When It’s Just Too Dark To Care
Just under four years ago the world was hit by a pandemic that spread like wildfire and caused misery wherever it reached. It’ll be remembered by almost everyone who lived through it, especially those who worked to protect society’s most vulnerable.
We’ve all heard about its effect on our NHS, but less so on those working within social care. As the COVID inquiries on both sides of the border continue to reveal more and more troubling information, Wings readers should hear the story of what it was like to work in social care in Scotland during the COVID pandemic.
I’m writing this with 20 years of experience in social care, hoping to try and give a better picture of what it was like working in the sector during this global pandemic. I’m not writing this to put the blame on any institution, authority or government. We did a lot of good during the pandemic – without certain interventions and policies our death rates could have been much much higher.
But a lot of mistakes were also made, especially when it came to how those working within the sector were treated. Social care is a hard enough job at the best of times, long hours with barely enough pay to cover your basic bills. There’s little in the way of thanks and often you’re made to feel pretty worthless to society.
Often when people ask what I do for a living they’ll also ask why would I do a job that’s just cleaning shite off old people? Why put yourself through that for such little pay? After the pandemic I’m now wondering that also.
On the 24th of March Nicola Sturgeon put Scotland into lockdown. On that day I was at my job, a Support Worker in a 15-bed unit for people who had learning difficulties and complex care needs, staffed by a Staff Nurse, Senior Support Worker and four Support Workers. We had all been watching the news over the past months and knew that COVID was coming, it was only a matter of time.
By the time it had reached Italy none of our healthcare staff could understand why our borders were still open. The UK is an island and surely the best way to prevent a deadly virus from getting here was to close the border?
Luckily, three weeks earlier our care home had decided to go into lockdown before most others. Due to the complex and specialist care our residents needed, the common cold could kill them, let alone a deadly worldwide virus.
Before doing so we contacted all our residents’ families to inform them that we’d be shutting our doors for the sake of their loved ones’ health and to shut down as many possible routes for COVID to get in.
This was important as it gave the families time to decide whether they wanted to take their loved ones home, as it may be a long time before they get to be in contact in person with them.
For the first couple of weeks not much was different in how our jobs went – the absence of families did make the place quieter but things ran smoothly enough. Then our problems started. Panic buying at the supermarkets meant you could only buy a certain amount of products, and now that families weren’t coming we began running out of toiletries.
From shower-gels to shampoo, everything we needed to assist in personal care was on the verge of empty. Whenever we sent a staff member to our local supermarket and they filled the trolley with enough toiletries to do for every resident in the home for two weeks, they’d be stopped at the till and asked to put it all back, even after they explained who it was for.
For over a week we were using the soap out of the handwash dispenser, which staff used for washing their hands, to clean and bath residents in. That stuff dries your skin so badly that we had to start using tubs of moisturising creams after washing our residents. But despite staff asking management to buy the stuff in bulk nothing got done, mainly because some local pharmacies had heard of our plight and donated toiletries to us.
(I heard our manager laugh that they now would be able to save some of the budget with all the free stuff we’d been given. In social care these days the most important thing is the ability to cut costs, rather than improve the care you give to your residents.)
It was about this time that Nicola Sturgeon had announced that all schools would close down for in-class learning. I was shocked at how little our management knew about this – I had to inform them myself, much to their displeasure. Because of this we lost two of my colleagues, single mothers who had nobody to care for their children whilst they were working.
They’d asked for furlough, which they knew colleagues at our other homes had been given, but were denied as they were told that management couldn’t replace them. They weren’t even offered a chance to change their hours to try and somehow fit in both care for their children and work. Rather than take on another exhausting battle, they decided to quit.
The fear of COVID coming to the home was most likely another factor in their decisions, but the lack of support from above was the straw that broke the camel’s back. There was always a “fuck ’em” attitude that came from above. It’s bad enough that society places such a low value on key support workers, but it’s even worse when it’s your own management (who are often trained nurses too).
After about a month we had started to notice that the PPE we had been given was so flimsy that 50% of it broke before use. (And this had been the PPE that had passed inspections, not the Michelle Mone crap she tossed off her boat before disappearing.) But at least it was PPE in some form.
During the summer the staff and management had a massive row. We had been told that some staff would have to go to another home to help them out. That home had been ravaged with COVID, and many of its residents had died from it. This alarmed us because we knew that guidance was not to mix staff from different settings, especially if COVID was present. I drew the short straw as I’d worked there before.
To get around guidance they classed it as an emergency. My first day there I headed for the unit I was to work in, a 28-bed dementia unit which was staffed by a mental health nurse and four carers. But entering the unit I discovered that the home had got rid of the nurse and replaced them with a “Senior Care Practitioner” – in basic terms, someone trained enough to be a nurse’s assistant, who could give out meds and write care plans.
To put the level of training in context, they got paid 20p an hour more than a standard minimum-wage carer.
This was in order to save more money for the home, much to its detriment. I spent the next five minutes looking for the carers in order to find out what they needed help with. We had two hours to get 28 people up, washed and dressed before the 9am breakfast.
Unfortunately there were only two other carers on duty that day. I asked them if the SCP was helping out but was told that she spent most of her time in the office, as she didn’t want to get COVID. Nice. I then asked them where I could find the PPE, only to be told I’d have to ask the SCP to get some as they weren’t allowed to know where it was kept. WTF?
The whole unit was a total mess. Staff didn’t know what they were doing and spent most of the day arguing with each other. With dementia and COVID you can’t lock those who have it inside their rooms, so all day we were trying to do our job and also try to divert COVID patients away from others who were clear.
But the staff were beaten down and had given up. They just no longer cared. One of them told me how she spent an hour sitting beside a COVID patient who was dying in their bed watching them pass away. I can tell you from my own experience that someone dying from COVID is not the peaceful ending you might hope for. Its horrific in some cases, for them and for the staff.
But not a minute after that person had died, this lass, still in tears after losing someone she cared for, was being told to get up and go sit with another person who was dying. This would in some cases be repeated day after day, for minimum wage. Those days there absolutely broke me.
It was no longer care but a free-for-all, in which staff had been given so little support that almost all of them had been destroyed and given up, defeated. I never felt so sorry for colleagues in my life. But it didn’t matter who they appealed to for help, nobody listened or really cared.
Back at my own post, when the scandal about hospital patients being transferred into care homes without testing broke in England I was glad knowing that the practice wasn’t happening in Scotland. Or so I thought.
One Saturday morning I’d come into work to find my colleagues telling me that we had a new resident, just arrived the day before from hospital and they were to be isolated in their new room for seven days. I commented that at least they would’ve been tested, right? Not according to my colleagues.
I was so shocked that I went and spoke to the new resident myself and yep, the only test they had been given was the one they had after they arrived with us. I was so angry about this that during my break I put out a tweet, without any details of where I worked or who I was referring to, on how angry I was to turn up to work to find a hospital patient in our COVID-free unit who hadn’t been tested beforehand.
Now I’m very careful with my Twitter account. No one who knows me in real life is on it, not my family, friends or – especially – colleagues. But within 30 minutes of that tweet going out my manager had turned up and was asking to speak with me. It was his day off and he had been advised by “authorities” about the tweet.
He demanded that I delete it straight away and put up a post saying I was lying. I was told that I would lose my job for gross misconduct if I refused. I agreed to delete the tweet but I would fight any attempt to have me fired. I also asked at the time that staff should be shown any evidence that the resident had their COVID test. Funnily enough no evidence to prove that ever appeared.
Meanwhile in the media the Scottish Government repeatedly swerved any suggestion that anyone transferred from hospital to a care home hadn’t been tested.
Around June we finally got our first COVID cases – luckily they concerned the staff rather than residents. My colleague was one of them and when she came back to work I found her in tears because she said she would now be in debt for having nearly two weeks off at home isolating. When you’re paid so little in the first place that you can barely cover your bills, you can’t afford to be sick, even if you’re risking your life and the lives of your family working in social care during a pandemic.
She had asked management if she could use her annual leave to cover her time off but was refused as they had already put it through as COVID. They went as far as to blame her for having COVID and not doing enough to prevent it.
During my break I started searching online to find if there was any help she could get. I came across a new Scottish Government directive for social care, stating that anyone working within the sector who was off work isolating due to having COVID must be paid in full by their employer, and the employer could then claim that money back from the local authority.
We hadn’t been told about this, although it was now about a month old. I informed the manager, who claimed they knew nothing about it. I handed him over a printout and informed him that it could also be back-dated for those who were off before.
But instead of being happy that his staff could be supported at no cost to him, he confided in me that he knew about this policy when it came out but HQ had asked him not to notify staff in case they all pretended to have COVID and took time off to get drunk and have parties.
Soon enough the worst happened. A resident on our unit had tested positive for COVID. I got a text message on my day off because I was their key worker. At the time I was on holiday but due to staffing issues they wanted me to come in. He was in a very bad condition and point blank refused any medical intervention. He had multiple sclerosis and it had been slowly getting worse as time went. But now he had COVID he saw it as a way to “get out”.
He had no family or friends, and they wouldn’t have been able to visit him anyway. So for two days I came in and sat next to his bed, slowly watching him gasp for air more and more. It was horrible. Nothing we could do would help ease him. The last 10 minutes of his life were the worst, as I held his hand and tried to reassure him that everything would be alright.
Every breath was a struggle and each one sapped more life out of him. He just stared at me and then started to panic. I could do nothing to help him and just had to sit there watching someone essentially drowning in their own saliva, becoming incontinent then giving one last gargle before they finally passed.
I pushed the buzzer and the nurse came in to confirm his death. Someone I’d supported for over eight years, who had become as close as some of my best friends, gone. In my job I had seen many people pass away over the years. It’s part of the job too. But this felt different. I still mind his face during those last moments sometimes, when I shut my eyes.
One interesting day as we all watched the news on STV we were rather surprised to see some family members of our residents protesting at the fact they couldn’t visit in the early days, apart from through a window. We found an infamous Facebook group which had hundreds of members which these families were part of, family members of care home residents across Scotland complaining about the situation.
They ranged from COVID deniers to full-on doxxing of staff. To our amazement our pictures and names were splattered on a post. We complained but were told basically not to upset them as they might make it worse for the home via the media, so we had to endure post upon post of derogatory and abusive slurs aimed at the carers who were risking their lives protecting their loved ones.
The situation escalated over the next couple of weeks – carers were being abused in the streets by various family members in these groups, as well as receiving social-media messages of abuse and threats. It all came to a head when the wife of one resident came to the door and tried to break in. After being unable to open the locked door she started launching bricks at the windows of the lounge. We had to very quickly move everyone back to their rooms just in case. Eventually after about an hour the police came and settled things.
As much as I pitied these people, I could never forgive them for the abuse and threats aimed at poorly-paid staff, often young women, just trying to do their jobs under intolerable pressure. Nor could I forgive the management for the lack of help they offered too when we asked for it, other than saying “just block them”. Blocking doesn’t help when you are walking down the street.
As a social care worker you work on your feet, usually for 12-hour shifts if it’s a nursing home, in sometimes horrid conditions. You can be attacked, spat on, verbally abused, covered in every bodily fluid and solid you can think of, all for a wage that keeps you trapped in poverty. For those two years with COVID we worked tirelessly but lost a lot of staff who felt they had no support and that those in charge, especially in the Scottish Government, didn’t care.
(We did get a one-off £500 bonus, of which most folk only saw about £300 after tax and deductions. That comes to about £2.88 a week.)
As I said, this is probably one of the most difficult jobs you can do, not just physically but also mentally. The sector has been in decline since Brexit when a large chunk of its workforce disappeared overnight. Two years of working through COVID without a break has decimated what was left of social care.
Some couldn’t take it and walked away, and some caught the virus on the front line and died, but there are now huge staffing gaps we can’t fill. We put out four job vacancies in the last year and not one single person even enquired about them.
The Scottish Government has promised to increase our wages next year to £12 an hour, the first time in decades our wages have gone up by such a margin. But it’s not enough to stem the bleeding. (Most of that rise, if and when it happens, will be instantly swallowed by the cost-of-living crisis.)
The problem is that working conditions haven’t improved for over 20 years. Most care home managers are tasked with cutting the budgets rather than providing better care. Nurses are having their positions chopped and replaced with inexperienced SCPs who don’t have the medical skills or knowledge to lead a mental health unit.
The unit I worked in last with its Nurse, Senior and 4 support staff has decided to change the description of the care provided from a Learning Difficulties unit to an Elderly one, despite the fact it’s the same residents with the same medical conditions. Why? So they could cut staff numbers – it now runs with just a senior and two support staff, basically two people to do the work of five.
Bed sores are becoming more common because of the lack of staff to do turns. Residents are having to wait much longer for assistance. Anything to cut budgets in order to keep profits rolling, no matter the detriment to staff or residents. And it’s not just the private sector, it’s just as bad now in council-provided services. Councils have millions in underspend because they can no longer find anyone willing to provide care for the pittance it pays, and doubly so after COVID exposed what they might be letting themselves in for if they do.
Free personal care is one of our flagship policies in Scotland, and we should be proud of it. But Brexit was a grenade that blew it wide apart, COVID ravaged the ruins and now it’s in a terminal decline as inevitable as that of my multiple-sclerosis patient, and likely to be just as grisly and upsetting.
Without swift intervention the policy will die a lot quicker than any of our politicians will be prepared for. Without a properly functioning social care sector that has proper working conditions and rights for its staff, it will fail and with that, it will drag down the NHS too as it tries to pick up the pieces.
The Scottish Government can promise reform until the cows come home, but without reforming staff conditions it will fail. And as a great many of us will end our days in the care system, that’s something we should probably all be worrying about.
.
Alison Speed has worked in social care for over 20 years, having started out in nursing homes as a teenager and subsequently across the whole sector including some of the most demanding and specialist units dealing with challenging behaviour, complex care needs, rehab and critical end-of-life care.
Fkin hell, that was truly horrific reading. 🙁
Sounds like it should be the Alison Speeds of this world that are in charge of such matters rather than the utter fckwits who allegedly are.
“Within 30 minutes of that tweet going out, again with no details, my manager had turned up and was asking to speak with me. It was his day off and he had been advised by “authorities” about the tweet.
He demanded that I delete it straight away and put up a post saying I was lying. I was told that I would lose my job for gross misconduct if I refuse.”
Chilling.
God Bless you Alison Speed. Set the truth free. Thank you for everything you did. I want justice fo all those who died and those care home staff.
I think Sturgeon tried to kill off the old people as part of a political choice. She’s warped.
Sturgeon’s not handing over all her whatsapp messages.
Lady Covid – known for her good communication and daily briefings – her lips are sealed. She’s handing nothing over. She’s secretetive. She’s on the defensive Allison. What is she hiding? We are all beginning to wonder?
I’m raging at Sturgeon. I want a vote of No confidence in this SNP Government. I think she ignored the advice of doctors and nurses in the hospitals to clear the beds. She knew what she was doing. She always knows better didn’t she?
There’s special place reserved in Corton Vale for Nicola Sturgeon. Her deeds would shame all the devils in hell.
Actually in tears reading this ( in fairness Covid triggers me ) and just want to thank you Alison and your colleagues for all you have done and continue to do for very little money, compassion cannot be overvalued and I appreciate it
An utter Shit show that you have had to deal with
On the subject of your managers for your sick colleague with Covid:
“She had asked management if she could use her annual leave to cover her time off but was refused as they had already put it through as COVID. They went as far as to blame her for having COVID and not doing enough to prevent it.”
This is why we need a national care service and workers rights for care home staff.
We need proper work conditions, workers rights motivated young people and Scottish workers who want to stay. I want the Social care service integrated into the NHS.
Our elderly are us. We are them. They are our families. They deserve better. We need to look after our future selves.
“He confided in me that he knew about this policy when it came out but HQ had asked him not to notify staff in case they all pretended to have COVID and took time off to get drunk and have parties.”
This manager should be named and prosecuted. Seriously. What an absolute low life piece of human garbage.
Just think, by the time you need this kind of assistance it will probably be much worse.
“Every breath was a struggle and each one sapped more life out of him. He just stared at me and then started to panic. I could do nothing to help him and just had to sit there watching someone essentially drowning in their own saliva, becoming incontinent then giving one last gargle before they finally passed.”
Allison, I’d like to know if your care home employed a staff nurse, registered to administer palliative care medication for those at end of life?
I’d implore you to name that home. That manager and company.
Good, timely post.Well worth reading.
I was a full time carer for my dementing father at home for 15 years until his death. i had a little support from my family- not enough.
When I was much younger I did a lot of manual labouring jobs on building site, the roads and in factories. None of this work is anything near as demanding in terms of the stress imposed as caring for someone long term.
It is also work that is enormously valuable. it can be rewarding but certainly not finacially.
The mess of social care is probably somewhat worse in England than Scotland but it has been, in both countries, long in the making and will not easily be fixed.
link to chpi.org.uk
I worked in the care home sector ( psycho geriatric, frail elderly,end of life) a long time ago 92-96, and I’m enraged nothing seems to have improved since then. How the snivelling, crooked management of these places can sleep at night is beyond me. I too, was what was then classed as a “whistleblower” . God only knows how many times I phoned the health board from that care home for serious/criminal failings. Not that they did much.
I’m so sorry to read it’s just the same shiteshow almost thirty years later, horrified to think what our place would have been like during a pandemic lockdown. Both workers and residents have been seriously let down by Sturgeon etc during the whole debacle. I agree with David Hannah, but I’d go further. I think every political party both North and South deserve votes of no confidence, we need to rip the whole political establishment up and start again.
You’re a special lady Alison.
There’s something wrong in a society where a MP carries home ten? twenty? times more than a social care worker. How is it possible that those people who are in such an important, difficult and stressing job don’t earn a decent income? How is it possible that for some everything is available – especially for those in politics – and there’s nothing but contempt for those who do the work?
Alison,
thank you for this piece. It’s devastating to read.
Your experience is at the other end of the scale from mine, and I have been fortunate in many ways, but it is you who wears the angel’s wings. Wear them with pride.
That was horrifying to read. I was an ambulance technician before COVID and I visited care homes on a nearly daily basis. There appeared to be a complete lottery as to the care residents would receive depending on which home they were in. Some of the care assistants were fantastic while some of the nurses were terrible but all were limited in what they could do. Most of my colleagues said they would rather die than end up in a home and many of us discussed making sure we had DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) orders in place long before our health deteriorated to the point we would be put into care.
Right now my family is contemplating the near future when an elderly relative might have to go into care due to worsening dementia & being prone to falls. I was already thinking in terms of doing everything we could to keep them out of a care home but now I am absolutely determined to do that. Fortunately we probably have the means to do so but for the vast majority of Scots who don’t it is an impossible situation to be in. Heart breaking and infuriating. Our elderly are just being thrown into the dump before they have even died.
My work is now in the field of health and fitness and I have one please for everyone to heed: please, please, please do absolutely everything you can to avoid needing medical and social care in your old age. You would not believe how much you can positively influence your health by making the right choices in terms of eating, exercising, smoking and drinking. Getting taken into the care system is a slow, horrible death even without COVID.
I feel deeply with what Alison went through. But the common theme coming from this, apart from the governance, is funding. It doesn’t matter what we do in Scotland it will always be determined by the funds available. It would be nice to pay carers £20/hour but that will never happen in this dysfunctional UK. We can only dream of what kind of country we would be if we were independent and how we would have managed the COVID crisis.
That was some read Alison . Thank you for all you and your colleagues do for those in your care and have done throughout a most difficult time.
By the time it had reached Italy none of our healthcare staff could understand why our borders were still open. The UK is an island and surely the best way to prevent a deadly virus from getting here was to close the border?
We now have it more or less confirmed that Boris Johnson was the problem. The worst possible man in charge at the worst possible time. We should have went into lockdown as soon as Italy did as at that point Covid was in Europe & an earlier lockdown would have saved lives and resources.
After about a month we had started to notice that the PPE we had been given was so flimsy that 50% of it broke before use.
It is unforgivable that government used cheap PPE while winning bidders walked out with huge profits at a time when people were dying horribly. If anything comes out of the Covid enquiry it should be criminal charges from Johnson down the chain. Won’t happen. We might get a few people like Mone thrown to keep the tabloids happy but this was a failure of leadership at the highest levels.
But the staff were so beaten down and had given up that just no longer cared. One of them told me how she spent an hour sitting beside a COVID patient who was dying in their bed watching them pass away. I can tell you from my own experience that someone dying from COVID is not the peaceful ending you might hope for. Its horrific in some cases, for them and for the staff.
But not a minute after that person had died, this lass, still in tears after losing someone she cared for, was being told to get up and go sit with another person who was dying. This would in some cases be repeated day after day, for minimum wage. Those days there absolutely broke me.
A friend is a nurse and this reflects her experience. Sitting with one person who dies then told to look after another dying and repeat. That friend is no longer a nurse. People can only take so much & their mental health collapsed last year.
Free personal care is one of our flagship policies in Scotland, and we should be proud of it. But Brexit was a grenade that blew it wide apart, COVID ravaged the ruins and now it’s in a terminal decline as inevitable as that of my multiple-sclerosis patient, and likely to be just as grisly and upsetting.
When I see Holyrood waste millions or sell off assets for cheap or pump money into endless Trans ‘charities’ while we have huge amounts of genuine problems that aren’t going to be solved with slogans and wishing for unicorns. Politically we’re screwed, especially with the SNP locked into a death spiral with an increasingly unhinged Green Party. Labour won’t make things better and we face an election next year where yes, the Tories need to go for a generation at least but the prospect of a weak Labour Party tweaking round the edges doesn’t fill me with hope.
Many of us are going to end our lives in the care system. I’m still a wee while away (hopefully) from that but in 30 years time I fear there won’t be a care system left even though we have a massively ageing population but not enough young people. Thanks to Brexit we can’t rely on immigrants plugging the gap either so things are bleak unless we have politicians brave and smart enough to make hard choices that benefits most people and not a small amount of the wealthy or the middle class.
Staff could have got the full £500 bonus if the Scottish Government had called it an honorarium – just like footballer testimonials – no expectation of reward being the legal requirement. Nicla knew this and she refused.
I think First Minister’s questions today was the worst I’ve ever seen.
Tories and Labour wasting parliamentary time talking about proven liar Michael Matheson when there’s more pressing issues.
The health secretary should have been sacked weeks ago. But it’s all to do with secrecy of this corrupt cabal in Holyrood. They openly lie to the public. Get caught out lying and lie again.
We need a vote of no confidence. The Alphabetties need to be named.
Sturgeon lacks compassion. It’s not wired into her DNA. She’s a liar herself about her sexuality. She lied about Alex Salmond and her failed plotting conspiracy she orchestrated. She lied about wanting Independence. She sold out Scotland. And she killed thousands of old people. Because she’s lying about what she knew. And she’s covering it up.
She’s a murderer. She’s a luty letby type killer of a politican. I hope she rots in hell.
not all heros wear capes.
no they give them shite PPE.
ffs what a cuntery
Sturgeon wanted to be different from Boris. She locked us all away. Her and the dentist. They loved the fame. On open goal and the football radio shows. They loved it.
These people were crooks. And control freaks.
Sturgeon wanted to clear the hospitals.
She was advised to test patients. We all know what she did. She ignored advice and send the plague into the care homes. Her orders. The buck stops with her. Then she locked us up longer than anyone else to try and clear her conscience. But we know Nicola doesn’t have that. She lacks compassion. She’s ruthless. She’s a bunny boiler. She’s a fraud. A proven fraudster both professionally and personally. She’s sold out Scotland.
Through the book at her I say. We need the crown office separated from Humza’s Parliament. They run the country like a mafia. They’ve turned our institutions into a criminal enterprise.
Nicola Sturgeon. Dorothy Bain. Lady Dorian. Resign you charlatans. Sack them I say.
David Hannah @2.24
Did they talk about anything significant – like the impending closure of Grangemouth and its implications?
Alison, you must be absolutely furious with all those tik-tok dancing nurses from all over the world, including the UK, who had all that time and resources to make stupid dance meme videos as if they were all co-ordinated to do the same thing at the same time when they were supposed to be drowning in covid cases.
They obviously had plenty of time and money and not much to do.
It was hard enough reading this, so God bless Alison for actually working through it, then being able to write about it.
TBH, it confirms a lot of what we know. Newspapers print government PR, and there’s no-one we can trust to tell us the truth.
And privatising healthcare is always a disaster.
@John C says:23 November, 2023 at 2:01 pm
Thanks for a good post, but I’m going to take issue with this statement:
Thanks to Brexit we can’t rely on immigrants plugging the gap either
Here’s a link:
link to ons.gov.uk
And here’s a wee quote:
“The provisional estimate of total long-term immigration for year ending (YE) June 2023 was 1.2 million, while emigration was 508,000, meaning that net migration was 672,000; most people arriving to the UK in the YE June 2023 were non-EU nationals (968,000), followed by EU (129,000) and British (84,000)”
The pre-Brexit flow of immigration to the UK has turned into a post-Brexit deluge. No knowledgeable commentator expects that to change any time soon.
Thanks Alison, It sounds like a horrible experience.
I just wonder how much of a thing Sarscov2 really was?
Three days before Boris locked us down the government marked down Covid as not being a ‘high consequence infectious disease’
There was no test for Covid at that time (or later??) and doctors were instructed to diagnose illness on death based on ‘flu like symptoms’ as Covid symptoms.
Flu vanished in 2020 and 2021.
Guidance was run from Imperial College based on frightening mathematical models by Neil Ferguson.
Excess deaths in 2020 occurred in the lockdown months, (and rose again when they started injecting.)
Politicians abandoned their duty to technocrats and collapsed the health system.
@David Hannah says:23 November, 2023 at 2:36 pm
She’s a fraud
And by a remarkable coincidence, so’s her replacement.
“Continuity” in many more ways than one.
It is worth mentioning that the health service in Scotland is fully devolved.
I really don’t care what the English/Welsh/Irish systems are like, better or worse. Our Government!! have a duty of care to ALL in Scotland. I honestly believe that the overwhelming majority of doctors/nurses/carers/ porters and everybody else involved in the SNHS genuinely strive to provide it. I cannot say the same about our Government.
Will people like Alison Speed give evidence to the ongoing Covid enquiry. I very much doubt it as the Politicians scramble around trying to protect their backs.
My thanks to Alison for her honesty, compassion and bravery. Not qualities we see much of at the top of the SNP/Loons coalition.
Grim reading. This is what happens when anything gets privatised, obviously; profit comes before everything else and to hell with the consequences.
The know-all Tories spouting off on here about privatising the NHS should read it. And then read it again.
It seems so little to say but the work you and your colleagues do is valued and respected by everyone who understands it. I’m heartbroken and outraged at the treatment of carers who deserve decent pay and recognition for the outstanding service they provide. Our world wouldn’t function without it and it’s about time politicians admitted that.
I wonder if Fabiani will be called back in to conduct the Michael Matheson Whitewash.
Thanks for sharing that story Alison. It is an emotional and harrowing read and it must have been absolute hell to live through.
I have some experience of what it is like to care for elderly and incapacitated people, both mentally and physically, and I can tell you I have never been so glad as when the real carers arrived to help me.
The job you do is without doubt one of the hardest I can imagine and I have no idea why we pay the people who do the jobs the rest of us cannot (and do not want to, if we are honest) do such a pittance.
Thank you to you and your colleagues and I am sorry that during a time when our leaders were dishing out instructions on how to behave to the rest of us they could not have been looking after the people who really needed to be looked after.
Chas
“It is worth mentioning that the health service in Scotland is fully devolved.”
Health is devolved.
It’s budget is not.
Great article. It must make your blood boil when you see the way the Scottish government is treating the Covid enquiry, the withholding of and deletion of critical evidence by Sturgeon and co is nothing short of a national scandal
An innarestin link:
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
And a couple of innarestin wee quotes:
“The comparative analysis of different countries showed that the assumption of lockdowns’ effectiveness cannot be supported by evidence—neither regarding the present COVID-19 pandemic, nor regarding the 1918–1920 Spanish Flu and other less-severe pandemics in the past.”
“The price tag of lockdowns in terms of public health is high: by using the known connection between health and wealth, we estimate that lockdowns may claim 20 times more life years than they save”
If our governments had instead employed the money and state resources to specifically lockdown, ring-fence, support and protect the vulnerable and weak, allowing the healthy bulk of the population to go about their normal and necessary business in a responsible manner, the outcomes for all would have been better, and that includes the care homes occupants and staff Alison Speed writes about.
The evidence is all around; we trashed our economies, freedoms, kids educations and health systems to no good end. It’s a conclusion of such jaw-dropping magnitude that most who lived through Covid will never be prepared to acknowledge its truth.
WHat a hard read, seeing as a local care home lost 9 “inmates” and was taken over by the NHS when its owner screwed up royally, and the staff got abused even when trying to do a job with their hands tied behind their backs
“without reforming staff conditions it will fail. And as a great many of us will end our days in the care system, that’s something we should probably all be worrying about”
And this is the reason I have told my family that I will be going out at a time of my own choosing when I am no longer fit to look after myself, and that isn’t to say I don’t trust the care workers, I do, but who knows what shitshow will happen in the future
Great, if deeply depressing article. Care jobs are so critical.
I work in elderly care in the NHS, and one of the massive problems is people coming in with, say, a broken hip due to a fall, but who also have dementia and have been “managing” (read “managing” as they themselves or their families struggling through absolute hell with no help) at home but who simply can’t go back. Some live in upper flats or have been living in squalor, come in malnourished and ill in other ways. No health professional will send them home in a state they’re not fit to go back.
So they end up stuck in hospital, where they’ll likely decline further in things like mobility, while a place in a care home is found. Sometimes this might include dealing with squabbling families who see the NHS as ‘free’ and care homes as an expense, so are unhelpful and hold up the process. Or it involves family having to get power of attorney which can take forever and be a nightmare.
But then on top of that, you need to be able to find a place in a care home. Or find carers who can go into their home to get them back there. These are people who don’t need to be in hospital. They’re just also not fit to go home, certainly not with no care package in place.
That could, and likely will, be all of us at some point in our lives either personally, or with our parents or loved ones. It’s simply not possible for everyone to give up jobs, move miles and become a full time carer, even in the early or easier stages of caring. But we can’t expect the NHS to do it, or we won’t have a functioning NHS for those who do need to be there.
So did I pick that up correctly, Grangemouth is being sold to cover costs of Manchester United purchase?
My aunt was a in care home during the Covid crisis. The staff had a very hard time, trying to keep the residents safe, whilst trying to look after themselves and their own families. They had to make very complex arrangements for and kind of visiting or contact, even taking her to a window so she could see us whilst we talked to her on a mobile phone.
The discharging of untested patients from hospitals was needlessly cruel and irresponsible, making a very difficult situation far worse…
Hey Alison, just read your article. I think you and your colleagues have all our respects. I am sorry we have educated Scottish society in a way that makes them think it’s okay to be horrible to public servants such as yourself. Harassment for being the only people in the room who really care.
I am very proud of you and your colleagues.
I wonder what is so wrong with us that we can’t create a fair society. One that cares for others and a media that reports the truth.
NS and the comedy parody that accompanied her was just another way of misleading us.
Care is an important part of all our lives, many of us writing on these pages may find ourselves there, so Karma is important. If the profitable care homes work, how come all care homes can’t work.
Does anybody have any ideas how we can effectively make the changes necessary? Is it about improving health so we don’t need hospitals? Maybe, but that would take just too long. Public sector workers should have better conditions in terms of pay and hourly commitment. This cudgel where “if you don’t like the job” you should move on, is appalling. Your point Alison of care workers who “care” being sold down the river for profits is a really bitter pill.
I have no idea where to go from here! Every election I vote for the people that say
We will fix the NHS
We will fix poverty
We will fix education
We will fix crime
Don’t know about you guys but I’m still waiting on any of them delivering.
@And spouse says:23 November, 2023 at 4:48 pm
So did I pick that up correctly, Grangemouth is being sold to cover costs of Manchester United purchase?
The Guardian Online and other MSM sources are linking the two facts. Jim Ratcliffe wants to sell out his stake at Grangemouth and wants to invest £1+ billion in Man U. It’s unclear to me if there is a direct cash transfer from one business venture to the next, but probably!
Grangemouth won’t be completely closing. The refinery business will close, but the plant will be used to onshore and presumably distribute overseas-produced liquified gas.
It’s no doubt an unpopular opinion on here, but ScotGov’s virtue signalling about being faster than the rest of the UK in phasing out oil and gas production and use won’t have helped with the refinery’s long-term prospects.
If the shift to renewables is going to make us poor, cold huddlers in the dark, we can always console ourselves that we are world leaders in that.
Honestly, I read things like this, then look around at the state of Scotland following brexit, and I just get so damned angry. Boris, Sunak, the whole lying thieving, murderous lot of them ought to be in jail.
But then I recall, the SNP promised us independence. They promised to keep us in the EU. AND THE COULD HAVE KEPT US IN THE EU IF THEY HAD A BACKBONE. Election after freaking election, and yet here we are, forcefully removed from the EU and stripped of our EU citizenship wholly against our wishes by idiotic, pig-ignorant, English Tories AND Labour AND Libdems and those who vote for them.
Sick of it all. Just utterly utterly sick of the mess which England has made of Scotland. I wish they would just bugger off and leave Scotland in peace.
THIS is why I get so freaking angry at the lazy, careerist MPs, MSPs and others in the SNP, who act as though they have another twenty years to push for independence.
They can see NO urgency, none at all, while all of Scotland cries out in utter, utter despair.
The care sector has been particularly and brutally betrayed by the DISLOYAL uniparty crap bags in London, and that fact cannot be denied.
The care sector, having toiled through immense stress during COVID (I had a mask on for 12 hours a day myself,) got it’s reward in the form of African and Indian migrants being crammed into Britain, at breakneck speed, by the worst and most disloyal shower of shite to ever be in government, in order to keep wages rock, rock bottom.
London isn’t working… and that’s an understatement so vast, I’m practically embarrassed at having articulated it. London works mainly for people south of Birmingham, and for other beneficiaries from a rigged system.
The sooner we don’t need to deal with the disloyal [stuff that accumulates around a bath tub if it’s not been cleaned regularly], the better!!!!!
Two world wars together for London to give the place away to the entire world, and for the descendants of the men who fought and died for this place to be treated like dirt by lazy London louse bags!
To hell’s fire with them in a hand-cart. The sooner, the better.
The Care Industry as it is known is a misnomer.
With over seventy percent oh care home ownership in the private sector the industry would be better named the Offshore Property Investment Industry.
With ownership roots and multi stratos corporate structures real ownership of so many of our care homes actually sits of offshore tax havens around the world. The Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands, the Channel Islands is actually what our so called care sector is about.
Rich pickings from the hapless saps is the driver behind the ultra complicated multi stratos tax avoidance models. And do the hapless saps stumping up the money know about exactly how the so called care industry works. No of course they don’t. That why they are saps, our country is full of saps. But the Government know. They know well, but do nothing.
Money talks, and our SNP government know it, and know that fine. And wherever you look be it energy profits, rights for the landowners and their stratos offshore structures, the failure to set up an investment bank, the little people just pay.
This article illuminates the good and hard work undertaken by folks doing an absolutely service.
Bet they don’t have a clue about what their industry is actually about.
I’ve never understood why care workers are paid less than nurses. As an unpaid carer, who only had one person to look after through lockdown, I can appreciate everything you do nd think you all deserve to be paid and appreciated much more than you are.
If a country is to be judged on how it treats it’s poorest and most vulnerable and that care is reflected in how govt values those who care for that demographic then Scotland is failing badly.
“But instead of being happy that his staff could be supported at no cost to him, he confided in me that he knew about this policy when it came out but HQ had asked him not to notify staff in case they all pretended to have COVID and took time off to get drunk and have parties.”
This shows tha apalling attitude the middle classes in this country have towards the working class. They obviously judge us by what they would do in the same circimstances, not knowing that we have higher standards.
I’m so sorry you have had to cope with all of this and I am so grateful that there are people like you there who I hope will still be around to care for me, should I need it – assuming I haven’t been killed off by austerity measures before then.
RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus now allowing the USA to hop from this base to Israel in C-17 military planes, C-17 US military planes predominately carry troops and equipment.
The USA and the UK, by aiding the Zionist war criminals are themselves complicit in war crimes against humanity.
link to nitter.net
Well from my own personal experience Buckreddan Care home in North Ayrshire robs it’s inmates as they come in. Run by a hairy thief.
Knowing what I know now about the quality of Scottish care homes I’d discreetly murder any relative they want to take into their ‘care’. It would be a mercy killing.
Dreadful shitholes.
Meanwhile as 2.3 million Gazans including many children starve to death in Gaza, providing the Zionists don’t kill them first.
“The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Cindy McCain, participated in a forum to collect donations for the Israeli army.”
link to euromedmonitor.org
@Robert Louis says:23 November, 2023 at 5:52 pm
Here you go, a wee link:
link to electoralcommission.org.uk
And a wee quote:
Remain Leave
1,661,191 1,018,322
1,018,322 Sovereign Scots voted for offski last time around, I’ll wager any day a considerably larger number will vote to tell the EU to get tae the next time around.
And/Or, tell the Indy parties tae get tae if they continue to make EU membership a certainty if we vote for Indy.
I’d get ma heid roond the idea of iScotland making a go of it as an Independent, Sovereign nation, Robert. You’re going to wait a long time for the EU to sort things for you.
Israeli planes flying to Lebanon ‘touch and go’ in Cyprus.
link to new.thecradle.co
Social care, like so many jobs that mainly women do are considered to be without value to society. These jobs cannot be quantified as that, say, of an engineer can, so they become dead ends with low pay and even less incentive. The problem, I would hazard, does not stop and start with the type of work, but with the value placed open that work. Almost all female work is undervalued.
Why should that be? Because it is considered to be women’s work, and, therefore, of less intrinsic value. It is a vicious cycle. Engineers make things that benefit society. That goes without saying, and that is reflected in the pay and conditions. Is social care not of benefit to society, then? Of course it is. So, what’s the difference? I would suggest that the difference lies in what people are willing to pay for the services of an engineer as opposed to the services of someone who cares for the elderly, the disabled, mentally and physically, the sick, etc.
It really is that simple. The same person who will pay whatever the going rate is for an engineer, wants to pay sweeties for a caring professional. Why should that be? Often, the state will pay the going rate for an engineering firm to do essential work, say, to build a school/bridge/public works, but will not pay what is required for the services of a professional caring service. Again, women are expected to take up the slack and work for sweeties.
The treatment of women and their work choices (often made because they must also undertake childcare or care of elderly parents) is considered to be ‘voluntary’ in that women are expected to undertake such work because their biology dictates that this type of work is better suited to female people – which may have a ring of truth about it – but, nevertheless, the work itself is considered of little value.
We saw starkly throughout the pandemic that it was those in mainly working-class and caring professions who were expected to ‘carry on’ as if there was no pandemic: nurses, doctors, care staff, shop workers, factory workers producing essential foodstuffs and so on, while middle-class professionals who worked in offices were paid to stay at home. So, in the end, the pandemic response was one of ‘screw the workers on the coal face’ and ‘screw the women’, if you’ll pardon the pun. Then, of course, there was the ‘let all the old barstewards’ who can’t afford private personal care because they don’t have the wages that allow private care, die horribly. Who cares?
It is not that there is no money in the communal kitty, it is that profit comes before anything else and most of the money accruing to British/Scottish society is concentrated in the hands of the few, thanks to the Thatcher doctrine of ‘theft by the wealthy from the poor’ and the hoarding of dosh in tax havens – the Robin Hood principle in reverse. Many people are born into dire circumstances, many lose their livelihoods, others become or are born physically and/or mentally impaired, yet they must be punished for circumstances beyond their control.
All that requires to be done is to tax the wealthy and put a freeze on their assets and earnings so that they cannot be removed from the economy, then start rebuilding communal public services and utilities that can be accessed by the many. Oh, and start evaluating female work by its usefulness to society. Any exercise in that direction will show very quickly that societies (and people) die without adequate care provision, but nobody dies from a lack of hedge fund managers. Let them be chivvied off the ‘buroo’ and into McDonald’s. They are a parasitical lifeform on the body economic, social and political.
Indeed, without them, many companies will not go under and/or suffer hostile takeovers, and people will not lose their jobs – Thatcherism in reverse. If it can be done one way, it can be done the opposite way. All it takes is the will. Or we have that very long-delayed revolution that the UK has managed to avoid for several hundred years – and it may well be led by the female of the species.
S’funny how everything the SNP touches… Health, education, marine protection, environment, independence, etc. etc. all turns to shit.
What is the SNP for exactly?
Someone please remind me…
@Republicofscotland says:23 November, 2023 at 6:24 pm
Seeing as how you’ve been wound up and set off yet again …
All reputable news agencies make it clear the obstacles holding up the humanitarian, extended, cease fire can be laid clearly at the door of Hamas.
If Hamas can ever bring themselves to take a breather from their avowed intent to wipe Israel from the face of the Earth, the USA, EU and UK will, as usual, be at the forefront of bringing in the humanitarian and medical aid Gaza needs. Subsidised from the taxes of Sovereign Scots. Probably some Sovereign Scots pitching in at the sharp end too, and maybes taking incoming fire. Maybes you will be wanting to post some praise for their efforts?
Haha, I crack me up.
One word comes to mind after reading this: ‘dehumanizing’. Which is always a feature in any colonial society.
A people are ‘dehumanized’ because there are ‘no human values’ in colonialism (Cesaire), only exploitation and subjugation by external interests.
We recall ‘one-nation’ Thatcher telling us Scots there is ‘no such thing as society’, only private profit. In such societies a people and their culture is cast aside.
These are not Scottish cultural values, they are alien. As is most of the nonsense inflicted on Scots via Westminster and its Holyrood puppets and state agencies.
“But instead of being happy that his staff could be supported at no cost to him, he confided in me that he knew about this policy when it came out but HQ had asked him not to notify staff in case they all pretended to have COVID and took time off to get drunk and have parties.”
Boris and chums had parties at Downing St, Catherine Calderwood happy to take her family to their holiday home whilst telling us to stay indoors and do not go out.
Nicola preaching solemnly whilst knowing hundreds were dying in care homes and doing nothing too help the hard pressed staff working in these care homes.
A pox on all their houses, It’s a shame that Ms Alison Speed can only now feel comfortable in speaking out and not then when it would have really highlighted the national disgrace that was happening within the care sector.
I’d strongly urge Alison to name the manager and care home and urge to report this matter to the police as corporate manslaughter.
Why do we tolerate so many parasites and leeches, so many ghastly self-satisfied managers, bosses, politicians and their hangers-on who think they’re so worth their fat profits, pay packets and privileges while they look down on and exploit the people doing the real work?
Much respect and thanks to you Alison, and your colleagues. It’s particularly chilling to read about the instant tracking and tracing of a tweet.
Scotland was supposed to be different. Huh.
The usual female supremacist 1950s mouth-froth from Lorna Campbell. Truly awful. Any chance to rant about women, women, women. Men work in the ‘care industry’ (horrible phrase) too in nursing homes, exploited as badly as women, treated with sexist disdain, or creepily leered over.
How do I know? Because I am male. And was doing the job earlier this year. Everything I mentioned happened to me. Lorna, sorry for whatever man broke your lonely heart and brain. The truth, however unpalatable, is this: carers are not valued because old people are tragically not valued anymore, just ‘useless eaters’ (as the vile phrase has it), and the quicker they’re gone the better.
According to Sturgeon and Cummmings and Johnson and other penny-pinching lunatics, that is. So why spend money on them? They’re not going to complain, especially if they have a neurodegenerative illness that means they don’t even know what decade it is, or where they are. That’s the truth, sadly and disgustingly. I’d say to stop your tired bitter manhating feninist ranting. But I know you won’t.
We don’t tolerate them Craig. The Alba Party should change the constitution of Holyrood. We should be allowed to sack our politicians.
They ignored Grangemouth today. Humza has got to go.
Michael Matheson. The fondler of Morroco. He hates children. He certainly hates his own.
Patrick Grady. The toucher upper of other people’s children. He got to stay in the SNP.
Michael Matheson. No one believes your story about your children watching football.
He’s been watching something much more sinister I suspect.
Being in a Salvo motion. Perhaps our leader Ash Regan can help us. We can’t be allowed to suffer on until 2026.
We need a Salvo motion. The people should have the right to sack them when they don’t work for us.
They are not working for us. They should be sacked.
There are reports that 3 years supplies of Midazolam were used in 2020.
There are reports of being put on DNAR lists without their permission.
NHS staff were demanding immunity guarantees.
link to bbc.co.uk
I wonder what went on in some places.
Incredibly interesting.
link to u.pcloud.link
A wee link to the latest news from the EU on Unherd:
link to unherd.com
And a (not so) wee quote:
“Snappily entitled, “Report on proposals of the European Parliament for the amendment of the Treaties”, it proposes to massively restrict the right of member states to veto EU measures. Other features include the “establishment of a defence union including military units […] under the operational command of the Union”; exclusive EU “competence” (i.e. control) over environment and climate policy; and a “strengthening” of the “Union’s common immigration policy”.
This week the European Parliament voted in favour of his proposals by 291 to 274. That’s not enough to make them law: treaty change would require the unanimous approval of all 27 member states. Nevertheless, the idea that full-blown federalism is a minority pursuit, or a Brexiteer conspiracy theory, is blatantly wrong. The Verhofstadt view of the EU’s future commands a majority among the Union’s directly elected politicians.”
If your favourite dram is one watered by your own tears over our being “dragged oot agin oor will”, best ignore this post.
But I bet there’s well over a million Sovereign Scots who are thinking, thanks to the good sense of English voters, Scotland dodged a bullet.
@Johnlm says:23 November, 2023 at 6:33 pm
That’s a great link, thanks for posting it.
Great to see our side getting serious with the fight back against the nihilistic deniers of all life, freedom, joy, music, comedy, human rights, and the rest.
And touching to see how our side makes such well-intentioned but perhaps ridiculous attempts to stay on the right side of international law, even to the extent of performing touch-and-go landings at third-party airfields.
Still, when every tiny flaw on our side is inflated to the size of a mountain, whilst every outrage from the other side is sanded down to nothing, we can’t afford to cede any of the moral high ground, eh?
Keep these posts coming!
What a terrible but totally accurate read . I had the misfortune to work ‘care ‘ in the community just before Covid . There was no ‘ care ‘ about it then and I can only imagine how horrific it was during it .
There was no time to do any caring , visits overlapped , no travelling time allowed , if a client cancelled you weren’t paid for that time .
I remember one time coming across a senior lady who’d had a road accident ,we stopped to help and got a call from the office ( the car had a tracker ) asking why we were stopped , we explained the situation and got told ‘ tough ‘ get to your next client
The whole system is a nightmare
What is Roderick Spode slavering on about now?
Interpreter please !
Geri
Health is devolved.
‘It’s budget is not’.
It took a while but it appears that the penny has finally dropped. This money stuff is quite important after all! Well done. But, to be clear, the budget for the SNHS lies 100% with the Scottish Government and especially with the succession of useless Health Ministers.
The removal of elderly patients from hospitals back into care homes, some with Covid, some not, had nothing to do with monetary/budget matters. It happened because of a lack of understanding, callousness and sheer incompetence by the Scottish Government.
You never seem to get very much right Geri, probably because you cannot think. I am always happy to try and educate the uneducated but in your case it will be a long haul.
@Johnlm says:23 November, 2023 at 8:25 pm
Good one. I had to look up your reference.
All ower the place though, aren’t you. Hasbara one week, N@zi the next, it’s like you make it up as you go along. And all because you just can’t thole me pointing out the disaster your SNP has been and continues to be for Scotland.
But beware. “Sam” will be along in a mo to accuse you of abuse and bullying, and demand you apologise.
Haha, I crack me up.
@ Lorna Campbell at 6.37. That’s a good btl again,as are many today, all informing us of the true state of the care sector.
Wouldn’t it be good if there was a campaigning newslaper or old-style Panorama programme to force politicians etc to put the system right.
The level of sheer stupidity beggars’ belief.
We lost our steel industry at a time Scotland had the largest steel market in Europe.
We are self-sufficient in electricity (near enough) but need to pay international prices.
We pay more than anyone else in the UK to connect to the grid
We have to contribute to the cost of England building nuclear power.
We get to pay for HS2 for Birmingham with no benefit to Scotland.
We don’t use Russian gas but pay a price driven by them.
The North sea wind farms supply power direct to England and we see not a penny.
We will shortly be the only oil producing country to lose its oil refining ability, but England will retain theirs.
And Humza is trying to defend someone who ran up a bill and tried to dump it on the government.
What a f…… car crash
Perhaps the Scots are genetically inferior right enough.
Humza needs to go now!! They need to ask Salmond to come back and they might have a chance of recovery
Willie says:
23 November, 2023 at 5:57 pm
“This article illuminates the good and hard work undertaken by folks doing an absolutely service.
Bet they don’t have a clue about what their industry is actually about.”
All industries in the economy have been turned into ruthless exploitation of workers.
Dedication and loyalty are taken as gullibility and exploited to the full.
As we have seen in the struggle for independence.
@sarah says:23 November, 2023 at 9:10 pm
force politicians etc to put the system right
That would be done by increasing taxes, or starving something else of funds, or a mix of both.
Governments of all stripes have been ducking this issue for decades, and despite all the noises about it, I’m guessing there just aren’t the votes in it, which is why the difficult and expensive choices are never on any manifesto.
It will be interesting to see what Labour, the likely next government at WM and at HR, are planning and/or promising.
Given they are expected to get in anyway, with much the same policies as the Tories, probably not much.
At HR, right now, the SNP/Greens could, if they so desired, slap some extra tax on for social care. They could even argue it would be a neutral fiscal move, given that WM has just decreased NI by 2p in the pound. Anybody calling for a Tartan Tax increase of 2p for this?
Anybody?
@Lorna Campbell 6:37pm
I wasn’t going to comment on Alison Speeds heartfelt article. Her article stands up as a piece of authentic reality of the Care Sector during Covid times. I might have responded by saying swop stories with my A and E son. I knew that from him saying don’t clap for the NHS which I didn’t, except on the last day where a disabled boy at the of my garden was banging a pot so I did the same for 20 minutes. What’s provoked me to respond is your complete lack of understanding of the engineering sector that you mentioned several times. Here is the reality I earned half of the 120k salary of Michael Matheson. The half life of engineering knowledge is 5 years so I constantly had to retrain when my kids were growing up. And there is 2 types of engineers one fixes cars and fridges the other has Chartered status and typically looks after multi million projects with the operational safety of hundreds of men. And I mean men because women avoided the profession and rightly so. The peripatetic nature of the profession didn’t appeal to them.
John Main @ 7.48.
I posted about this yesterday under the previous article (Remembrance Day).
Not one response.
The SNP is setting a big trap for Scottish voters by saying that a vote for them is not just a vote for independence (as if) but is a vote to rejoin the EU, no referendum on that. It’s another desperate attempt to attract votes to keep them in power.
Another con-trick They know that there is no way they will walk back into Europe in the way they claim.
If the Scottish people will only look and see what the EU has become, and where it is going to, it could be a massive own goal for the SNP.
Judging by past performance, I have little confidence that enough people will pay attention to this crucial matter, and they will just carry on voting for idiots.
Why are people like Alison not running care homes and the country?
We have politicians in it for themselves and no priority for improving the quality of life for the many.
Chas;
Nice try…but away and haud yer bollocks.
Scottish budgets have been cut year on year by Westminster giving us less and less of our own money back. So the cuts are made and the ‘clever’ Tories red and blue hope that Holyrood gets the blame from half wits like you. Jog on.
Still, someone might believe you – that’s all you need eh? Just 1.
@Merganser says:23 November, 2023 at 9:56 pm
Thanks for your response.
My opposition to the EU is obvious (!) but I am at heart a democrat.
If the people of iScotland freely and fairly vote to dissolve our nation, laws, culture, etc. in the EU, whilst I will think it a crying shame, we will all have to abide by the majority decision.
But as you say, it’s the sleekit nature of the SNP’s deception that sticks in my craw, especially given the rapid changes taking place in the ethos and practical behaviour of the EU.
Who knows, maybes if the UK can make a go of existence outside of the EU, we Scots will feel emboldened to try and do the same.
But is any of this relevant any more? Surely the SNP/Greens are as finished in Scotland as the Tories are finished in the UK? Once the SNP are out, it’s probably 10 years before Scotland can get the numbers together for supporting Indy again. It’s a brave punter who would bet serious money on the EU still holding together in 2035.
@James says:23 November, 2023 at 10:07 pm
As I pointed out up-thread, WM just knocked 2p in the pound of NI.
HR could, if they so desired, put 2p in the pound on Scottish income tax, which would therefore be fiscally neutral for Scottish tax payers (below retirement age, and thus paying NI).
That extra Tartan Tax could be ring-fenced for the SNHS, social care, whatever ScotGov deems important (admittedly that maybes trans toilets and resident trans mimes in all primary schools).
Any pertinent, relevant, adult comments, or should I jist gang aff an haud ma bollocks?
LOVE English/Welsh people. HATE London rule. Jeremy Hunt is a prime example! That guy is looking more and more deranged and detached from reality with every passing millisecond.
Just because the g1mp happens to be Peter and Virginia Bottomley’s nephew, doesn’t mean that the oddball should have one iota of authority or working nfluence over the lives of real people on this island!
The Nobility in Scotland at the time of the Act of Union should have steadfastly stipulated that the Union could go ahead ONLY if it was ran from Edinburgh!
That way, we could have cut a lot of odd bodies, parasites and other assorted hangers-onners right out of the picture, entirely.
During WW1, men died face down in the mud, an eternity away from home, and from their ragamuffin children, only for a bunch of spoon-fed London leeches and disloyal grubbers to give the whole island away to all and sundry, while the critics of their vile schemes were publicly shamed as racists and xenophobes.
The end result was a Fake country called Britain.
Once the best country on earth, our once proud island has been reduce to being a landmass that is dedicated entirely to the cause of GDP and dividends.
Two World Wars for this pile of horse sh1t!!!
Two World wars so that a bunch of lazy, parasitic shite bags in London could race bait and pillage the descendants of those brave men who traversed the Continent, doing their best to advance the cause of dignity and freedom.
If the job of “hangman” suddenly appeared in Jobcentres up and down this once proud land, the person responsible for sifting through the applications would be one busy bee. One very busy bee, indeed.
In the meantime, Scots should concentrate on recoiling away from this nasty, disloyal pile of grubbing parasites, as they will never change.
Even if they did change… it is probably the case that the damage is now done!
Chas
Sorry you’re unable to be corrected without lashing out.
Scotlands budget is set by Westminster. Fact.
Scotland cannot borrow. Fact.
Health is devolved. Yay, we get to choose how many paracetamol to buy within budget.
It’s budget is not. Oh bummer. If England don’t spend the same amount on health – we get less.
It’s called the Barnet formula. Maybe you’ve heard of it?
If England spends less on health – we get less.
Scotland wants to spend more? Tory trick of fine, YOU raise & pay for it, Scotland – but be warned.. whatever you spend **will be deducted from next year’s budget** See what they did there with that hocus pocus slight of hand?
England is pushing for private healthcare. Thatchers dream of everyone paying for themselves. Thatcher is dead. Her dream is not. It lives on in every Tory & in every USA trade talk & in every muttering of a dementia tax.
If Scotland wants to retain an NHS then only independence will secure it.
Philippa Whitford gave excellent lectures on this very subject during 2014. I suggest you listen from an expert.
Tories aren’t daft. They don’t scatter gun. People would notice that. No, they slowly outsource & chip away around the edges. Outsource & reorganise, reorganise & flood it with over inflated management & we’re starting to see the collapse now. 12 hours for an ambulance. Patients in car parks & corridors.Bed blocking & a non existent social care. Nurses shuffling about wards aged 66 yrs old FFS!
They cheered in Westminster at voting to keep the pay cap while they accepted a pay rise. Absolute shysters.
Pay peanuts, have no happy working environment, constant pressures, targets to meet, dealing with death daily & shuffling about wards doing heavy lifting at 66..but hey, don’t forget to rattle some pot lids.
COVID was a cluster fuck. We live on an island. Scotland had hee-haw control over our airports & borders. Even the bastard Royals & Bojo ignored a travel ban to Scotland.
Care homes, if private, have a duty of care. They should also be forced to face an inquiry. Did they violate their duty of care cause £5,000 per bed was more profitable & fck PPE & any consequences of contamination?
I was in hospital during COVID. (Not COVID related) but the beds were always being moved around to howls of wtf? It was *management* instruction. Budge up & shut up. I’m not making excuses for anyone but anyone witnessing the scenes across Europe of the military carting off the dead to closed crematoriums should have been warning for BoJo to shut down the UK. He chose not to. The buck stops with that buffoon. “take it on the chin. Show the Dunkirk spirit. Let the bodies pile high. Eat out to help out”
Sturgeon was an idiot but she had zero control to enforce anything. That’s the responsibility of the home office as every britnat waster & armchair COVID expert liked to remind her. Fck – even her public announcements riled up the fury of britnats while loafer BoJo couldn’t decide if he could be arsed or if he wanted to address the nation like a fcking eejit draped in *flegs* like he was presidenty, dressed like a scruff like he’d just emerged fae his kip, or if the heat was too much he’d fake another self isolation episode.
& How many times was he photographed without a mask mingling with hospital staff?
John Main
Your another Yoon that doesn’t understand how the system works FFS!
ANY money Scotland raises is DEDUCTED from her budget the following year.
When will it sink in do you think?
Quite a read.
There is a general callousness, a viciousness about how the old are treated; you would think the opposite – I mean, we are all going that way, old, weak, sick, probably to die in great pain. We all have a vested interest here and yet everyone thinks – it will never happen to me and – why don’t all these useless people just hurry up and die?
Covid brought it all out, along with the generalised incompetence of our politicians; government is mostly run on autopilot, by bureaucrats – making big decisions, in a crisis, is what the leaders job is all about. Weighed and found wanting.
– been catching up with that tory cunts autumn statement, full on vicious
– great to see all the “stephen hawking” wasters out there who are sucking the fat teat of the nation on the universal credit will be rammed back into work, just as long as they can “work from home” by say, moving an eyebrow or puffing into a breath tube; these freeloading bastards will no longer be sitting round the pool smoking a big fat blunt, chilling to the rapper music, while the girls twerk suggestively …
– geryerselsumminknoice on that 11.44 sweet stuff
why do tories all go on about tax cuts – they don’t fucking pay any?
honestly, this is what you do, when you make any money at all – you incorporate yourself; now, you only pay taxes on profits, so you make sure you never make a profit. This has been called hollywood accounting. Claim all your personal items as business expenses. Claim back VAT (which you never paid). Did you get an 80 inch bravia telly … that was a “conference room audio visual presentation system”. This is what you pay your accountant for. Get creative, move your assets to the isle of man. It becomes a bit of an insiders joke – among celebs, they would claim tax relief on their coke habits as “flowers”, the daily mail claimed elton john spent 200k per month on “flowers” when his accounts ended up in court … of course he did.
All small businessman are crooked as hell, and no one makes a profit. And this is before actual crime appears. If you need to do a bit of laundry, then think of it as business financing with negative percent interest rates. Laugh at all the PAYE saddoes.
I live in a narco state and I know what I am talking about – we lost all the industry 30 years ago, but there are bentley showrooms. Wossallthatbaboutthen??? … oh I know
– those freeloading universal credit bastards, they’re all driving the mulsanne convertibles and with the sky premier sports as well.
Seriously though, the entire middle class are crooked bastards, but no one gives a shit, since they are all at it.
– the tories who whine about taxes are chiefly those who have fat govt jobs and they can’t really do the company trick (john birt had an arrangement where he was technically not employed by the bbc, despite being DG, but there was a scandal about it). So, if you have a fat govt job, say 100K grade 6 or better, you do have to pay the damn tax but, before you start blubbing for these poor bastards – the govt pays 27% of your salary into your pension, and it is into the old style “good pension” – “defined benefits”, so you are really fucking bulletproof and should just shut up.
A friend of mine told me something sick the other day – the jobcentres have a new logo and slogan on their front doors, it is
“making work pay”
I thought – sounds like something … making work pay, almost like
work makes you free
or in the german
ARBEIT MACHT FREI
on the gates of Dachau, a labour camp.
Andy Storrie,
careful with your characterisations of Scottish soldiers. They – and I’ll also say we, because I was one once – ain’t no serfs to London, or had no agency. We looked to each other and fought for each other in combat with our nation’s enemy.
A great grand uncle of mine, serving with the Black Watch, died at Magersfontein. His nephew, my great uncle, died at as part of the remnants of the London Scottish. Another great uncle died in Normandy, a Scotsman but in an English regiment. My father commanded a platoon in his regiment, the Argylls in Aden. I commanded a platoon in Northern Ireland, and a company in the Gulf in 1991 and in Bosnia.
I can tell you this. Our loyalty was to each other. Not the Crown. That’s too distant, although when needs be, we’d put on our kilts and spats and glengarries and march to the sound of the pipes. And why not? It’s just a job. A better one than most, and certainly with a better band of brothers.
Hi Merganser at 9:56 pm
You typed, or quoted,
“John Main @ 7.48.
I posted about this yesterday under the previous article (Remembrance Day).
Not one response.
The SNP is setting a big trap for Scottish voters by saying that a vote for them is not just a vote for independence (as if) but is a vote to rejoin the EU, no referendum on that. It’s another desperate attempt to attract votes to keep them in power.”
As far as I’m aware, any sovereign nation wishing to join the EU must hold a referendum to determine the will of its people on the matter.
We need to take over Grangemouth. We can’t allow it to close.
We need our own energy company. That bitch Sturgeon promised us, only to sell the sea bed sites in a reverse auction with a maximum price cap. To foreign multinational oil companies. And not one Scottish company. She created fuck all even though she paid special advisors £500,000 to do that very thing.
People are saying that Nicola Sturgeon has been doing dodgy deals with this Gupta character? Who is he? Does he own our steel plants? Is he a fucking crook like Nicola?
Save Grangemouth.
ASS
Away & dinnie talk pish with yer Walter Mitty bs!
Scotland hasn’t had an *enemy* since the 30s.
Everything after that was occupation & imperial invasion.
Joe Glenton tells it like it is. Yer sold a shit load of lies & not to think. Governments picking up the poor fae the schemes & no hopers for a dream of traveling the world which is knocked out on Day one.
What gives with britnats always wanking over the military? Do you not have a sense of an identity? A family that cares about you?
Lambs to the slaughter, ten a penny to fight for another man’s greed & dominance over countries that’s fck all to do with them.
Instilling *democracy* to the savages while not allowing it in their own country. LOL
The Britnats are an embarrassment.
Rumour has it, Nicola’s in bed with Gupta. The police investigation into the fraud is actually to do with some dodgy deal Nicola Sturgeon has struck with with Gupta character?
Penny Morodant said in Westminster yesterday there’s 22 ongoing police investigations into the SNP.
And nothing has came to fruition. That’s because Dorothy Vein, of the Clown Office of Clowns is protecting Nicola. And we all know it!
Dorothy Bain. More like Dorothy Stain. And Dorothy Vein. She’s given the okay to the safe consumption room next door to Morrisons in Glasgow East End. Where children will be.
Herion addicts, can inject in comfort. All thanks to Nicola and her Herion addicts first approach to tax payers money.
Brian you are correct.
There has to be public consent for joining. I don’t know why the SNP keep persisting on linking our independence to it.
They really need to spend less time over a ref that’s compulsory & concentrate on securing the one they had a mandate for.
They’re just kicking the can because Scotland is nowhere near ready for Indy OR an EU referendum.
Heroin addicts First in Scotland. That’s the voice of the SNP.
Geri,
I doubt that you’d have the courage to take 33 men onto an objective, across a billiard table flat desert, taking strike from weapons over the frontal arc of your vehicle, and then get out and fight through a position.
And I’m certain that my soldiers, sensible and serious men, mostly sober except at weekends, would have any truck with unintelligent screaming harridans such as yourself.
Why not take yourself back to your addled drug den, or the corner behind the bins where you normally sleep. Did a cat piss in your ear last night?
Confused LOL
£200k on flowers – bargain.
The Tories idea of work paying is a zero hours job earning just enough (if the supervisor takes you back the next day) for a bag of porridge. It lasts a whole month if they eek it out wisely.
If they have a mobile phone, needed for the zero hours call, that’s proof they’re earning plenty.
Anyone ever watched I, Daniel Blake? It’s tragic.
Meanwhile Westminsters lavish menu’s continue & Downing Streets Bollinger continues to flow..
David
They are proven to work. It’s not just addicts shooting up. It’s a rehabilitation service too.
I wouldn’t have put it next to a supermarket tho but I guess it depends on access. No point having it somewhere the back of beyond either if ppl can’t get to it.
The riots in Dublin tonight are very unexpected. I thought we’d see that on the steets of Britain. Never Dublin.
Especially the diaspora of the Irish across the world.
I suppose it’s all to do with the government lying to them. They lied about the terrorist attack because reports say he was an Algerian Muslim.
Sadly. We’ve also got a white hating first minister in Scotland. That is Africa first. Heroin addicts First. The false green agenda first. Scotland last. And white men shit on his shoe.
We need to sack out government here. Immediately. I’m fed up with them.
I’ve heard of the Argyll’s Tour of NI.
Their feats of shoplifting have passed into legend..
It’s on Hunter Street next to Morrisons.
The new £2 million shooting alley. I wonder where they’ll go after they shoot up?
What will they do after they intoxicate themselves with heroin. Lie on a couch and have a nurse look after them? They’ll all come to congregate and have one big party!
Someone get the bevvy in from Morrisons. Quick!
It’s going to be mental to see the safe consumption room in operation. They’ll be people going for a booze run before 10pm!
They’ll be nurses from the NHS pouring the drinks. Will the NHS nurses help them jag safely?
Will it become a buyers market for all of the illegal street drugs?
I don’t think they’ve thought this through.
They name the consumption room, call it Dorothy Veins!
Drug addicts. Dealers and desperate shores. To have everyone all in the one place. Is really white special.
10 smack bag, happy hour. Anything goes! Covid Booster. Nicola Sturgeon special. Anything goes down at Dorothy Veins, next to Morrisons for the booze run!
Watch you don’t drop the needles or drugs now. There could be children about.
Covid was a bad flu but that was it. For the first time in history people were classed as Covid deaths just because of some plastic test kit. Over 90pc of covid deaths involved people who had other serious health conditions. Over 70pc of covid deaths had two or more serious health conditions. These people would die naturally but would not be classed as flu deaths, and yet the rules were changed for covid.
But worldwide governments used the flu to destroy democracy and make themselves and their pals in Big Pharma rich beyond belief. Here in the UK it has been used to destroy the NHS.
Sweden had a much more sensible approach. Or even Belarus who just got on as usual and hasn’t wrecked its own economy the way the UK has.
Finally, and probably most importantly, it was the Iron Lady and her cabinet who took elderly care away from the NHS and made it a private operation. That is who is responsible for all the disasters which have befallen the elderly since 1980. And when most of us end up in care and have to sell our homes to pay a grand week for shoddy care by someone who doesn’t even speak English, it is ultimately Thatcher who is to blame.
Anyone else have fond (but distant) memories of going mental,barmy, off our heads, etc without having to worry too much about the implications of wearing an overcoat to bed or COVID belief going viral and the right to life liberty and pursuit of happiness being seconded to the characters* negotiating nurse ratchet’s request for a pay rise.
*Characters who, presumably, are not that far removed from the ones that managed to (selectively?) negotiate roaming tarrifs 10 to 11000 times more punitive than those currently available to the average 12 year old.
Maxxmacc
So true about Thatcher.
She destroyed everything & handed it to the markets.
She broke the NHS & franchised it out under her trusts.
The health secretary in England & Wales is no longer *legally* responsible to make sure every citizen has healthcare. People can fall through the cracks & the Tories don’t care.
Over 70% of tendering goes to private firms like Virgin/Atos. England pays £10 per item prescription & up to £10/20 for a GP appointment. Tories are pushing self funding. People can wait for the NHS or go direct through NHS to a private firm fast tracking care. Radiation treatment £10k up on their websites. In the same hospital & the same machines their taxes already paid for.
Scotland abandoned that idiocy under Devo & got rid of Thatchers trusts & returned to a free cooperative public NHS where our health secretary IS legally responsible.
The Tories despise free health care & are destroying it by the boiling frog method & have been for decades with very little notice because the media aren’t at the wheel. They’re only interested in immigrants & Muslims.
The health of Nations publishes all the steps the Tories have used to pick off & dismantle from within until ppl are driven into private healthcare.
That’s why it rips my knitting that yoons still squawk that health care is devolved, therefore fully protected & nothing to worry about, when it is no such thing. When Tories slash their NHS budget they slash ours too. Tories could end the budget overnight & Scotland is up shit street without a paddle & an NHS & this has been common knowledge since 2014 indyref.
A bit like Sunak during COVID over Furlough – his answer to Scotland was to fck off. He told Scotgov to fund it themselves. Brilliant advice in the middle of a pandemic when it was the law to remain closed & we don’t have a treasury at our arse.
Elderly care is just non existent. The Tories are only interested in how much their property is worth & what they can fleece from them.
I expect that’s why all the pensioners are flocking to Scotland. Free prescriptions, free eye & dental care & elderly care. £400 million mitigation against Tory policies only for the eejits to still vote Tory when they get here..
The only way we’ll retain a free health service is becoming independent. Our own money, our own decisions, our own spending choices & our own immigration to help staff it.
Pocket money can’t fund everything.
David Hannah says:
23 November, 2023 at 2:31 pm
Sturgeon lacks compassion. She’s a murderer. She’s a luty letby type killer of a politican. I hope she rots in hell.
So you think LL is guilty?
I wouldn’t trust the legal system, the medical experts, or the senior doctors on that. That ward was contaminated with sewage. Check out what the hospital handyman / plumbers evidence..
Great news in Alex Salmond suing the Scottish Government for the false charges and persecution set against him.
He is due Millions for this!
I also ponder if the timing was to influence many SNP supporters to look for a real independence party at the forthcoming elections.
The actions of SNP leaders the police and crown prosecution were unjust and wasted millions in the public purse.
There will be many facts brought to bare that will expose the corruption of this cabal.
@Maxxmacc says:24 November, 2023 at 1:08 am
Covid was a bad flu but that was it
So glad somebody else noticed.
Read some of the recent posts on here and you will see that even though the posters lived through the Covid Years, they have not a scooby about what it was, how it spread and how little a risk it posed to most people.
Covid’s still out there now, but you hardly ever see a face mask, yet your average poster is unable to join the dots.
Busy places with poor ventilation are rammed, yet your average poster is unable to join the dots on that one either.
The figures for countries that locked down and those that didn’t are in, there is no correlation between lockdowns and Covid spread, yet posters just can’t stop greetin that we didn’t lock down earlier, harder, longer, etc.
And the enormous fact that never gets a mention. Hundreds of millions of third-world inhabitants – no lockdowns, no PPE, no vaccinations, SFA in fact, doing just fine on Covid, but trashed because of the first world’s destruction of the world economy, to “fight” Covid.
@Confused says:23 November, 2023 at 11:35 pm
Cluck cluck cluck.
been catching up with that tory cunts autumn statement, full on vicious
Bwak! Cluck cluck cluck.
ARBEIT MACHT FREI
Aye, confused, pensions triple lock retained, and as much tax cuts as can be generated given the difficult economic situation right now.
Oh, nearly forgot, and minimum wage increased.
It’s like some macabre horror from the worst excesses of the Third Reich, so it is.
Geri
You’re not fooling anybody with your constantly repeated denials of the plain and simple fact that the SNP intend to automatically take Scotland into the EU if we ever become independent while on their watch.
Your denials are just reinforcing the impression you give of being as deluded as you are demented.
Geri says:
24 November, 2023 at 4:51 am
“So true about Thatcher.”
Yes, imperial elites imposed English ‘values’, which are alien to other peoples, and with this comes a ‘dominated consciousness’. As Paulo Freire wrote:
“In general, a dominated consciousness which has not yet perceived a limit-situation in its totality (e.g. the ‘union’ as ever tightening ‘colonial corset’ facilitated by complicit actors) apprehends only its epiphenomena and transfers to the latter the inhibiting force which is the property of the limit-situation. When people lack a critical understanding of their reality, apprehending it in fragments which they do not perceive as interacting constituent elements of the whole, they cannot truly know that reality.”
Anyone got any ideas as to what a “fully funded” NHS would cost iScotland? And whether that figure is sustainable, given poor health generally, and a calamitous demographic of declining native birth rates which means that the future is either increased immigration, increased taxation, or collapse.
That’s the reality.
The U.K., whether as an entity or as four separate nations, needs to get rid of the NHS. Far from being the envy of the world (here’s a clue: no other country has copied it), the NHS is an intolerable burden on national life. We need to copy the successful models of places like Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, and other countries and have an insurance-based system.
Truly a crime against humanity, decisions propelled by ignorance, greed and false teaching and the get away with it. Not the National Health Service but the National Harm Service
Sincerely Alison, thank you so much .
Your story is not uncommon but reminds me that vast majority of humankind are trying to help their surroundings.
The computer modelling of human behaviour has long operated on the understanding that just a tiny number can initiate much harm on the majority. Usually call themselves managers and wear suits.
Good on Alex taking them to court.
These people are not fit fir public office
I note I am being ‘attacked’ by two of ‘Wings’ heavyweight contributors Geri and James.
I will repeat, once more, that the total spending for the SNHS is set 100% by the Scottish Government, not by Westminster. You both seem to be confused by spending versus budget. No surprises there.
Geri then goes off on his usual rant which, in all honesty, is not worth even attempting to respond to, other than to say, that both you and the other galloot have belatedly realised that this money thing has some relevance after all.
I apologise for calling you ‘heavyweights’ earlier. Flyweight is more appropriate.
@AScotAbroad
“the NHS is an intolerable burden on national life. We need to copy”
Wrong. So says the KingsFund.
“The UK performs well on protecting people from some of the financial costs of ill health, but lags behind its peers on important health care outcomes, including life expectancy and deaths. The latter could have been avoided through timely and effective health care, and public health and preventive services.
There is little evidence that one particular ‘type’ of health care system or model of health care funding produces systematically better results than another. Countries predominantly try to achieve better health outcomes by improving their existing model of health care, rather than by adopting a radically different model.”
Geri 4.51.am.
Hi Geri. Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re often right in what you say. Don’t be put off by someone else’s opinion.
YAY ! Off topic, I know, however how great is it that, as Effigy pointed out, Mr Salmond is taking action against the devolved administration !
Let’s hope that this may be the start of the truth emerging and that many a household is a bit more apprehensive this morning.
@A Scot Abroad says:24 November, 2023 at 8:34 am
a calamitous demographic of declining native birth rates which means that the future is either increased immigration, increased taxation, or collapse.
That’s the reality
Actually, I think we are well on course for all three.
Increased immigration: New figures out, nearly three quarters of a million last year. Probably in excess of half a mill next year. All bets off when the climate collapses, the war(s) really kick off, or the religion of peace finally achieves critical mass.
Increased taxation: Baked in when Labour take over, which itself looks to be baked in.
Collapse: The unsustainable aspect of the NHS that is seldom mentioned is that it’s the older, indigenous Brits that put by far the highest demands on the NHS, and that imbalance only continues to grow worse, because of our demographics.
Yet the taxpayers who are funding it all are increasingly immigrants.
At some point, the immigrants will simply stop voting for the parties who bleed them dry to support the grandparents of what is to them a foreign ethnic group. And at that point, down comes the entire house of cards.
Aye Alison, a very hard read indeed. Thank you and your colleagues for your and their dedication to the job.
Crash, and I was back there in 2020, sitting in the care home garden looking in and trying to talk through glass to celebrate my (hard of hearing) father in law’s 100 birthday. No celebration allowed, no other family members. The highlight was a cake the staff had made. Mrs Dram sobbed all the way back home. It was awful.
The care home lost enough people through COVID that they cleared an entire floor and used that floor for new intakes from hospitals (a kind of isolation ward so to speak).
Then he got his second COVID Jab and his decline began. He just faded away quite rapidly. On the night he died, we still had to be tested before being admitted, he had gone before we got there, we knew that. In the meantime the staff had laid him out complete with a bottle of his beloved whisky beside him. The kindness they showed to us that night still lives with me.
And we still miss him. Bloody COVID.
Thanks again Alison.
@Alf Baird says:24 November, 2023 at 8:22 am
apprehends only its epiphenomena and transfers to the latter the inhibiting force which is the property of the limit-situation
Erm … I’m thinking that fails the T shirt test, other than maybes in a techy student union.
alien to other peoples
Aye, ah ken fit ye mean.
link to bbc.co.uk
Oh this is fantastic news. Alex Salmond is sueing the government.
Dear Leslie Evans.
Dorothy Stain. Liz Lloyd. Nicola Sturgeon. Lady Doughball and James Wolfe. The lot of you are corrupt as fuck!
We’ve had enough of you lot. You’re all disgusting people.
Justice for Alex Salmond.
Big Eck. With you all the way. A beautiful start to the day. We need to take this government down. We need restore trust in Scotland. We Alex Salmond back. He’s my leader. He’s always been the leader.
God bless big Eck. What a guy. Incredible.
@ sam says:24 November, 2023 at 10:00 am
lags behind its peers on important health care outcomes, including life expectancy and deaths
Woohoo, we’re mostly gonna die sooner, but check out our ideological purity. Aint that more than enough compensation?
The latter could have been avoided through timely and effective health care, and public health and preventive services
AKA throwing even more money at the problem.
And that’s particularly innarestin coming from Sam. Only a day or so since he was promoting the spending of £1.8 trillion on the grifters and chancers self-id-ing as descendants of slaves.
Got to hand it Sam and his fellow-thinkers, when it comes to spending other people’s money they are without peer.
Two big political stories today:
1. Dame Jackie Baillie is named Scottish Politician of the Year by The Herald. Well, in a poor year, somebody had to get it, but to give it to such a two-faced liar, whows how far that rag has fallen.
2. Wee Eck is finally going to sue the Scottish Government. I wonder what the odds are on Lady Dorian being named as the presiding judge. After all, The Establishment cannot allow Eck to win.
So, Nigel Farage and Nigel Farage, sorry, A Twat Abroad and Daily Mail Main, in between praising the Tories are back on form agreeing with each other that the NHS is unsustainable and needs to be privatised – despite the incredible article posted above. (We see you). A right couple of Jeremy Hunts!
Oh and, Geri, keep up the good work – Chas and his rag tag band of misfit Yoons, blinking in the light every day after emerging from beneath their collective stones, can’t stand being shot down in flames by the truth. (GIRFUY).
The cure is to tackle poverty & end poor outcomes from even starting in the first place. The NHS is a success story if the Tories would stop draining it with irrelevant shite like fat cat salaries for mediocre mis management.
Half the admissions are caused by poverty.
Poverty kills & causes so many social problems & poor health & it never breaks the cycle.
Work that pays & a free education will set ppl free more than zero hours & universal credit top ups will.
Happy citizens in a happy workplace are more healthier & productive.
Greed is the root of all evil & the Tories excel at it. They asset strip everything to the bare bones.
In an energy rich country they could start with free winter heating for pensioners – that would surely cut the admissions for cold related admissions. Pneumonia, hypothermia so they don’t end up in hospital in the first place.
Same with free prescriptions – in England pensioners start doctoring their prescriptions because they can’t afford everything they’ve been prescribed leading to more admissions.
Fck big business & get them to pay people a real living wage. End so called ‘top ups’ from multi nationals. WTF should the government be topping up anyone’s wages when they are making billions in profits & pay fck all tax towards services?
Children living in poverty would cut further admissions.
As would drug & alcohol abuse to escape the shit life ppl have.
Free education unlocks ppls potential. Not £10k fees & a sea of debts before they’re even 20.
This would also cure the reliance on immigration..there’s one for the racists to get behind.
As for the notion of insurance based healthcare – that’s another idiocy. Hundreds of thousands in fees to have any kind of treatment. & we’re dealing with Tories here – it’d go the same way as the £350 million a week to the NHS. Aye right – it’d go into someone’s back pocket & the sick would be denied treatment.
The NHS & Schools are flooded with irrelevant shite that doesn’t enrich anyone’s life. In 5 yrs WTAF benefit will lessons on anal sex & transgender shite have to do with a future workforce? Same with NHS *training* on how to support females giving birth through their imaginary penis FFS!
OT but has anyone an explanation as to the riots in Dublin? I can understand folk being shocked and disgusted but I don’t understand the mob turning against the police.
Re Alex Salmond
I dunno why the BBC is claiming it’s new. This has been on the cards for at least a year. It’s only now that it’s reached a court date. Let’s all hope it buries the SNP by Christmas.
I read elsewhere there’s not going to be any redactions either. Good news if it’s true. At least they’ll be in possession of ALL the facts.
Wishing him the best of luck but this will be an excellent test for the courts to either redeem themselves or prove they’re complicit. He could’ve easily been sent to jail on false charges & I hope that is taken into account & some arrests are made for perjury.
Leslie Evans is a Westminster employee. I’m sure the parasites will be out to protect her cause it was no doubt under their instructions that she launched this witch-hunt to get rid of him once & for all.
Horrible experience shared across much of the NHS. I have had former colleagues in tears from obvious post traumatic stress.
Management across the board must shoulder the blame. They did not have to care personally for those dying. It was more vital to protect their jobs and toe the line with their political masters. Those degrees of separation from the scenes of death allowed them to do just that.
The current inquiry illustrates just that.
May you find peace Allison. You did your very best and I admire you very much for so doing. Heroic is the only word I can think of. Perhaps it’s not how you feel, but it’s what you are.
Good to see so many working epidemiologists and medical historians commenting on this thread.
@Phil M
Most of them have a degree in stupidity.
At last! The moment has come to lance the boil. It has taken some time, but Alex. is now going to set matters right and enable Scotland to be free from the millstone Sturgeon hung round the neck of the Scottish people. Slowly slowly catchee monkey. Or in this case, a whole damn tribe of monkeys.
My only concern is that the SNP will pay any price to cover up the identities of the false accusers and the conspirators. Three million pounds would let them off the hook lightly for the wrong they did.
Nothing less than full disclosure of all those involved as well as a financial penalty which will sink for good the SNP in its present incarnation.
Let the shock waves roll out, and sound doom to Sturgeon and her mates. Be afraid. Be very afraid. It is no more than you deserve.
Quotes from the BBC:
‘The “extraordinary outbreak of violence” had come after “hateful assumptions” were made based on material circulating online in the wake of the stabbings, he added.
It is understood that included false claims that the attacker was a foreign national.
Sources have indicated to the BBC that the man suspected of carrying out the attack is an Irish citizen’
Looks like they have the perp in custody, so we will just have to wait until he is charged.
Two of the five people injured in the stabbings outside the city centre school, one of them a 5 YO, are still critically ill.
Back in 2007, I was part of a group of ordinary people concerned about the risk of a pandemic. As part of our activities we reviewed the plans of our countries. I and a friend were even able to go to a review panel of doctors, care home workers, utility planners and various other infrastructure people. The plans were made under Labour and the SNP. The buzz word for the plans was ‘business as usual. You may still be able to find them. There were to be no lock downs, no testing, no serious attempt to do anything but bury the dead. Sending the elderly out of hospital was part of those plans. The ultimately unused Nightingale hospitals were there. They were planning for a pandemic with up to 2.5% fatality and a disease that affects the very young as badly as the very old.
We argued that the plans didn’t suit our modern society and that death on a large scale wouldn’t be met with stoicism. Nobody listened.
And in other news …
Cease fire in place, humanitarian aid convoys rolling.
Total silence from the usual suspects.
I guess they might surface later to proclaim it’s the wrong kind of cease fire, the aid is not ideologically pure, or some such moonhowling lunacy.
Ah weel, if they dae, Indy support will still flatline at 45%, just as it has for the last decade.
C’moan James, ca somebody a hunt. That’ll nudge the dial, eh?
@Dorothy Devine
Homelessness and overcrowding amongst the Irish people, the net target for a decade immigration wise reached in three years with a gay Green minister sending out the message in multiple languages that if you come to Ireland from anywhere in the world you will have your own front door in six weeks.
A nurse was murdered by an immigrant, her throat cut whilst she was out jogging and two gay men were decapitated by an immigrant who said that he would have continued to murder gay men. Sinn Fein has turned on its own people same as the SNP whilst the protests in favour of increased immigration look like exactly the same group of people who show up at the ones in Scotland, England and the rest of the West.
Complaining about immigrants shagging or stabbing your children is far Right according to the political, media and academic classes and people have had their fill of it.
Everyone involved in the Salmond conspiracy is the lowest of the low.
Lady Doughball knows that Woman H is a perjurer who tried to lead the jury in her court, reprimanded 4 times.
Then she gave her lifelong anonymity.
Lady Doughball. Up to her neck in corruption.
The Salmond conspirators are unhinged. They’ve poisoned our once competent and successful country with the sleeze, scheming and corruption.
The small cabal around Nicola Sturgeon. You all know who you are. And so do we.
I have took a few days to respond to this blog, because there are two sides to every story,
While I have full sympathy with the manner in Which medical staff were treated, it was appalling the way families were also treated,
A nurse, carer or doctor may feel grieved when they loose a long term resident patient that they know reasonably well,
A son or daughter or mother or father has spent a longer loving period of time with that patient with a closer connection for most as family members they grew up with, than perhaps a few years years in NHS or Private care homes, and it trebles the guilt of some of these families, that the were not allowed to be there for family without saying good bye,
That all evidence of how their loved ones had actually died, and the cause quickly hidden by cemations.
I lost many three members of family in Care homes, two of which died within a few weeks of entering care homes suddenly,
There was no inquiries into the sudden deaths then or now, and the reasons brushed under the governments decisions,
No one knows if their families all had the caring treatment that Alison Speed mentions,
They do not know if physical abuse, or murder or sexual abuse was suffered by their loved ones before passing away.
Old people are a profit or loss scheme to the managers and corporations, other wise they would not be in the business.
For all a relative knew, the family member they had last exchanged a smile with, could have been murdered through wrong medication, lack of Medical or personal support,
I have full sympathy with the doctors and nurses carers that did do there work with due care to their patients, medically, but emotionally it was harder, because a family grieves for longer with no answers under the method their loved one passed away with no Answers under the Covid policies, and a appalling lack of empathy or sympathy at the briefest of self distancing funerals.
There are alway two sides to every story and the relations to those whom suddenly died in care homes and hospitals.
They will never have a post mortum or inquiry for how their reletive spent their last days or hours in some of these places that put profit and turnover before their loved family members.
In total between my spouse and myself we lost four family members suddenly during Covid, we have know way of knowing why or how they died.
A excellent example in my family was a member that had gangarine as cause of death on medical certificate but was being put down for cremation burial as a Covid death,
we fought.that lie and deceit from the officials
And that is the problem here,
The same may have happened to other patients in the care system, during Covid, some may have been euthenised in more disreputable premises,
I am a older generation, and perhaps more in tune with the medical world than most, as my father was a medic in the army, my sister in law was actually a Sister of a hospital ward, at a time when they were the boss over everyone and everything to make sure all was ran efficient and clean to the last detail,
My daughter in law and My own sister were Carers during the Covid period,
The result is that I am well aware how genuine carers and nurse were treated so badly but also very much aware how the families of those that died will never have an true inquiry as to the last days of their loved ones life actually ended.
Full support for Alex Salmond! We need to expose the corruption, deceit, lies, sexual deviance and fraud that Sturgeon & Murrell spread like a cancer across Scotland. Convictions and jail sentences must be secured.
Aw, Johnny, did ah hurt your wee feelings? Bless.
James
Cheers!
The NHS doesn’t need privatised.
It needs to get back to basics.
Accident, emergency, life threatening. Everyone is covered.
Not a personal wish list of gastric bands, late terminations bigger boobs and the latest GRR ransom note of facial feminisation, cotton wool care, bottom surgery with free lifetime supply of drugs & removal of healthy breasts.
If they cut all the irrelevant, non life threatening bullshit out there’d be better service & more money for elderly care & mental health.
Same with schools.
Cut out the hours wasted on gender bullshit that benefits no one in the grand scheme of things or anyone’s chances at a real job. Life skills, numeracy, languages & allowing individual expression instead of a dumbed down set menu that doesn’t fit all. If it doesn’t educate a life skill then bin it. It doesn’t make the grade.
& Scrap tuition fees. Talent is turned away because they can’t commit to a life of debt.
Tories won’t ever do it tho. Them & their fat cat mates don’t get rich when things are tickety boo. So they continually waste copious amounts on reorganising & shuffling about bad management on eye watering salaries while dumbing down the public into thinking they need self funded private healthcare cause the NHS is in crisis & judging by the yappers on here we can see it works on the dumb.
It’d just be another con. Insurance would use that we’ll known clause *that’s not covered* that we all know they pull even now on a cat or dog!
Work that pays could end half of the NHS problems.
In some European countries students look after the elderly with visits in return for free tuition. That could also help the elderly live in their own home for longer & free up some elderly care & relieve bed blocking.
Better telly too. I’d put money on this Gender shite being traced to RuPauls drag race shit programming along with the benefit street/poverty porn TV shows.
Now the studies coming out are suggesting that lockdown were not the answer,
That two of the esseintials to fight Covid was vitamin D from the sun and heathy body excercise out doors,
And masks made you recycle the old oxygen you breathed as spent oxygen, back into your own lungs.
Making it a secondary poorer quality oxygen you kept breathing for nearly two years. Instead of fresh purer air.
The elite were still partying, traveling all over the world to All the non elected meetings that run the our goverments from afar, and going aboard for holidays,
Just as they still do for Climate change.
The psychological damage done to society and the distrust it built up between doctors, nurses, hospitals and care homes will take years to mend, especially as doctors were not prioritisng other serious illnesses that also caused deaths closing most patients out of the NHS system.
Kidney patients cancer patient and much needed operations,
It was chaos and doctors should have raised their concerns that no one patient or their death was more important than the another,
But I suppose if doctors got paid for vaccinating it returns back to profit margins,
Aw James, do I keep posting facts?
The truth is liberating though – you should try it. Nothing else is going to set Scotland free.
Dorothy Devine says:
24 November, 2023 at 10:52 am
OT but has anyone an explanation as to the riots in Dublin? I can understand folk being shocked and disgusted but I don’t understand the mob turning against the police.
Ireland has suffered terribly from immigration (legal and ‘refugees’). It’s turned Dublin into a foreign city with all the usual problems and unpleasantries you never had to worry about in the 80’s. The Irish Central Bank openly admits its policy is open borders to keep Irish wages low. This obviously keeps the cost of living high, because migrants need housing and many other expensive services in limited supply.
This is a policy that makes the top 1% in Ireland richer at the expense of everyone else, except the new arrivals who keep arriving every day. It’s a recipe for conflict.
Media censorship is just as strict there as it is here. So while you probably never heard about the Glasgow grooming gangs where as many as 50 asylum seekers were believed to have been involved in one example (not as important as I’m A Celebrity though), there have been plenty of cases of Irish children being victimised, stabbed or something equally horrible.
They can’t sweep it all under the carpet forever, and maybe that carpet is too threadbare to hide much in 2023. That’s why there’s anger.
The Irish want to decolonise their wee bit hill and glen of a country before it’s too late for Irish children to have their own country. You would think their politicians might be happy to seek their votes, but they’re not. Sinn Fein has been turned into a woke open borders party, just like the SNP. All the other Irish political parties have teamed up against the Irish people.
Sound familiar?
Their Vichy government run by foreigners has declared war on the Paddies, with the full weight of the corporate media providing whatever lies and distractions are required to support the regime in this challenging time.
You will witness fiery-but-mostly-peaceful Irish nationalism being painted as the second coming of Adolf O’Hitler by people who’ve spent over a month trying to persuade you it’s OK for Hamas to do some light kidnapping and murdering.
The same sordid drama will happen to Scotland, where Scots are being steadily phased out while we in BTL land argue with each other about Fanon, men in frocks, global warming, and showing John Main the money.
The police exist to serve the people in power and enforce the status quo through violence when necessary. That’s why the Irish intifada is fighting them.
Merganser says:
24 November, 2023 at 11:21 am
Let the shock waves roll out, and sound doom to Sturgeon and her mates. Be afraid. Be very afraid. It is no more than you deserve…
Careful with your words there Merganser, don’t forget Mark Hirst faced criminal prosecution for merely suggesting the Alphabetties “would reap the whirlwind”, or everyday words to that effect.
He was acquitted of course, but a lot like Salmond, the conniving bastards took him all the way before the Sheriff Court threw it out as having no case to answer. All that stress and stigma for months, and just out of sheer badness.
Maybe the fragile wee cretins have learned their lesson, but you know what they’re like… if there’s some shit to stir…. I never thought in a million years they’d get away with jailing Craig Murray, but all these unhinged and vindictive wee fkrs are still in their posts.
@Geri says:24 November, 2023 at 12:09 pm
Better telly too
Hear hear!
I also think supermarkets should sell hard-boiled eggs. It’s unreasonable to expect ordinary people to be able to boil them, time them, etc. etc. Then there’s the pan to wash up.
But the Tories won’t allow it – no profit in it for them!
Knives out!
link to bbc.com
Go get the bastards!
Covid was a bad flu but that was it
So says the Resident Bully. Not only is it untrue but the lie is given to it by Alison Speed
He said “not one single person has been held accountable” for the botched handling of the harassment inquiry, which he said a Court of Session judge described as unlawful, unfair and tainted by apparent bias.
“With this court action, that evasion of responsibility ends,” Mr Salmond said.
I love him man. We need our journalists inside the court of Session.
We know Lady Dorian did to Craig Murray.
She jailed him.
We know the twin roles of the Crown office. And Nicola Sturgeon’s chosen cabinet minister. That is the biggest built in corruption our country has ever seen.
And then Fabiani and James Wolfe censored our parliament from the hearing the truth.
Now they protect the SNP. That’s all they are good for. Bring down the Perverts in the Scottish Government. And all their woke pish. Save Grangemouth. Bring back Alex Salmond. Scotland needs him more than ever.
In my opinion Dorothy Bain will protect Sturgeon in the covid inquiry. Their secretive dealings are unbelievable. Their contempt for the laws of the land is there for all to see.
And now they want to abolish juries. We know Scotland’s – in my opinion – corrupt judge lady Dorian wants to abolish juries. And then gives rapists convicted by juries freedom. She should be sacked. She’s up to her neck in all this.
They have destroyed the reputation of Scotland’s institutions. And they’ve all helped to sabotage independence.
@Red says:24 November, 2023 at 12:23 pm
Great post.
showing John Main the money
If only, Red, if only.
But then if the money had been shown, not just to me but to all the other Sovereign Scots, Indy support wouldn’t have been flatlined at 45% for the past decade.
Frontier Economics did calculations of the money saved by addressing health inequalities.
The basis of the calculation was the savings to be made by reduced welfare payments to a more healthy society. In addition, more revenue would be raised by the longer years of work done by a more healthy population.
No account was made of the savings to be had in expenditure on the NHS by having a more healthy society.
This calculation was made for the Marmot Report 2010 for the UK government and accepted in full by that government. At once it cut the ground from under Marmot by passing responsibility to local government while beginning to reduce public spending.
In making the calculation Frontier Economics assumed that the UK could improve public health to the level enjoyed by the richest decile of population.
Of course, this is unlikely ever to happen but the purpose was to illustrate that many billions can be saved by reducing health inequalities.
It is impossible to separate the economy from society at large.
Prejudice and ignorance won’t take you far in public health
@sam says:24 November, 2023 at 12:30 pm
You need to read Alison Speed’s article again. There’s details in there that back up what I write and refute what you write.
Once the penny has dropped, take some time out to consider if you have the intellectual heft to contribute meaningfully on here. Or you could apologise for getting it wrong.
Or maybes trace your family tree. See if you are in line for a share of the £1.8 trillion that was exciting you yesterday. It’s a long shot, but like you, I’m thinking it’s worth the grift if it pays off.
I can send you details of a boy who does a very convincing parchment, but it’s gonna cost you, and he’s gonna do mine first.
Police said the unrest was driven by a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by a far-right ideology” and warned against “misinformation”.
Al Jazeera reporting on the Dublin incident
This one’s for you and your mates, little Johnny;
http://www.dailymailheadlinegenerator.com
robertknight @ 12.28.
Amen to that. I wonder if this was what forced Sturgeon to quit and leave Humza in the hot seat.
I see that Alex has got Gordon Dangerfield as his solicitor. That might explain why Gordon has been quiet on his blog recently. He’s been very busy on Alex’s case it seems.
The sword of Damocles is in full view over the SNP. They are finished and we need to regroup quickly to save the dream.
To think that all their tre4chery resulted only in advancement and financial reward. Until now when they are about to find out the price they are going to pay.
They must be running around like headless chickens, or looking for excuses to visit China, with this news.
The day of reckoning is indeed coming for them. The sooner the better, but I will enjoy their anguish as they wait for the day to arrive. Sweet revenge for their despicable behaviour.
What was the statistics for (influenza deaths during) the Covid period, compared to infuenza deaths years prior to the Covid virus.
Have the been amalgamated with each other?
I expect there will be some who will be annoyed at what I’m going to say but I’m past giving a shit, those who own care homes do so for one reason, to make money, yes there might be one in 50 who offer good care but the majority is as described by the writer of this post, it’s all about profit, I not only worked in a care home I lived in one which was private and had a high rating for good care with the authorities, I wouldn’t have let the majority of those carers look after my dog.
Cheap food and and an absolute lack of cleanliness and hygiene, they employed an old man as cleaner for a home with 28 rooms, I won’t get into everything else that was wrong in that place other than I got out of there for my mental health, did I make complaints? you bet I did, did anything come from them? No.
The other was a council run care home where my father was placed, I believed this to be one of the good homes, wrong, I’m not going to get into that either because living with the fact that this is where my fathers life ended torments me to this day and will till I die.
Now “covid” is where I suspect many will disagree with me, like I said I’m past giving a shit,
Yes many died during covid but very few actually died from covid, what they did die of was the absence of proper care whilst suffering from lung infections and pneumonia whilst being told there was no treatment, can you believe that? there is much evidence now which can’t be disputed that lack of proper treatment for respiratory infection and the “covid” rules such as lockdown, isolation, inappropriate mask wearing caused more deaths than any virus ever could.
Between 11.000 and 15.000 people die every year in the UK alone from flu, this has been recorded as high as 25.000 during a particularly virulent strain and that was during the days when actually treated people who ended up with respiratory infection.
What were we told during “covid” if you test positive stay at home for 10 days and only seek help when you can’t breathe.
At Christmas 2019 both myself and husband had really bad colds, mines was much milder but he was quite unwell for almost two weeks, I guess had we had the “covid” tests then we’d have tested positive, the reason I’m going into this so much is because in 2018 I had a bad flu which then turned into pneumonia, I’m elderly and have COPD, my doctor gave me steroids and antibiotics but she actually wanted me to go into hospital, I didn’t and I fully recovered (albeit it took a year to do so) with the medication, she told me that in future at the first sign of chest infection make sure I got checked out by doctor and not to leave it to go deeper into the lungs.
Now I wonder how I would have faired had I been told there was no treatment and to stay at home for 10 days until I couldn’t breathe, I’ll tell you what I believe, I wouldn’t be here today.
I never took any of the “covid” vaccines much to the horror of my family, I firmly believed by the time the vaccines became available that there was nothing about the whole “covid” narrative that made any sense to me, My husband had his first jab and was knocked off his feet for over a week then unbelievably to me took the second one, he’s never been quite the same since but thankfully due to research he decided he would take no more, I’m not an anti-vaxxer or to be precise I wasn’t then I just chose not to take these vaccines, I can say heart on heart I am an anti-vaxxer now and have no shame in admitting that.
So for me in my honest opinion our care homes are an absolute disgrace and the majority are not fit for purpose, the “covid” protocols killed more people than the virus which I’ve never doubted existed and believe it was a particularly virulent strain but it should only have been the vulnerable who needed protection along with proper care and attention.
Society should never have been locked down and the effects of these damaging and crazy protocols will be felt for years to come.
The only “pandemic” we had was a PCR pandemic.
Sam @12:30
Are you talking mass formation psychosis, ritual humiliation & theft of the white house?
Can’t say I saw any of that in the article – unless you’re referring to her admition that she’ll never forgive COVID deniers (aka those who remained sane) and claiming it as one of the features the narrative was designed to bring about.
Grateful for your clarification(s)
@james Che
Here is the WHO flu data chart.
link to app.powerbi.com
Use the ‘by date ‘ button to add previous years to the graph.
John Main @12:55
Worth the grift if it pays off..
Timely moment to remember the various interests that were able to join the Dos Santos/ Miller Brexit case and investigate the possibility of us all piggy backing the Salmond case for our £millions in lost earnings and opportunity too 🙂
@sam says:24 November, 2023 at 12:49 pm
No account was made of the savings to be had in expenditure on the NHS by having a more healthy society
That’s because there won’t be any.
The founders of the NHS had the belief that with medical treatment for all ailments free on demand to all, illness and sickness would eventually be drastically reduced, and that the yearly costs of the NHS would therefore reduce over time.
As we all know, they were wrong.
Soz, as all apart from Sam and a few others know, they were wrong.
“Covid was a bad flu but that was it
So glad somebody else noticed.”
link to ft.com
1 million long covid sufferers.
Just under 227,000 people died in the UK with Covid-19 listed as one of the causes on their death certificate.
James Che
If you really want to get a handle on the Covid Years, then the excess deaths figures are the way to do it.
These are easy enough to find. Key facts are:
The numbers attributed to Covid are greatly exaggerated. During many months, we are expected to believe that cancer, heart disease, flu, etc. stopped killing people, so that they could die from Covid instead.
The numbers attributed to the overreaction to Covid are under represented. Critical treatments for serious diseases ground to a halt, in some cases for years, and the backlogs for treatment remain at record levels. People are dying as a result. What goes down on the death certs is “cancer” or whatever, not “delayed treatment for what would in normal times have been curable early stage cancer”.
Anyhoo, somebody will pop up in a mo to claim Covid is “deadly”. That person will probably not have been vaccinated this year, wear no mask, never hand sanitise, and cheerfully mingle with strangers on buses, etc. yet claim to not believe in the “herd immunity” they bleeding obviously enjoy, along with just about everybody else.
Don’t get me started on the people who vaccinated kids with experimental substances and forced babies to wear masks!
It’s been known for centuries (except in dark corners online) that poverty causes poor health.Reduce poverty and health improves.Public health across the world knows this. But not the ignorant with prejudices to press.
link to health.org.uk
“The study linked austerity measures with the deaths of almost 60,000 more people than would be expected in the 4 years following their introduction. It also found that the slowdown in the gradual improvement to life expectancy coincided with the cuts to health and social care spending.
These findings are upsetting, but unfortunately not surprising. The RCP adopted reducing health inequality as one of its priorities for influencing in 2018. Our members were well aware of the growing gap in healthy life expectancy – around 20 years between the poorest and richest areas – and its connection to spending on health and care.
Indeed, we’ve known since at least 1980 (when the Black Report was published by one of my predecessors) that we need to spend more if we want the gap to close. More on health services, yes, but – more importantly – more on public health measures that prevent ill health, on social care that helps older people stay at home and younger people continue working, on housing that doesn’t make people ill, and much more.”
link to indyposterboy.scot
link to indyposterboy.scot
link to indyposterboy.scot
The monthly death data for 2020 suggests that there were excess deaths only in the months that the NHS shut its doors, – excepting December when the experimental jab was rolled out and all the old folks started dying again.
Excess deaths have continued almost every month since, despite allegedly high injection take-up.
Strange.
And what about the spike in miscarriages and still births?
Could it be the jab? Could the jab be long Covid?
Nobody seems to want to look into it.
link to nrscotland.gov.uk
link to indyposterboy.scot
link to indyposterboy.scot
@sam says:24 November, 2023 at 2:10 pm
Just under 227,000 people died in the UK with Covid-19 listed as one of the causes on their death certificate
Aw naw, clincher!
Oh but wait. How many people have died in the UK with flu listed as one of the causes on their death certificates?
Ever, since records began?
But that’s not fair I hear a sheep bleat. You can’t total up all the deaths from flu since the start of record keeping.
Naw? So why you doing exactly that for Covid?
Compare like for like, why don’t you.
As for long Covid. The incidence of people with “long Covid like” symptoms is within statistical equivalence between people who defo have had Covid and people who have never had Covid.
Innarestin, to say the least.
Oh and Sam. I hope you won’t see it as abusive if I point out that your predecessors’ knowledge or ability in a field is not heritable. Soz, but thems the rules in genetics.
Also, correlation does not prove causation. Soz again.
I’m not going to insult you by saying this is primary school stuff, cos it’s not. Secondary school though, defo.
You should have paid more attention when you had the chance.
Robin McAlpine’s blog has an interesting take on the Michael Matheson I-pad incident. He speculates that Mr Matheson was acting under (bad) advice from SG spin-merchants when he spoke.
Which is why he can’t be sacked – other than the original misdemeanour, he’s been doing what his employer told him to do.
link to robinmcalpine.org
I’m not a fan of the EU but if it helps to serve as a stepping-stone to better control of our powers? A truly democratic Scotland will make that decision, not a load of political spivs south of the border. Meanwhile, this is what’s on offer compared to what we currently have:
link to indyposterboy.scot
As you were, Troops. Have a good weekend. 😉
Stoker.
Thanks for those links.
Thanks for the explanation of unrest in Dublin – last time I was there I thought if was a lovely place relatively problem free but that was a long time ago.
“Covid was a bad flu but that was it”
“If you really want to get a handle on the Covid Years, then the excess deaths figures are the way to do it.”
“There were more excess deaths in Britain in 2022 than almost all of the past 70 years. According to an analysis by the Times, more than 50,000 more people died last year than in 2019. Excluding the first two years of the pandemic (2020/21), this was the highest excess death toll since 1951.
Citing data from the statistics offices of the countries of the United Kingdom, the newspaper reported, “Overall the 656,735 UK deaths last year were 51,159 above the pre-Covid five-year average. The figure was exceeded only in four years prior to 1951 since records began 130 years ago.”
link to wsws.org
But what was the cause of those excess deaths in 2022 when omicron and the vaccines were working to reduce deaths?
“Long A&E waits contributed to 23,000 excess deaths in 2022, a study by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) has suggested.”
“From the start of the pandemic through to 29 September this year around 204?700 more deaths from all causes were registered than expected, the analysis shows. Of these deaths, 75?600 were in 2020, 56?500 in 2021, 39?400 in 2022, and 33?200 in the first three quarters of 2023, shows the analysis by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries’ continuous mortality investigation (CMI).1”
Explainer Coronavirus
‘It’s not a bad flu season’ – Covid myths debunked with data
link to ft.com
JOHN BURN-MURDOCH: If anyone says to you that the conditions we’re seeing in England’s hospitals at the moment are no different to what we get in a bad flu season, this video is what you should show them.
Robert @3.16pm.
Thanks for the link.
McAlpine calls Matheson “An Honest Man”
Maybe the penny has begun to drop for McAlpine.
“And I was pretty confident that the independence movement could get its act together and regain momentum fairly quickly. I’m beginning to worry that this SNP team is doing so much damage that I may be wrong and the path back may be become more difficult to navigate.”
No shit Sherlock, whilst the rest of us know the SNP is now a party full grifting careerists, McAlpine isn’t quite sure yet that that’s the case. Talk about flogging a dead horse.
O/T Alex Salmond’s Court litigation case for misfeasance was time barred after six years. Hence he has tabled the case now. The United for Scotland coalition is officially in the bin. He tried hard to get the SNP to the table for a coalition of the willing for Independence. But some in the SNP were never interested in Independence, only the gravy train and imported ideologies. I was expecting Operation Branchform to deliberate this week. The misdemeanor by Jo Farrell has pushed that back. A super Wow moment deserves a clean media slate. It’s imminent though. A much needed shattering of the Status Quo.
I saw online last night as the oppressed Palestinians starve in Gaza, the CEO of the World Food Programme Cindy H. McCain attended a fund raiser (front row seat) to help fund the IDF. She (McCain) should be sacked immediately from the WFP.
link to euromedmonitor.org
Wow. Rob Macalpine latest is a strange one.
Seems to me that when Matheson saw the charges for the data he knew exactly what it was and then dishonestly tried to pass it onto the taxpayers. Honest guy is he Rob? Really?
link to bbc.com
The new woke chief of police doesn’t even live in Scotland. She’s a fucking disgrace. Get to fuck Jo Farrell.
Google the terms «uk» & «decline» and rich pickings are to be had.
The end of the British state few «nationalists» seem prepared for?
The party whose purpose is its termination is more engaged in signalling its pretentious «virtuosity» than making merry hell with those pickings.
Is there a vaxx for sturgeonitis?
Jo Farrell. Only in Scotland to abuse the tax payer. Who the fuck does she think she is? Chauffeured down South?
To think she cheated out many good officers in Scotland of the top job.
Rainbow flags and transgender police officers coming to an old firm game near you. With Jo Farrell’s sexist, racist, homophobic and mysogynistic fairy police force.
She’s corrupt. I call that corruption. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
I wonder if Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell were in the back of Joe Farrell’s getaway car. Fleeing from Alex Salmond’s £3 million litigation for their conspiracy.
This whole salmond case is the fault if sturgeon either on the own decisions or as a result of being played. Was she compromised
Excess deaths over the last 4 years seem to be occurring in many countries.
Deaths is, statistically, more likely in jabbed individuals.
– figures are probably even worse because, although jabbed, the victim was not classed as such until 21 days (in Scotland) after injection.
link to expose-news.com
David Hannah @4.07pm.
Jo Farrell refused to question Boris Johnson “special advisor” Dominic Cummings on his jaunt to Barnard Castle during the height of the pandemic, choosing instead to believe his preposterous excuse that he was testing his eye sight by driving there.
Now she’s head of Police Scotland, she’s another Cressida Dick in the making.
I’m sure there must be someone (A Scot) capable of holding the position, but then again Alf Baird’s colonial interpretations of most Scots not holding very prominent positions in colonial Scotland hold true here as well.
Very interesting. BBC bigging up nicolas claim there was no conspiracy.
Wonder why the bbc clowns never asked about the vietnam group or flying irons.
They also talk about hamas releasing hostages but not Israel releasing hostages.
Playing ans shaping the message i think.
THE KLF have just announced their foray into the ‘Kare’ market.
link to klfkare.com
Not too sure it will come to much but having just attended The People’s Pyramid: The Krossing it’ll no doubt add some fun to the latter years. They demand MuMufication!
You never keep pranksters down!
Republicofscotland @ 4:40 pm
“colonial interpretations of most Scots not holding very prominent positions in colonial Scotland hold true”
In a colonial society senior leadership across most areas of public and commercial life is effectively outsourced to people mainly from the ‘mother country’, much as we see in Police Scotland, universities, government depts, NHS, CMAL, Ferguson’s shipyard, SEPA, Scottish Water, HES, plus a wide range of major business operations incl privatised utilities etc.
Legal sector is a bit of an anomaly due to ‘protected’ nature of Scots Law (as condition of Treaty), senior lawyers practising here tend to graduate from law schools in Scotland, although those from private school backgrounds appear to be prioritised, according to Elitist Scotland report.
link to yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com
What has happended to MacWhirter?
Re-posting this link showing live data on energy maps which is quite interesting for the techy types to search and investigate.
link to app.electricitymaps.com
It is pretty windy at the moment but noticed the transfer of leccy generated by renewables in Scotland to England is lower than I thought it might be.
And with a bit more searching I found this site, and if you click on some of the windfarms in Scotland you can see that some are in “curtailment mode”, and this means they are deliberately reducing output which is fed into the grid.
https://renewables-map.robinhawkes.com
I understand the generation companies get a subsidy to compensate them for the loss of revenue they could have accrued should the windfarm be feeding all the energy it generates into the grid.
This is where a lot of contractual obligations come into play for generation companies, so they can obtain return of investment levels that cover building the infrastructure. That’s why there has on occasions been general waste from Glasgow carted up to Dundee to burn in the energy from waste plant.
Not overloading the leccy grid if all generation plants were run flat out obviously comes into play.
It’s just a pity some of the excesses of power that could potentially be being generated couldn’t still be produced and dumped locally to say power our hospitals, which must get through a fair amount when you think about it.
“According to official figures, wind farms across the UK received a total of £806 million in “curtailment costs” during the years 2020 and 2021, with a significant 82% of that sum paid to generators situated in Scotland.”
And with the ever increasing renewable infrastructure being built in Scotland’s geographic area, that figure will undoubtedly rise significantly in the future.
Glad to see Alex Salmond starting court action against the SG & Sturgeon + all those who lied & colluded in his frameup .
All the best Alex .
«British Vogue Forces for Change is a movement not a moment,” says Enninful. “Through it, we want to create authentic conversations into more complex and nuanced areas, whether they concern female empowerment, mental health, or sustainability.”
OK….
link to dailymail.co.uk
Come the revolution…how much rope do they need?
Media reporting that Alex Salmond’s lawyer is Gordon Dangerfield, Mr Dangerfield kept us well informed in the past with his excellent blog.
link to gordondangerfield.com
Ronnie , a big haloo and wave to you!Hope things are OK
I am also delighted that Alex Salmond is making a move – I wonder if Nicola Sturgeon will still be suffering from amnesia???
Tammany Hall (aka Glasgow City Chambers) SNP councillors go for a sleep in the building after midnight, their pish excuse they couldn’t get a taxi.
No councillors are allowed in the chambers after 9pm unless its a function night which it wasn’t.
It begs the question what were these two clowns up to in the chambers after midnight? I don’t buy the sleeping because they couldn’t get a taxi story.
link to archive.is
Dan, re the ‘leccy,
As a man with a practical and engineering mind, you’ll perhaps be interested that for domestic reasons, I’ve just purchased a 3.2 KW generator that will power a part of the house. Not all of it, but the part we can hunker down in if we get an extended power cut.
Small sitting room with a sofa bed, telly and 6 13A sockets, oil fired radiator on wheels, in the kitchen a single induction hob, microwave, small low wattage sidelights, fridge and freezer, and (turning most other things off) an immersion heater in the boiler. Probably about 500 watts left over.
Why? Because those unlucky people in Angus and Aberdeenshire had their power off for a week during that storm 2 years ago. That brought home to me the reality is that it’s not just the national grid going down, it’s also local vulnerabilities such as overhead cables being brought down in a storm by facing branches. Living where I do, there’s 5 miles of overhead cables between here and the nearest substation.
@Ronald Anderson (6.24) –
Great to see your name appearing there.
😉
Dan – Energy from waste is one of the primary sources of power on Tokyo. They are sited underground and burn so hot that they burn all waste. Heat generated turns produces steam which turns a turbine to produce electricity to be fed to the grid. They are all over the place in central Tokyo.
@ ASA
A power back up genny is not a bad thing to have.
It wasn’t just Angus and Aberdeenshire that had power cuts for extended times during Storm Arwin.
My mother lived in the Scottish borders and the power was also off there for many days. This would be far from ideal at anytime, but it was even more of a hassle as we were caring for her as she endured the hellish progression of cancer, which she ultimately succumbed to last year.
Once the roads were cleared of fallen trees and branches that had been blown down we were able to decamp to another property and stay there till the power came back on at her house.
The ridiculous thing was that a large windfarm is actually visible from her kitchen window.
What needs to be done is that a proper concerted effort to protect our essential infrastructure needs to be implemented. Cut down branches and trees along power line corridors that could potentially take down the lines in a storm. This should be done during fine weather times so folk aren’t having to work and try to repair faults in dangerous storms.
As her house had no real secondary heating options in the event of a power cut, I quickly organised getting a wood burning stove and managed to fabricate and weld up a bespoke flu adapter and register plate, and it was installed and up and running giving out lovely views of flames and cosy heat in time for what was her last Christmas.
The case we need to see is the one against the perjured allegations and the conspirators. But this one is a start and will cause some sleepless nights, I hope.
Dan;
Are you for hire? (only half joking….)
….wish I had a wood burning stove….and the roof could do with a tune up lol….
Sarah @ 8.9pm
It will definitely cause sleepless nights for many people. The fear of exposure will haunt those who were a party to the attempted frame-up. Even if there are no criminal charges, the possibility of all the facts being put into the public domain in the civil action brought by Alex will gnaw away at them day after day. It will be sheer torture for them. But they have brought it all on themselves, and they must pay a heavy price for their
scheming.
They should have known better than to mess with Alex.
Good to see AS making his move.
Scunnered to hear fraudulent pretendy HY on the radio stating that the bottomless taxpayers funds extorted by ScotGov from Sovereign Scots will be deployed in the fight back against AS.
An utter disgrace. A stain on Scotland’s honour. The outsourced box ticker misusing our money to attempt to crush a true Scottish patriot.
“bed sores are becoming more common” that’s not really true, with more modern air flow hospital beds bed sores are less common than they were 10 years ago.
Gaun yersel, Alex!
I want to see Sturgeon in jail.
I want to see Evans in jail.
I want to see Lloyd in jail.
I want to see the alphabetties exposed and in jail.
WTF appointed Joe Farrell when she doesn’t even live in Scotland?
& Hark at her nerve to not only cadge a lift home but to give some other dosser a lift too.
Is Scotland so hard up for officers & financial advisors that we need to import them?
& What was so urgent she couldn’t wait a day to get a train? We’re hardly living in Tornado Alley with risk to life FFS! A deck chair blows over & it’s panic stations..
She should resign & refund the costs.
Dan,
I haven’t received the electrician’s bill yet, but the cost of the genny and the work to take the kitchen and sitting room 13A circuits onto a second ICU that I can manually switch to genny supply is going to total around £1,500. That’s a bit spendy, perhaps, for many. But for us, with around 5 hours per winter month with a powercut, it’s money we are happy to spend. Over 5 years or so, it begins to be negligible.
Humza will be fighting nobody but the queue for the dole.
What a prat. He’s burnt all his bridges & will no longer be a politician come the next election or the next scandal – whichever one comes first.
I’m not surprised the media hasn’t went after his shagging exploits yet but I suppose, like Sturgeon before him, having a dud in place save the union for now..
As for Robin..aye, there’s sometimes I wonder if he’s on the same page as the rest of us. Maybe he’s too close to see there is no one honest in the SNP anymore. Their cause isn’t Indy – it’s their salary.
Humza Yousaf will defend his government robustly.
You couldn’t punch in a phone number.
Yousaf.
Ya fucking bellend.
I’m sick of them all. I’m delighted Alex Salmond is taking those bastards down.
I want Sturgeon in jail.
Peter Murrell. In jail.
Leslie Evans. In jail.
Lloyd in jail.
The alphabetties. Exposed. And named. And in jail.
Fucking crooks the lot of them.
Merganser is right..
The tension will be killing them.
Sturgeon has already aged 30 yrs & looking like an auld hag.
Nothing ever stays hidden forever. Especially in politics.
Especially in a group too. It only takes one to crack & bring all the others down like dominoes.
Dirty little secrets are bad enough to keep on yer own but they’re relying on an entire coven of spite.
Armitige Shanks will be seeing some action this week in the Murrell’s household waiting on the footsteps coming up the path..
I hope she is facing jail. It’d be delicious if she was thrown in beside Katie Dolatowski for a bit of bonding..
Nicola may have dropped a biggie…. “Salmond’s actions are a matter for him, and the conduct of the case is a matter for the Scottish government.”…. (reported macbeebie….)… so, the conduct of the case is not a matter for the Scottish courts and judicial system then? Hmmmm, I guess it’s something many of us suspected, but it’s surprising to hear it confirmed by Nicola!
These events will be revealed as a lasting stain on Sturgeon’s “government”, but the nagging question I have is the extent to which the “get Salmond” philosophy emerged after Salmond stood down, or whether the campaign to destroy him was already at work in the 2014 Yes campaign.
If these freeloading charlatans were never serious about Independence, but merely token flag wavers, then does that mean Salmond’s leadership and YES campaign were already carrying dead weight for a long time before Sturgeon’s t-reach-ery and incompetence revealed itself?
Am I being too kind or naive by calling it dead weight? Or were these vile fkrs already trying to undermine Independence long before Salmond was taken down? It’s an unsettling question, but were we really firing on all cylinders in 2014? We thought we were, but were we in actuality?
I am also deeply suspicious of those who try to blame Salmond for promoting these deadbeats to high office. Where else in history does the betrayed carry the responsibility of the betrayer? What warning signs was Salmond meant to pick up on before the conspiracy broke cover? He was surrounded by colluding conspirators. Think about that.
The past cannot be changed, but until this whole can of worms is laid open to forensic scrutiny, it is going to blight our Independence campaign at every turn. The Scottish Government is compromised, the SNP is compromised , the Scottish judiciary is compromised, the Civil Service as it exists in Scotland is compromised, the Scottish Police are compromised, the media we know are deeply corrupt and compromised… This is the very essence of Scotland the Nation being compromised. So who, or what is doing all the compromising?
This “holistic” perspective, trying to see the big picture, is very discouraging because those who would destroy Scotland seem so very well placed to succeed. It makes our challenge to overturn the status quo seem immense. They provide the string, and we all dutifully dance like puppets. It’s sickening.
This is also why SALVO inspires such hope in me. SALVO is willing to contemplate taking action outside the jaded parameters of our Vichy Holyrood Assembly, and if necessary, circumvent the whole political bourach. All my instincts are telling me that SALVO is on the right path in this, and needs our support.
In Scotland we have politicians who believe the power in Scotland is democracy. Perhaps one day it will be, but at the moment, our Scottish democracy is diseased and deeply compromised by the mechanisms of the Union, and Scotland’s democracy cannot be trusted or relied upon.
We need something much more radical. A reset of the constitution to factory settings.
I don’t mean being radical in a violent way, but radical in a Constitutional way. Scotland’s extant and lawful Sovereignty MUST be upheld and recognised internationally, and we must stop wasting our time winning over our wet, doomed to fail by design, Vichy Holyrood institution; a colonial outpost of London rule which seeks to usurp the popular sovereignty of the Scottish people.
Hail SALVO. They “get it”. Sadly, too many of us still don’t. How I wish we’d had SALVO onside back in 2014… earlier in fact. With SALVO, we’d never have conceded to any colonial Scotland Act bullshit, like a Section 30. Indeed, the very principle of Devolution and the whole damned Scotland Act would be in existential crisis.
The Scottish people are sovereign. We decide, and a Scottish Government obeys the people. A delinquent government doesn’t just risk losing an election, but will face constitutional impeachment for malfeasance.