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People need to have a breather and cannot work 7 days every week. If the Sunday figures are lower than other days but we're hitting 400k plus over the course of a week then I don't think it matters too much if it's split into 7 equal numbers.

If that was the level headed message I was receiving from government and their advisors then I'd probably be a bit more calm. I wake up to someone official saying they're "worried" about things, almost every day. I go to work in a short staffed office that is being caned with new enquiries. I get home exhausted and the news tells me even more bad news about who has died that day or what industry has been blown to oblivion. There are other things that are weighing on me that I'd rather not put on here. We've known about this virus for over a year, have designed and manufactured numerous vaccines in record time and I still don't know when I can eat dinner at my parents house. If you're able to stay calm that's great but the messaging from the SG and nuggets like Leitch especially is breaking me.

Got a call earlier, getting my first jab tomorrow. Very happy about that.

Lads and ladies, the taste of that sweet, sweet sip of the first pint is getting closer by the day.

It was indeed... https://www.11v11.com/matches/scotland-v-england-14-april-1962-228102/ Some rare colour photos taken from the crowd emerged recently... https://www.scotsman.com/regions/rare-colour-images-emerge-scotland-england-match-hampden-1962-1422344

Your wife has missed quite literally dozens of emails, notices, leaflets and staff room talk then. NHS frontline workers were done weeks ago (and a pretty big chunk of the non-frontline too) - anyone who missed out can still request an appointment, it’ll just most likely be at a mass vaccination centre. Would suggest she looks into it. Or call the Daily Mail so a cretin journalist can ask the First Minister.

Even if it doesn't, it's worth a try.

Todays summary As usual on a Monday I will do a one week update. After Scotgov kicking the Lockdown Can a further 2 weeks down the road it is prudent to see if there should be real pressure to timetable lifting restrictions next week. Clearly this metric is just about infections reported per 100K in the latest 7 day period. I think it is very useful viewing 7 days of data so we can establish good or bad performance in each council area. What is going on in Falkirk & Clacks ? Home nations first: England 309.5 to 233.2 have dropped 24.65% in last week (Follows 29% previous week). Wales 162.2 to 126.5 have dropped 22.01% in last week (Follows 38% previous week), Northern Ireland 235.3 to 184.8 have dropped 21.46% in last week (Follows 27% previous week). Scotland peaked at 301.9 for figures 29th Dec to 4th Jan From 23rd to 29th January reported this time last week in Scotland we were down to 136.2 Yesterdays figure 29th Jan to 4th Feb Jan was 118.3 Todays figure for 30th Jan to 5th Feb is 118.1 A tiny drop of 0.17% Infections have dropped every day (now 32 days in a row) since the aforementioned peak. Total drop is now 60.88% The drop from This time last week from 136.2 to 118.1 is 13.29% (Last weeks was over 23%). Clearly the rest of the UK who lagged behind Scotland in infections dropping have now accelerated past us in speed of reduction.. Council progress in last 7 Days as follows. Click cases by neighbourhood to see the spread on the geographical map. https://public.tableau.com/profile/phs.covid.19#!/vizhome/COVID-19DailyDashboard_15960160643010/Overview Falkirk 157.3 to 249.2 Up 58.42% This seriously needs a reasonable explanation. Has Bairnardo already started his threatened partying ? Clackmannanshire 153.3 to 205.7 Up 34.18% this surely linked to above? North Lanarkshire 225.6 to 180.4 Down 20.03% Another good week. West Dunbartonshire 170.9 to 173.2 Up 1.35% Glasgow City 208.3 to 169.6 Down 18.58% Another good week. South Lanarkshire 189.1 to 166.6 Down 11.90% Renfrewshire 171.4 to 165.8 Down 3.26% East Ayrshire 179.5 to 159.8 Down 10.97% East Renfrewshire 164.3 to 148.6 Down 9.56% Stirling 139.1 to 146.5 Up 5.32% But more significant 2nd weekly rise. North Ayrshire 201.1 to 137.3 to Down 31.73% Great Week East Dunbartonshire 169.4 to 127.0 Down 25.03% Great week. Inverclyde 144.0 to 123.4 Down 14.31% Dundee City 106.5 to 123.2 Up 15.68% Poor following last weeks 40% drop. Angus 139.4 to 117.9 Down 15.42% West Lothian 139.8 to 114.1 Down 18.38% South Ayrshire 134.1 to 110.1 Down 17.90% Argyll & Bute 72.2 to 102.5 Up 41.97% Second large weekly rise. Western Isles 71.1 to 101.0 Up 42.05% Midlothian 115.7 to 91.9 Down 20.57% Dumfries & Galloway 143.8 to 86.0 Down 40.19% East Lothian 71.9 to 85.9 Up 19.47% Moray 102.3 to 77.2 Down 24.54% City Of Edinburgh 72.6 to 69.0 Down 4.96% Fife 83.3 to 68.8 Down 17.41% Perth & Kinross 121.1 to 67.1 Down 44.59% Scottish Borders 79.6 to 60.6 Down 23.87% Aberdeenshire 70.8 to 57.8 Down 18.36% Aberdeen City 86.2 to 56.9 Down 33.99% Highlands 74.6 to 56.8 Down 23.86% Orkney Island 26.9 to 4.5 Down 83.27% Shetland Islands 4.4 to 4.4 No Change

I'm straight and spoken for sorry.

The thing I liked about it was the attitude. This team looked like they were absolutely relishing the fight. Personified IMHO by Finn's kick to Duhan which just failed. It was early doors and they knew it was a close one, but instead of being angry at missing the opportunity, they had a smile and a giggle. This was a performance won by battles up front though. Scotlands pack were too aggressive and mobile for England's pack (Itoje aside). I thought the contrast was illustrated by the difference in performances between Billy Vunipola and Matt Fagerson. Now I'm a big fan of Vunipola, but he couldn't get to grips with the pace of the game yesterday whereas you saw the energy of Fagerson personified in his kick chase efforts and aggressive ball carrying. I can't recall a game where the Scotland pack has dominated the England pack so much of the game, not even during the 25-13 game of about 3 years ago. As for criticism of Finn Russell? I obviously watch a different game. What I saw was a fly-half that varied the play beautifully and he absolutely bewildered the England back three. I also saw him organise our defence and be Price's eyes and ears when he was struggling. Yes he missed a couple of kicks, had one forward (but creative) pass, and got sin-binned, but on the the other side, and off the top of my head I saw him; Put a perfect ball through to Maitland from which we nearly scored Make Hill miss and panic Vunipola into getting a yellow Make some massive first up tackles Loft another pinpoint ball for Maitland to compete for (before the try) Beautiful crossfield kick for Duhan (from which we nearly scored) Massive clearance from an England lineout Some beautiful flat passes for the likes of Harris and Redpath to run on to and my personal favourite... Absolutely smashed Jonny May into next season He easily outperformed Farrell, Ford, Biggar, Sexton, Burns and probably outperformed Jalibert (who was excellent, but who didn't have to face the pressure of Tom Currie coming at him like an Exocet, trying to break his ribs. If we can't appreciate having the most gifted 10 in world rugby then there really is no hope for us. Special mention to Maitland, who I thought had his best game in years. Finally my man of the match would have been 'Duhan VDM" It was like having a third centre (and a crash ball one at that) and you've got to love someone that carries Mark Wilson over the line with them for a try. That having been said, you wouldn't get much argument from me if you picked any one from Hogg, Gray, Watson, M Fagerson, Turner etc, they were all absolutely magnificent. I almost blubbed at the end! Yours aDONis

Grandad passed away overnight there. Sorry maybe not the right place but I guess grief is mental health adjacent. I'm lucky in that 1) I haven't lost a loved one since I was a child and 2) that I have grandparents still living when I'm in my mid 20s. I'm feeling really weird though, nauseous and just empty but not emotionally unstable. (Eta immediately had a good cry after posting this and chatting to my girlfriend lol) It wasn't a shock and if anything knowing this was coming has been a big source of anxiety recently. I feel awful for my dad, his siblings and my gran, Covid has made this whole situation a lot more difficult. He actually contracted covid in December but bizarrely given his general state of health had no symptoms. An absolute titan of a man and influence on my life, so many of my interests come direct from him, I'll miss him so much. I'm just glad I came back to Scotland and got to spend time with him before his condition worsened and Covid stopped us all seeing each other. I feel some shame, I had to force myself to phone him yesterday because I was so nervous knowing he was really ill. I'm glad I did though, he was obviously really struggling but I told him I loved him and that I was thinking of him.

Well if c***s are going to do well you might as well profit

The issue I think is that scientists very rarely speak in absolute black and white terms. Even if something is overwhelmingly likely they'll still say something like "X is likely to mean Y, but it could still mean Z." In the current circumstances, that means stuff like we "could" be stuck with no major events for "years". I mean we absolutely could - for all we know a variant turns up tomorrow that sweeps round the globe, evades all vaccines and kills twice as many people. Scientists will acknowledge that there are unforeseen possiblities - but then the reporting ends up being "Live events 'could' be banned for years" even if that's not what the experts were driving at or if it doesn't really reflect what they actually think. If the AZ vaccine does protect from serious illness/death and Pfizer/Moderna don't seem to lose much efficacy at all as a result then I'd like to think we're absolutely in good shape just now. Last week's weekly stats stated 60% of vaccinations up to that point had been done using Pfizer. We should have Moderna coming on supply in April from what I've seen. If we get to the end of this and it's even something like 40% Pfizer/Modern and the rest AZ, then you've go 40% of the population with very high protection against all variants, and 60% of the population with very high protection against the dominant strains in the UK just now and some level of protection from SA - and with that protection extending to them being highly unlikely to become seriously unwell. The AZ cohort would have the likelihood of a booster jag to follow down the line to offer further protection from that variant. If that all comes to pass then the rationale for restrictions would be out the window on the basis of what we currently know about the level of protection vaccines offer and the current COVID variants circulating in the UK. The best thing we can do beyond vaccinations just now is try to stop the SA variant taking a foothold. As far as the pace of progress goes, if we go forward over the next week at 50k a day Mon-Sat and then 30k again on Sunday we'll be at upwards of 1.2 million vaccines delivered. We could be knocking on the door of 2 million doses by the end of the month at that pace. That's phenomenal. There continues to be a lot of chat about having the JCVI groups done by the start of May but at this pace they could be through them in the first week or two of April. Obviously they won't want to over promise if supplies are variable, but the hope is there... The big thing is where we are with hospital/death/ICU/case rates at the end of February. If this is working we should start to see them fall off a cliff - particularly as far as hospital and death numbers go.

Something, something, Celtic shop jpg.

PARKLIFE

That's @wastecoatwilly and I claim my £5.

Even by your standards that is an incredible amount of shite. In the two seasons he didn't get us into the top six we finished seventh. So in seven seasons his lowest finish was seventh, a position that a club of Saints size should be delighted with. We didn't finish sixth last season because we played less games than Hibs. We finished sixth because the league was called on the basis of points per game and our points per game was the sixth best in the league. I know that you think you could do a better job of managing Saints than Tommy, but the facts are clear - no manager has had a more sustained spell of success at Saints than him and IMO it's likely that no-one will in the future. I think the majority of Saints fans will join me in wishing him all the best, except against us obviously.

@Gordon EF Abort, for your own sanity.

I think folk also underestimate the logistical effort as well as the physical strain involved in running these small clinics - predominantly by volubteers many whom have worked a full week. Despite everyone's best hopes, we don't have infinite resources.

It’s Monday and the new season starts with a bang 10/10. Expect a few similar scores today. Good guess for Tour de France, knew the others. http://quizoftheday.co.uk/1419

That's a bowfin' take, mate.

It's now over 14 years since the last edition of Grandstand. It's my firm belief that any live sport shown on the BBC on a Saturday should still be introduced by the Grandstand theme.

To be fair, Whitty, Vallance and the rest of SAGE have always acknowledged this, as has Hancock. It's only the nutters on 'Independent SAGE' who have a clear grievance, political motivation and/or craving to remain in the public eye who push this, along with a minority of 'public health experts', who aren't virologists, epidemiologists, or vaccinologists. It's really a fringe view in the scientific community, in the same way folk like Sridhar used to shame backers of the Great Barrington Declaration, which admittedly, is also a fringe view.

All joking aside, whatever was said may well have been in poor taste but I can't imagine a situation whereby it was bordering on anything approaching hate-speech. Charging folk for saying or cracking jokes that are in bad taste is an extremely worrying trend.

Snow/Mud walk yesterday. Daisy had been having honking breath over a couple months, took her to the vet and they confirmed she had a fairly serious infection. 13 teeth out, and now on wet food. Well meant to be wet food, left a pizza cooling last night and she managed to get it off the counter before scoffing the lot.

Walked this beauty today.

Jordon Forster self-isolating as a precaution. Imo he should be isolating as a precaution until the end of the season.

Hugely frustrating that the numbers being vaccinated 5-midnight aren't as many as those being done 9-5.

I mean you've got a guy literally working a GP practice on the previous page saying they can't do much more without killing themselves, but aye, keep saying it's possible and someone might believe you.

Today is my four year anniversary of stopping drinking. I don't miss it.

About 15 seconds after Todd logs on...it will be ridiculous, pathetic, Sturgeon must go, Freeman must go, Jason and his amazing technicolour Clownshoes...and anyone who doesn't agree with this viewpoint will be a "Simp"

Not liking rugby: fine Laughing at the significant number of rugby fans who simultaneously have a baseless superiority complex and massive chip on their shoulders about football: very enjoyable Having those views about rugby while liking American football: you're for the watching

Where do Liverpool go from here? “The drawing board” - Souness “Square one” - Keane “Dubai” - Lennon Stolen from @oldfirmfacts1 on Twitter

Just as a round up on the weekend, Leaving aside the players, who one and all were fantastic, I'd like to take my hat off to Townsend, who's position as Scotland coach I thought was rightly being questioned after a pretty poor world cup, Finn gate etc, he has turned things around. Last season was solid if unspectacular but his given the team the foundation to build on for yesterday's result. We could be 4 undefeated if Hogg hadn't given away a scrum underneath the posts and you would have to go back years for such a good run. The Irish is the next hoodoo to get off our back, but if we play with the same intensity and discipline we should beat them. I didn't see much from Wales to trouble us. As a rugby fan I am actually really excited to watch the France game as I think it could be a fantastic game of rugby. As a Scotland fan its the one im dreading as France have now got a coaching set up that is not caving into player pressure and getting the best out of them. And on the taking a knee, not one player from France, Italy, Ireland or Wales took a knee. Nobody did during the Autumn internationals. I am happy with the explanation that everyone in the Scotland camp had assumed that they weren't doing it. However once some (and not all) the England players took a knee some of the Scotland players decided to join in, but obviously not everyone noticed they were doing it. However I am sure like most people that have stood through minutes silence for people they never knew (or in some cases had never heard off) I would be surprised if all of the players were actually taking the time to think about BLM / inclusivity etc and not about the first hit / game plan etc. I dont really get why so many people are rushing to tarnish a group of players who have just achieved one of the best results and performances in a many a year (I was going to say generation but its probably more than that now). 1999 or 1990 was the last time we had as good a team, and I would actually be surprised if we didn't lift the Triple Crown for the first time since 1990. Its bizzare we have to look for the perceived negatives and not just enjoy the success Edit to add -I thought Fagerson was again excellent at 8, and hopefully silenced a few doubters. Bit biggest praise for Turner, lineout was one area I thought we would struggle but his throwing was excellent pretty sure he was 100%

Ten for Monday. Guessed the mountain, was pretty sure on the Tin Lizzy, and went the right way on the Indian flag. I'll absolutely take that.

10. Lucky guess on the Tour De France.

Having seen many an image of old Hampden before, this picture has stunned me in terms of just how big that east terrace was at the ground. I've only ever seen pictures looking straight-on towards the east and west terraces but this shows just how vast it really was. And to see it in colour too... Absolutely astonishing stuff.

Mrs works in a practice with 5 GPs, many do out of hours cover over evenings and weekends as well as their practice work. Its not sustainable if you want primary services to still be available and given the pressure on hospitals just now there’s never been a harder time for GPs to try and manage patients in the community to take the strain off hospitals. That coupled with several sectors not really engaging patients face to face has put even further strain on GP practices. Shes contracted to work 40hrs a week but is having to do stuff on days off and evenings (especially with ever changing health board guidance and trying to find vaccine clinic locations which have to be recced etc) then its more like a 60hr week, which is hard for her because I work shifts with little quality time off meaning because of restrictions we have serious childcare issues too. The pressure and strain on GP staff is incredible and I think youre not really understanding that. Shes been incredibly strong through this, im genuinely astonished as I think i’d be absolutely broken by it. GP’s could never be part of the 7 day roll out.

Don't worry PC Cabe is banned.

I don't think I've ever mentioned the media's stance towards independence or anything else before. 100,000 + people in the U.K died with covid so of course many of the stories were/are negative. Every vaccine story has explained exactly what is known. The BBC one clearly explains that the limited tests suggest that the AstraZeneca vaccine still prevents severe illness, which is a good result. Your frequent temper tantrums make you seem like a spoiled brat. 'Mah girlfriend's family!' 'Two votes lost!' at things that haven't even happened. I'm sure the government(s) at Scottish, British and European level will take your views on board while making covid strategy decisions. Like a nodding supermarket manager letting a Karen with a remedial knowledge of the Sale of Goods Act rant herself out.

Is he Premiership quality?

I've just explained why it isn't though. Unless you have more staff hours, you cannot increase capacity. Closing GP surgeries on Tuesdays and Thursdays and opening them Saturday and Sunday just so that the figures across the seven days of the week look more even is utterly pointless.

10 for Monday

We are 5th in a predominantly part time league. 6th if East Fife win their game in hand. We've scored 9 goals all league campaign. If you dont think thats bad, woeful even, how low are your expectations?

I don't mean to come across as ignorant and/or thick but if the population is fully vaccinated then what difference does the R number make? If the virus is still spreading but the majority of people aren't getting seriously ill then what difference does it make? I'm just struggling to understand how in a fully vaccinated population the virus could still run rampant and overwhelm the health service. If that's likely to be the case then what's the point in vaccinating?

Derek’s a diehard now, not missed a game in nearly 8 years. Home and away, league, cup, Europe, friendlies, the lot!

10 for Monday, guessed the TdF and MTF.

It's quite an interesting insight into people. I don't know if concocting a story that he's a total fraud stealing a wage just makes them feel better about hounding a man out of employment? Not as fun if you acknowledge him as someone who's dedicated 8 years of his life to the club, with a good deal of success. I keep thinking about who would be an adequate replacement and I keep coming back to the 2013/14 Derek Mcinnes to be honest.

Just posting to say I'm so glad Mark Chapman is back with the gang, rather than the personality vacuum that is Dan Walker