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Professor John Robertson OBA

In the Guardian yesterday, the above and:

When Sarah Ladyman was made redundant from her job as a horticulturist earlier this year, her one-bedroom flat was her sanctuary. Then, her landlord attempted to raise her monthly rent from £775 to £900. She took her case to a rent tribunal – only to be served with a no-fault eviction notice.

No-fault eviction notices – officially known as section 21 evictions – mean private landlords can oust tenants who have done nothing wrong. Even though the tribunal agreed that the proposed increase on Ladyman’s Exeter home was too steep – setting it instead at £825 a month – she is virtually powerless in her attempt to halt the eviction process and lives with the gnawing fear that her home of three years will be seized by bailiffs.

Ladyman, 52, is one of more than 30,000 people in England who have received a no-fault eviction notice since July last year, when Labour was elected on a manifesto that promised to ban them immediately. Yet its flagship renters’ rights bill is still progressing through parliament and will become law too late for tenants like Ladyman.

If they don’t u-turn and drop it, of course.

Strangely, for this topic, there is no mention of the situation in Scotland.

What’s the situation in Scotland?

Is this indicative of anything about life in Scotland since we last ditched English parties in government?

Only this:

From BBC UK on 7 September 2025:

There were 890 people arrested at a demonstration against the ban on the group Palestine Action in London on Saturday, the Metropolitan Police say. The majority of the arrests were for supporting a proscribed group under the Terrorism Act, while police said 17 were also arrested for assaults on police officers “after the protest turned violent”. But event organisers said protesters were “peacefully defying the ban” and accused the Met of making “false claims” about violence.

From BBC Scotland:

Police said two men – aged 67 and 82 – had been charged in connection with the Terrorism Act and a 63-year-old man charged in connection with a hate crime. All three have been released and reports will be submitted to the procurator fiscal.

It’s been some time since I’ve listed some of the many ways in which Scotland after 18 years of SNP Government and 15 years of Tory or worse government in England are drifting apart.

This list needs updating but gives a flavour:

Scotland IS a different place as its universities offer guaranteed places to care leavers

Abuse of women and the disabled far higher in England than in Scotland

Less homicide, less knife crime, less domestic violence, safer cities and now much lower alcohol problems: should Scotland’s old stereotypes be sent south?

Racial hate crimes increase by 33% in England & Wales while falling by 10% in Scotland: Who says we’re not different?

Scottish Muslim students far less likely to report abuse or crime?

Terror de-radicalisation referral rate in Scotland less than one third per capita of that in England

Only in Scotland! ‘A review of small country’s approaches to public policy reform in response to economic, demographic and other pressures found that only in Scotland could this ‘golden thread’ be so clearly discerned’

Scientific evidence that Scots tend to be different from the other groups in rUK?

Who said Scots were not more left-wing than those in the rest of the UK?

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

80 000 lowest paid workers in NHS England still on poverty wages as NHS Scotland follows Scottish Government policy to pay a living wage to all public-sector employees

Scottish care workers to receive Living Wage for ‘sleepover’ hours while English care workers receive only the National Minimum Wage.

Different Scotland in the UN report on ‘Workhouse Britain’

Scottish values making oil and gas firms a tad different too?

Are Scotland’s employers also different – more willing to pay a decent wage?

With 1 in 4 living wage employers already in Scotland, the Scottish Government aims to make this a ‘Living Wage Nation’

8% of the UK population and 28% of living wage employers. More evidence that we are different enough to want to run the whole show?

Another difference as UK small and medium-sized business people prefer Boris while Scots prefer…

Another difference between Scotland and rUK?

NHS England’s new motto: Who is laike us? Dem few and they err awl daid!

Scottish Government support for small businesses superior to that in non-Scottish parts of UK

‘Scotland on a different path to the rest of the UK’ as SNP progressive policies protect the majority

‘Sexual advances’ or ‘indecent assault, sexual assault, rape and other related charges’: The very different standards of the SNP and the Conservatives

Different NHS Scotland rejects England’s hostile environment for vulnerable migrant mothers-to-be

A progressively different Scotland – example of pay for social care staff