Professor John Robertson OBA
Thanks to rtpscott for alerting me to the above STV report yesterday, and:
A union has urged NHS staff to accept a “guaranteed” 8% pay increase split over two years. Thousands of NHS staff represented by Unison have been urged to accept a 4.25% increase for this year and a further 3.75% for 2026-27.
BBC Scotland have not reported this good news. Just a random, meaningless omission? Not an agenda?
Well, in August 2023:
School staff to strike in 24 Scottish council areas – Scotland’s biggest council union is planning strikes that could close schools across the country next month. Unison members backed action in 24 of the 32 council areas after rejecting an average pay increase of 5.5%. The question is whether councils can afford a better pay offer without more cash from the Scottish government to help.
And in September 2024, they had:
Members of Scotland’s largest trade union have rejected the latest pay offer for council staff. Thousands of Unison members (86%), including waste and recycling workers, turned down the offer of a £1,292 per year or 3.6% rise – whichever was higher. Finance Secretary Shona Robison said the decision was “very disappointing” while Cosla said the offer was at the absolute limit of affordability for local government and “fully exhausts all available additional funding from Scottish government.”
There’s always more of this, of course, but the point is made.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
isn’t it time that the Scottish party of government told the BBC it no longer trusted their impartiality. If the BBC wish to contest that, then they should allow examination of the unredacted BBC Board discussions relating to Scotland. Surely not a big deal if they are above suspicion, and we need to put the views of pro-independence out into the open. Why?
The SNP should ask Starmer if he considers Scotland to be “a people or nation” with the right to self-determination—like Greenland, Ireland or Ukraine. They should do this at every opportunity and expect an answer. Starmer is supposedly an international lawyer.
He might then offer a referendum, but we MUST boycott the BBC if it cannot prove itself worthy of public trust in Scotland, for any constitutional debate in this country.
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I should also suggest if he admits Scotland fills the criteria for self-determination, then a simple pro independence majority elected should suffice for independence to proceed. The heavy Unionist bias of the colonial media is also relevant to this.
This all needs to be in the open BEFORE the next election.
gavinochiltree
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already boycotted.
Haven’t paid a license fee or watched the “BBC news and economics for toddlers” for years.
John Lawson
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‘… ask Starmer if he considers Scotland to be “a people or nation” with the right to self-determination—like Greenland, ..’
Brings to mind a statement issued March 31, 2025 by the Nordic Council which includes the following:
‘The Presidium of the Nordic Council expresses strong and unconditional support for the people of Greenland and their inalienable right to decide over their own country and future, a fundamental and inviolable principle of international law.’ (my emphasis)
‘On 15 January 2025, the President of the Nordic Council stated that the future of Greenland must be decided by the people of the country. Today, we reiterate that message with renewed vigour. Greenland is an integral part of the Nordic family and of our co-operation.
Context is given: ‘Greenland and Denmark are part of a political union along with the Faroe Islands.’
Source: https://www.norden.org/en/news/nordic-council-strongly-supports-greenland utm_medium=email&utm_source=transactional&utm_campaign=Norden_Newsletter
Background: ‘The Nordic Council is the official body for Nordic interparliamentary co-operation. It was set up in 1952 and has 87 members from Denmark, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Åland.’
So the parliamentary representatives of the nation-state and constitutional monarchy of Denmark are party to the Nordic Council’s statement on the people of Greenland’s ‘inalienable right to decide over their own country and future, a fundamental and inviolable principle of international law’!
Meanwhile in the UK, Westminster governments and UK political party leaders of various hues express matters very differently when it comes to the people of Scotland’s rights – though not so differently when it comes to the rights of the people of NI to choose their future as set out in the Good Friday Agreement.
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There was no doctors strike in Scotland. Scottish Gov settled any dispute.
£Billions were lost in the rest of the UK because of the dispute.
Scotland has to make loan repayments on money not borrowed or spent in Scotland, but spent elsewhere by Westminster.
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yes, funny the BBC, STV and the rest of the msm won’t report news from Scotland unless they can head it up as “Scotland shite again”
John Lawson
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“How BBC Scotland only report Unison when they cause trouble for the Scottish Government”
Also’ How the BBC only (and always) report all of the SNP’s political opponents attacks on the SNP when it is considered, or rather assumed to be, an opportunistic moment when both the political opponent and also the BBC hope that these political attacks will cause trouble for the Scottish government’.
The BBC has this “Swinney should apologise over Gender reforms” as an article on their website as currently their second story on their main Scottish page and also their second story on their Scottish Politics page too, of course they do.
However to their , BBC’s, credit they did also state in this article that “The Scottish Parliament passed the Gender Recognition (Reform) Bill in 2022, with MSPs from all parties backing the proposals” .
However to their discredit, why then did they even have this as an article at all if it was the Scottish parliament that passed this bill in 2022 and not just John Swinney or the SNP alone?
As a headline on their website this article is only targeting one MSP , John Swinney, as the current FM , he was not the FM when this bill passed in our parliament.
So this is merely, as an attack, an opportunistic political attack by the Tory so called leader in Scotland Russell Findlay, who is just another political opponent of the SNP, who happens to also be a habitual opportunist as a political opponent of John Swinney , but he, Findlay, is not a political equal to John Swinney.
I also saw online how an edition of BBC Scotland news on TV was reporting this same story , that Russell Findlay the Tory MSP and current Tory leader (ITO) in Scotland has “urged John Swinney to apologise to women over the government’s plan to reform the GRR laws ” for what was a bill passed by MSP’s in the Scottish Parliament in 2022.
That bill was passed by MSP’s from all parties within the Scottish parliament, including three Tory MSP’s, one of whom, Jamie Greene, has now left Russell Findlay’s Tory party to join the Lib Dems as he , Greene, stated that there was “growing disquiet” among former colleagues over the (Tory) party moving “increasingly to the right”.
So will Russell Findlay also expect the other two Tories who are still in his party as Tory MSP’s to also “apologise to women” as well , in them voting, with others, FOR this bill which was passed by the Scottish parliament in 2022.
Meanwhile Anas Sarwar has also jumped on this bandwagon while he too is neglecting the fact that he whipped his Labour MSP’s to back this bill which he himself also voted for in 2022. An inconvenient truth that he hopes the voters in Scotland are oblivious of, as a real truth and as a real fact.
Sarwar tweeted on the 16 April:
“I’ve always called for the protection of single sex spaces on the basis of biological sex. This judgment gives clarity to women and service users about the protections in the Equality Act. The SNP Government must provide clear guidance for Scottish public services so they can implement the Equality Act properly to uphold dignity for all”.
MSM Monitor tweeted in response to Sarwar’s tweet :
“Sarwar is a liar. Everyone knows he was fully on board with trans rights to the extent he whipped his MSPs to back the GRR bill, losing two front benchers in doing so. He’ll be protected of course, but folk know a charlatan when they see one”.
Sarwar and others are gagging to frame this as a SNP alone decision in the Scottish parlaiment.
BTW the BBC website currently only has one story (4th article)on this topic on their main UK politics page “NHS will be pursued if gender policies don’t change, equalities watchdog says”.
Their main UK page currently only has one article at the bottom of the page in their “Watch/Listen” section which if you click on the article it then takes you to the main Scotland page !
(There is nothing on this topic on any of the BBC’s Welsh pages of their website which makes you think this does not impact Wales at all ! It does though).
As this Supreme court decision will affect how sex based rights are applied through the Equality Act in England, Wales and Scotland and so Sarwar is being , yet again, disingenuous when he tweets that “The SNP Government must provide clear guidance for Scottish public services so they can implement the Equality Act properly” as other nations and their public services within the UK must also “provide clear guidance for their public services, so they too , can implement the Equality Act properly”.
Sarwar knows this, as does Russell Findlay, but it you are ‘playing politics’ with the help of a willing and complicit media like the BBC then you can promote this as being only yet another #SNPBAD.
Also it is obvious why Sarwar and other always say “the SNP government” when they attack the Scottish government, as it is a way to try and highlight another #SNPBAD moment from them as opponents to the SNP.
Vote SNP in 2026 to show Findlay, Sarwar and the BBC that we as a nation do not buy into their propaganda.
(BTW have you seen Sarwar’s latest tweet on 17 April where he states that “The SNP allowed Grangemouth to be run into the ground and sold our steel industry off on the cheap in a dodgy deal. They have no clue, no strategy and no shame”……..I think we all know who it is who has “no shame” and that would be the now very much desperate Anas Sarwar , who is seeing his (remote) chances in him becoming the next FM in Scotland diminishing at a rapid pace Ha bloody Ha).
Sarwar promised Scotland a Labour “strategy” in 2024 that was supposed to be “Change” but now his latest strategy (as “Change” failed to materialise under Labour HQ) is a “New Direction” which proves he has no “clue” as a false leader (INO).
Liz S
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LIARS ALWAYS TELL PORKIESSent from my iPhone
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