Boris Johnson: another photo shoot....

Yes, Boris wouldn't do it if he didn't like dressing up or if his image makers didn't think it was a good idea. If he wasn't a politician he'd probably be on Instagram to show off his different outfits and activities to an audience.

Unfortunately image over substance has become very important over the past few years and the politicians know that the public are easily distracted by this, but as vampirequeen says, it would be better if he could actually do the job.

If he was working as hard as he should, he wouldn't have time for all these visits. But that would be too much to ask!

Alegrias- back to irritating you again. I just caught up with your last post. It is indeed distasteful to provide death statistics but they matter and are an indication of underlying problems. Here are the latest.

Ach Jane10, it wouldn't be the same without you.

You've focussed on the last 4 weeks rather than the whole pandemic. And, to give you your due, in the last 4 weeks there have been 25% more deaths per million in Scotland with Covid-19 on the death certificate, so by choosing these dates you can conjure up a 25% figure. Why didn't you just choose week 44? Then you could have said it was 35% worse. Missed a trick there.

But unfortunately, that's not how it works. In the entire 9 months of the pandemic, and using the latest figures, there have been 8% more deaths recorded in England with Covid on the Death Certificate than there have been in England. Another reason to be very careful with what the BBC are telling you.

Since we are slightly ahead in Scotland on the mortality curve compared with England, it will probably level out again in the next few weeks.

Mr Benn springs to mind

Correction - 8% more deaths recorded in England with Covid on the Death Certificate than there have been in Scotland.

If he didn’t show up in public then there would be all the outrage that there was earlier in the year...’where is he?!’ And
‘He’s Mr Invisible’ etc etc. It doesn’t bother me if he never leaves Downing St or he appears in high vis and hard hat when meeting and greeting workforces every week.Most people seem to either laugh at politicians touring workplaces or are cynical about their reasons anyway.

Alegrias ....back peddling a bit now on the stats!?

I do despair of the arithmetical understanding of some posters on here, really. There are three different measures being used here. Jane10 wants to talk about the deaths per million with Covid on the Death certificate. Yesterday, the figure was 4% in "favour" of Scotland. Today, with updated figures, its 8% in favour of Scotland. 8% is more than 4%. That's hardly backpeddling.

Which bit are you not getting lemongrove? I'm going to guess that its the three different ways of calculating the rate that throwing you off - within 28 days, on the Death Cert, or Excess Deaths.

Sorry Alegrias you obviously somehow know better than the ONS and NRS. I'll keep believing them though.
Nicola sturgeon couldn't come up with an answer to these figures on Andrew Marr this morning.

Oh good grief. This is why I never became a teacher, I don't have the patience. I've used the same ONS and NRS figures as you and proved how you, personally, are misinterpreting them. But that doesn't fit the agenda so OK, you win.

You're still wrong though.

Nothing wrong with using the figures for the last four weeks.....Scotland are not doing well at all!
Sturgeon didn't do well on Marr today either.

Well, there is Lemon, but the reasons are clearly beyond you. Or maybe you're just pretending.

As for "Scotland not doing well at all" - for those who would like the real facts rather than the BBC's own slant, here are the rates for England and Scotland using the ONS and NRS data. Please note - not my interpretation, but the actual numbers. Scotland in Blue, England in Red. See that little blip where Scotland was higher than England in mid-November? That's the only bit Marr talked about.

Criticise Sturgeon all you like, but don't try to use cherry-picked statistics to discredit her.

I seem to have touched a nerve there Aleg? I didn’t realise that you were a SNP supporter.
For all the congratulatory posts from people this year about ‘how clear’ Sturgeon is, and how well Scotland is doing,
Well, actually no matter what is done differently to the rest of the UK, the results are much the same.
Tbh most other countries....the same story.

At least Sturgeon has appeared on tv pretty much every day since I don’t know when and told the people of Scotland exactly what the rules are on that particular day. We make a point of watching her on Sky News even though we don’t live in Scotland. She has, imo, shown real leadership: calm and unflappable.

NS is a great communicator. She can certainly talk the talk.

Whether she is a good leader whose policies have benefited the people of Scotland is another question,.

I wondered why Johnson had to go to Checquers (sp) to make that important phone call. It was so he could take the official Downing Street photographer with him and get a shot of him looking like a Great War leader burning the midnight oil to save the country. Wonder how many takes it took of him pretending to have that conversation. Will someone remind me of how much the tax payer is having to fork out for that photographer?

OT

...to Checquers (sp)...

Doesn't need the 'c' before the 'q', MayBee. The 'qu' spells the /k/ sound.