Year: 2025

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Edinburgh is top UK city in Holiday Happiness Index 25 places ahead of London

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Professor John Robertson OBA I know, it doesn’t quite fit the kind of mean image Scots sometimes have of some of the capital’s inhabitants but to outsiders, it seems, Edinburgh is a warm and friendly capital city. Dublin is at 23 and London is at 30, way behind. From Book Retreats last week: Where is your happy place? Teaming up with a Harvard psychologist and happiness expert, we combined the science and data to find the holiday destinations where you’ll feel your best. Today, people are no longer traveling just for landmarks or luxury. They’re traveling to feel something. To … Continue reading Edinburgh is top UK city in Holiday Happiness Index 25 places ahead of London

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In Scotland with a GDP half the size of Washington State USA, the ferry service is much more punctual – 99% to 72% – but only it is fined?In

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Professor John Robertson OBA, Academic Reporter of the Decade The Herald today has the above, and: The Scottish Government-owned ferry operator CalMac was fined more than £20 million for failing island communities then handed a new £4 billion contract by ministers, the Herald on Sunday can reveal. Performance deductions imposed by ministers when CalMac fails to meet reliability and service measures on the contract hit a record £4.335m in its final year alone. £21m as a percentage of the £4bn contract is only 0.5%, so I thought I’d have a look around some other ferry services for comparison. Not what I expected. Wightlink and Red … Continue reading In Scotland with a GDP half the size of Washington State USA, the ferry service is much more punctual – 99% to 72% – but only it is fined?In

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‘Scottish’ Labour MP Joani Reid appears on right-wing media to try to drag Scotland into England’s grooming rape gangs shame

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Professor John Robertson OBA The ever-alert MSM Monitor spots the latest attempt by Jimmy Reid‘s granddaughter, Joani, to shame Scotland on behalf of UK Labour. The facts she cares nothing for: Don’t be fooled – this is not a ‘grooming’ gang like those in England – no children, no children’s homes, no thousands of victims They, Scottish Labour and the MSM, would just love it if Scotland had one of those grooming gangs like the ones they have in England. That’s why they’re using the term for a gang that has little in common with the English ones and which, … Continue reading ‘Scottish’ Labour MP Joani Reid appears on right-wing media to try to drag Scotland into England’s grooming rape gangs shame

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I’ll get big stick for this ‘whitabootery’ I know but ADHD and Autism waiting list for ‘kids’ is 30% longer, and for adults THREE times as long, in England

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Professor John Robertson OBA It’s been suggested that I can be a bit ‘neurodiverse’ myself, lacking filters, at times when I compare sensitive issues in Scotland and England but, if I am, at least I’m not as bad as the creeps who put together front pages like that above with a greeting wean and a sickeningly unconvincingly compassionate, Labour MSP. 28 000, eh? It’s 400 000 in England1, 30% longer. If you’re interested, for adults, 23 000 in Scotland and an estimated 600 000 in England2, 3, nearly three times as long. Sources: Continue reading I’ll get big stick for this ‘whitabootery’ I know but ADHD and Autism waiting list for ‘kids’ is 30% longer, and for adults THREE times as long, in England

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Will Lisa Nandy call Anas Sarwar and see if he can find out how Scotland’s prisons manage to keep prisoners in prison with not one on the run here but 22 in England? He already knows how

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Professor John Robertson OBA Labour’s Lisa Nandy, speaking for Home Secretary, David Lammy I guess, this morning to agree that it’s unacceptable that there are currently 22 prisoners in England, released in error and ‘out there.’ Are there any reports of prisoners released in error in Scotland who have yet returned to prison? No absconding cases identified: Despite the volume of errors, all available reports from November 2025 explicitly state or imply that affected prisoners were successfully returned to custody through police cooperation. No sources mention ongoing manhunts, fugitives, or prisoners who “have yet returned” (i.e., remain at large). The … Continue reading Will Lisa Nandy call Anas Sarwar and see if he can find out how Scotland’s prisons manage to keep prisoners in prison with not one on the run here but 22 in England? He already knows how

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Further delays in English nuclear power station project owned by France hammers home huge costs and inefficiency of Labour’s plans for Scotland to spend THREE times as much to generate electricity

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Frances McKie for alerting me to this. From Bloomberg UK, two days ago, the above. Readers may remember repeated comments from Labour’s Anas Sarwar, UK Energy Minister Ed Miliband and Junior Energy Minister, Michael Shanks that on day one of a Labour administration in Edinburgh (;-)), they will begin planning to return nuclear energy to Scotland. Polls suggest that the media coverage in Scotland has persuaded a small majority that we need this so getting the evidence out there is hugely important. The above news from Bloomberg comes on top of endless publications telling … Continue reading Further delays in English nuclear power station project owned by France hammers home huge costs and inefficiency of Labour’s plans for Scotland to spend THREE times as much to generate electricity

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Residents living near the Thistle safe drug consumption facility in Glasgow pay only a TENTH of the bill for removing discarded needles after it opened than they did before it opened to further expose BBC Scotland’s bias by selection

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Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to L for providing this convincing and objective evidence, that Thistle facility has not increased the number of dangerous discarded needles in the surrounding area. They write: I emailed you in June to advise you of the impact the Thistle appears to be having on the flat. As I previously stated the main chat on the WhatsApp group for owners and tenants  was about  discarded needles , drug paraphernalia, drug dealing and anti social behaviour.  You will recall that we spent £2,500 for the 6 months prior to the Thistle opening too pay for discarded … Continue reading Residents living near the Thistle safe drug consumption facility in Glasgow pay only a TENTH of the bill for removing discarded needles after it opened than they did before it opened to further expose BBC Scotland’s bias by selection

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NHS England threaten longer waiting lists, already quarter of million longer than in Scotland and to ration care – Imagine that was in Ayrshire?

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waiting list and more than 10 000 of them have waited over a year. Professor John Robertson OBA UK Labour MP, Elaine Stewart, is outside her local hospital to shout about the length of the waiting list. There is no single “waiting list” for the entire board. Lists are made up of sub-lists from each department. I’m not able to comment. If you are a constituent, you might like to write and ask her. What I do know is: NHS England threaten longer waiting lists, already quarter of million longer than in Scotland and to ration care – Imagine that … Continue reading NHS England threaten longer waiting lists, already quarter of million longer than in Scotland and to ration care – Imagine that was in Ayrshire?

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Ayrshire Labour MP fails to understand that health board debt to the Scottish Government is not like English health trusts in debt to rapacious private corporations did she?

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is now in £130 million debt, the highest in Scotland. Professor John Robertson OBA How worrying is the above debt? Not at all. From Every Doctor, the above and: The NHS is haemorrhaging billions to private companies through Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts at a time when the health service desperately needs investment in staff and infrastructure. An EveryDoctor investigation has uncovered that 69 NHS trusts in England are locked into paying more than £21.1bn to private companies over the next two decades – money that could be spent on doctors, healthcare staff, patients, and critical repairs. The total spent on PFI debt … Continue reading Ayrshire Labour MP fails to understand that health board debt to the Scottish Government is not like English health trusts in debt to rapacious private corporations did she?

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99% of drug and alcohol patients seen in 3 weeks, 99% of children and adolescents with mental health problems seen on time and 98% of cancer patients begin treatment within 31 days but local Labour MP prefers you don’t know that

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being missed. Professor John Robertson OBA UK Labour’s Elaine Stewart outside her local hospital to shout about supposed failures, demoralising passing staff again and being carefully selective about what locals should know. There are two cancer treatment targets. The 62-day standard states that 95% of eligible patients should wait no longer than 62 days from urgent suspicion of cancer referral to first cancer treatment.  Only one Scottish NHS board meets that target. This is the longer of the two targets presumably for good reason. The shorter target, the 31-day standard, states that 95% of eligible patients should wait no longer … Continue reading 99% of drug and alcohol patients seen in 3 weeks, 99% of children and adolescents with mental health problems seen on time and 98% of cancer patients begin treatment within 31 days but local Labour MP prefers you don’t know that