Talking-up Scotland to continue despite sobering figures

170 supporters of Talking-up Scotland have made donations via the crowdfunder app or by direct bank transfer. Many of these have been, to my mind, particularly generous. I’m very grateful to them all and they can be sure that we will continue for them and for those who I know were not able to donate.

The 170 represent 10% of the TuS subscribers who get an email link for every post and around 1% of those who see the headline content across social media. We get get regular positive comment across all platforms. Sometimes it’s very heart-warming. Once more, it’s very much appreciated but the level of funding to do what we do, does not then seem what you might expect.

We could earn far more in Asda.

This time, our funding call has been a bit more ‘aggressive.’ We even posted this from the Guardian’s own campaign.

The last four day’s stats (top) with four in a row below 1 000 visitors, for the first time in years, and donations almost fully stalled suggests it has been counterproductive.

Is that true, do you think?

John

Help Talking-up Scotland keep goin

Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going

Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421

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18 thoughts on “Talking-up Scotland to continue despite sobering figures”

  1. Ever thought of courting a crypto sugar daddy? Seriously though, if the independence movement had even a fraction of Reform’s donations all our bloggers, rebutters and informers would be better supported. As it is I feel guilty all the time when I read articles without subscribing but on a pension there’s only so many causes you can support. It certainly isn’t a case of valuing one person’s input over another, just historical practicality when you have followed a source over many years.

    The Guardian appeals are one way of appealing for more supporters but there are others. I see The Big Light on Talk Media are now offering bonus episodes for subscribers, that might bring in a few waverers? Would there be any advantage to teaming up with 4 others and offering a 4 for the price of 5 deal? Splitting 20 quid 5 ways instead of 4 might not sound like a good option but it might let you all build your following by sharing different supporters? And of course the buy me a coffee option might bring in a few who dip into your articles now and again but not regularly enough to make monthly donations.

    Not easy and maybe not even practical, I just wish more people could see that we already do have an alternative media but that it does need financial support. Hope you find a way to make it work for you

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  2. John

    The TUS fundraiser hasn’t gone unnoticed and none of it was counter productive for me.

    But unfortunately I’m just not in a position to give any worthwhile financial support right now.

    As soon as I am able TUS will be one of my first stops for giving support.

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  3. One of the best features of this website has been the ability to admit error and issue corrections. For some reason this does not seem to apply to Dr. Jayne McLaren, the RCEM, A&E specialists deemed the best by their peers who voluntarily give up their own unpaid time for the greater good and who are not manipulating to get time off work. The one thing you got right is that ‘Royal Colleges’ are pretentiously titled, but that’s been the system for hundreds of years and most doctors have more important things to do than quibble about the ancestry of their specialist education and training bodies (not trade unions). The only major ‘fault’ in ‘The Pitt’ tv series is the tv necessity of unusually dramatic cases one after the other as opposed to a lot of the same thing. Other than that it really is the closest yet to everyday reality for these extraordinary people, not least the personal pressures. And A&E is not hollowed out by ‘big pharma’ and ‘private practice’ as so much else in medicine is. What you see on ‘The Pitt’, even if the banality (for tv watching, suffering is never banal) of so many of the same types of case are excluded for tv purposes, is what you get in A&Es across Scotland 24*7*365(6). https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyqx0e175ko. Dr. Fiona Hunter (https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/09/03/with-the-greatest-respect-mrs-dr-corridor-care-is-far-less-common-in-your-hospital/) is highlighted in the BBC reference. Don’t know (or care) if she and Dr. Jayne McLaren are nationalists or not, but they could probably have put William Wallace back together after Longshanks had finished with him. They do that for us every day and every night, sometimes one session after another. Watch ‘The Pitt’, happening in Scottish hospitals right now. RCEM is not a trade Union. Dr. Fiona Hunter and Dr. Jayne McLaren are not being paid to do all of their extra-curricular work. Nor are they skiving off the day job…they are the ones in charge! Hard to believe that Consultants in acute specialties are still available to their teams 24*7 rotating either by day or by week and totally taken for granted. Their wages? Even in Scotland some footballers earn more in a few weeks to a month than the Consultants do in a year. There are about 450 Consultant neurosurgeons across the UK and at least 3000 footballers will earn more than them, at top level earning more in a week than a Consultant neurosurgeon does in a year. And even those footballers aren’t the ‘super-rich’. Hey…fancy buying a golf course…https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/26548303.gwest-golf-resort-near-gleneagles-goes-sale/ Mohammed Mahdi Al Tajir, former UAE ambassador and owner of tens of thousands of acres of Scotland and ‘Highland Spring’ bottled water (so don’t buy it!) has one for sale. Now that’s ’super-rich’ and tax-havened etc. Oh Scotland, what an awful mess you are in, independent or otherwise.

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  4. Hi John

    I emailed our First Minister drawing his attention to your Website and asked if there was some way the SNP could provide financial or other support. Did not receive a reply,

    I am disappointed at how your informative comparative statistics are never repeated or publicised by our MSPs. Why do you think this is .

    Nick

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  5. My AI app (Perplexity) says this:

    “Talking Up Scotland” (the blog and related commentary by journalist John Robertson and associates) is frequently ignored or marginalised by Scottish politicians and mainstream media because it sits outside established media-political networks, challenges dominant narratives about Scotland’s governance and the Union, and is perceived—by both unionist politicians and some mainstream outlets—as partisan, advocacy-driven journalism rather than neutral news.

    Politicians and editors prefer sources that fit established news values, brand safety, and existing audience expectations; advocacy-aligned outlets are treated as commentary, not primary sources.

    Their audience is their message?d

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  6. One of the best features of this website has been the ability to admit error and issue corrections. So why the completely unnecessary derogatory references to the A&E Consultant who was clearly ‘having a moment’ (when talking about risk of patient death) where the interview is spliced in your 3rd September article on ‘corridor care’? And then doubling down on completely incorrect statements about specialist medical colleges being unions, and pro-bono work being either remunerated (wrong) or a working hours skive (wrong). I don’t mind my fuller comments on this being subject to censorship (we’ll see what happens to this one) as long as the matter is corrected. Female readers in particular will be disenchanted with your comments regarding the specialist concerned. Please edit where appropriate. Better still talk up genuine Scottish heroes.

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      1. Your readership can decide for themselves:

        https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/09/03/with-the-greatest-respect-mrs-dr-corridor-care-is-far-less-common-in-your-hospital/.  

        Mrs/Dr (?) “Am I going to slag an A&E consultant? At my age? In my condition? In the same NHS area where she works? No F Way, pal! I’ve heard she’s very capable and might even be a ‘top’ one. Who am I to say?”  

        She said nothing wrong and nothing party political. And the rest of your article was excellent. Why demean someone who is trying to reduce Scotland’s corridor care from 7% (lowest in UK as you rightly say) to zero? And make incorrect statements about unionisation of medical colleges, pro-bono work and skiving? Genuinely sorry and disappointed you can’t see the problem.

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  7. ‘This time, our funding call has been a bit more ‘aggressive.’‘ You ask if this has been counterproductive?

    It’s possible but surely NOT: if your approach has been deemed too ‘aggressive’ then candidly, there must be many more overly ‘sensitive souls’ interested in and supportive of regaining Scotland’s statehood than is good for a independence movement!

    ‘The 170 represent 10% of the TuS subscribers who get an email link for every post and around 1% of those who see the headline content across social media.’

    The absolute number contributing to the fundraiser is puzzlingly low. It must be hard not to become disillusioned at times especially given (i) the level of effort daily that clearly goes in to producing content for TuS; (ii) the seemingly widespread agreement that something like TuS is important/necessary to deliver at least some resistance, a countermeasure to BBC and MSM gaslighting; (iii) a general sense that the nature of TuS’ articles are well researched and well written; and allied to this (iv) the added value of TuS research output that must surely help inform its users when they are in discussion with independence sceptics within their own community of friends and family.

    Unfortunately it’s hard to determine the underlying causes of the disappointing response so far to the fundraiser. I wonder if any readers today who use TuS regularly but have not contributed to the fundraiser – but could afford say twenty quid if they chose to – might, even via the ‘anonymous’ facility, come on to explain why they do not intend to contribute. This might at least offer the TuS team useful intelligence for the future – assuming any ‘team’ can be sustained now!

    I have no direct skin in the venture but I could imagine John and the team almost being less disappointed if a much higher proportion of TuS subscribers had come forward to contribute small amounts – say the price of a few cups of coffee. At least that would have demonstrated some value – albeit IMHO too little value – being placed on their efforts.

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  8. See above exchange. I think it is easy for a well-intentioned campaigner to make errors…how such errors are dealt with is the issue. I have tried to provide salient information elsewhere, and the readership can again make up their own minds if you so allow:

    https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/09/09/audit-shocking-50-more-waited-over-12-hours-last-year-in-nhs-england-than-in-nhs-scotland-38-000-scots-treated-faster/

    https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2026/09/10/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going-to-rebut-and-to-reveal-unionist-lies-at-least-7-times-a-day-7-days-per-week/

    Potential subscribers may be perplexed, not by an excellent website dropping its standards – necessarily high output will sometimes mean error – but by failure to correct undeserved casual derision and demonstrable incorrect statement.

    Need to add thanks for publishing my original 10:02am comment above. I retract all statements/inferences made about censorship – I was wrong to say so and I apologise.

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      1. No. I have no association with RCEM or Dr. Jayne McLaren whatsoever. But RCEM is a recent College which has played a large role in revolutionising A&E in the UK. In the not too distant past A&E was a bit of a Smörgåsbord as to which specialty dealt with which emergency. The introduction of EM specialists changed everything for the better – one of the last refuges of the true NHS Consultant, with NHS ingrained through their core like a stick of seaside rock! In your original video of Dr. Jayne McLaren there was a video splice just as she described how often a potentially avoidable death is expected to occur due to corridor care. IMHO she almost broke down…she truly cared! So give both Dr. Jayne McLaren and Dr. Fiona Hunter the best treatment TUS can muster…they and their colleagues are in the highest ranks of Scotland’s finest! And that matters to me as an example of what medicine can be, when so much else in that profession/healthcare in general is in a state of disrepair. 

        If only they all daily (some do) reminded themselves of 

        The Physician’s Pledge (modern version of Hippocratic Oath – maybe ‘hypocritical’ for some)

        AS A MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION:

        I SOLEMNLY PLEDGE to dedicate my life to the service of humanity;

        THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF MY PATIENT will be my first consideration;

        I WILL RESPECT the autonomy and dignity of my patient;

        I WILL MAINTAIN the utmost respect for human life;

        I WILL NOT PERMIT considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between my duty and my patient;

        I WILL RESPECT the secrets that are confided in me, even after the patient has died;

        I WILL PRACTISE my profession with conscience and dignity and in accordance with good medical practice;

        I WILL FOSTER the honour and noble traditions of the medical profession;

        I WILL GIVE to my teachers, colleagues, and students the respect and gratitude that is their due;

        I WILL SHARE my medical knowledge for the benefit of the patient and the advancement of healthcare;

        I WILL ATTEND TO my own health, well-being, and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard;

        I WILL NOT USE my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat;

        I MAKE THESE PROMISES solemnly, freely, and upon my honour.

        14th October 2017

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