First ministers briefing

[Trichford]

Is there one on today? If so what time will it be? Thanks

I realise this is nothing to do with your original question but I was about to start a thread with exactly the same title and that seemed a bit pointless.

How are people finding the FM's daily briefing? I listen every day and find it to be more honest and straight forward, less of a pr exercise, than the Westminster briefing later in the day. I like her statistics about hospital and intensive care admissions.

I'm not an SNP voter but I think Nicola Sturgeon has handled herself remarkably well in this crisis. She makes me feel calmer and more motivated to carry on staying at home. And apart from the obvious Calderwood business the others sharing the briefing with her also seem quite calm and in control. I'm assuming they are all trained in dealing with the media and are all putting the best possible spin on everything, but I still feel more reassured after listening to her than after listening to the bluster from Westminster.

What do others think about how she's handling this? Am I just being naive?

I have stopped binge watching news as I was in week 1 due to the stress it was causing my DDs . I go upstairs and watch FM's briefings to keep informed. While the UK picture is interesting it is not as relevant to me, my circumstances and family situation. By calling the decision to close schools before Westminster the Scottish Gov has shown that it will act autonomously if needed.

DH is weirdly more interested in the Westminster briefing. It just feels less relevant to me, with the NHS bring devolved.
I don't honestly even know if the evening figures include he Scottish ones or if they are just England.
This had made me feel much more like Scotland is actually it's own country than ever before, that's not something I have ever really noticed. My loyalties definitely lie with the Scottish Parliament in this..

@Noworrieshere I was wondering the exact same thing. About whether their numbers even include the Scottish ones.
I think that Sturgeons calm articulate manner and the fact that the figures she gives are far more transparent in terms of care homes makes me feel calmer and more assured. I don't care about the WM briefings anymore. They don't seem relevant to me

I agree with what you've all said above and I'm not an snp supporter by any stretch of the imagination. Its just makes me sad and angry when I think about what she could have actually achieved for Scotland if she'd focused on the job and not the referendum. I'd have been more influenced by a steady hand on the tiller and a well run country than all all the other pish and division.

What WaxOn said. I'm not a fan of the SNP or Nicola Sturgeon, but she has been the only one out of our politicians, UK wide, who has given the appearance of being statesmanlike in all of this

I find them really well handled and honest. I think she holds her hand up to failings and is a lot more transparent than the other lot.
She is straight down the line and has made it clear that should a Westminster decision not be to the best interest of Scotland then she will take a different route.
I feel that she does give a s**t about the people and not just all about the economy.
I think Westminster's all about the money and really couldn't care less about the people.
All torys are the same, they don't understand the average joe's day to day life as they have never had to experience hardship.
She's a credit to us!

I also agree with @WaxOnFeckOff and @Tomorrowisanewday. Have never ever been a fan of the SNP and Sturgeon due to the divisive nature of their politics to date, but I think she's doing a sterling job on a daily basis on all the Covid/lockdown stuff.

My respect to the pp's who don't like her/aren't snp or indy supporters for being so open minded and honest regarding her fine leadership at the moment. It's a rare thing!

Credit where it is due. I can't see her lasting when this is over though. She isn't going fast enough for independence for the hard liners and if i'm honest, I think she currently believes (pandemic aside) that now is not the time anyway. I think the Salmond faction will have plans to oust her. I don't want to turn this into a political thing though so i'll stop now

I think she is a first class politician, I just don't agree with her politics. But I'm glad we have her right now.

I loathe the concept of independence and the SNP and what it has done to scotland

Despite that, I admire and respect NS for her leadership skills and style.

I wish to god she could defect to the Labour Party. The rest of the SNP are utterly hopeless

Glad people are seeing what a great leader our country has. It's because she cares passionately about Scotland however we are still mostly controlled by Tory clowns we did not elect and do not care one iota about making Scotland a better place to live.

She's had the nerve to put us under a much tighter lockdown than the rest of the country. The "work from home unless you can't" message was refined by a list of essential services here, which meant many more businesses had to close. I work in construction, and it's been disastrous for my business, but if it gets us out of lockdown quicker, it'll be worth it. Being honest, seeing some of the photos posted by tier 1 contractors siuth of the border, with the "keeping the country running" tags give me the fear - very,very few construction sites can accomodate social distancing.

Looking at analyses of the comparable figures, we appear to be doing better, so hopefully, that will continue.

When I say nerve, I mean confidence or courage, not gall, which it could be taken to read

If you look at NZ- they have 11 deaths. 11. SNP wanted to close borders / ensure people need to quarantine when comung here but it's a reserved matter so not allowed to. Asked UK Gov to do it but they haven't. So sad.

I watch the UK and Scotland updates most days and they are so different.

I echo what most have said above and trust NS to be as transparent as possible and make the decisions she thinks are best for Scotland. It is a tough job and she won't get it 100% right but she will do her best even with the constraints of reserved matters.

Can't even imagine how this would have gone if Salmond was still FM!!!!

Imagine octopus hands Alex Salmond trying to engage in social distancing 😁

A wee bit off topic, but does anyone know where I can find the daily number of Covid-19 deaths. The Scottish government Coronavirus website just gives a cumulative number (and I can’t remember what yesterday‘s was, day before that...) as does the National Records of Scotland. These numbers differ as well because gov.scot website only includes those who have died and tested positive for Covid-19 and the NRS includes deaths which have COVID-19 merely mentioned on the death certificate.
As we are about a month behind England (I read our first case was on March 1st, a month behind England) in the spread of the disease I interested to know if numbers were levelling off, still increasing or decreasing? I find it difficult to tell with the numbers presented in the way the are.

I'm not sure where the figures are, there is a thread all about the stats in the coronavirus topic that might have some decent links?

I've been casually monitoring the numbers in intensive care as I read that we had 350 ventilator beds (nhs and private) 250 of which had been reserved for covid patients. I think we got to about 215 in use but that has dropped steadily over the last week, and think we are under 160 now. I know not everyone who has it end up on a ventilator and not everyone who dies sees a hospital or indeed a test, but it indicates to me anyway the stress on the NHS.

There's a link from the official government website https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/

to a more detailed one where you can download excel spreadsheets with the data (on my mobile so can't access them easily)

https://www.gov.scot/publications/trends-in-number-of-people-in-hospital-with-confirmed-or-suspected-covid-19/

Thanks waxonfeckoff I’ll just keep looking and reading.
Yes, good idea, looking at intensive bed use would give an indication of which way the disease is heading in Scotland.

I preferred Alex salmond to Nicola sturgeon as first minister. Nicola sturgeon as first minister stated she agreed with cobra decisions though when lockdown first happened. Surely there must be compromise within the uk and the 4 nations. I read it was Catherine Calderwood and Nicola sturgeon who pushed for and got the once a day exercise in lock down (Spain are only now just relaxing that).
Id like to know if NI are following Ireland more or the rest of uk in the ‘spirit of lockdown’?

I disagree with the Scottish government’s interpretation of financial support for businesses compared to England, and was disappointed to read this will allow them to support the aviation industry. My thinking here may be in a minority though considering the amount of folk I know who are booking holidays for next year.

Jodri with all due respect, no one is viewing gov decisions based on whether they can go on holiday.

But the aviation industry, like the ferries, is very important to the island communities.

I think the ease of travel in our global society is important and will need to be reflected upon. For example, It cannot be denied that the hotspots of Covid-19 in European ski resorts helped spread the disease across Europe. The difference in pollution globally due to reduced air, sea and land traffic has been significant, or is that just fake news?

Ok yes, aviation and ferries are important to island communities but what percentage population live there in comparison to mainland Scotland, surely a balance and compromise has to be sought. Island and rural remoteness is surely just part of the deal. I live rurally on mainland Scotland and for example am unable to get milk deliveries, my WiFi is awful, can only get 2 BBC channels on my tv and I’m not on a bus route; I would have all these if I lived in a town or city.

Like I judged Westminster government on wrongly supporting the banks in the global financial crisis in 2008, I will judge the Scottish government on the industries they choose to support and the decisions they make in this crisis rather than of their presentation skills and demeanour.

it is hard to be objective and not subjective.