‘Literally no patients’ at some NHS vaccination centres in Scotland after appointment letters glitch – MSN, 18/03/21

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Some NHS vaccination centres in Scotland have had no patients for a number of days after an apparent glitch in sending out appointment letters.

NHS Lothian on Friday last week said there was a delay to appointment letters, which Edinburgh Southern MSP Daniel Johnson told the Scottish Parliament had led to some vaccination centres having “literally no patients” on Monday and Tuesday.

Billboards battle in Greenock between pro-union activists and independence supporters – Greenock Telegraph, 17/03/21

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A BATTLE of the billboards is taking place in Greenock as pro-union activists and independence supporters vie to get their message across.

The new Inverclyde ‘YES to the United Kingdom’ and Scotland Matters poster at the junction of Campbell Street and Brougham Street in Greenock focuses on ‘Education not Separation’.

Sturgeon ‘misled parliament’ over role in Salmond investigation, committee finds – Sky News, 18/03/21

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A Scottish parliamentary committee has concluded that First Minister Nicola Sturgeon misled parliament.

Sky News understands that Holyrood’s harassment committee has reached the conclusion by a majority vote ahead of the publication of its final report.

Members have decided that Ms Sturgeon misled the committee itself and, as such, misled parliament and potentially breached the ministerial code of conduct.

Picture ‘unremittingly bleak’ as Scottish retail sector suffers another double-digit decline – The Scotsman, 17/03/21

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Industry leaders said February marked a slight improvement on January’s plunge, but the overall picture “remains unremittingly bleak”, particularly for non-food retailers.

Total sales north of the Border fell by 24.3 per cent last month compared with February 2020, when they had declined by just 0.8 per cent, according to the latest sales monitor from the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and KPMG.

Total food sales were up 3.1 per cent as supermarkets and other “essential” stores selling food and drink products remained open, though that increase was slightly down on January’s gain. However, there was yet another slide in total non-food sales, which slumped 47.4 per cent, year on year.

Adjusted for the estimated effect of online sales, total non-food sales fell by 20.2 per cent last month versus February 2020.

Borderlands investment deal set to be signed – BBC, 17/03/21

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A multi-million pound investment plan for southern Scotland and northern England is set to be officially agreed.

The Scottish and UK governments have confirmed £350m towards the Borderlands growth deal.

Dumfries and Galloway, Scottish Borders, Northumberland, Cumbria and Carlisle City councils and other local partners will add in more than £100m.

They are carrying out an online signing of the deal which it is hoped can deliver more than 5,000 jobs.

But where will the investment be made?

Must do Better: How the SNP is barely scraping a pass on education – Holyrood, 17/03/21

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In 2015, less than a year into her tenure as first minister, Nicola Sturgeon urged voters to judge her on her government’s education record.

Specifically, Sturgeon pledged to tackle Scotland’s attainment gap, the yawning divide between those from the most deprived areas and their more affluent peers.

The First Minister deserves credit for staking her reputation on an issue which had proved so intractable in the past, a problem so deep-seated that a succession of well-intentioned policy initiatives made little impact.

Yet if we are to judge the Scottish Government’s education record solely on reducing the attainment gap, then it barely scrapes a pass.

Scotland’s train operator ScotRail to be nationalised – BBC, 17/03/2021

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Scotland’s train services are to be run by a public sector body, the Scottish government has announced.

Dutch firm Abellio will stop running the ScotRail franchise at the end of March next year.

After this an “arms-length” Scottish government company will take over the running of services.

Abellio has been running the franchise since 2015 but had its contract ended early amid criticism over cancellations and performance levels.

All ScotRail staff will transfer to the new Scottish government-owned entity.

HMS Queen Elizabeth visits Western Scotland for the first time – Gov.uk

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The Royal Navy’s Fleet Flagship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, has arrived in Glen Mallan, Scotland, as part of final preparations before her first operational deployment.

Sailing in along the Firth of Clyde, the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier has spent the last two weeks at sea testing and trialling her latest equipment, before berthing at the new Northern Ammunition Jetty for a routine onload of operational stores.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the first of the Royal Navy’s fleet to visit the new £64 million facility, built by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).

Operated by Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) through Defence Munitions, the Northern Ammunition Jetty is specifically designed to support the surface fleet, allowing them to continue entering and berthing at Glen Mallan.

UK’s Covid-19 vaccine programme shows ‘success of the Union’, says Alister Jack – Yahoo News

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Scotland would still be in the “vice-like grip” of coronavirus if it had followed SNP advice on vaccinations, a UK Government minister has claimed.

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack hailed the vaccination programme against the virus as being a success for the UK.

He insisted: “Had we followed the SNP’s advice on vaccines and waited for the flat-footed EU, we would still be in the vice-like grip of the pandemic instead of confidently looking forward to better days.

“There can be no more eloquent expression of the success of the Union than this brilliant UK-wide approach.”

The UK, Mr Jack said, has developed a “Covid-19 vaccination programme that is the envy of the world”.

He described this as being as a “truly astonishing achievement” and on a “scale that dwarfs anything since the war”.