Patrick Noubissie

I don’t really follow the repeated point on here about how pointless NATO is. Maybe we’ll have this idea tested eventually but for now, it seems that Ukraine is far more vulnerable than nearby countries because it isn’t in NATO. Its like all but one house on a street having a security camera, the one house getting robbed and the only conclusion being that cameras don’t work.

Why not send them in some of your work on here. Instead of watching their content, they'd probably let you read it out.

These arguments are a bit overdone at times. Ronaldo v Messi, Haaland v Mbappe, Hanlon v Considine. I'm just glad to have seen them play.

Is literally anyone on here a supporter of America's history of military aggression and political interference in the Middle East/Central and South America etc? Maybe if there is, they could step forward and take on the Old Firm level debate on offer here.

Has NATO expansionism and American meddling in foreign governments become a thing in the last week? Obviously Putin has been talking about this long before then but I'm wondering why the threat of any interference was western fear-mongering a week ago, they were sending in 'peacekeeping' (lol) forces into specific region a few days ago and now they're very fairly and reasonably 'demilitarising' the country this morning. I'm (nearly, apparently) as far from a supporter of American/British foreign policy as it comes but the direct parroting of the wacky pish coming out of Moscow is a real beamer. I can't tell if it's posters being nuts themselves or a chemical Ali act to save face after being completely wrong with smug mug hot takes about how this would go down. A mix of both probably.

I'm sure I read on here that this wasn't going to happen?

Putting any morality aside, I always thought of Putin as highly sophisticated and at least an effective challenger of American imperialist hypocrisy. This is some real shit though. Flipping between a defensive argument about NATO and Russian security to 'and aye Ukraine isn't real anyway' on a sentence by basis. Convincing stuff. I suspect some of the P&B Putin fan club know this know this is a bit of a beamer.

The chat about these restrictions tanking the SNP always looked like desperately wishful thinking but I'm a bit surprised about the apparent "overwhelming majority" backing them. That's just from the wee blurb before the paywall though, is anyone a Scotsman premium member? Also, if you are, why?

Didn't he get first go at responding directly to the restrictions announcement and basically waffle a bunch of meaningless pish? Big man suddenly taking a position on this well after the fact. I wonder if the BMA in England have a direct line to some diddy newspapers who copy and paste their press releases every single fucking day like they do up here.

Johnson getting slowly merked from the shadows is one of those where absolutely everyone already accepts that there is some kind of shenanigans at play. The mainstream take on Cummings not getting fired immediately after Barnard Castle was that Johnson couldn't afford to, on account of all the dirt Cummings had on him. The events since are the result of probably the most predictable and obvious 'conspiracy' you'll ever see. But no, it's actually the WEF and international intelligence that have orchestrated all of this.

Right on brother. If there's one group of people you can't engage in a mature conversation without them playing the man all the time, it's the simps.

I'm not sure whether to agree with you because 'obsession' is a bit subjective. I've definitely noticed a bit more resentment in real life towards the last round of restrictions than ever before. Although that is primarily among people who particularly like football and pubs, which seemed to take the main hit. On the other hand my work Christmas do got cancelled (not my call) and I was at a shindig in December where basically everyone got Covid = plenty of people getting tested. If you mean the people who apparently test themselves four times a day (Facebook ma's and John Swinney) or wear facemasks at crimbo dinner, I agree that is a tiny minority of people. Much as we might see differently about whether we give a f**k about facemasks in the grand scheme of things, I think we can all agree that we just want to get back to normality asap

I live near a testing centre and have used that as my unofficial barometer of how bad shit is. Queues around the block a few weeks ago, no c**t there now. Nearly time to dust off your dancing shoes lads.

Incidentally, the Welsh workforce stuff shows a change in the ratio of absences based on isolation, almost directly in line with their change in restriction. That is exactly why governments and public bodies should collect data, and arguably publish it during a high profile issue that we're all getting fucked by. To transparently measure the success or limitations of public policy. The lack of understanding (or suppressing, depending on your view) of hospital admissions data doesn't live up to that at all. The only reason to think the two things are related - or shouldn't be bothered with - is an assumption that it's one wee group of people who have to choose which information to bother collecting. Which is obviously mental.

Deary me, quit while you're behind man The workforce numbers on the other hand are provided from 21 Boards' SSTS system (HR records) plus SAS from their system and collated by NSS. There are only 14 territorial Health Boards. Do you think NHS 24 or NHS Education's HR departments are sending in data on people in hospital with Covid? Health Boards, like I'd imagine all employers, recorded why their staff missed work long before Covid. The fact that it's now sent into NSS and partially published says nothing about extra people being employed, the comparatively poor quality of hospital data (which I actually agree with) or any of the other moany pish you've taken it to mean. If you want to keep digging on this point to save face, I'll leave you to it from here - we have to be boring everyone with this. This is all started because I answered a question with the data for the weekly absences for 12 Jan and you insisted most of those absences are because of self isolation. That full week incorporated the new, reduced isolation rules (Wales brought the same in a few weeks before). So the latest Welsh data you posted, showing the exact opposite of what you were saying about 'the population', are for staff with the same conditions as in Scotland. And aye, the reduced isolation rules and increasing population case rate is exactly why I dismissed your obviously stupid point about 7,000 NHS staff mostly being in self isolation from the start. Back before you were offering spicy hot takes directly about those and not pretending you meant five weeks ago.

It won't happen. Alba had ideas (admittedly all completely mental) about various issues that they thought could pick off SNP voters with. The Scottish Tories becoming a proper political party would mean coming up with some policies relevant to the jurisdiction of the parliament they participate in. Seems like a bit of a hassle.

Genuine question because I'm not sure how it works in England, are the UK Government publishing a full country-wide breakdown between patients with/admitted for Covid? The stuff I've seen on here has been local Board data as well. Although that might well fit into a wider collation that I'm not up on. Either way, you'd imagine the politicians getting pestered for this might lead to SG gathering it. Billy Jean King's summary of how that type of thing tends to work is a good one.

When I was saying that I only bother with masks to put other people at ease, I didn't realise you'd been having dust ups in opticians We obviously just have very different priorities in life. https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/ - "Number of new COVID-19 admissions to hospital each day where the patient first tests positive for COVID-19 in hospital or in the 14 days prior to admission is published daily by Public Health Scotland" - "Number of NHS staff absent for COVID-19 related reasons: This data is provided by NHS National Services Scotland on behalf of 21 NHS Boards, and by the Scottish Ambulance Service separately" Not the same people then. Thanks for posting that. It shows that considerably more staff were off last week with Covid-19 sickness than due to self-isolation. I guess NHS staff in Scotland have nothing in common with staff in Wales and everything in common with your vague assumptions about "the rest of the population". Do you think you've got more of a grasp on the Covid situation across the population than you do on how governments and health services work, or are all of your takes on that flat out wrong as well?

Hello everyone, I have been assigned to act as this thread's official English to Woke translator. Mr Oaksoft, please proceed with your argument. Invergowrie person of West Asian or North African descent, yussssssss go off. Deadass.

They should have some kind of vote involving the full adult population, with the last two First Ministers competing to be the next one.

You have no idea that most absences are because of self-isolation rules or that it's the same people involved in collating patient and staff data. Start providing some evidence on the blind assumptions you're making about all of this, or let's leave this thrilling exchange about public data governance to another time. So live and let live, right? I agree, which is why I was laughing at the suggestion of civil disobedience in Morrisons. I'm not sure why you feel defensive about that. We're all directed to some degree every day of our lives. I personally think I can be trusted to buy alcohol at 10.30 and that it's a stupid, ineffective law. I don't try and scan some bevvy through and then run my hand through the wine aisle in protest. If this is where your red line is, good for you. Crack on. My only emotion on this is feeling a bit bad for staff. If I thought non-mask wearing would signal me out as a principled, learned man of science and ally to the service profession, I might do it. I'd imagine it actually gives off the complete opposite impression.

I was calling the guy who was absolutely raging about people wearing masks in a supermarket a nutter. I've already said I'll happily get ditch mine around other people in the right circumstances. I'm not convinced they're 100% useless either. Probably very limited, hence why I'll ditch them while I'm surrounded by other sexy young shaggers in the town but keep it on at Scotmid. The only damage I can see is the inconvenience to staff who will have to wear them whether I stage a civil rights protest or not, there is no damaging impact on me whatsoever.

Okay, so you're still viewing a single piece of data, which I only referenced to answer a particular question, as related to restrictions when it has nothing to do with that. I completely agree with why you're interested in the distinction between patients with/specifically admitted for Covid when the overall number is used to justify restrictions. Staff absenteeism isn't the same thing. If a staff member tests positive for Covid, they're not allowed to work and it potentially impacts service delivery regardless of their personal circumstances. As it goes, the published data doesn't even make a case for lockdowns with it only recently hitting a whopping high 4%. If they included staff off because of bunions and every other reason people miss work, the situation would sound much more dramatic. If your contention is that SG publish this and not other absences to make a point, you've not looked at the data because it does the exact opposite. I shouldn't have bothered answering the question but basically the now long term recording of staff absence data really isn't that deep bruh. I think that's most people tbf. The people tweeting about wanting to cry at the sight of a full face in public or the guy earlier wanting to start a resurrection in Morrisons are the same type of horseshoe theory nutters from either side.

I was in a boozer recently where nobody, including the staff, seemed to care about facemasks. In that environment, I ditched the mask straight away and ended up moving between different groups of people I knew in the place. In a shop or other place that they're asking customers to wear masks, I'll do it no problem. Wearing a cheap wee bit of cloth to help businesses follow the rules they've been burdened with, or to put other people at ease during a pandemic, isn't some Rosa Parks issue of principle for me. Given the endless real life implications associated with real restrictions, I'm amazed everyone (libertarian goons and pro-restriction bedwetters alike) seem to have the biggest stauner for the least important one. I feel bad for folk who have to wear them all day but for the rest of us, I'm not really sure why anyone gives a f**k.

I think you might be viewing government/NHS data a bit too much through this thread's prism of absolutely everything being about justifying or criticising restrictions. The absence data has been there from the start, long before Scottish and English divergence on restrictions or indeed the vaccine itself. You could be right that more detailed patient data should be released but it's a separate issue - of course governments will want to know how many staff are off for the day to running of the service. I was only posting it because a few other posters were speculating about something that's already in the public domain.