Professor John Robertson OBA
From the Scottish Government News site today but finding no place among the reports on what is a woman and what is a ferry?
Support for Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Students in Scotland Academic Year 2025 to 2026 –
The bursary is for the normal duration of the course that you are undertaking. If you are taking the four-year honours nursing degree course and you are eligible for a bursary, you will receive the full bursary rate for years 1-3 and a 75% bursary for year 4. This reduction also applies to the associated income-assessed allowances (outlined on pages 9-12). This is because year 4 does not cover the full 52 weeks.
The bursary covers the whole year and is a non-income-assessed personal allowance.
For 2025/26 the rate is:
- £10,000 for students annually (£7,500 for eligible students in year 4) paid monthly throughout the course.
Students may also be eligible for one or more of the following allowances:
- £60 Initial Expenses Allowance. This will be included in the first instalment of the bursary.
An income-assessed Dependents Allowance, where appropriate. The maximum amounts you can receive through this allowance are:
£557 for each other dependent child.
£3,640 for a spouse or cohabitating partner or, if you are single, one adult you have a legal responsibility for with little or no income from any sources.
£3,640 for the first child where there is no dependent husband or wife, or other dependent adult.
More detail at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/support-paramedic-nursing-midwifery-students-scotland-academic-year-2025-2026/pages/4/
Students in Scotland also pay no tuition fees.
What happens in England?
Students taking Healthcare degree courses including Nursing, Midwifery or Paramedic Science apply to Student Finance England for Tuition Fee Loans, Maintenance Loans and Grants for Dependants.
So, Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Students in Scotland pay no tuition fees and get a free bursary.
What happens in Wales?
From AY 17/18 the availability of income assessed healthcare bursaries from NHS Wales* changed. However, the following guidance remains relevant to students on certain courses which lead to a qualification in healthcare roles and where healthcare bursaries from NHS Wales or Department of Health (DoH) are still available.
(*or similar awards bestowed under Section 63 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968, Article 44 of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 or Sections 73(f) of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (as amended in 2009))
Healthcare bursaries can be non‐income assessed or income assessed, which impacts the SFW products students can apply for:
• Students eligible to apply for a non‐income assessed bursary are not eligible to apply for any SFW product.
• Students eligible to apply for an income assessed bursary will not be eligible for support for tuition costs (regulation 19(2) (2017)/regulation 39 (exception 2) (2018)) or any grants (regulation 23(3) (2017)/exception 3 of regulations 44, 62 and 69 (2018)).
• From AY 24/25 onwards, new and continuing full-time students are eligible to apply to SFW for a non‐income assessed maintenance loan for living costs (regulation 52(i) (2017)/regulation 55 (2018)). These students will no longer receive the reduced rate maintenance loan (RRML).
https://www.studentfinancewales.co.uk/media/5ufcg0hi/sfw-nhs-guidance-2425-v1-1.pdf
Confusing but with much income assessment and loans.
Overall, the sort of good news we’d all like the Scottish media to inform us on?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Speaking about Ferries in last post a certain very anti SNP letter writer person in the P@J says that now that the company below has taken D R Macleod should take on CalMac as well I hope he does not expect the SG to subsidize them and how large would the fares rise,no thought on that.
In April 2023, DFDS Logistics acquired the Highlands and Islands haulage business, D.R. Macleod
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” Overall, the sort of good news we’d all like the Scottish media to inform us on? “
It’s been a very very long time since scottish media sought to inform the public on anything positive re SG…..
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Another rarely reported piece of information related to nursing is that the number of places for student nurses at University has doubled since 2012. Then it was 2,400 if I remember correctly. Over the years the number has been increased to 4,800. Not all the places have been filled in recent years perhaps nursing is seen as a less attractive option for a variety of reasons some of which may be the constant criticism of the NHS from certain political quarters.
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Scottish students are fully supported.
Unionist parties betrayed students elsewhere.
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BBC England’s northern annex only report the news that London want us to know.
“Good news” (for Scotland) is not included in the pre-scripted statements.
gavinochiltree
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Long comment.
Apologies, yet again no need for anyone to read comment , just therapeutic for me to write this down somewhere to unleash what I see as being some home truths needing to be said and well overdue in being said, in them being ignored and not being said or written about by much of our so called media in Scotland.
The media in Scotland will never report ‘good news regarding Scotland’ as that is not their job, their job is to do the opposite.
So in them, as a media in Scotland, hiding the good news for Scotland they then also hide most of the bad news for England and also hide most of the bad news connected to the Labour party and also to Anas Sarwar. (who , as the so called Labour leader in Scotland, gets to hide from the media when times are bad for Labour UK, as he is not harassed to the same extent as they , the media here, harass the SNP politicians) .
Speaking of which , as in Anas Sarwar, I saw this on YouTube.
Anas Sarwar was being interviewed on 30 March 2024 about the (offensive) Josh Simons remarks that he made that were connected to Scotland.
Josh Simons was chosen as the Labour candidate for Makerfield in north-west England . Mr Simons, was the Director of the Labour Together group, and he suggested on LBC radio in February 2024 that “smuggler gangs should be put on a barge, which could then be shipped to the north of Scotland”. He later apologised for the remarks.
Sarwar was asked about this Josh Simons (offensive) remark and here is some snippets from that interview:
Sarwar has previously described the comments, by Josh Simons, as being “stupid” and “flippant”.
Sarwar said in the interview “Look I don’t know Josh Simons , I obviously know of Josh Simons um and eh when he was a political commentator he made a stupid joke which you’re right I called out at the time, he apologised , he’s shown contrition“.
This was then supposed to be accepted and so then be an end to this matter.
Another expected ‘Move on’ exercise by yet another UK party caught out in a #BAD incident.
Though when it is something negative that they , the media , connect to the SNP we then never stop hearing about it from Sarwar, as he constantly repeats the same old same old allegations and accusations to try to harm the SNP politically and so he then thinks that will end up benefiting him and his party. (aka him “Playing Politics”).
As an example of this (Playing politics) Sarwar proceeded to start to talk about Michael Mathieson and the (overblown) IPad incident where ultimately it , as an incident, ended with Mathieson resigning as the Scottish Health Secretary through a hugely hostile media ,and also hostile opposition parties , combined pressure on Michael Mathieson to resign and also the combined backlash against the Scottish FM and the Scottish Government on this matter.
Where, with Sarwar raising this Michael Mathieson incident as a subject during this particular interview, it was then actually something that clearly bore absolutely no relation to what was being asked by the interviewer, which was a Q about what Josh Simons had said.
However Sarwar saw this as yet another opportunity where he could try to deflect attention away from his Labour party being bad (yet again) and then onto #SNPBAD, as his, Sarwar’s, specialist and also obsessive subject.
So Sarwar said ” What he’s (Simons) not done is tried to misuse 11,000 pounds of public money”.
Then Sarwar said “he’s (Simons) shown contrition but we should put this into context he’s not trying to misuse public money like we saw with Michael Mathieson and who John Swinney has spent the last week trying to defend”.
How is this putting this offensive remark made by Josh Simons “into context” ?
As in Sarwar totally changing the subject in him clearly deflecting away from the context of the subject being discussed , which is Josh Simons, in him, Sarwar, just ranting about Michael Mathieson and the IPad incident and also , as per, declaring #SNPBAD ?
Let’s look at the actual context .
Where this Josh Simons so called “Stupid Joke” that Sarwar referred to as being “Flippant”, was in reality a very offensive remark against Scotland , that was presented as a “Joke” , but as a “Joke” , was at Scotland’s expense (yet again).
Where we as a nation were , yet again, the butt of the joke from a prominent English person.
The reality of that so called “joke” was that Simons was clearly stating that the UK government could perhaps send those “smuggler gangs on a barge” to be “shipped to the North of Scotland”.
In Simons saying this then this was him saying that the North of Scotland is meant to be seen, by the UK, as being a terrible place for these criminal gangs to be sent, as in who the H would ever want to be sent to the ‘North of Scotland” ?
Coincidentally this was not unlike a similar statement made by Rupert Lowe, when he was still a Reform UK MP , as he said “ Illegal Migrants should be forced to live in tents on a Scottish island” .
Lowe also clearly considered so called ‘illegal’ migrants as also being ‘criminals’ and so the best and cruellest punishment for them was to be sent to a “Scottish island”, as that was the most undesirable and unbearable place to be in their whole UK.
(I beg to differ).
(Which BTW Josh Simons also clearly thought so as well , in relation to the “North of Scotland” as he too saw that as an undesirable destination for criminal gangs to be sent, and so then a perfect solution for the dominant English government -that pretended to be the UK government- to send criminal gangs to, as a unpleasant location, within their whole UK).
Is it not enough that we Scotland, because we are a part of their UK, have to tolerate their English Criminal Drug gangs coming up to Scotland to distribute their drugs in Scotland, which Sarwar, his Labour party and his client media refuse to highlight as a huge problem for Scotland, also for our Scottish Police Force and too for our Scottish government.
Anas Sarwar knew what was being suggested by Josh Simons, but he, Sarwar, chose to lie in saying Simons had “shown contrition” and that he, Simons, had “apologised” which seems a somewhat ridiculous and also surely an unnecessary action if this was indeed only meant to be a “Joke“. (after all it’s only offensive to the sweaty Jocks , so is it really worth an apology to them ?)
Yes it was was worth apologising , but only because Simons had to apologise as this would have (rightly) been an issue that would have been mentioned in the 2024 UK GE campaign in Scotland , it still was and indeed it still is an issue, even though Labour tried to put it to bed by thinking that all Josh Simons needed to do was to make an apology .
The fact that Josh Simons said this offensive remark in the first place was neither here not there for Josh Simons, for Labour as a party or indeed for Anas Sarwar, so Simons only conceded in making an apology to try to diffuse this situation to try to help Labour candidates in Scotland in the UK GE in 2024. (as Labour assumed the SNP would highlight this in their election campaign in Scotland, and why would they not).
Irony then that those who voted for Labour in Scotland in the 2024 UK GE, did not care enough, as voters and as Scots, to not vote for them after this offensive remark by Josh Simons, so , they as voters in Scotland, proving to Labour that they, as a party and as a UK government, are free to do anything to Scotland, also do anything to to the people of Scotland, in them as the new UK government making “Changes” for the worse , as in those “Changes” that we have all witnessed since Labour came to power last year as being “Changes” for the worse. (as have those who voted for Labour in Scotland last year also noticed this too and so they also have had to live through these bad “Changes” as well).
Vote SNP in 2026 or keep letting the Labour party con you and also treat you like Sh*tty second class citizens within their UK, where some of us Scots are accused of being anti English, yet we are the ones who are subject to their offensive anti Scottish so called “Flippant stupid jokes” , that are made , by Labour members, at our expense to cause offence to us as citizens of Scotland, but we , as Scots, are expected to both forgive and forget these insults as we are also supposed to think that we are British (INO) too.
#ScottishNeverBritish
Keep rebelling against them, that is the Labour party (and others) as they are clearly rebelling against Scotland in both their actions and their (offensive) words badly disguised as supposed “Flippant and stupid jokes”.
LIz S
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MSM Monitor tweeted today:
“The BBC’s Health Correspondent for England Hugh Pym yesterday highlighted the NHS Fife tribunal when discussing the UK Supreme Court ruling but ignored the Darlington nurses tribunal. That’s staggering”
MSM Monitor is correct as………
Surely the BBC’s so called Health Correspondent for England must be aware of the Darlington Nurses in England and their tribunal on the 20 October 2025, where they are fighting a NHS Trust in England in respect to a similar case to the one in NHS Fife.
Because as a more appropriate example, that would be, for Hugh Pym, far more apt to use as an example with him being the BBC’s English Health Correspondent , as too is the UK Equality Act for the case of the Darlington Nurses and the UK government, in the context of this Supreme Court Ruling.
The conversation yesterday via the BBC saw Pym state “There is this an ongoing case in NHS Fife, where a Nurse, Sandie Peggie, was suspended after complaining about sharing a changing room with a Trans Gender Medic, that Media alleged bullying and harassment, that is ongoing. There has also been a bit of media comment about how that might develop, that action in the light of this Supreme decision”.
Well funnily enough the BBC have done various other articles on their website on this same subject, but those articles were for English Nurses, as in relating to the Darlington Nurses in England also “complaining about sharing a changing room with a Trans Gender” , but it seems the BBC’s own Health Correspondent for England is either oblivious to their case or is deliberately only using the Scottish case as an example for what is , I suspect, political reasons. (#SNPBAD as is Scotland).
If he , Hugh Pym, is indeed oblivious to the Darlington Nurses case then he needs to be replaced by the BBC as their English Health Correspondent and perhaps have a less taxing role within the BBC or he would probably fit in very nicely in the BBC Scotland news team.
Personally I do not see him, Hugh Pym, using the NHS Fife tribunal as being an example that is “staggering”, but instead , it is what I see as being ‘par for the course’ with them, the BBC, as an English corporation (badly) disguised as a British one.
The Darlington Nurses Tribunal is relating to a transgender use of single sex spaces in the English NHS, where these English Nurses there have launched a legal action against County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust after being forced to share a female changing room with a male colleague identifying as a woman.
After having several HR meetings and a written letter from 26 Nurses altogether raising concerns, the respective English NHS Trust continued to support the man identifying as ‘Rose’ telling the Nurses they needed to ‘broaden their mindset and be more inclusive’.
The Nurses from Darlington raised their concerns in August 2023 to the respective English NHS Trust.
In 2024 these Darlington Nurses handed a petition, signed by thousands, to Keir Starmer at 10 Downing street and they also met with Wes Streeting the now UK (English) Health Secretary.
Vote SNP in 2026 to show the BBC’s various biased so called correspondents that they should be only doing their “Day job” in reporting on matters involving their own respective public services and own country, and not always inflicting us within Scotland on their partisan and biased opinions on matters that are connected to Scotland , while they ignore similar matters that are connected to and involving England and it’s failing public services there.
(That’s just for starters and not solely a reason for voting SNP in 2026, as that list would be way way way too long to note as to why people should really vote SNP in 2026).
Liz S
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