Tensions to the fore in the wake of election
This week, as a neighbourhood in Glasgow took on the Home Office and won, Nicola Sturgeon was facing up to an epic fight of her own in convincing the PM to green light Indyref2
Monday, May 10 Indyref2 sticking point in Sturgeon’s phone call to PM
NICOLA Sturgeon and Boris Johnson have clashed over a second independence referendum in their first official phone call after the SNP’s landslide election win.
The First Minister told Mr Johnson a referendum was “a matter of when not if”, while the Prime Minister emphasised “the importance of focusing on Covid recovery at this time”.
Ms Sturgeon laid down her marker on Indyref2 despite senior Tories questioning her mandate and the legality of her tactics.
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said the SNP failing to win an overall majority was a “significant difference” to the circumstances which led to the 2014 referendum.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross also said the SNP’s threat to legislate for Indyref2 without Westminster consent was a non-starter, as the Scottish Government’s own law officers couldn’t approve any Bill that was beyond Holyrood’s powers.
Mr Ross said: “I would expect the holder of the office of Lord Advocate to uphold the competency of what the Scottish Government can and cannot do.”
The comments highlight the intense pressure the Lord Advocate would come under if SNP ministers did try to bring forward a Referendum Bill unilaterally.
Ms Sturgeon is expected to start reshuffling her Cabinet within the next 48 hours. If she replaced the current Lord Advocate, James Wolffe QC, it would raise questions about her motives for doing so.
One in three adults given two Covid vaccine doses
ONE-THIRD of adults in the UK are now fully vaccinated against Covid19, figures have shown.
A total of 17,669,379 people have received both jabs – the equivalent of 33.5 per cent of all people aged 18 and over.
England and Northern Ireland are both estimated to have given two doses to 33.6% of their adult population, slightly ahead of Wales (33.4%) and Scotland (33.1%).
Responding to the figures for England, Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and medical director for primary care at NHS England, said: “Yet another incredible NHS milestone has been reached as one in three adults have now had both doses of the Covid vaccine – meaning that they have maximum protection from the virus.
“Reaching this milestone is no accident – it is down to months of hard work and everyone in the NHS who has played a role in this is helping to protect millions of people from serious illness and saving lives.”
A total of 35,371,669 people in the UK have now received a first dose of vaccine – the equivalent of 67.2% of all adults. Wales has given a first dose to 76.2% of its adult population, ahead of Northern Ireland (66.9%), England (66.8%) and Scotland (65.4%).
All figures are based on the latest data for vaccinations reported by the UK’s health agencies.
Tuesday, May 11 Green future at risk from high electric grid charges
UNFAIR electricity transmission charges are acting as a barrier for investment in green energy projects in Scotland and will hit the transition to a low carbon economy, experts have warned.
A new analysis by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ (SSEN) transmission wing, which is responsible for the network for the north of Scotland, calls for reform of the current charging regime which means that renewable generators in Scotland pay “significantly” higher costs to connect their electricity to the National Grid than those in other parts of Great Britain.
There are concerns that the current charging system discriminates against energy operations in Scotland as the calculations are linked to their distance from big population areas.
Currently, the Beinneun wind farm in the Highlands pays £5.54/ MWh, while an equivalent wind farm – Pen y Cymoedd – in Wales, will pay £2.80 per unit.
Nine in 10 over-65s fully vaccinated against Covid
MORE than 90 per cent of people aged 65 and older in Scotland have now had both Covid vaccine doses.
It comes ahead of an expected announcement by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today that lockdown restrictions will be eased further from Monday, with the UK-wide alert level for the virus having been downgraded from four to three – indicating that it is in “general circulation”
but that transmission is no longer “high or rising exponentially”.
However, there continue to be fears that Moray will be left behind as the rest of Scotland exits into level two, amid a warning from public health experts that the situation in the region remains of “great concern” with 93.9 cases per 100,000 – more than four times the Scottish average.
NHS Grampian’s deputy director of public health, Chris Littlejohn, said: “It’s entirely possible that Moray won’t move into level two.”
Wednesday, May 12 Early Covid warning system will stop future lockdowns
SCOTS scientists are devising an early warning system for Covid which they hope will prevent any future lockdowns.
The researchers are developing ways of pooling geographical data on vaccine uptake with wastewater surveillance to identify virus hotspots and higher risk areas as they emerge.
The goal is for proactive and targeted local measures such as “surge testing” and intensive contact tracing to bring outbreaks under control quickly, before hospitals come under pressure.
Professor Rowland Kao, chair of veterinary epidemiology and data science at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Institute, said: “A key to this is to understand how the numbers of people being vaccinated may vary geographically, as any local clusters with larger numbers of unprotected individuals could drive local outbreaks.
“In a winter where resources will also be strained by flu and other seasonal infections, controlling those outbreaks, if they occur, could be crucial to avoiding further lockdowns.”
PM vows to ‘level up’ the UK in plans to bolster the Union
BORIS Johnson has laid out plans for strengthening the Union in the Queen’s Speech.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to ensure all four nations of the UK benefited, with plans including improvements to rail and road networks and funding to “level up” disadvantaged areas across the country. Dozens of new bills were announced yesterday following the State Opening of Parliament, in which the Queen attended without her husband the Duke of Edinburgh in the first public engagement since his death.
The scaled-back ceremony saw Her Majesty joined by her son Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, with only a handful of MPs and peers allowed in to the Houses of Parliament to observe.
The Queen arrived at Westminster in a private car, as opposed to a horse and carriage, and did not wear her usual ceremonial robes for the event to enable things to run more smoothly amid the pandemic.
Along with measures to strengthen the Union, the Prime Minister also set out plans to improve online safety, tackle obesity, and ban conversion therapy for LGBT people. However, he has also come under fire for plans to change the voting system, making it mandatory for voters to have photo ID.
TAXPAYERS are facing a bill of more than £110 million for the malicious prosecutions scandal over the failed Rangers fraud case, The Herald can reveal.
Duff and Phelps, the company responsible for the administration of Rangers during its financial collapse, is now pursuing a £25m compensation claim against Scotland’s most senior law officer over the case alleging fraud over the sale of the club.
It is the latest twist in an “abuse of power” scandal which has already seen millions of taxpayer-funded damages payouts to those wrongly prosecuted by the Crown Office and Police Scotland. Administrators David Whitehouse and Paul Clark of Duff and Phelps settled out of court with the Crown Office in December to the tune of more than £24m.
The Crown Office confirmed both men were awarded £10.5m damages, while legal costs will be at least £3m.
Mr Whitehouse, Mr Clark and five others were subjected to detention and criminal proceedings with others in relation to fraud allegations in the wake of Craig Whyte’s disastrous purchase of Rangers from Sir David Murray for £1 in May 2011 and its subsequent sale before a judge dismissed all charges.
The fraud case arose after the club under Mr Whyte went into administration nine months after he bought it, with debts soaring over £100m and the team ending up relegated to the bottom rung of the Scottish football pyramid.
Now The Herald can reveal that Mr Clark and Mr Whitehouse’s employing company, Duff and Phelps, is pursuing a compensation claim of £25m from the Lord Advocate James Wolffe over the prosecutions, which the authorities have admitted were malicious and without probable cause.
Customers left high and dry as ferry ticket lines go down
SCOTLAND’S beleaguered ferry operator has been hit by a new fault – this time with its tickets and reservations phone lines which were out of action for the whole of yesterday.
State-owned CalMac confirmed the problem at 8am and the ferry operator said it hoped the lines would be up and running today.
Yesterday, customers were being told there was a technical issue with the contact centre phone lines throughout the day and it was “working hard to resolve this”.
Customers phoning the booking line received an automated message saying: “Due to circumstances out of our control we are unable to take your call right now.” Customers were advised to go to the website for bookings, service and timetable information.
A CalMac spokesman said: “There’s a technical issue with the phone lines. It’s being worked on at the moment.”
Friday, May 14 Demand for more vaccines to tackle Glasgow outbreak
SURGE vaccinations should be targeted to all adults in Glasgow hotspots where Covid rates are running up to 25 times higher than Scotland as a whole, a public health expert has said.
Residents of G41 and G42 postcodes in the south of the city are being urged to get tested for the virus regardless of symptoms, but Professor Linda Bauld said vaccinations should also be ramped up as they are in parts of England where cases of a highly infectious Indian variant are surging.
In Blackburn, Lancashire, where the B1.617.2 variant of concern now accounts for more than half of cases, the vaccine is being extended immediately to everyone over the age of 18.
Glasgow is due to move into level two restrictions from Monday along with the rest of the mainland, except Moray, despite having a case rate of 74 per 100,000 – three times the Scotland average. The spike is largely being driven by infection clusters among younger and unvaccinated people in Pollokshields, Easterhouse and Govanhill, with Pollokshields West battling a case rate of almost 730 per 100,000.
New ferry disruption after repair delayed four times
SCOTLAND’S lifeline ferry network faces even more disruption after plans to have its largest vessel back in service after repairs were put off for a fourth time.
MV Loch Seaforth was taken off the Ullapool-Stornoway route by CalMac, the publicly-funded ferry operator, to be taken into dry dock for “major” engine repairs nearly a month ago.
State-owned CalMac had initially said the eight-year-old vessel would be out of action until “at least the end of April” at the earliest, then later said that it would be back by May 4 after repairs took longer than expected.
A day later CalMac then said she was expected back in service by May 17 at the earliest.
Pharmacists accused of rigging jab shifts
DENTAL leaders in Scotland have demanded a full investigation amid claims pharmacists rigged NHS booking systems to monopolise lucrative Covid vaccination shifts.
It is alleged a group of eight employees used bots – computer software that performs repetitive tasks – to book multiple shifts at the NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital in Glasgow as soon as they were advertised.
Some are said to have passed on shifts to colleagues during the scam, which is said to have been going on for months.
At one point, pharmacists could expect to earn up to £700 for a 12-hour shift, the same rate as doctors and dentists.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed it is investigating “anomalies” in the booking system.
The British Dental Association claimed the booking scandal and vaccine supply issues had led to dentists in Glasgow struggling to secure shifts.
Robert Donald, chairman of the BDA’s Scottish Council, called for an investigation “with no stone unturned” and added: “Anyone who has gamed the system is beneath contempt.”
The BDA has suggested the situation in Glasgow contributed to a decision to downgrade pharmacist payments, but this has been denied by the Scottish Government.
Pharmacist shifts rates were changed in late March from £231 per 3.5-hour shift to Band 5 rates of £15 per hour due to a “misunderstanding” over contract guidelines, but the change did not affect dentists and doctors.
Glasgow remains under level three amid variant fears
GLASGOW is to remain in level three for a further week amid fears the Indian variant is driving a major outbreak in the city.
Nicola Sturgeon suspended plans to allow the city and Moray to move into level two from Monday, and announced that travel in and out of the Glasgow council area is also banned.
The decision means that bars and restaurants in the area will continue to be prohibited from serving alcohol indoors, and people will not be allowed to meet up in one another’s homes or hug loved ones as planned.
The First Minister said she could not say “with certainty” that the Indian variant of concern, B1.617.2, is behind a surge in cases in parts of the southside of Glasgow but said that genomic sequencing was increasingly identifying cases without the “S-gene drop” characteristic of the previously dominant Kent strain.
She added: “Because of the demographics of the area, that suggests the Indian variant is at play.”
The announcement came as England’s chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, confirmed experts are now confident that the B1.617.2 sub-strain “is more transmissible” than the Kent variant and responsible for an “exponential growth” in cases in parts of England.
Glasgow has now overtaken previous hotspot Moray with a Covid case rate of 80 infections per 100,000 people and a test positivity of 3.5 per cent, compared to 69 per 100,000 and 1.9% in Moray.