What is it with journalists? The US sees a 38% fall in gun deaths since 2021 and they’re still falling fast
Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 I appreciate that this is a bit off-agenda but I hope still of interest. In the Guardian today, the above and: Although political violence is not new in America, we seem to have entered a cycle of new horror. In addition to mass shootings, the past few years have seen the assassination of the Democratic state legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband in Minnesota, multiple assassination attempts on Donald Trump and his cabinet, the killing of two members of the National Guard, the bombing … Continue reading What is it with journalists? The US sees a 38% fall in gun deaths since 2021 and they’re still falling fast
Reposted as every newspaper and TV news outlet in Scotland today swallows the laughable Pisa myth that England’s schools do better:
‘The Branchform 14’ – only 0.001% of supporters or 0.01% of members write to complain to Police Scotland about ‘SNP finances’ over last 5 years
Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From the Police Scotland, Freedom of Information service – Branchform/SNP – Complaints etc of SNP finances – Jan 21 TD, published yesterday, the above and the following response: The number of complaints, reports, referrals or allegations received. A total of 14 complaints, reports, referrals, or allegations fall within the scope of your request. The dates received. All received between March 2021 – June 2026. The broad source category, for example member of public, elected representative, political party, regulator or other public authority. All were … Continue reading ‘The Branchform 14’ – only 0.001% of supporters or 0.01% of members write to complain to Police Scotland about ‘SNP finances’ over last 5 years
Audit – Shocking 50% more waited over 12 hours last year in NHS England than in NHS Scotland – 38 000 Scots treated faster
From BBC Breakfast this morning the above1. Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 All things being equal with a population ratio of 10.6/1, the NHS Scotland figure should be around 113 000, but was only 75 1202, 66%, two thirds, 38 000 fewer. The number waiting over 12 hours in NHS England was thus 51% higher. 38 000 as percentage of 75 120. Nearly 40 000 in Scotland did not have to wait over 12 hours because they were not attending A&E in England. Source: Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or … Continue reading Audit – Shocking 50% more waited over 12 hours last year in NHS England than in NHS Scotland – 38 000 Scots treated faster
99.9% of materials from Scotland’s first commercial wind farm successfully recycled to rubbish claim that ‘SNP will send them to landfill’
Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 From Renew Economy, tomorrow (!), the above and: Flying in the face of the fearmongering often dragged out to oppose clean energy technologies, fully renewable energy utility ScottishPower recently revealed that 99.9 per cent of the materials from Scotland’s first commercial wind farm have been successfully recycled and reused following decommissioning. One of the most pervasive “warnings” against clean energy technologies like solar and wind energy is their supposed inability to be recycled at the end of their life. Full text at: https://reneweconomy.com.au/a-great-result-26-turbines-from-first-commercial-wind-farm-almost-completely-recycled-and-reused/ Back … Continue reading 99.9% of materials from Scotland’s first commercial wind farm successfully recycled to rubbish claim that ‘SNP will send them to landfill’
Two leading academics cast doubt on England’s supposedly better Pisa scores as their sample is revealed to be skewed toward high achievers by schools gaming the system again
To put it plainly, based on the reading of two prominent academics in England, the sample from English schools is light on the percentage of pupils with special needs. This echoes the problems of representativeness in the English sample in 2022 (more below) when the results were ‘asterisked’ with a serious warning after almost being fully excluded. There is no history of such gaming or bias in the other 3 UK nations. Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 The above from the Times Education Supplement‘s analysis of the Pisa test … Continue reading Two leading academics cast doubt on England’s supposedly better Pisa scores as their sample is revealed to be skewed toward high achievers by schools gaming the system again
No credible academic uses the Pisa scores and proper tests show real progress in Scotland’s schools
Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Here’s a short video version: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/03/10/short-video-on-englands-pisa-scores-are-based-only-on-a-tiny-selective-sample-of-higher-achieving-schools-making-paul-okanes-sad-desperate-attempt-to-claim-they-are-better/ ‘Pisa tests fail to recognise what’s important in education and should be ignored’ https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/pisa-tests-fail-recognise-whats-important-education-and-should-be-ignored OECD and Pisa tests are damaging education worldwide – academics https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/06/oecd-pisa-tests-damaging-education-academics Too few students from England took part in the study – meaning the results could be up to eight points too generous, as more higher-performing pupils took part. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/pisa-2022-rise-in-maths-but-warning-over-inflated-results/#:~:text=But%20the%20country’s%20performance%20is,caution%20on%20interpreting%20the%20findings. I could go on with quotes about Pisa but the above three give a flavour of just how useless they are. Only politicians use them and do … Continue reading No credible academic uses the Pisa scores and proper tests show real progress in Scotland’s schools
Bernera and Claire Kellerman’s Misguided ‘Shaggy Dog’ Story
Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 By Jim Mennie On Great Bernera, a small island off Lewis with about 250 residents, a volunteer caféhas become the centre of an expensive disability-discrimination claim. The disputeturns on a contrast that is easy to miss beneath the headlines: the gap between anowner’s assertion that a rescue dog is a trained assistance animal and the standardsthat professional assistance-dog practice actually uses — task specificity, publicbehaviour, temperament, and an independent training record. That contrast is the spine of the case. The legal chronology is the … Continue reading Bernera and Claire Kellerman’s Misguided ‘Shaggy Dog’ Story
Full exposé – How Glasgow Labour is responsible for all of the infections in its ‘troubled’ super-hospital
My September column in Scots Independent, 100 years old this year. Available at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/ Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 My September column in Scots Independent, 100 years old this year. Available at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/ Continue reading Full exposé – How Glasgow Labour is responsible for all of the infections in its ‘troubled’ super-hospital
Here are TWELVE reasons why Glasgow is really getting better and is already better than most English cities but it’s being hidden from you by Labour-supporting media
Help Talking-up Scotland keep going Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Readers may know, I’m a Bairn, so entirely impartial when Michael Kelly pops up to slag Glasgow. Some dog-walkers I know, with dogs called ‘Kenny’ and ‘Lubo’, are more forthright on his abilities, along the lines of the Celtic Blog in 2022: Just when you thought the gallery of goons was complete, along comes a figure so discredited and ridiculous and dripping in scandal that he makes Boris Johnson look like a paragon of virtue. I refer of course to our former director Michael … Continue reading Here are TWELVE reasons why Glasgow is really getting better and is already better than most English cities but it’s being hidden from you by Labour-supporting media
Talking-up Scotland 