Year: 2025

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Homelessness in Scotland – the facts you won’t hear today from BBC Scotland

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By Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland’s wee insert today in BBC Breakfast, was jam packed with bad news linked to the Scottish Government – consultant vacancies, school violence, RAAC and homelessness/housing crisis. On homelessness and the shortage of housing, some facts which will not be mentioned much, if at all: 1 Core Homelessness lowest in Scotland ‘Core homelessness’ – a concept which captures the most severe and immediate forms of homelessness – is estimated to have stood at 14,250 households on a given night in Scotland in 2019, having been relatively stable over the preceding seven years. Rates of core homelessness are substantially lower in Scotland (0.57% of households) than in England (0.94%) and … Continue reading Homelessness in Scotland – the facts you won’t hear today from BBC Scotland

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NHS Scotland’s consultant vacancies – some important facts the BMA and the media won’t be telling you

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 BMA Scotland is all over ‘Scottish’ media today with tales of ‘more than 1 000’ consultant vacancies, after deciding to adjust the published figure of 398 to include ‘posts being temporarily filled by locums, those not yet … Continue reading NHS Scotland’s consultant vacancies – some important facts the BMA and the media won’t be telling you

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A BBC Political Editor’s cri de coeur for the North in response to Labour’s investment focus on SE England contrasts with BBC Scotland’s response …..what was it, anyone?

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By stewartb The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s recent announcement of major infrastructure investments to catalyse UK growth seems to have received little attention from the mainstream media that supposedly ‘serves’ Scotland. However, what’s been lacking here is in contrast to commentary elsewhere, notably in the north of England. An article in Bella Caledonia (February 3) by Neil Blain reflects on the news coverage in Scotland of the Chancellor’s big speech, or rather its near absence from most of the mainstream media in Scotland: ‘Reactions to the Silicon Valley and Heathrow announcements were more evident in England than Scotland, in the … Continue reading A BBC Political Editor’s cri de coeur for the North in response to Labour’s investment focus on SE England contrasts with BBC Scotland’s response …..what was it, anyone?

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Police officer strength climbs for second year to 1.7% higher than when Labour left power in 2007 despite a 38% fall in crime

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 From – Police officer quarterly strength statistics: 31 December 2024, published today: Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland. The … Continue reading Police officer strength climbs for second year to 1.7% higher than when Labour left power in 2007 despite a 38% fall in crime

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Increased demand but still NHS Scotland can do 97% of ops on time

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 From Public Health Scotland, today: During December 2024, there were 22,073 operations planned to take place across NHS Scotland. This is 7.4% higher than the number planned a year previously in December 2023 (20,558) Of all planned operations … Continue reading Increased demand but still NHS Scotland can do 97% of ops on time

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Significant reduction in ‘bed-blocking’ due to Scottish Government’s care planning programme with waiting lists 40% longer in England and twice as long in Wales

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 From Public Health Scotland, today: At the December 2024 census, there were 1,890 people delayed. Compared to the previous three census points, this is lower than November 2024 (2,020), October 2024 (2,030) and September 2024 (1,951). https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly-figures-for-december-2024#section-2 … Continue reading Significant reduction in ‘bed-blocking’ due to Scottish Government’s care planning programme with waiting lists 40% longer in England and twice as long in Wales

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‘Good news about SNP’ ban on BBC Scotland Glenn Campbell confirms

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By Liz S So today , so far, in the BBC website on their Scottish Politics page they have found room for the non story that is “No Cat ban in Scotland John Swinney confirms”, as currently it is the third story on that page. Scanning that whole page on the BBC website, and too on their main Scottish page, they have , so far, not managed to find any room for a real political story impacting Scotland. That is where yesterday the GB Energy Chairman, Juergen Maier, confirmed to SKY News in an interview with them that the jobs … Continue reading ‘Good news about SNP’ ban on BBC Scotland Glenn Campbell confirms

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West Midlands ‘Complex County Lines’ drug gang which used children to run ‘internal’ drugs into Scotland jailed for 35 year despite BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team’s failure to tackle them

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 English County Lines gang forces children to swallow or insert ‘elsewhere’ sealed bags of powerful drugs, then travel into Scotland with them and cause surging drug deaths and violence in Scotland’s towns and villages seems like a … Continue reading West Midlands ‘Complex County Lines’ drug gang which used children to run ‘internal’ drugs into Scotland jailed for 35 year despite BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team’s failure to tackle them

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Think tank thinker’s thoughtless vowel-strangling analysis of NHS Scotland productivity is so wrong you wonder where they get them from

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 You really need to have a listen to David, above at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly93w1kr04o You might want to have your hands tied behind your back and/or any throwable objects safely away from you before you listen to his Pythonesque … Continue reading Think tank thinker’s thoughtless vowel-strangling analysis of NHS Scotland productivity is so wrong you wonder where they get them from

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As BBC Reporting Scotland find someone else to moan about the A9 dualling, what they don’t want you to know – it’s much safer than it was and the dualled bits are no more safe

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The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily 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 This is just another story fed directly to Reporting Scotland but not making it onto the BBC Scotland website, to keep an SNP-bad narrative alive. This time it’s about a letter, yes just the one, from one … Continue reading As BBC Reporting Scotland find someone else to moan about the A9 dualling, what they don’t want you to know – it’s much safer than it was and the dualled bits are no more safe