK is behind all 13 neighbouring nations, incl Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria, France and Germany. The analysis, using IMF data, shows the UK is £5062 poorer per person than the average of all countries in NW Europe! And £15,739 less wealthy than those independent countries with a population similar or smaller than Scotland. It also reveals the wealth gap has grown worse over the past two decades. IMO it becomes increasingly clear that independence is the only way to unlock Scotland's full economic potential and move on to being as wealthy and successful as our European neighbours as this evidence shows that independent countries of Scotland's size, or smaller, do better. Tory austerity and a hard line Brexit have already cost Scotland billions of pounds and lets not forget the effects of a pandemic that has exposed huge income inequality, hardship and poor wellbeing. We need a "reset" as part of a post COVID serious national conversation re the new direction that our country must take to "change it" and, more importantly, "change it for the better" with self-determination and full powers/governance to deal positively with our own affairs.