The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser, finishing in 6 days, to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson

By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS

According to Public Health Scotland in February 2025:

An estimated 1 in 23 people in Scotland were reported as receiving social care support and/or services at some point during 2023/24.¹

That’s around 236 000.

Today in the Holyrood magazine, Labour’s Jackie Baillie promised to deliver a thousand new social care packages if they win the Scottish election in May 2025.

That’s 0.74%.

I suppose it is a bit better than the 0.68% of the NHS they promised in April 2024:

11 year-old arithmetic pupils scoff as Scottish Labour promise ‘piddling’ 0.68% extra for NHS

Sources:

1. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/people-supported-through-social-care-services/people-supported-through-social-care-services-support-provided-or-funded-by-health-and-social-care-partnerships-in-scotland-202324/

Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/

The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116

About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brow