Impartial intelligence-based research confirms Scotland has more investment, nearly FOUR times as many clean rivers, fewer sewage spills and only a quarter of the number failing tests

Professor John Robertson OBA Using the Grok AI software, owned by Elon Musk, no friend of the SNP, I asked: Are Scotland’s rivers cleaner than England’s? The answer was quite clear: Scotland’s rivers are generally cleaner than England’s based on available data. According to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), 57.2% of Scotland’s river stretches were classified as being in good or better overall condition in 2022. In contrast, only 15% of England’s river stretches meet good ecological health standards, and none are in good chemical health due to persistent toxic pollutants. Key factors contributing to this difference include: Continue reading Impartial intelligence-based research confirms Scotland has more investment, nearly FOUR times as many clean rivers, fewer sewage spills and only a quarter of the number failing tests

NHS England paid out staggering 45 times as much, per head, for just maternity-related complaints as NHS Scotland did for all complaints

Professor John Robertson OBA In the Guardian today, the above and: Analysis of NHS figures shows the potential bill for maternity negligence in England since 2019 has reached £27.4bn – far more than the health service’s roughly £18bn budget for newborns in that time. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/20/nhs-facing-absolutely-shocking-27bn-bill-for-maternity-failings-in-england With a tenth of the population, you might expect NHS Scotland to have paid out around £2.7 billion. I can find no data for just maternity related cases but for all complaints and for a period, one year longer: Health boards in Scotland have paid out more than £60 million in legal claims since 2018, … Continue reading NHS England paid out staggering 45 times as much, per head, for just maternity-related complaints as NHS Scotland did for all complaints

After 18 years maternal death rate in UK climbs to 33% higher than in Scotland

Professor John Robertson OBA What is ‘maternal death?’ Death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the end of the pregnancy (includes giving birth, ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or termination of pregnancy) from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes http://www.who.int/healthinfo/statistics/indmaternalmortality/en/ In the Guardian today, the above and that in the most recent figures, for 2023, the maternal death rate was 12.67 per 100 000 births: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/20/maternal-deaths-rising-in-uk-despite-fewer-births-official-figures-show The most recent Scottish figure is 9 per 100 000: https://www.sad.scot.nhs.uk/bereavement/maternal-death/ The UK rate appears to be around 33% … Continue reading After 18 years maternal death rate in UK climbs to 33% higher than in Scotland

Scotland’s measles risk does not come from its own tiny ethnic minority groups but from ‘imported cases’

Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Scotland, only, has an investigation today into the lower vaccine uptake among ethnic minority groups. The report has percentage and vulgar fraction descriptions of the shortfall but no actual figures so we cannot see just how many children are unvaccinated so we cannot really see the scale of the problem. The BBC Scotland report opens with: Last year data on childhood vaccines was broken down by ethnicity for the first time. It showed a wide variation in uptake across ethnic minority groups and Public Health Scotland called for more work to understand what is going … Continue reading Scotland’s measles risk does not come from its own tiny ethnic minority groups but from ‘imported cases’

Does Scotland really need SMRs for a resilient energy system?

By stewartb ‘At the time of writing there are only two SMRs actually operating – one in Russia and one in China. For this reason alone, we must question reliance on a technology not yet fully tested, as the basis for a national programme of work.’ So it’s a novel technology. The OECD in 2024 recognised three SMRs as operational, with over 50 SMR technologies currently still under development. (https://www.ansto.gov.au/news/small-modular-reactors-an-overview) If a company or nation state has relevant indigenous technological capability, an energy need AND national ambition to develop and then sell as exports SMRs, one might see the sense of being … Continue reading Does Scotland really need SMRs for a resilient energy system?

The Final Word on Labour’s Flawed and Dangerous Nuclear Energy Plans

Professor John Robertson OBA Readers will have seen the dominant mainstream media messaging on behalf of Labour such as the Daily Mail’s ‘Sarwar calls on Swinney to drop ‘ideological’ opposition to nuclear power’or the Daily Record’s ‘Anas Sarwar challenges SNP to support nuclear power to ‘end reliance on dictators like Putin.’ The dark irony of the Putin reference will be revealed below. I plan here to bring together the devastating body of evidence that seriously questions the Labour Party’s plan to introduce a large number of small modular reactors, SMRs, across the UK and, if they can, to place some … Continue reading The Final Word on Labour’s Flawed and Dangerous Nuclear Energy Plans

Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, one of Labour’s PFI hospitals, will cost nearly TWICE as much as giant Glasgow hospital to build , is only just over HALF the size and costs EIGHT times as much to maintain annually

By Legerwood The new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary [900 beds compared to QEUH at 1 677 beds], one of Labour’s PFI hospitals was budgeted at £150 million to build but ended up costing £180 million to build. The PFI cost will be £1.3 Billion [QEUH £842m] but Lothian Health Board will not own it. As well as the PFI costs the Health Board had to pay an ANNUAL maintenance cost of £60 Million [QEUH £7.8m]. Dwarfs any such costs for QEUH. https://www.scotsman.com/health/ps60m-a-year-contract-thrown-into-doubt-1620362 The SNP eventually managed to get that annual cost reduced. They also managed to buy out the private parking … Continue reading Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, one of Labour’s PFI hospitals, will cost nearly TWICE as much as giant Glasgow hospital to build , is only just over HALF the size and costs EIGHT times as much to maintain annually

Labour’s hypocrisy about ordering from China

By Liz S Lies but also hypocrisy…….. Remember last week at PMQ’s the staged ‘performance’ between the then Labour MP Brian Leishman and his then Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in respect to Alexander Dennis Bus Manufacturers. Starmer stated that “The SNP should be backing Scottish workers” …….as he said that ” the SNP are ordering Buses from China“. Apparently that was hilarious for many of the MP’s in the HOC as so many burst out laughing at the ‘China connection’. Well it has now been reported that the big Labour flagship policy GB Energy has a connection to China…… So then would all of those same MP’s , especially … Continue reading Labour’s hypocrisy about ordering from China

Complete lies about Glasgow’s ‘super hospital’

Professor John Robertson OBA In a particularly shameful piece of reporting, we see knowingly misleading figures on maintenance and the utterly unfounded association of those with infections linked only by Anas Sarwar and the poor parents he groomed for deeply cynical political reasons. First, that £78 million for 10 years of maintenance is an average of £7.8m per year for a building that cost £842 million to build in the first place. So, annual maintenance costs are less than 1 PERCENT! (0.93%) of that. I’m surprised it’s not more. The link between supposed building failures, infections and deaths – NONE. … Continue reading Complete lies about Glasgow’s ‘super hospital’

The weight of evidence from the US, Europe and Australia now overwhelms the dishonest research into nuclear energy and cancer risks carried out by UK ‘academics’ on behalf of UK Government bodies

Professor John Robertson OBA Today, several US media outlets are report along the same lines as the above from US News: Living near Coldwater Creek in St. Louis, Missouri, during childhood was found to be associated with an increased risk of overall cancer, according to the findings of a study published in JAMA Network Open.  “Our research indicates that the communities around North St. Louis appear to have had excess cancer from exposure to the contaminated Coldwater Creek,” said corresponding author Marc G. Weisskopf, PhD, ScD, Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Physiology, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. … Continue reading The weight of evidence from the US, Europe and Australia now overwhelms the dishonest research into nuclear energy and cancer risks carried out by UK ‘academics’ on behalf of UK Government bodies