Mark Irvine - Blogger, Campaigner, Organiser

Scotland's health minister Jeane Freeman welcomes the 'tremendous progress' made in discharging hospital  patients into local care homes - the snag being that many of these patients had already tested positive for Covid-19.  Peter Swindon at the Sunday Post is clearly on a bit of a roll because he has another article in today's newspaper focussing on unacceptable delays in the Covid-19 testing regime.      Care Homes - Thrown Under The Bus (28/08/20) The Scottish Government claims to be all in favour of openness and transparency, but yesterday the first minister Nicola Sturgeon refused to confirm when she first became aware that hospital patients were moved into care homes despite testing positive for Covid-19.  https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18681572.sturgeon-refuses-say-knew-patients-covid-put-care-homes/     Thrown Under The Bus (23/08/20) I didn't mange to post this Sunday Post article by Peter Swindon earlier in the week as I

Rudy Giuliani appears to wipe sweat on woman during RNC pic.twitter.com/H7z3vO2dWJ — The Independent (@Independent) August 28, 2020 > Trump's 'fixer' Rudy Giuliani wipes his sweaty palm on the arm of a woman sitting next to him during the Republican national convention.    

Under Donald Trump's watch the Coronavirus epidemic in America has soared out of control.  No wonder because here is Trump speaking to supporters at the White House without social distancing measures in place or people in the audience being required to wear face masks. So while Trump insists  "We are focusing on the science, the facts and the data" the behaviour of his supporters and administration tell a very different story.   https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/08/28/crowd-mask-usage-social-distancing-rnc-2020-acosta-wh-sot-vpx.cnn    

The Scottish Government claims to be all in favour of openness and transparency, but yesterday the first minister Nicola Sturgeon refused to confirm when she first became aware that hospital patients were moved into care homes despite testing positive for Covid-19.  https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18681572.sturgeon-refuses-say-knew-patients-covid-put-care-homes/     Thrown Under The Bus (23/08/20) I didn't mange to post this Sunday Post article by Peter Swindon earlier in the week as I headed up north to Glencoe for a few days. But the article is really well worth reading because it provides more compelling evidence that care homes in Scotland were 'thrown under the bus' during the Coronavirus epidemic. Apparently, Peter Swindon has a follow-up piece in this weekend's Sunday Post which I've not managed to read yet, although I notice from Twitter that the responsibility for this scandal is being laid at the door of the health minister, Jeane Freeman

I was in Glencoe for a few days recently which is still one of my favourite parts of Scotland despite all the midges.   

Wearing face masks in public spaces is now the norm across Europe and the purpose is to help prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.  In practice, this means that everyone over 5 wears a face mask when they step out of their front door and the mask stays on until people return home or reach a destination where social distancing is properly organised - in cafes, bars, restaurants and so on.  Politicians in the UK are slowly being persuaded to take the issue much more seriously and face masks are now required to be worn in school corridors and common areas, for example, but not in classrooms.  Also, the policy ceases to apply as soon as teenagers are outside the school gate, unless they get on a bus or a train, of course, where the face mask rules kick back in again.     So surely a better way forward is to require face masks to be worn in all public spaces whether people are out for a walk or en route to the supermarket, place of work, school, university, cafes, bars