Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to France McKie for presenting me with this opportunity. 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 and interest payments (£3.1bn) would have … Continue reading NHS England health trusts have more than TWICE as much debt as Scottish health boards and it’s to ‘sharks!’

BBC Scotland, other Scottish media and opposition politicians have been making hay with NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s level of debt, revealed in a recent Audit Scotland report. They’ve had nothing to say about the above record of achievement on page 11 of the document. Makes you wonder why? Source: https://audit.scot/publications/the-202425-audit-of-nhs-ayrshire-and-arran More on this health board: Continue reading NHS Ayrshire & Arran Health Board may be in considerable debt but is performing well above the 90% targets and above the national average on four important targets

Professor John Robertson OBA In Isle of Wight County Press today, the above and: Isle of Wight East MP, Joe Robertson, has introduced a proposed new law in Parliament aimed at improving ferry services – including the Island’s vital cross-Solent routes. Mr Robertson today (Wednesday, November 5) tabled the Ferry Services (Integration and Regulation) Bill in the House of Commons, under the ’10-minute rule motion’, following Prime Minister’s Questions. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/politics/government/iw-east-mp-slams-rip-off-ferry-prices-and-proposes-new-law-in-parliament/ar-AA1PS2kI?ocid=BingNewsVerp Joe doesn’t quantify these ‘rip-off’ prices. I will: In July 2025, a medium size car with four passengers, Portsmouth to Fishbourne with Wightlink Ferries, would cost you between £210 and … Continue reading From one Robertson to another – your Isle of Wight return crossing costs THREE TIMES as much as my same distance Isle of Mull one does and it’ll be on an older ferry

Professor John Robertson OBA From Recorded crime statistics in relation to child sexual abuse: FOI release1, published today, we can see that the total number of people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish courts where the main charge was a child sexual offence was Total 2013/14 2022/23 Prosecuted 271 347 Convicted 202 285 Conviction rate 75% 82% These are at first worrying indicators of a significant increases in offenses but, at least an accompanying sign of a increased conviction rate. However there is strong evidence that this is an increase in reporting rarther than an increase in offending. See: Sources: There … Continue reading More child sexual abuse offenders prosecuted and convicted

Professor John Robertson OBA In June 2025, the Express told us, delightfully: Scots foot the bill for the ever-increasing numbers of pen-pushers employed in the public sector. Remarkably, they also tell us this, don’t remind us it was a UK Government policy and thus try blame it on the SNP Recently, millions had to be filtered from elsewhere to pay for an increase in National Insurance employer contributions. For years the SNP has claimed that it would be making some reductions and savings but this has never came to fruition.  Versions of the story have been repeated widely, in the Scotsman, Telegraph … Continue reading SNP cut civil service by 5%