Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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Is there a hidden flood of English students moving to Scotland to avoid tuition fee debt of now £53 000?

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA, former Head of Department and Associate Dean, UWS While there is only, as yet, anecdotal evidence of people moving from England to Scotland with the specific intention of applying to attend Higher Education tuition fee-free, there are two reasons to suspect the trend may be underway in some measure. First, we see an increasing number of media articles advising how it can be done and it is definitely more than possible given the autonomy of each HE institution to decide … Continue reading Is there a hidden flood of English students moving to Scotland to avoid tuition fee debt of now £53 000?

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22% more police officers and only half the rural crime in Scotland as English farmers live in fear of organised crime

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA BBC UK this morning has: Organised crimes gangs including sheep rustlers and burglars are targeting farmers who have described “living in fear” of a new rural crime wave. I can find no comparative data for the last year but, on 1 August 2024, we had this The Reporting Scotland team were clearly delighted to tell you this morning that rural crime in Scotland climbed by an estimated 34.9% to a whopping £1.8 million in 2023, according to an NFU Mutual report. £1.8 … Continue reading 22% more police officers and only half the rural crime in Scotland as English farmers live in fear of organised crime

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Shoplifting surges 20% in England & Wales so Labour promises to increase police numbers by 2% to be still more than 20% below staffing level in Scotland where shoplifting is less common

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Professor John Robertson OBA BBC Breakfast this morning report a 20% increase in shoplifting in England & Wales, to 530 643 offences in year to March 2025 but the Home Secretary only offer a 2% increase in [3 000] police officer numbers of 147 746 in 20241. They think, [correctly ?], that most will just think, ‘3 000? Big number?’ Shoplifting in Scotland in 2024/2025, increased 16% to 44 730 offences2. Per head, all things being equal, you’d expect England and Wales to have around 11 times as many shoplifting offences as Scotland, 492 030, but they had 530 643, … Continue reading Shoplifting surges 20% in England & Wales so Labour promises to increase police numbers by 2% to be still more than 20% below staffing level in Scotland where shoplifting is less common

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Imagine you paid $222 million and didn’t get a ferry at all, even a wee one, that’d be a ‘ferry fiasco’ wouldn’t it? They did…..in New Zealand.

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Alex Montrose for alerting me to this. From Stuff today: The Government has paid $144 million to cancel a deal it had with Hyundai to build two new Interislander ferries. That’s on top of $78m already paid to the shipyard. The sum of KiwiRail’s settlement with the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard was revealed on Friday, through a joint statement from Rail Minister Winston Peters and Finance Minister Nicola Willis. As part of its iRex project, which Willis cancelled when … Continue reading Imagine you paid $222 million and didn’t get a ferry at all, even a wee one, that’d be a ‘ferry fiasco’ wouldn’t it? They did…..in New Zealand.

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Are GERS figures for Scotland a measure of its economy after say 20 years of independence? No and here’s why, says AI analysis in support of an angry Pict

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA From Grok with the above question in the headline: No, the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland (GERS) figures are not a measure of Scotland’s economy after 20 years of independence. GERS provides an annual snapshot of Scotland’s public finances under the current constitutional arrangement as part of the UK, estimating revenue raised and public spending allocated to Scotland. It reflects the existing fiscal framework, where Westminster controls significant portions of revenue (around 70%) and spending (around 40%), including items like … Continue reading Are GERS figures for Scotland a measure of its economy after say 20 years of independence? No and here’s why, says AI analysis in support of an angry Pict

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Another offensive act that references ‘sacrifices made in wars’

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details By Liz S Another offensive act that references ‘sacrifices made in wars’ is one where the current UK PM, Keir Starmer, pumps out his annual St George’s day video message on his Twitter ‘X’ account. A message that is meant to both celebrate and highlight only all things ‘English’ that he, as an Englishman first and foremost, wants the whole UK to recognise and so acknowledge. But it is where he , Starmer , the obvious non neutral and clearly English biased supposed UK PM , always mentions in his annual St George’s Day video message….all of those who ‘fought … Continue reading Another offensive act that references ‘sacrifices made in wars’

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Why are English media concerned about regional gaps in exam results but Scottish media prefer class-based differences? It’s about blaming the SNP

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA Today, the media across England and Wales are uniformly headlining concerns about regional gaps in school exam results, with for example, the North East of England far behind London and the South, but in Scotland: and from BBC Scotland: The attainment gap between Scotland’s richest and poorest school pupils increased last year, according to new figures. The Scottish government has said since 2015 that closing this gap – between the level of national qualifications obtained by children from the most … Continue reading Why are English media concerned about regional gaps in exam results but Scottish media prefer class-based differences? It’s about blaming the SNP

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Neither ‘Nic’ nor the SNP have ‘failed poor kids’ as attainment among them doubles

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA, for nearly 40 years a schoolteacher, a teacher education lecturer, Associate Dean for Quality Assurance, research methods lecturer, PhD supervisor and Faculty Research Ethics Chair I don’t know what the former first minister has said about this exactly but the media exploitation of it stinks. I’m in danger, not for the first time, of being called a ‘heid-the-ba‘ after posting the details of my long experience in education above. You should just be relieved, I didn’t add my 6 postgraduate qualies! I worked hard … Continue reading Neither ‘Nic’ nor the SNP have ‘failed poor kids’ as attainment among them doubles

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‘How Scots villagers took the law into their own hands to expel [English] drug dealers’ – Scottish Daily Express reports in more intelligent and sophisticated manner than so-called ‘serious’ media to inform their readers

johnrobertson834

Professor John Robertson OBA Readers will know that the ‘serious’ or ‘elite’ media in Scotland – BBC Scotland, STV, the Herald and the Scotsman – have an aversion to reporting accurately on the plague of County Lines affecting almost every town and village in Scotland and caused by County Lines gangs from, entirely, English cities. The tabloids and some locals are more honest. Yesterday, the Express in Scotland had the above headline and the comments below on the prosecution of local ‘ringleaders’ of riots which developed in the East Ayrshire former mining village of Auchinleck and which I have already … Continue reading ‘How Scots villagers took the law into their own hands to expel [English] drug dealers’ – Scottish Daily Express reports in more intelligent and sophisticated manner than so-called ‘serious’ media to inform their readers

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On VJ Day, a reminder that Scotland’s WW1 army war dead was a greater sacrifice, 63% higher than the rest of the UK

johnrobertson834

Support Talking-up Scotland’s work to counter the lies and get you the facts, daily, at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/checkout/help-talking-up-scotland-tell-truth-about-scotland/payment/nBQxjVzq/details Professor John Robertson OBA With the UK media saturated with frankly disturbing jingoism based on myths about WWII, it seems like a good moment to repeat this attempt to resolve the alleged myth that Scots had given more in blood on the WWI battlefields. On 10th August 2014, with clear political intent, the Scotsman allowed Sir Hew Strachan to confirm it as a myth: Great War worst for Scots troops ‘a myth’ https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/great-war-worst-scots-troops-myth-1529401 In Patrick Watt’s Manpower, Myth and Memory: Analysing Scotland’s Military Contribution to the Great … Continue reading On VJ Day, a reminder that Scotland’s WW1 army war dead was a greater sacrifice, 63% higher than the rest of the UK