Author: johnrobertson834

Retired Professor of Media Politics Not-for-profit independent political analysis
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Prevention is better than prosecution? Scottish Government uses £156 million of cash seized from criminals to help young people at risk of becoming involved in offending

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 Scotland has today has the above, and: Money raised from seized criminal assets should be directly reinvested in efforts to fight organised crime, a police watchdog has said. In an annual report, HMICS said the Scottish government should consider an “asset recovery incentivisation scheme” that would allow Police Scotland – and other agencies – to use money raised from criminals’ assets to combat crime. A similar scheme is already in operation across the rest of the UK. Keep those ‘other agencies’ … Continue reading Prevention is better than prosecution? Scottish Government uses £156 million of cash seized from criminals to help young people at risk of becoming involved in offending

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As Scotsman front pages Harley Street private consultant to claim, based on one control centre misunderstanding with his son, they are ‘in total breakdown’ how Scotland’s ambulances were FOUR times faster in early 2024 before BBC pulled the site where I got the facts

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 The Scotsman today has this: In January 2024, I wrote: Via the BBC’s How long do patients wait for an ambulance? app today, we can confirm that the average waiting time for a Scottish ambulance is 8 min and 46 secs: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-59549800 Also, from BBC UK on 14 December 2023: Average response times of more than 38 minutes for category two emergency calls such as heart attacks and strokes – above the target time of 18 minuteshttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67714151 Yes, I know the English figures are only for Category … Continue reading As Scotsman front pages Harley Street private consultant to claim, based on one control centre misunderstanding with his son, they are ‘in total breakdown’ how Scotland’s ambulances were FOUR times faster in early 2024 before BBC pulled the site where I got the facts

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There is no ‘deadly rise in emergency room delays’, it’s a non-deadly fall over the last year

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 The Record today has: Cancer patient’s 15 hour wait for A&E doc revealed on day new figures show deadly rise in emergency room delays The one patient is on the front page. The rise is a one week increase in the figures published yesterday, of from 8901 in the previous week to 9434 but, not mentioned, this is down from 9754 in early June and simply part of a naturally fluctuating pattern over several weeks. Here is the trend over the … Continue reading There is no ‘deadly rise in emergency room delays’, it’s a non-deadly fall over the last year

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Risk of dying from cancer falls by 11% in Scotland and performance leads that in England so Express headline story to claim we’re ‘lagging behind England’ today is a disgusting piece of lying propaganda and fake news to undermine 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 The Daily Express today has a front page of awesome dishonesty, of an order that a Nazi propagandist might have baulked at: SCOTLAND LAGS ‘SERIOUSLY’ FOR CANCER TREATMENT I’ve no idea who said ‘SERIOUSLY’ but I doubt their reliability. As the Express leads, low IQ-style, with the total number increase, Here are the facts about that: First, the RISK of dying from cancer in Scotland fell by 11% From the Public Health Scotland report which the Express has based its distortions … Continue reading Risk of dying from cancer falls by 11% in Scotland and performance leads that in England so Express headline story to claim we’re ‘lagging behind England’ today is a disgusting piece of lying propaganda and fake news to undermine SNP

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Contrast in treatment by politicians and media of 2024-25 examination results in Scotland and in the rest of the UK was stark

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 stewartb The contrast in treatment by politicians and the mainstream media of the 2024-25 examination results in Scotland and in the rest of the UK was stark. I listened to extensive news coverage by the BBC of the results for England, NI and Wales. Journalists, politicians and various ‘stakeholders’ commented on the nature, persistence and intractability of the attainment gap in England. Candidly, the coverage was informative: contributions were made in a ‘grown-up’ kind of way. Partisan politicking was at most minor. Meanwhile … Continue reading Contrast in treatment by politicians and media of 2024-25 examination results in Scotland and in the rest of the UK was stark

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Will BBC Scotland expose Labour or will it employ a news blackout to protect Anas Sarwar? A suspended Scottish Labour Councillor who groomed and sexually abused an underage teenage girl is to be sentenced today”

johnrobertson834

By Liz S “MSM Monitor tweeted at 8.38am today…. “Will BBC Scotland report this or will it employ a news blackout to protect Anas Sarwar? A suspended Scottish Labour Councillor who groomed and sexually abused an underage teenage girl is to be sentenced today” The BBC did an article about this on the 23 July 2025…..with the headline “Councillor guilty of sex offences against teenage girl” ….note the exclusion of the (Labour) party name in the headline…..in the article they stated this (also note that they , the BBC, know the date, 19 August, when he was to be sentenced)……. … Continue reading Will BBC Scotland expose Labour or will it employ a news blackout to protect Anas Sarwar? A suspended Scottish Labour Councillor who groomed and sexually abused an underage teenage girl is to be sentenced today”

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Stumbled on – a live presentation with laughs throughout to go with the highly serious 42 slide ‘The BBC proxy war on the SNP using NHS Scotland’ finished off by the Airdrie audience completely disagreeing with my final point!

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 Naemeritus John Robertson OBA I’d forgotten this had been filmed but it gives a reasonable accompaniment to the 42 slides explaining how the BBC is fighting a proxy war against the SNP Government using the NHS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71EbjdtsXQ0 The slides are at: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2025/07/30/the-bbc-proxy-war-on-the-snp-using-nhs-scotland-42-slides-explaining-why-and-how-it-was-launched/ Continue reading Stumbled on – a live presentation with laughs throughout to go with the highly serious 42 slide ‘The BBC proxy war on the SNP using NHS Scotland’ finished off by the Airdrie audience completely disagreeing with my final point!

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BBC Verify team obviously gives a very very wide berth to BBC Scotland

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 Sorry , he accused you of bringing the BBC into disrepute ? I assume his anger was because they, the BBC, want to be the only ones who do that themselves , via the low quality and clearly partisan output that they broadcast as news in Scotland, where they have an obvious mission to damage the SNP as a party while simultanously also protecting other parties in Scotland….. (Has Anas Sarwar been asked about Brian Leishman’s suspension from the Labour party yet by the BBC … Continue reading BBC Verify team obviously gives a very very wide berth to BBC Scotland

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BBC Scotland’s Andrew Picken and Lisa Summers return to condemn one of the safest hospitals in Scotland with cheap, ill-informed and jaundiced reporting on infections and the child deaths NOT caused by them

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 Scotland return today with an extended piece on the re-convened public inquiry into ‘safety and wellbeing issues‘ at two Scottish hospitals, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow and Royal Hospital for Children in Edinburgh. I’ll deal only with the former here. The BBC text is presented as quotes with my rebuttals below them in plain text: In the coming weeks it will examine contentious new evidence from Glasgow’s health board about the risk of infection from the water and ventilation … Continue reading BBC Scotland’s Andrew Picken and Lisa Summers return to condemn one of the safest hospitals in Scotland with cheap, ill-informed and jaundiced reporting on infections and the child deaths NOT caused by them

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BBC Scotland say 660 organised crime gang members from just two Scottish gangs? Won’t most of them be from the 55 English county lines gangs operating in Scotland from Thurso to Dumfries and 53 places in between?

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 Scotland are telling us today: Scotland’s prison population stood at 8,251 on Monday. About 660 of those inmates are thought to have “strong SOCG associations” and many others are linked to lower level, local gangs. In recent years, Police Scotland and prosecutors at the Crown Office have secured dozens of gangland convictions. These have included those of top level figures like Jamie “Iceman” Stevenson and James “The Don” White, who were both involved in international drug smuggling. But tension has ramped up this year, … Continue reading BBC Scotland say 660 organised crime gang members from just two Scottish gangs? Won’t most of them be from the 55 English county lines gangs operating in Scotland from Thurso to Dumfries and 53 places in between?